Boycotting detainees create legal conundrum

[laststeamtrain]

Source: Miami Herald

Boycotting detainees create legal conundrum
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
Detainees denounce the war-crimes court as a ''sham'' and refuse military lawyers. The attorneys consult their bars, worried that their licenses might be revoked for defending clients who fired them. And the Pentagon presses on its push for speedy trials.

This drama played out here in recent weeks as a succession of alleged al Qaeda foot soldiers came up for arraignment ahead of the government's plan to stage its showcase trial of six men charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, conspiracy.

One case went like this last week: Rather than consult with his lawyer, Ibrahim Qosi of Sudan, 47, jammed his fingers in his ears. Then the man who allegedly served as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard was led into his military commission, defiant.

''Do whatever you wish to do,'' he told the judge, Air Force Lt. Col. Nancy Paul, declaring the trials ''a legal sham'' that ``move at the pace of a turtle in order to gain some time and keep us in these boxes without any human or legal rights.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/495365.html

[Solly Mack]

1. "speedy" ..yeah, right

[laststeamtrain]

2. Idaho attorneys to assist al Qaeda kingpin By CAROL ROSENBERG (Miami Herald)

Idaho attorneys to assist al Qaeda kingpin
By CAROL ROSENBERG
The Navy officer assigned to defend reputed al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed said Monday he is assembling a four-attorney team to stave off the alleged 9/11 mastermind's death-penalty charges -- two military JAG officers and two lawyers from Boise, Idaho, who have defended an alleged terrorist before.

Navy Capt. Prescott ''Scott'' Prince was detailed to the case last week. He has yet to see Mohammed, a U.S.-educated Pakistani citizen known in intelligence circles as ``KSM.''

On Feb. 11, the Pentagon prosecutor identified Mohammed as the lead defendant in a proposed prosecution to try six detainees at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on capital murder conspiracy charges in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Prince said Boise law partners David Z. Nevin and Scott McKay have agreed to work as volunteer civilian defense counsel under a program sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

<more>

http://www.miamiherald.com/guantanamo/story/495570.html