Military Charges Accused Embassy Bomber Despite Civilian Indictment / Pentagon Pursues Guantanamo Tribunal for Embassy Bombing Suspect / Statement issued by the Center for Constitutional Rights
Posted by Anders den april 1, 2008
Carol Rosenberg, McClatchy Newspapers: Military Charges Accused Embassy Bomber Despite Civilian Indictment
The Pentagon announced Monday that it will seek to try a Tanzanian man for war crimes in the 1998 East African embassy bombings – a decade after he was indicted in New York in the case and four years after he was taken into U.S. custody.
The decision to bring Ahmad Ghailani before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, rather than before a civilian federal court was immediately denounced by the Center for Constitutional Rights, whose lawyers represent dozens of the 280 or so detainees at Guantánamo.
“The only reason the government is now militarizing these criminal acts is to hide what the CIA is doing in its interrogation program behind the secrecy of the commissions,” it said in a statement. . . .
Josh Meyer, The Los Angeles Times: Pentagon Pursues Guantanamo Tribunal for Embassy Bombing Suspect
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was indicted by a federal grand jury in 1998 – so why a military trial? critics ask.
Washington – The Pentagon charged a Guantanamo detainee with capital murder and terrorism Monday for his alleged role in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania and his suspected ties to Al Qaeda.
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The Pentagon’s action was sharply criticized by civil rights advocates and some federal law enforcement officials who wondered why the government was pursuing a war crimes tribunal considering that Ghailani was indicted in the bombings along with 10 others nearly a decade ago by a federal grand jury in New York City. Four of them were tried and convicted in 2001 and sentenced to life without parole. The others had not been captured at the time.
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Kunngjøringen fra Center for Constitutional Rights / Statement issued by the Center for Constitutional Rights:
CCR Denounces Use of Flawed Secretive Guantanamo Commissions to Try Suspect
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The only reason the government is now militarizing these criminal acts is to hide what the CIA is doing in its interrogation program behind the secrecy of the Commissions, which can allow the use of secret evidence as well as evidence obtained through torture. The entire Commission process is under the influence of the Pentagon and the Executive rather than an independent judiciary. In addition, the Bush administration is using the Military Commissions as political theater in order to influence the presidential elections.
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