Late in the afternoon on Monday, November 8th, Judge James Robertson of the federal district court in Washington D.C. issued an order halting the military trial at Guantanamo of a Yemini prisoner suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda.
Judge Roberston’s 47-page decision included the following passages:
"A tribunal set up to try, possibly convict, and punish a personaccused of crime that is configured in advance to permit theintroduction of evidence and the testimony of witnesses out of thepresence of the accused is indeed substantively different from aregularly convened court-martial."
"The government has asserted a position starkly different from thepositions and behavior of the United States in previous conflicts, onethat can only weaken the United States’ own ability to demandapplication of the Geneva Conventions to Americans captured duringarmed conflicts abroad."
JudgeRobertson went on to note that oppresive regimes in other countries "have already begun to cite theUnited States’ Guantánamo policy to justify their own repressivepolicies."
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Mark Godsey