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Guantanamo Hearings Delayed as Legal Files Vanish
houghi writes "The defense lawyers of Guantanamo prisoners have been ordered to stop using government computers for sensitive information due to security and confidentiality concerns. One News from New Zealand says 'In another case, system administrators were searching files at prosecutors' request and were able to access more than 500,000 defense files, including confidential attorney-client communications.' Due to all this, hearings were postponed."
...would use government (prosecution) computers in the first place????
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
So now prosecutorial misconduct that would get any civilian prosecutor disbarred is going to indefinitely delay the release of any prisoners who happen to be innocent.
Wow. Only in America... err... Cuba.
So now the prosecutors are facing jail time for contempt of court, correct?
If these incidents happened in the so called "third world" or even in other jurisdictions, folks in the mighty USA would be saying somethig to the effect: -
"We're are better than them..."
"We've got more mature credible sysytems and established procedures..."
That's the beauty of living in a country like America..."
Plus all the rest of the verbiage that normally follows...
Question is: Am I wrong?
and people who think like that get a code red.
The US gov know they can not release these men. Not because of what the prisoners supposedly have done, but because of what the US gov has done to the prisoners and the effect their release and statements in free media will have.
Non of these prisoners will be released. Gitmo can not close until the last prisoner has died in captivity, and this is the beginning of the US push to reach this end.
If another country treated an American citizen like this, it would be regarded as a hostage crisis.
Under Obama's policy, he just has to grant them citizenship, release them, then gun them down with drones.
The CIA is not incompetent. It is malevolent.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Just ask WikiLeaks for the backup.
Actually it's both.
So, you're the prosecution and you're trying to build a case against a defendant. As the government's counsel, you have system administrators do a search for files that relate to that defendant. ...and discover that the defense has been using the same systems.
Do you:
A) Ignore the discovery, take the files, and use them to help build your case...
B) Tell the sysadmins to quietly stop searching those files, which MAY be discovered later...
or C) Tell the sysadmins to stop searching those files and tell the defense to stop using government computer systems, as they're leaking privileged information to the prosecution.
IMO, the ethical thing to do is C, since you want to make sure it's as fair a trial as you're capable of having, both as the defendant's rights require and to help allay issues arising in the court of public opinion. Personally I think the prosecution did the right thing in forcing the defense to take their files and go use a different system.
Keep in mind that the specific attorneys with the prosecution may well not have finished their JD by the time these people were put in Gitmo, so don't blame them for the slow government response and delaying tactics.
..in the first place. why do you think they were using government computers? thus the problem isn't really that system admins of the defense attorneys lawyers were able to access the files. of course they were. but the problem is that the prosecutors are full of bullshit and are asking them to do that. of course, the whole court situation in gitmo is fucked up in the first place which is why it's in gitmo and not even at a federal secret court and prison inside usa.
so the problem is that the prosecuting and court handling site was not going to go about it fair and square in the first place. not that computers were used.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
If another country had been willing to claim these guys and take responsibility for the future actions, they would have been released years ago.
Nobody wants these dudes.
These are kangaroo courts anyway. Real Federal trials take place before real Federal judges who are members of the judiciary, not military officers who are functionaries of the executive branch.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
There are plenty? Citation please?
I remember reading that finding countries willing to take them in was indeed a problem.
I don't read AC A human right
I actually think the nobody wants them argument is one of the only really reasonable excuses for the situation. Suppose the president decided to pardon some of the detainees he thinks are innocent. Where could they go? You can't repatriate them to a nation that does not recognize them as citizens any more. They'd probably just wind up right back in a cell somewhere, or killed.
You can't bring them to this country; it would violate immigration laws, and no-way is this congress going to give you a special resolution to grant them visas let alone citizenship.
One solution is even though our lease on the gitmo base is not up for a long time; Cuba has in the past said they want the land back. One answer, of highly contestable ethics, would be to just pull out one day leaving the detainees in their cells and tell the Cubans its all your but these people are also your problem now. I have no idea how that would work out for the detainees or if it would improve our harm our relations with Cuba.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Thank you. The CIA (or NSA or DIA, etc.) has never been about national security, but a node of the Financial-Intelligence-Complex, founded during and after World War II, by the Wall Street lackeys of the super-rich, and in some cases, directly by the super-rich (Rockefeller, Harriman, Mellon, etc.). The purpose of these agencies is simple: financial intelligence to aid the hegemons, and to aid in their command and control of the populace.
Great points and most lucidly articulated, good citizen. Just as the shyster judge has allowed a witness for the prosecution, a SEAL team member who was part of the hit team on Osama bin Laden, who was never convicted in any court of culpabability for the events of 9/11/01, and whose body was never produced after the hit on him, which renders this SEAL team witness completely hearsay in a true court of law, military or otherwise, such is proof positive America is the land of the lawless where the so-called legal system is used to keep the competition down (those smaller criminals who pose a competitive threat to the super-criminals) and to quash the reformers (whistleblowers, populists, workers' rights adovcates, etc., etc., etc., --- never forget the history of Convict 9653 --- such was and is the "legal system" is Amerika today.......)
Finding countries to take certain of them is a problem. The big problem, though (the real bar to closing Guantanamo) is the people who we know are guilty but can't legally prove are guilty because the evidence of their guilt was obtained unconstitutionally.
As a result, we have a class of people who are effectively permanent detainees.
> [What kind of moronic "defense" lawyer...] ...would use government (prosecution) computers in the first place?
There's a pretty big clue in the second paragraph of TFA: "The breach prompted Col. Karen Mayberry, the chief military defense counsel, to order all attorneys for Guantanamo detainees to stop using Defense Department computer networks to transmit privileged or confidential information until the security of such communications is assured."
The defense lawyers are, largely, like the prosecutors, US military officers. Using their employer-provided, and hence government, computers for their work is normal and expected for them.
Pakistan has repeatedly offered to take the prisoners.
Skip ------ See the latest from http://www.anArchyFortWorth.com
The funny thing about the CIA is that only their failures become public knowledge. Their successes remain very well kept secrets, by default.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”