Guantanamo/Detainees
Military Lawyer Barred From Testifying About Alleged Gitmo Torture
Posted Nov 8, 2007, 07:07 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Marine Corps lawyer has been told by his superiors that he may not testify before Congress about his decision to abandon a Guantanamo prosecution because of his concerns that a high-level detainee was tortured.
Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch, a former Guantanamo prosecutor who is now a military judge, had decided he could not prosecute a suspected al-Qaida terrorist because believed the detainee's incriminating statements were improperly obtained, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). The detainee, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, was allegedly subjected to beatings, death threats, and threats against his mother.
Couch learned in an e-mail yesterday that he was barred from testifying before a House Judiciary subcommittee because of a decision by Pentagon general counsel William Haynes II. The e-mail said Haynes "has determined that as a sitting judge and former prosecutor, it is improper for you to testify about matters still pending in the military court system, and you are not to appear before the committee to testify.”
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