Posted on 05/31/2009 8:54:29 PM PDT by kellynla
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A session of the Guantanamo war crimes court that began Sunday will likely show the difficulties President Barack Obama faces in changing the system and closing the prison by January.
The case in question, of a Canadian charged with killing an American soldier, is stalled by infighting among lawyers.
Other defendants have even more complex legal issues, and officials say the U.S. may have to choose between delaying Guantanamo's closure or quickly finding somewhere else to hold the trials.
"I don't think they'll get a single trial done by January," said Michael Berrigan, the deputy chief defense counsel for the Guantanamo tribunals. "I don't think there's any way."
The Guantanamo war court sessions are held in the $12 million Expeditionary Legal Complex, a windowless courthouse of corrugated metal and a network of dozens of tents overlooking the Caribbean that the military says can be picked up and moved if necessary.
But the Obama administration has not found a replacement for Guantanamo. So when the judge in the trial of Omar Khadr decided a pretrial hearing was necessary, the military had no choice but to hastily arrange a charter flight to bring attorneys, court personnel and a dozen journalists to the U.S. base in Cuba.
The brief war court session, a closed hearing on Sunday and an open one on Monday, is the first since Obama asked military judges to suspend all proceedings while his administration reviews strategies for prosecuting terrorists.
The main issue before the tribunal is just who has the right to dismiss an attorney. It's a straightforward question in traditional civilian or military courts but there are not yet many legal precedents at the Guantanamo Military Commissions and still disagreement over the rules.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
buttcrack’s wanting to close it was symbolic speech. He knew full well he’d have a heck of a time closing it. It’s why there was no plan after closing it. It’s why no dems voted for the money. It was just to appease the leftist pieces of shiite muslims who are against the war on terrorism.
The Gitmo terrorists have become spoiled by their luxurious surroundings.
Show the Gitmo terrorists a few photos of Mt Eden Gaol and tell them that’s where they’re being moved to. A real gaol, not the fancy Gitmo gaol. Complete with dark corridors and lonely cellmates.
Bags I the terrorists will all commence Federal court proceedings to keep Gitmo open. Cuba in the sunshine is much more fun than Mt Eden.
Lawyers could tie this up for 500 years. That is the one thing they’re good at.
“He knew full well he’d have a heck of a time closing it.”
You are giving Obama way too much credit. This man has very little clue about anything that is even close to reality. Guantanamo, Biden, Geithner, Daschle, Sotomayor, and so forth all prove what we conservatives knew all along: this man has absolutely no business being the POTUS.
Dennis, GWB spent lotsa time briefing Buttcrack while he was campaigning. It’s my guess that Obama knew full well he wasn’t going to go thru with his ill conceived ideas about the war on terror. His rhetoric was all about getting the maggot infested libtards out to vote because they wanted to see an end to the Bush policies. The joke is on them because we know now that Obama has no intentions of reversing Bush on terrorism. Obama and his team aren’t stupid. Foolish yes, but not stupid.
Not to get in a big argument, but how do you know that “...GWB spent lotsa time briefing Buttcrack while he was campaigning.” Does not seem realistic that any President would take the time to brief a candidate of the opposing party during a campaign. After he had won, okay. But during the campaign? Not likely. So I would tend to think that Obama made all of his unrealistic, ignorant, insane promises - only to find out later how unrealistic, ignorant, and insane they were.
That said, I agree that the ignorant folks who voted for Obama got taken in by his deception.
Funny how you can find such things on the internet by doing the google!
I must correct myself..bush did it through aids not himself. But he did go out of his way to advise these people.
http://www.examiner.com/a-953145~Bush_quietly_advising_Hillary_Clinton__top_Democrats.html
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