April 29, 2008

Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor Lays Politicization Bare

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morris-davis.jpg Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who used to be the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay and a defender of the Bush Administration’s military tribunal system, took the stand Monday on behalf of a man alleged to be Osama bin Laden’s former driver in order to disseminate the truth about Guantanamo.

Davis was cross-examined by the Army officer who replaced him after his resignation last October, Col. Lawrence Morris, in one of the most dramatic challenges to the first American war-crimes tribunals since World War II…

Davis said he resigned hours after he was put in a chain of command beneath Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes, one of several officials who had encouraged the use of evidence even if it was gathered through waterboarding… “The guy who said waterboarding is A-OK I was not going to take orders from. I quit,” Davis said.

More after the jump…

[Davis] alleged, among other things, that Haynes appeared shocked when Davis suggested in a 2005 meeting that acquittals, however disappointing, could boost the credibility of the system.

“He looked at me and said ‘We can’t have acquittals, we’ve been holding these guys for years,'” Davis testified.

Davis accused Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, a legal adviser to the official overseeing the tribunal system, of exerting inappropriate influence by simultaneously directing tasks for the prosecution team that was supposed to be independent.

He said Hartmann handpicked prosecutors for different cases and demanded cases that were “sexy” or “had blood on them” and would resonate with the public.

Gitmo currently holds about 250 prisoners, and used to hold many more. Only one person, Australian David Hicks, has been convicted of anything. During his testimony, Davis noted that Hicks, who accepted a plea deal that shipped him back to Australia for a nine-month prison sentence, never should have been charged. Mother Jones has written before about Hicks, the charges he levied against the United States government, the difficult plight faced by his lawyer, and the gag order he was placed under following his plea bargin to keep him from talking to the press about his time in Gitmo.

Davis also testified that one Department of Defense official asked for charges to be brought against the Gitmo detainees ahead of the November 2006 midterm elections.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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