Word: guant
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...closing Gitmo is the relatively easy part. Far more complex will be what Obama decides to do about Guantánamo's so-called "military commissions" - the Bush Administration's controversial legal apparatus for judging accused terrorists. The Supreme Court and other federal courts have repeatedly found fault with the commissions, which critics say are show trials unworthy of American jurisprudence...
This week at Guantánamo, Khaled Sheik Mohammed and four other defendants in the 9/11 case unexpectedly announced they would make "confessions," in effect pleading guilty. All potentially face the death penalty. Mohammed, who has said he seeks martyrdom, told the judge he had no faith in the Guantánamo trials, in his Pentagon-appointed lawyers or in the judge himself. "I don't trust you," he said, adding, "We don't want to waste time." It is not yet clear whether the defendents' motion will be accepted by the court...
...there are plenty of other defendants who could be tried under Guantánamo's unique legal process. And carrying the banner for that process is Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, 53, a lawyer and Air Force reservist who as the top legal adviser and chief administrator of the trials has managed to put 17 complex war-crimes cases on the docket in less than 18 months. Now Obama's promise to shutter the facility seems to have spurred Hartmann to even greater activity. Motions and hearings are currently under way in at least half a dozen cases, and this...
...case of due process finally starting to work - or a hurried effort designed to tie Obama's hands as he tries to shut the facility. Once they are under way, Obama could find it politically and legally difficult to stop the controversial proceedings or shift them out of Guantánamo. "All this activity, and an expanding list of trials that cannot possibly conclude before the next President takes office, is irresponsible," says Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and member of both the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees. Saying he has conferred with but does not speak for Obama...
Behind the scenes, Obama's team is struggling to get a handle on Hartmann's plans for bringing the Gitmo suspects to justice. Several days ago, a team of Obama legal advisers quietly met at the Pentagon with Hartmann and others involved in the Guantánamo trials, sources tell TIME. Hartmann vigorously defended them, arguing that they should continue regardless of the change in administrations. Though specifically asked to do so, Hartmann declined to discuss legal alternatives to the trials, a topic Obama's representatives had been eager to explore...