U.S. to Restart Tribunal, Aiming to Show It’s Fair

New York Times ^ | May 4, 2012 | By CHARLIE SAVAGE

[Oldeconomybuyer]

WASHINGTON — As the United States restarts its effort to prosecute — and ultimately execute — five detainees accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, it has fallen to Brig. Gen. Mark S. Martins both to prove them guilty and to show the world that the tribunal system is now legitimate.

“We’re going to have a fair trial,” General Martins, the chief prosecutor in the military commissions system, said in an interview this week. “There are a lot of people who come to this with preconceptions about unfairness, and I would just ask people to withhold judgment. The initial version of commissions was flawed, but there has been a lot of work on reforms.”

General Martins has assigned himself to lead the latest attempt to prosecute Khalid Shaikh Mohammed — the architect of the terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people — and four other detainees who are scheduled on Saturday to be arraigned on war crimes charges at the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The five had been arraigned at Guantánamo Bay before, in 2008, but the Obama administration shut that case down upon taking office, then tried to move it to federal court in New York, before surrendering to a political uproar.

[knarf]

The only reason I can see to re-open this is to get some kind of show in public that will exhonerate muslims.

It comes on the heels of the Afghan treaty and I'm waayyy too suspicious

[ColdOne]

Yeah because 9/11 was fair..../s???????

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Why not just turn them loose in the mountains of Pakistan — and then kill them all with a drone-launched rocket? Isn’t that how it’s done today?

[ColdOne]

I despise this bunch in power.

[Clock King]

And the word on Major Hasan is....(chirp, chirp).

[colorado tanker]

I smell a rat. Now that he has taken a victory lap for killing Osama in personal combat, Barry wants a KSM conviction for his October Surprise.

[RedMDer]

[Repeat Offender]

The five had been arraigned at Guantánamo Bay before, in 2008, but the Obama administration shut that case down upon taking office, then tried to move it to federal court in New York, before surrendering to a political uproar. So, he pacifies his base following his election and now, in an election year, decides to attempt something American. Pander much?

[Buckeye McFrog]

If they hurry they can shoot them by October so that Obama can take another victory lap...