David Frakt also has equally serious doubts about the legitimacy of the Military Commissions.
It was Frakt who, in 2008, challenged the role of chief prosecutor Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann in choosing his client, Mohammed Jawad, for trial.
Frakt argued that Hartmann had "...exercised unlawful command influence. Frakt also argued, during his challenge of Hartmann's unlawful influence, that the Prosecution had failed to release important records to the Defense, and that this showed that the process through which Jawad was charged was rushed and without proper preparation.
Frakt argued that Jawad had been subjected to: "...pointless and sadistic treatment [in a] bleak underworld of barbarism and cruelty, of anything goes, of torture."
Frakt told The Public Record, "The Administration's plan to restart the flawed military commissions in Guantanamo demonstrates that they have caved in to the bullies in Congress who have used fearmongering and disinformation to preempt the best and most appropriate option for prosecution of the few real terrorists at Guantanamo -- federal criminal trials."
He continued: "The apparent willingness of the Administration to allow a detainee who was admittedly tortured to be prosecuted for crimes committed well before 9/11, under a theory that the U.S. was in a state of armed conflict (i.e. war) with al Qaeda since 1996, reveals how little has really changed in the current Administration's approach from the predecessor administration."
Frakt is now a professor at the Barry University law school.
He added, "Given that President Obama abandoned his campaign pledge to abolish the military commissions and opted to reform them, it is not surprising that the military commissions are resuming. However, President Obama's stated view that federal courts are the preferred option and that military commissions should only be used for violations of the law of war has clearly changed. Now that military commissions are perceived as the only viable option, the President seems to be willing to allow prosecutions for terrorism offenses regardless of whether they are traditional war crimes."
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