Litigation

?Expand a Federal Court to Gitmo? for Trials?

By Peter Hardin

Why not try the chief defendants from the 9/11 attacks in a federal court that is securely established at Guantanamo Bay?

That approach would both uphold the rule of law and provide a safe and cost-effective answer in the debate that has now roiled for months over prosecuting the accused plotters before military commissions, or in federal courts, suggest the authors of a Washington Post op-ed.

The commentary was written by former FBI director Louis Freeh and Eugene Sullivan, former chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

They suggested that Congress could expand a federal district court’s jurisdiction to include Guantanamo, and the result would provide for “an economical, secure, credible and fair determination before a civilian federal judge and jury.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican, took a sharply different approach this week. He called on Attorney General Eric Holder to try the accused conspirators soon in military tribunals, according to an AFP article. Plans for a civilian trial amount to a “logistical nightmare,” Graham said.

In another matter, Jay Bybee, an author of what came to be called “torture memos” at the Justice Department, told a House of Representatives panel that some harsh methods used by the CIA against detainees, including repeated waterboarding, had not been approved by the department.

Bybee now is a federal judge in Nevada. His testimony about actions taken in the George W. Bush administration was released by the House Judiciary Committee, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

In New York, a federal judge declined to require public disclosure of CIA methods against Sept. 11 detainees who underwent harsh interrogation.

A federal judge on Thursday refused to force the public release of CIA methods relating to Sept. 11 detainees who were interrogated harshly, saying the judiciary’s authority is limited when national security is at stake.

The American Civil Liberties Union had argued, the Associated Press reported, that the CIA should release names and documents if it had used illegal methods. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein disagreed, saying to do so would “confer an unwarranted competence to the district court to evaluate national intelligence decisions.”

You can read more about detainee issues from Gavel Grab or from the Justice at Stake issues page on Civil Liberties and National Security.

Full post as published by The Gavel on July 16, 2010 (boomark / email).