List of resignations from the Guantanamo military commission
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This is a list of resignations from the Guantanamo military commission, including those of the prosecutors Stuart Couch, Morris "Moe" Davis, Fred Borch, Major Robert Preston, Captain John Carr, USAF Captain Carrie Wolf, and Darrel Vandeveld. They were among the military lawyers tasked to serve as prosecutors of the suspected terrorists imprisoned at the American Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. The military lawyers requested transfers to other assignments because they had concerns that the proceedings were not respecting the defendants' due process rights.
Morris "Moe" Davis was an American JAG officer in the United States Air Force who resigned as Chief Prosecutor at the Guantanamo Military Commission in 2007 due to his objections to the use of waterboarding as a means to collect evidence from detainees. In 2008 Davis retired from the Air Force and went on to author several opinion pieces in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post that criticized activities at the Guantanamo Bay Military Commission. This led to his firing under the Hatch Act. The ACLU contested his termination and in 2016 Davis reported that he had won an out-of-court wrongful termination settlement against the Library of Congress for $100,000.[1][2]
Darrel J. Vandeveld
Darrel Vandeveld (born 1960) is an American lawyer with years of service as an infantry officer, including a Bronze Star from Operation Desert Storm, and JAG Officer in the United States Army Reserve.
After resigning from GITMO due to ethical reasons related to the prosecution of Mohamed Jawad, he was refused promotion. Despite his having numerous years and deployments in the military, both as a soldier and lawyer, receiving many decorations and commendations for his performance, the promotions board passed him over. This occurred after he submitted a 4-page declaration detailing his experience at GITMO, in which he had witnessing severe illegal activity from US military and politicians. After nearly 30 years of service, Vandeveld retired from the Reserve at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
Vandeveld is notable for asking to resign from his appointment as a prosecutor before a Guantanamo military commission.[9] According to the New York Times, officials confirmed on September 24, 2008, that Vandeveld resigned over an ethical issue.[3] He is the seventh prosecutor to resign from serving as a Guantanamo prosecutor.[citation needed]
Vandeveld was serving as a prosecutor in the case of Mohamed Jawad, a Pakistani youth who was charged with participating in a grenade attack in a bazaar in Afghanistan.[3] Colonel Stephen R. Henley had been growing impatient with the prosecution, and had given them a deadline to share evidence they had withheld from defense attorney MajorDavid J. R. Frakt, which he suspected could prove exculpatory.[citation needed]
The BBC reports that the withheld evidence includes the confessions of two men who said they were the ones who actually committed the attack.[6]
Vandeveld's resignation was filed within the Military Commission system.[3] The New York Times reported he had not commented publicly about his resignation. Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald, quoted from Vandeveld's four-page resignation memo:[4]
In my view evidence we have an obligation as prosecutors and officers of the court has not been made available to the defense. ... it seems plausible to me that Jawad may have been drugged before the alleged attack.
Frakt claimed that Vandeveld had recommended a plea bargain and an early release for Jawad, who was a youth when the event took place. Held by the United States since 2002, he had been subjected to coercive "enhanced interrogation techniques", including prolonged sleep deprivation in Guantanamo's frequent flyer program.[3] Frakt commented that Vandeveld "could no longer continue to serve ethically as a prosecutor."[3]
... there are no grounds for his ethical qualms ... All you have is somebody who is disappointed that his superiors did not agree with his recommendation in a case.
Morris' denigration of Vandeveld's claims was later refuted by the Bush administration, which admitted, as Vandeveld had contended, that the detainee prosecution files remained in a state of disarray some six years after the Commissions had first been formed.[10]
Morris retired from the US Army within months after these revelations. He has since been appointed to a position created by the US Army JAG Corps for him upon his retirement: Chief of Trial Advocacy.
According to Josh Meyer, writing in the Los Angeles Times, Frakt planned to call Vandeveld as a witness on September 25 or 26, 2008.[5] Vandeveld was willing to testify. But his superiors planned to block his testimony. According to Meyers, Frakt planned to ask Henley, the Presiding Officer, to compel Vandeveld's testimony.
Together with Captain John Carr and USAF Captain Carrie Wolf, Preston was among the military lawyers tasked to serve as prosecutors of the suspected terrorists imprisoned at the American Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. All three military lawyers requested transfers to other assignments because they had concerns that the proceedings would be innately unjust. These memos were leaked to the press.
On August 1, 2005, the Australian newspaper, The Age published an article based on the leaked memos. It quoted Preston's memo:
I consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people. ... Surely they don't expect that this fairly half-arsed effort is all that we have been able to put together after all this time. ... After all, writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don't really believe it is kind of hard, particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and lawyer.[11]
The article quoted Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway, another military lawyer, who served as a legal adviser to the Office of Military Commissions. He had tried to dismiss the memos as based on simple misunderstandings by the officers. Following an official investigation, the Chief Prosecutor, Colonel Fred Borch, to whom the memos were addressed, subsequently resigned from the military.
In the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the United States Supreme Court found that the then-existing military commissions, created within the executive branch, lacked "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the UCMJ and the four Geneva Conventions." It said they were unconstitutional because they had not been authorized by Congress and were set up only within the executive branch.
John Carr
Major John Carr is an officer and judge advocate in the United States Air Force.
Then-Captain Carr and fellow Air Force judge advocates Major Robert Preston and Captain Carrie Wolf were among the military lawyers assigned to prosecute the suspected terrorists imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Carr, Preston and Wolf later requested reassignments because they believed the proceedings were designed to ensure no acquittals.
On August 1, 2005, The Age, published an article based on leaked memos. Quoted were comments from Carr's memos:
When I volunteered to assist with this process and was assigned to this office, I expected there would at least be a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused. ... Instead, I find a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged. ... You have repeatedly said to the office that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and that we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel.
Although Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway, a legal adviser to the Office of Military Commissions, tried to dismiss the memos as based on simple misunderstandings, an official investigation was conducted. The Chief Prosecutor to whom the memos were addressed, Colonel Fred Borch, subsequently resigned from the military.
Carrie Wolf
Captain Carrie Wolf is an officer and judge advocate in the United States Air Force.[12]
Wolf, Major Robert Preston, and Captain John Carr were among the military lawyers assigned to prosecute the suspected terrorists held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[13][14] These three later requested reassignments because they had concerns that the proceeding were rigged to ensure no acquittals.
On August 1, 2005, The Age, published an article based on the leaked memos from Preston and Carr.[13] On August 3, 2005, The Age published another article that said Wolf had shared the concerns of the other two officers, and had also requested a transfer.[12]
Although Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway, the Legal Adviser to the Office of Military Commissions, tried to dismiss the memos as based on simple misunderstandings, an official investigation was conducted.[13] The Chief Prosecutor to whom the memos were addressed, Colonel Fred Borch, subsequently resigned from the military.
Omar Ahmed Said Khadr is a Canadian who, at the age of 15, was detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for ten years, during which he pleaded guilty to the murder of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer and other charges. He later appealed his conviction, claiming that he falsely pleaded guilty so that he could return to Canada where he remained in custody for three additional years. Khadr sued the Canadian government for infringing his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; this lawsuit was settled in 2017 with a CA$10.5 million payment and an apology by the federal government.
Salim Ahmed Salim Hamdan is a Yemeni man, captured during the invasion of Afghanistan, declared by the United States government to be an illegal enemy combatant and held as a detainee at Guantanamo Bay from 2002 to November 2008. He admits to being Osama bin Laden's personal driver and said he needed the money.
Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway is an American military lawyer who has served as a legal advisor to the Office of Military Commissions. Thomas Hemingway was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in November 1962 after earning his undergraduate degree at Willamette University. Upon graduation, he took an educational delay and earned his doctor of jurisprudence in 1965 at Willamette University College of Law. Hemingway entered active service in November 1965. He has also been an associate professor of law at the United States Air Force Academy and a senior judge on the Air Force Court of Military Review. He is a current member of the state bar in Oregon and the District of Columbia, and has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. He retired from active service in October 1996. General Hemingway was recalled to active service in August 2003 to fill the position as Legal Adviser to the Convening Authority in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions, Washington, D.C. General. He was replaced by Thomas W. Hartmann in July 2007.
Peter E. Brownback III is a retired military officer and lawyer. He was appointed in 2004 by general John D. Altenburg as a Presiding Officer on the Guantanamo military commissions. The Washington Post reported: "...that Brownback and Altenburg have known each other since 1977, that Brownback's wife worked for Altenburg, and that Altenburg hosted Brownback's retirement party in 1999."
Robert L. Swann is an American lawyer and retired career Army colonel. He was the second Chief Prosecutor of the Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, serving 2004 to 2006. He followed Fred Borch, who resigned in disgrace, and William Lietzau, acting Chief Prosecutor.
Colonel Frederic L. Borch was a career United States Army attorney with a master's degree in national security studies, who served as chief prosecutor of the Guantanamo military commissions. He resigned his commission in August 2005 after three prosecutors complained that he had rigged the system against providing due process to defendants. He was replaced by Robert L. Swann
Morris Durham "Moe" Davis is an American retired U.S. Air Force colonel, attorney, educator, politician, and former administrative law judge.
Mohamed Jawad, an Afghan refugee born in 1985 in Miranshah, Pakistan, was accused of attempted murder before a Guantanamo military commission on charges that he threw a grenade at a passing American convoy on December 17, 2002. Jawad's family says that he was 12 years old at the time of his detention in 2002. The United States Department of Defense maintains that a bone scan showed he was about 17 when taken into custody.
Stuart Couch is an American lawyer, veteran, and immigration judge. Couch took a conscience driven decision to refuse to prosecute an accused man because he had been tortured by Americans to obtain evidence against him. He was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in a resulting film.
Susan Jean Crawford is an American lawyer, who was appointed the Convening Authority for the Guantanamo military commissions, on February 7, 2007. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Crawford to replace John D. Altenburg.
Thomas W. Hartmann is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Air Force Reserve. He has 32 years of criminal, commercial and civil litigation experience. Between 1983 and 1991 he was a prosecutor and defense counsel in the Air Force, including duties as Chief Air Force Prosecutor in Asia-Pacific Region. From 1991 to 1996 he was an associate at Bryan Cave LLP and at SBC Communications. In 1996 he became senior counsel for mergers & acquisitions for SBC Communications closing multiple deals worth several billion dollars in U.S., Europe, and South America as well as negotiating a strategic partnering agreement with a global internet service provider. From 1998 onwards he was general counsel for SBC Communications (1999–2001), Orius Corp. (2001–2004) and MxEnergy Inc. (2005–2007) in domestic and international settings. In July 2007 Brigadier General Hartmann was appointed the legal adviser to the convening authority in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions. In September 2008, as a result of the expansion of the commission efforts that Hartmann had led, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England elevated Hartmann to become the director of operations, planning, and development for the commissions. Hartmann reported to Susan J. Crawford, a retired judge, who was the convening authority until March 2010.
Attorney Lawrence J. Morris is the chief of staff and counselor to the president at The Catholic University of America and a retired United States Army colonel.
The Behavioral Science Consultation Teams are groups of psychiatrists, other medical doctors and psychologists who study detainees in American extrajudicial detention.
Colonel Stephen R. Henley is an American lawyer and an officer in the United States Army.
The frequent flyer program is a controversial technique used by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in Cuba. Guards deprived detainees of sleep by moving them from one cell to another, multiple times a day, for days or weeks on end.
David Frakt is an American lawyer, law professor, and officer in the United States Air Force Reserve.
The United States of America has charged Guantanamo captives before "military commissions", each presided over by a presiding officer.
Brian L. Mizer is a United States Navy JAG officer. He is from the State of Nebraska. He attended Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, for his undergraduate degree and Case Western Reserve University for his Juris Doctor.
United States v. Mohamed Jawad is one of the military commissions convened under the authority of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Eric Montalvo is an American lawyer who retired after 21 years of active duty service from the United States Marine Corps as a "Mustang" Major and JAG officer.
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