UNITED STATES:THE Pentagon has declared the Guantanamo war crimes trials a national priority and will more than double the number of military lawyers assigned to them, even as critics say the US government is rushing because it wants to influence the November presidential elections.
Air Force Brig Gen Thomas Hartmann, legal adviser to the Pentagon appointee overseeing the trials, told journalists visiting Guantanamo that about 108 uniformed military lawyers would be added to the prosecution and defence teams in the next three months.
The two teams currently each have 19 military lawyers and nine military paralegals, he said. Each side will get 20 to 25 more uniformed lawyers and 20 to 25 more paralegals, and the defence will also get more than a dozen analysts.
"Very recently and consistently with past practice the department of defence has made the determination that providing fair, just and transparent trials in these commissions is the number one obligation for legal services in the department of defence," Brig Gen Hartmann said.
The announcement came hours before last Thursday's arraignment of five accused al-Qaeda prisoners who could be executed if convicted of plotting the September 11th attacks.
Pressed for details on the timing, Brig Gen Hartmann said: "I don't know that it always wasn't the number one priority but I know that it was formally declared the number one priority in the last two or three weeks" by deputy defence secretary Gordon England.
Prosecutors and especially defence lawyers have complained for years about a lack of manpower and resources in the widely criticised Guantanamo legal system created by the Bush administration to try suspected al-Qaeda operatives outside the regular civilian and military courts.
More than six years after the US began sending captives to the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, not one case has gone to trial. Nineteen cases are now pending, including some that have been delayed repeatedly amid challenges to the legality of the Guantanamo court.
A former chief prosecutor, who quit in October because of what he characterised as meddling by political appointees, complained that prosecutors were being pushed to get the accused September 11th plotters' cases moving before the November presidential election.
- (Reuters)