John Brennan’s Kangaroo Court

http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/01/29/john-brennans-kangaroo-court/

"Congratulations to Barack Obama, whose invisible hand censor has made Gitmo even more of a kangaroo court than it was under Bush.As Jim laid out, over the last two days of Gitmo hearings, we saw (thanks to livetweeters like Carol Rosenberg, Jason Leopold, and Daphne Eviatar) someone improperly cut the feed from the court room to the journalists for 3 minutes, just as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s lawyer, David Nevin, started to read from his unclassified motion to preserve the black sites. After it happened, Judge James Pohl was rather angry about what he saw as an improper use of the censorship system. Today, it became clear that the OCA–the original classification authority–pressed the censor button, via some AV means that Judge Pohl either didn’t fully understand or want to discuss.
In other words, CIA has ultimate control over his court room."

"And then yesterday, you had a lawfully cleared defense motion being discussed in court, and CIA overruled the determination the trial judge had made, and ensured that journalists could not hear even that unclassified motion. Judge Pohl has deferred the discussion about preserving the black sites as evidence until next month, and it’s not clear whether the defendants or the journalists will be permitted to attend that hearing."

Is this censorship?
Will it be censorship under another name?
Is the CIA in charge of this courtroom?
Isn't that like the fox in charge of the henhouse?
Is this USA "liberty and justice for all."
Is the system broken?

Is this censorship?

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Obviously

Will it be censorship under another name?

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More than likely. In order to make it seem like it isn't censorship. Do it for "your own good" kind of thing.

Is the CIA in charge of this courtroom?

Click to expand...

Obviously

Isn't that like the fox in charge of the henhouse?

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Like the wolf controlling the sheep flock.

Is this USA "liberty and justice for all."

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Sure unless you are suspected by your government of anything. No evidence required.

Is the system broken?

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The system would have to have been fixed in order to be broken correct? The system has been innately flawed.

AreteCourage said:

Obviously


More than likely. In order to make it seem like it isn't censorship. Do it for "your own good" kind of thing.


Obviously


Like the wolf controlling the sheep flock.



Sure unless you are suspected by your government of anything. No evidence required.



The system would have to have been fixed in order to be broken correct? The system has been innately flawed.

Click to expand...

Without doubt, KSM is a world class scumbag and probably deserves this fate, but it isn't justice. If KSM was tried in any non-Military courtroom, his case would be thrown out because of the torture and all evidence would be tossed as "fruit of a tainted tree." That is why the Military Tribunal. I don't think USA citizens see the insidious nature of the creep within the legal system and the power the CIA has grabbed within the continental USA. The last president to mess with the CIA was Jimmy Carter and you see what happened to him when he tried to rescue the Iranian hostages and when he tried to negotiate their release. The CIA also seems to have insinuated itself into the movie-making industry as in Zero Dark Thirty implying that torture works. The Stallone movies showing a false reality about Vietnam. The new Julian Assange/Wikileaks script that implies that he's an international terrorist. It's way past time the citizens start getting this info from their media instead of just the Internet. Maybe that is what the result of this "Kangaroo Trial" will be. "Hope springs eternal."

DaveFagan said:

Without doubt, KSM is a world class scumbag and probably deserves this fate, but it isn't justice. If KSM was tried in any non-Military courtroom, his case would be thrown out because of the torture and all evidence would be tossed as "fruit of a tainted tree." That is why the Military Tribunal. I don't think USA citizens see the insidious nature of the creep within the legal system and the power the CIA has grabbed within the continental USA. The last president to mess with the CIA was Jimmy Carter and you see what happened to him when he tried to rescue the Iranian hostages and when he tried to negotiate their release. The CIA also seems to have insinuated itself into the movie-making industry as in Zero Dark Thirty implying that torture works. The Stallone movies showing a false reality about Vietnam. The new Julian Assange/Wikileaks script that implies that he's an international terrorist. It's way past time the citizens start getting this info from their media instead of just the Internet. Maybe that is what the result of this "Kangaroo Trial" will be. "Hope springs eternal."

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Remember...in NDAA 2012....provisions have made propaganda on US citizens legal. Watch for more of it in the media and movies.

AreteCourage said:

Remember...in NDAA 2012....provisions have made propaganda on US citizens legal. Watch for more of it in the media and movies.

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It's surprising to me that more persons don't participate in this poll. It is US censorship by Intelligence agencies and it must be that the citizens donm't realize the threat that these agencies represent. Even the word "censorship" should bring the Libertarians out in droves, but it doesn't. Hard to figure.

.:Middle East Online::Judge to US government: stop censoring 9/11 hearings :.

Judge to US government: stop censoring 9/11 hearings
"US NAVAL BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY (Cuba) - A military judge ordered the US government Thursday to stop censoring September 11 pre-trial hearings from outside his courtroom.

Judge James Pohl said the government must "disconnect the outside feed or ability to suspend the broadcast" from outside his court.

Proceedings are heard in the press room, and in a room where human rights groups and victims’ families sit, with a 40 second delay. This is done so that a security officer sitting next to the judge can block anything deemed classified."



It's nice to see the Judge woke up. However, he is still allowing a censor inside the courtroom.
It doesn't seem like anyone on this debate politics forum woke up though. Censorship is not OK!

Doctors to review USS Cole suspect's CIA detention records | Reuters

"The judge overseeing the case, Army Colonel James Pohl, ordered a board of at least three doctors and clinical psychologists to decide by April 1 whether Nashiri is mentally competent to understand the proceedings and assist in his defense.

Competency board members will have top secret security clearances and will be chosen by a general who oversees the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where wounded U.S. soldiers and sailors are treated.

Defense lawyers have never claimed Nashiri was mentally incompetent.

But once they said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by torture in the now-shuttered CIA prisons, prosecutors said they were bound by the trial rules to ask that he undergo a mental competency exam.

The CIA has acknowledged that interrogators threatened to rape Nashiri's mother in his presence, subjected him to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding and threatened him with a gun and a power drill while he was naked and shackled."

This is from REUTERS and is classified Top Secret and yet it is a common news item. I'm having a little trouble seeing the "Justice" in this trial. It's not OK with me. It is a genuine kangaroo court being conducted by us.