Ex-Guantanamo Prosecutor Reveals New Evidence Regarding Unfairness at the Tribunals

By Gabrielle Meury
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

GUANTANAMO, Cuba- Lt. Col. Vandeveld resigned from his position as a prosecutor in the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay because of “ethical reasons.”

Army Col. Lawrence J. Morris, the chief prosecutor and Vandeveld’s boss, said that the Office of Military Commissions provides “every scrap of paper and information” to the defense. Morris claims that Vandeveld was disgruntled because his commanding officers disagreed with some of his legal tactics and that he “never once” raised substantive concerns. Morris said last week that he had no idea why Vandeveld had been so antagonistic toward the tribunal process, adding that the lieutenant colonel’s outspokenness angered him because it was unfair and was a “broad blast at some very ethical and hardworking people whose performances are being smudged groundlessly.”

Vandeveld corresponded with the Los Angeles times, stating, "I don't know how else the creeping rot of the commissions and the politics that fostered and continued to surround them could be exposed to the curative powers of the sunlight," he said. "I care not for myself; our enemies deserve nothing less than what we would expect from them were the situations reversed. More than anything, I hope we can rediscover some of our American values."

Several tribunal defense lawyers are preparing to call Vandeveld as a witness, stating that his claims of systematic problems at Guantanamo, if true, could alter the outcome of every pending case. For years, defense lawyers and human rights organizations have raised similar concerns in individual cases. "But we never had anyone on the inside who could validate those claims," said the deputy chief defense counsel for the commissions, Michael J. Berrigan,

Vandeveld’s misgivings with the tribunals began with his prosecution of Mohammed Jawad, who was a teenager when he was accused of throwing a grenade that wounded two American soldiers and their interpreter in December 2002.. By July, 2008, Vandeveld kept finding sources of information and documents that appeared to bolster the defense’s claims that evidence was being withheld. By August, Vandeveld had uncovered more disquieting information. By September, Vandeveld had resigned.
Vandeveld was prosecuting seven tribunal cases at the time. Vandeveld's replacement as lead prosecutor in the case, Air Force Lt. Col. Doug Stevenson, said the allegations of ethical problems were "ridiculous." "There is absolutely no exculpatory evidence in this case that has not been provided to the defense," Stevenson told the judge.

Lt. Col. Vandeveld is at least the fourth Guantanamo Bay prosecutor to resign under protest.

For more information, please see:

Los Angeles Times- Guantanamo prosecutor who quit had “grave misgivings” about fairness- 12 October 2008

Associated Press- Lawyer accuses Pentagon in Gitmo evidence case- 25 September 2008

Autonomous Media Network Alternative News- New evidence of systemic bias in Guantanamo trials- 13 October 2008

Comments

[Robert Briggs]

Col Vandeveld is not the fourth, but at least the sixth, military commissions prosecutor to quit or ask for transfer at Guantánamo. The others were Major Robert Preston, Captain John Carr, Captain Carrie Wolf, Lt Col Stuart Couch, and Col Morris Davis.