Comments on: Military Commissions: Government Flounders, As Admiral Hutson Nails Problems

By: Rep. Jerrold Nadler and David Frakt on Obama’s Three-Tier Justice System For Guantánamo by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:46:42 +0000

[...] ‘A Catastrophic Failure,’” which followed articles dealing with similar testimony by retired Adm. John Hutson and by Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, a former prosecutor in the Commissions, who resigned when he [...]

By: The Logic of the 9/11 Trials, The Madness of the Military Commissions « Dandelion Salad

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:53:36 +0000

[...] be fair and that convictions obtained will be secure,” he neglected to mention that, this summer, senior administration officials conceded that the proposed charge of material support for terrorism — a longtime mainstay of the [...]

By: Andy Worthington

Andy Worthington — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:22:29 +0000

Hi TD,
Thanks for highlighting the macho posturing of leaders who never served. We had a great example of that in the UK — thank you, Tony Blair! — and your comments are even more apposite when these leaders’ motivations are contrasted with those of serving officers who not only fought in the military, but also worked in the Commission system, and saw first-hand how despicable the entire system was.
See Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld’s compelling testimony to a House Committee the day after Hutson:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/07/11/former-insider-shatters-credibility-of-military-commissions/

By: Former Insider Shatters Credibility of Military Commissions by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:46:51 +0000

[...] Wednesday, I reported how Retired Rear Admiral John D. Hutson, the former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy from 1997 [...]

By: the talking dog

the talking dog — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:48:20 +0000

And so here we go again; a Democratic President who himself never served in the military (because [John Kerry] Democrats who actually did [Al Gore] serve in the military, if not serve heroically [George McGovern] can’t seem to get themselves elected (or in the case of career Naval officer Jimmy Carter, anyway, re-elected), and so, have to try to show the bona fides of “their toughness” by overdoing the John Wayne macho bit (btw, the late Mr. Wayne himself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne apparently didn’t put his own money where his mouth was when it came to performing his own military service, though like the sainted Ronald Reagan, was, at least, a great military hero on celluloid).

And so… here we go again. DOD’s new G.C. Mr. Johnson (who himself, although counsel to the U.S. Air Force service in the past, has not, to my knowledge, himself donned the uniform http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeh_Johnson ) must carry the water of his more famous colleague the President (though the President was in my college class, he is about a year or so older than I; we were both fortunate enough to have been too young to be subject to the Vietnam era draft, though I was in one of the first groups after the Nixon-era banning of the draft to have to register for it under Carter’s “just to be safe” scheme).

I don’t fault anyone for not serving in the military (and would be remiss in doing so, having not served myself), and indeed, I do look on admiringly to anyone who has so served. My point is simply that it is about time that so-called liberals (as if!) stopped having to pretend that they are “tougher than thou” in innumerable ways… such as, of course, Barack Obama dusting off the Cheney-Addington playbook for “military commissions” when he himself campaigned against them.

This particular commission issue is free to the Obama Administration: stand your ground and either release the wrongly held prisoners, or bring them to trial in American federal courts. If “terrorists” end up acquitted after fair proceedings, the fault lies with the Bush Administration for failing to adequately prepare these cases of purported “war criminals” without torture, hearsay and/or innuendo in lieu of facts. As Glenn Greenwald notes, http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/09/guantanamo/index.html
given how easily “material support” crimes can be proven (and given the extremely high conviction rate in federal courts in terrorism cases, as noted above), this should be a no-brainer.

But it seems, a no-brainer with even possible acquittals isn’t good enough. This insistence on preserving the prerogatives of executive power with such gimcracks as “the military commissions” is not at all why I supported Barack Obama’s candidacy.

And why if it keeps up, he’ll lose my support going forward.

By: Military Commissions: Government Flounders, As Admiral Hutson Nails Problems by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:19:28 +0000

[...] by Andy Worthington Featured Writer Dandelion Salad http://www.andyworthington.co.uk 8 July 2009 [...]