The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
9 May 2012
The military tribunal established to prosecute the five leading suspects in the September 11th attacks opened this weekend at Guantánamo Bay. During a nine-hour hearing on Saturday, the five prisoners refused to enter pleas on murder and terrorism charges, or to talk or listen to the judge, in what one of their lawyers explained was a "peaceful resistance to an unjust system."Defense attorneys say the trial for the five leading suspects in the September 11th attacks is rigged to lead to their execution.
Critics say the Obama administration has set a dangerous precedent by proceeding through a military tribunal. After initially attempting to move the case to a civilian courtroom in New York, the White House caved to vocal opposition and agreed to resume the military commissions begun under President George W. Bush at Guantánamo.
At least one defense attorney argues it will be impossible to present testimony against his client that is not corrupted by treatment he says amounted to torture.
"Waterboarding is mock execution by way of drowning. That is a classic act of torture. Bush has admitted ordering that. There is no escaping the fact that he should be a criminal suspect, as should the other people in the room, people like Tenet, Rumsfeld, Cheney," says Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, who attended the military trial at Guantánamo this weekend. "I think President Obama has simply decided that he’s not willing to invest the political capital that would be required for those kinds of difficult trials."
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