This is a HUGE story that should be thrown in the White House's face, but I fear it will die amid everything else that's going on... I think it should stay front and center on all the blogs.
Here is a link to a diary posted Sunday by Steven D:
Gitmo
In yesterday's WSJ and NY Times, it was reported that two Gitmo prosecutors quit in protest, accusing fellow lawyers of "ignoring torture allegations, failing to protect exculpatory evidence and withholding information from superiors"...
When Bush said military tribunals would be full and fair, he was careful to say that such assurances didn't guarantee constitutional protections. With this story, there is evidence that the goal of these tribunals is to presume guilt, and retro-actively match "evidence" to the crime.
For all of us who have been complaining about torture and the danger of military tribunals, this should be a trumpet call. The MSM should be pounding at it every day, throwing previous quotes about fairness back at the White House. There is also a John Roberts implication here, since he was on the panel that approved the tribunals last month.
And the critical opportunity here is that we now have INTERNAL whistleblowing to a degree...not merely complaints from the outside about secrecy.
Looking around further, I found this AP story in the Marine Corps Times.
a blurb:
The American Civil Liberties Union, a vocal critic of the military trial system, said the Carr and Preston allegations are further evidence that the Pentagon should scrap the system and instead try the alleged terrorists under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which provides fuller protection for the rights of the accused.
"Clearly the concerns raised by these two confirm what we've been saying from the beginning: (the Pentagon) rigged the system to render the result the Bush administration wants, which is conviction of these first accused, at any cost," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU.
We're at a crossroads in the "war on terror", in my opinion. If we fail to make our case about the WH's ill-advised tribunal policies NOW, they will become a permanent fixture... And the voting public will become even MORE desensitized on matters of due process; we must strike while the idea is still new.
It's imperative that we keep this story out there...