HELD
AT BAY
JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
against political difficulties.”
“I think that Obama did not
want to invest the political capital
in it to take the steps necessary to
make it happen,” Pitter said.
THE ‘RE-BRANDER’
Unable to close Guantanamo,
Obama restarted the military commissions in March 2011. He did
succeed, however, in reforming
them to a certain extent, increasing transparency and bringing their
policies and handling of evidence
closer in line with U.S. courts. But
the legality of the commissions is
still being debated, and the detain-
HUFFINGTON
03.03.13
“HE WAS GOING TO COME IN
HERE, HE WAS GOING TO LEND HIS
NAME, HIS RANK, HIS STATURE,
AND LEGITIMIZE THIS PROCESS.”
ees may appeal any verdicts in federal court, setting up a prolonged
battle that will likely wind its way
back to the Supreme Court.
For now, Brig. Gen. Mark S.
Martins is the man with the difficult task of selling the world on
the legitimacy of the proceedings.
Martins took the job of chief prosecutor in October 2011, and he is a
staunch defender of trying the detainees in military commissions as
General Mark
Martins
speaks during
a press
conference
following the
commission
hearing
against the
main suspect
in the USS
Cole bombing.