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Chief US military commissions judge announces immediate retirement

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] US Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann announced Monday that his retirement from the post of chief judge of US military commissions will be effective immediately. Kohlmann initially announced his retirement in September, but said then that it would not be effective until April 2009. According to an AFP report, Kohlmann decided to step down from the military commissions cases because the trials would still not be finished at the time of his planned retirement. Kohlmann has reportedly chosen Army judge Col. Stephen Henley to replace him. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) questioned Kohlmann's move, and ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said: The timing of the announcement to replace the military commission judge on the 9/11 cases is highly suspect and disturbing. We cannot allow the Bush administration to sabotage President-elect Obama's plans by ramming through these cases in its last days while the new administration is making plans to dismantle the military commission system. The Washington Post has more. Kohlmann has served as chief judge of the military commissions since 2007. After his appointment, the New York Times noted that Kohlmann had criticized the concept of military commissions in a paper he had written in 2002 as a master's student at the US Naval War College. Kohlmann wrote that US district courts would be a better venue for terrorism suspects' trials because of a perception that military commissions lack independence and credibility. In another recent personnel change at the military commissions, US Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann was reassigned to the newly-created position of director of operations of the Office of Military Commissions. In his former position as legal advisor to the military commissions, Hartmann had been barred from taking part in certain detainees' trials on the grounds that he was biased toward the prosecution.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on November 18, 2008 (boomark / email).