This day in Marine Corps history
28 July 1918: Brigadier General John A. Lejeune assumed command of the 2d Division, U.S. Army in France, and remained in that capacity until August 1919 when the unit was demobilized. He was the first Marine officer to hold an Army divisional command, and following the Armistice, he led his division in the march into Germany
Source: http://www.usmchangout.com/military/branches/usmc/history/thisdayinhistory.htm#july
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Marine LtCol Thomas Jasper - Guantanamo detainee's hearing delayed until September (Military Times, Jul. 27, 2015)
Guantanamo detainee's hearing delayed until September (Military Times, Jul. 27, 2015)
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — On hold again: The Pentagon's latest attempt to move forward with a military commission for an Iraqi detainee was abruptly canceled when the judge found that the accused's defense attorney, Marine Lt. Col. Sean Gleason, was also involved in another war crimes case.
The pre-trial proceedings for accused terrorist Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi are set to resume Sept. 14.
"I respectfully say some of the comparisons about costs and so forth can be a bit myopic," Chief Prosecutor Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins said. "I mean these are really important cases, and it's easy to do comparative cost figures and to fail to see how important it is to get national security right and fairness right."
Gleason, Hadi's former counsel, was not present at Wednesday's hearing, where it became evident that the Defense Department never formally released him from Hadi's defense team. Hadi, apparently nervous that Gleason could use information adverse to his interests in other proceedings, told the judge he has lost confidence in his entire defense team, at least temporarily.
"I need to talk to attorney Gleason," Hadi said.
Marine Lt. Col. Thomas Jasper, Hadi's lead defense counsel, told the judge, Navy Capt. J.K. Waits, that his team did not learn of the conflict until the government turned over new evidence less than 24 hours before the pre-trial hearings were scheduled to begin. Jasper told Waits that the government was privy to this information since 2007, the year in which Gleason was originally appointed to Hadi's case.
"I will tell you we take our discovery obligation very seriously," Martins said. "We are producing it as we find it and prepare it."
The judge originally ordered the court in recess in hopes that Hadi could meet with Gleason on short notice before he halted the proceedings altogether on July 23. It could not be confirmed whether Hadi and Gleason were able to speak electronically or otherwise.
Air Force Maj. Ben Stirk, one of Hadi's defense lawyers, declined to meet with reporters given his "current limbo status regarding our representation of Mr. Hadi and the way forward."
Hadi, now in his fifties, is considered a high-value detainee who is accused of being a senior al-Qaida commander who conspired and ordered attacks that resulted in the death of at least eight U.S. service members in Afghanistan. He was captured in 2006 and held by the CIA for no less than 170 days before coming to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
Hadi previously objected to being dealt with by female guards, but calmly appeared in court and was dressed in traditional white garb.
The government hoped to move the case forward over the originally scheduled 10-days of hearings by establishing jurisdiction over the defendant and determining what evidence and out-of-court statements could be admitted at trial. No trial date is set.
The prosecution did introduce Felice Viti, the attorney from Utah who prosecuted the Elizabeth Smart kidnap and rape case, as its new deputy counsel. Smart's case gripped the nation throughout the 2000s, culminating in Smart's memoir, "My Story."
The military brass from the Pentagon and witnesses were flown into Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from Andrews Air Force Base at taxpayer expense and will return in September to resume proceedings, some of which were intended to be completed in this round.
This week's scenario is not an anomaly. For example, the 9/11 trial was scheduled to last two weeks in February, but was derailed on the first day after one of the accused said he recognized his translator from a CIA black site.
The way forward, Martins said, is "following the law."
Marine LtCol Thomas Jasper - New snag stalls war crimes hearing, sidelines Elizabeth Smart case prosecutor (Miami Herald, Jul. 22, 2015)
New snag stalls war crimes hearings, sidelines Elizabeth Smart case prosecutor (Miami Herald, Jul. 22, 2015)
The Pentagon’s latest bid to hold a hearing at the war crimes court hit a snag in the first morning of an Iraqi detainee’s’ two-week session Wednesday, when the judge ruled there was a conflict created by the appointment of a U.S. Marine defense attorney to two ongoing cases.
Navy Capt. J.K. Waits, the judge, sought to press forward after ruling that the accused terrorist, Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, had two military lawyers unburdened by the conflict. Hadi, accused of commanding al-Qaida’s army after 9/11, replied that he had lost confidence in his entire Pentagon-appointed defense team over the episode.
Waits recessed the case indefinitely until Hadi could consult with the conflicted lawyer, who wasn’t at this remote outpost for this week’s hearings.
Prosecutors had hoped to get the case moving with more than a dozen live witnesses at a 10-day military commission’s version of a show-cause hearing, and a new federal attorney who had prosecuted the Elizabeth Smart kidnap and rape case.
But the new prosecutor, Felice Viti of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Utah, never uttered a word before Hadi’s lead defense counsel, Marine Lt. Col. Thomas Jasper, announced in court that evidence the prosecution was using to try to show Hadi was an “unprivileged enemy belligerent” included a Guantánamo jailhouse chat between Hadi and a Sept. 11 defendant, Mustafa al Hawsawi. On paper, the two men have the same defense lawyer, Marine Lt. Col. Sean Gleason.
Gleason became Hadi’s first defense attorney after he got to Guantánamo in 2007 in an ongoing churn of attorneys through the on-again, off-again war court’s bar. Hadi never released him before the Pentagon’s Chief Defense Counsel assigned Gleason to help defend Hawsawi in the Sept. 11 case. Now the evidence of one was to be used against the other.
“Regrettably we’re in a little bit of a limbo,” the judge declared.
Hadi, who had earlier objected to be handled by female guards, had come to court without incident, dressed in white traditional garb, and expressed frustration at the situation. “I’ve been working with Jasper based on wrong information,” he told the judge.
The hearing was supposed to be the first at the war court since March.
The USS Cole capital case is on hold while prosecutors appeal another judge’s decision to a Washington, D.C., based panel — after the Obama administration figures out how to get military members of the panel confirmed by Congress. The Sept. 11 hearings, slated to resume Aug. 24, have been stymied for months by sealed Justice Department notices to that case’s judge about an FBI investigation of defense teams in the case against Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four others accused of conspiring to commit 9/11.
Wednesday’s events sidelined the war court debut of Viti, who until recently served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Utah. In 2011, he got a life sentence for Brian David Mitchell, a self-styled street preacher, who was convicted of abducting Elizabeth Smart at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City bedroom and then raping her in 2002.
Elizabeth, then 14, was held captive for nine months in a case that gripped the nation and confounded law enforcement officials. Mitchell’s sentence and conviction capped a protracted legal odyssey that for a time found the kidnapper mentally unfit to stand trial.
In this case, Iraqi, 54, is accused of commanding al-Qaida’s army in Afghanistan after the 2001 U.S. invasion and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. The U.S. government alleges that fighters who answered to Hadi committed a series of war crimes, including shooting at a U.S. military med-evac helicopter, setting roadside charges that killed American soldiers and attacking civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Hadi has asked for a civilian lawyer, but is not automatically entitled to one under the rules for military commissions because his is not a capital case. His is the only case of professionally trained soldier to go before the war court.
He was part of Saddam Hussein’s Army, a non-commissioned officer in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, according to his American lawyers, then fled Iraq for Afghanistan after Hussein had troops invade Kuwait but before the start of Operation Desert Storm. He has been held at Guantánamo for more than eight years.
Both U.S. military defense and prosecution attorneys have come and gone from the case. Hadi was represented at his June 2014 arraignment by Army Reserve Col. Chris Callen, who returned to civilian life and was replaced by Jasper in September. Air Force Maj. Ben Stirk, a deputy defense counsel, has been the only defense lawyer to appear at all five hearings.
Viti came to court as the deputy to the case prosecutor, Army Lt. Col. David Long. He essentially replaced Mikael Clayton, another federal attorney, who left government service. He joined a team of four other prosecutors, Long; Navy Cmdr. Kevin Flynn; Army Maj. Joshua Bearden; and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Vaughn Spencer. They made their first appearances in court, too.
After court Wednesday, Jasper said the unresolved dual representation issue demonstrates a structural flaw with the war court created by President George W. Bush and reformed by President Barack Obama.
“Now you have a 9/11 accused whose attorney has information against Hadi al Iraqi,” he said, “and that’s clearly unfair to Hadi al Iraqi going forward.”
Follow @carolrosenberg on Twitter.
Marine LtCol Thomas Jasper - Guantanamo prisoner balks at working with defense lawyers (AP, Jul. 22, 2015)
Guantanamo prisoner balks at working with defense lawyers (AP, Jul. 22, 2015)
Jul. 22, 2015 1:11 PM EDT
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A Guantanamo prisoner balked at working with his defense lawyers due to a possible conflict of interest Wednesday, prompting an indefinite recess in his pretrial hearing in Cuba.
Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi told the military judge Wednesday he wished to stop conferring with the two lawyers assigned to his case, at least temporarily. During the recess, prosecutors will try to arrange a meeting between al-Hadi and one of his former attorneys in hopes of resolving the issue.
"Regrettably, we're in a little bit of a limbo," said the judge, Navy Capt. J. Kirk Waits.
The possible conflict involves a former defense team member, Marine Corps Lt. Col. Sean Gleason, who was reassigned in 2013 to another Guantanamo prisoner, Mustafa Hawsawi. Prosecutors turned over to al-Hadi's lawyers some documents earlier this week regarding conversations the prisoners had in 2007 that contained statements harmful to al-Hadi's defense, said defense attorney Marine Lt. Col. Thomas Jasper.
Jasper said al-Hadi never agreed to Gleason's reassignment, making the switch improper.
Waits agreed there was a potential conflict for Gleason representing both Hawsawi and al-Hadi. He said that issue must be resolved, but ruled the hearing could continue since al-Hadi's current lawyers are conflict-free. Al-Hadi objected.
"I don't want them to represent me at this time," he said in Arabic through an interpreter.
Al-Hadi said he wants the option for an independent counsel — one not assigned by the military — but agreed to first meet with Gleason.
Al-Hadi is accused of being an al-Qaida commander who organized deadly attacks on U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of war crimes.
He has been imprisoned at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2007, when the Defense Department took custody of him from the CIA.
At his last pretrial hearing in January, defense lawyers asked for an order permanently barring female guards from jobs requiring physical contact with al-Hadi to protect his religious rights. The judge denied the motion in February and rescinded an interim prohibition on the use of female guards. He cited a 2009 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that non-resident aliens detained at Guantanamo are not protected under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Associated Press covered Wednesday's hearing from a video feed at Fort Meade, near Baltimore.
Marine LtCol Thomas Jasper - Conflict of interest issues throw wrench in hearing for alleged war criminal (UPI, Jul. 22, 2015)
Conflict of interest issues throw wrench in hearing for alleged war criminal (UPI, Jul. 22, 2015)
By Taylor Hall, Medill News Service | July 22, 2015 at 5:53 PM
By Taylor Hall, Medill News Service | July 22, 2015 at 5:53 PM
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, CUBA, July 22 (UPI) -- Military court hearings ground to an indefinite halt Wednesday after an Iraqi prisoner accused of war crimes petitioned for a new lawyer, citing conflict of interest issues.
At the start of Wednesday's proceedings, the military judge, Navy Capt. J.K. Wait asked Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, accused of leading violent attacks as a senior al-Qaida commander in 2003, whether he wanted to be represented by his current defense counsel, Marine Lt. Col. Tom Jasper and Air Force Maj. Ben Stirk. Hadi, dressed in traditional white garb, responded: "Today, yes."
But less than one hour later, the Iraqi prisoner had changed his tune.
"I don't want to confer with Jasper or Stirk about this at least temporarily until I have an option for an independent counsel. I don't want them to represent me at this time," al Hadi said through his translator.
The conflict of interest issue and representation for Hadi emerged Sunday, when the lead government prosecutor, Army Lt. Col. David Long, turned over evidence of jailhouse conversations in 2007 between Hadi and a Sept. 11 defendant also imprisoned at Guantanamo, Mustafa al Hawsawi. The prosecution apparently intended to include information from the conversation between Hadi and Hawsawi to prove Hadi was an "unprivileged enemy belligerent."
But Hawsawi and Hadi, it turns out, have a defense lawyer in common -- Marine Lt. Col. Sean Gleason.
Jasper, the lead military defense attorney, said Gleason, previously detailed to Hadi's defense team, was not properly released by Hadi from his case.
"With regard to Gleason, it was only today I realized he's still working in my case. And that was based on what I heard from Jasper today. Before that I had the wrong information," Hadi said in court. "I've been working with Jasper based on the wrong information."
Jasper said this posed critical conflict of interest issues that could complicate future proceedings for the entire defense team.
"We're flying by the seat of our pants trying to figure out our ethical obligations regarding the ethical representation of Hadi," Jasper said.
Hadi has asked for a civilian lawyer, but is not automatically entitled to one under the rules for military commissions because his is not a capital case.
In the hearing Wednesday, Hadi spoke directly to the military judge, Wait, expressing concerns over information shared with Gleason and fair representation by current defense counsel.
In the hearing Wednesday, Hadi spoke directly to the military judge, Wait, expressing concerns over information shared with Gleason and fair representation by current defense counsel.
"I understand the privileged relationship between attorney and client. But there's an important issue. Attorney Gleason has lots of information concerning me. I don't know if he's gong to use this information in the future, for me or against me," Hadi said.
"Right now I have a very disturbed relationship with my attorneys. I can give you many examples," he added.
One of the military prosecutors, Navy Lt. Col. Vaughn Spencer, challenged the extent of the conflict around the conversations, which took place before either Hadi or Hawsawi had legal representation or faced any charges. But Wait ruled to delay the hearings until Hadi had a chance to speak with Gleason about conflict issues that could adversely affect his case.
"The issue of a potential conflict with Gleason needs to be resolved," Wait said. "The commission directs Jasper to contact Gleason to consult with Hadi. If you want independent counsel, that's your prerogative."
Wait directed the government prosecutors to keep the courts informed on the status of meetings between Gleason with Hadi and Hawsawi.
Hadi has temporarily dismissed Jasper and Stirk, and Wait recessed the military hearings indefinitely until Gleason, who was not present at Guantanamo this week, can be consulted.
Prosecutor Navy Lt. Col. Vaughn Spencer told the military judge Gleason is an active duty Marine and could be contacted "as quickly as you direct us."
Until then, military court proceedings in Guantanamo will remain on hold.
"Regrettably, we're in a little bit of a limbo," Wait said.
Marine LtCol Thomas Jasper - Military trial inches on for alleged al-Qaida commander (Marine Corps Times, Jul. 24, 2015)
Military trial inches on for alleged al-Qaida commander (Marine Corps Times, Jul. 24, 2015)
NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — It has been more than 3,000 days since alleged al-Qaida commander Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi was transferred to the U.S. military's detention facility here.
And new complications this week have further tangled the web of his already Gordian war-court proceedings and will extend his stay at least two more months.
In 2013, congressional Democrats estimated the cost of housing one detainee for one year at the prison camp to be $2.7 million, based on Defense Department figures.
Hadi, a native of Mosul, Iraq, faces life in prison, accused of masterminding a series of attacks on American, Canadian, German, British, Estonian and Norwegian forces, including a 2003 attack on a U.S. military convoy at Shkin, Afghanistan, that killed two U.S. soldiers and injured numerous others.
After another one of his attacks on Oct. 25, 2003, killed two more U.S. soldiers, Hadi's fighters shot at injured coalition soldiers, according to the charges against him.
He is also accused of attacking civilians and a medical helicopter attempting to recover casualties from the battlefield; directing fighters to kill all coalition soldiers and take no prisoners; providing a reward to the Taliban for assassinating a civilian United Nations worker; acting on orders from Osama bin Laden; attempting to assassinate then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf; and destroying historic Buddha statues in Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A pretrial hearing for Hadi that was originally scheduled to begin July 20 and last about a week and a half has been slipped to Sept. 14.
This week’s hearings in Guantanamo got off to a rough start when, two hours prior to a scheduled chambers meeting Sunday, lead government prosecutor Army Lt. Col. David Long turned over 10 pages of evidence from jailhouse conversations in 2007 between Hadi and a Sept. 11 defendant also imprisoned at Guantanamo, Mustafa al Hawsawi.
Hadi’s lead defense lawyer, Marine Lt. Col. Thomas Jasper, said these conversations included information that was adverse to his client.
The prosecution apparently intended to include information from the conversation between Hadi and Hawsawi to prove Hadi was an "unprivileged enemy belligerent," a label used by the government to determine jurisdiction of war crimes cases, limiting them to the military courts in Guantanamo.
When Hadi’s defense lawyers asked for more time to review the evidence they received Sunday — less than one day before the military hearings were scheduled to begin — the judge, Navy Capt. J.K. Waits, delayed the hearings for two days to give the defense a chance to determine the scope of potential conflict-of-interest issues.
“It is not the prosecution’s job to do conflicts analysis for counsel,” chief prosecutor Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins said Friday when asked about the reason for the delayed submission of evidence. “We take our discovery obligation very seriously. We are producing it as we find it and prepare it."
In court Wednesday morning, Waits scolded the prosecution for the delay in submitting evidence — waiting less than one day before the military hearings were scheduled to begin.
“Promptly means promptly,” Waits said. “I didn’t think that was subject to interpretation.”
Jasper, Hadi’s top Pentagon-paid defense lawyer, said two days was not enough time to weed through all the complex conflict-of-interest issues resulting from the new evidence stemming from the chats between Hawsawi and Hadi.
One such issue: It turns out the two alleged war criminals have a defense lawyer in common, at least on paper — Marine Lt. Col. Sean Gleason.
Gleason became Hadi’s first defense attorney after he arrived at Guantánamo in 2007 in an ongoing churn of attorneys through the on-again, off-again war court’s bar.
According to Jasper, Hadi had not properly released Gleason when the Pentagon’s chief defense counsel assigned him to help defend Hawsawi in the 9/11 case. Now the evidence concerning one could be used against the other, which Jasper said posed ethical issues that could complicate future proceedings for the entire defense team.
Hadi spoke to the military judge directly about his concerns. “Attorney Gleason has lots of information concerning me. I don't know if he's gong to use this information in the future for me or against me," he said in Arabic through a translator Wednesday.
The process for releasing defense counsel from representation for a military commission client includes formal dismissal by both military judge and detainee client.
Though Gleason has not represented Hadi in court since being detailed to Hawsawi’s case, the commission now seeks to determine whether he was properly and formally released.
Waits agreed there was a potential conflict for Gleason in representing both Hawsawi and Hadi and said that issue must be resolved, but ruled an hour into the hearing that proceedings could continue because Hadi's current lawyers were conflict-free.
But Hadi protested, raising new objections.
“Right now I have a very disturbed relationship with my attorneys,’’ he said of his Pentagon-funded defense team, Jasper and Air Force Maj. Ben Stirk.
"I don't want them to represent me at this time," Hadi added, citing frustrations over the number of attorneys assigned to work with him on his case over the years.
Hadi said he wants the option of using an independent counsel not assigned by the military — a request he has made before — but agreed to first meet with Gleason.
Both U.S. military defense and prosecution attorneys have come and gone from Hadi’s case. Army Reserve Col. Chris Callen represented Hadi at his June 2014 arraignment, and was replaced by Jasper in September. Stirk, a deputy defense counsel, has been the only defense lawyer to appear at all five of Hadi's hearings.
Wednesday’s hearing also marked the debut of Felice Viti of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Utah, a new federal attorney who prosecuted the Elizabeth Smart kidnap and rape case. But Viti never uttered a word amid the flurry of conflict issues raised by the defense.
At the end of the hearing Wednesday, Waits put the proceedings on indefinite hold until a meeting between Hadi and Gleason could be arranged.
Though prosecutor Navy Lt. Col. Vaughn Spencer told the military judge Gleason is an active-duty Marine and could be contacted "as quickly as you direct us,” Guantanamo court officials began to book return flights for Saturday as soon as they realized Gleason, not present in Guantanamo this week, could not be located.
Gleason’s email auto-response says he is out of the office until Aug. 7.
On Friday, Martins, the chief prosecutor, said he did not know where Gleason is.
“I won’t in any way try to say that what we’re doing is setting land-speed records,” Martins said of the effort to locate Gleason and facilitate a meeting with Hadi. “We’re making incremental progress. The judge is going to sort out the facts of representation. And counsel have an obligation to make sure they’re representing the client’s interests."
When asked about the costs of rescheduling the Hadi hearings, which included more than a dozen witnesses for the scheduled 10-day military commission’s version of a show-cause hearing in Guantanamo, Martins said: “These are really important cases. It’s easy to do comparative cost figures and fail to see how important it is to get national security right and fairness right.”
Monday, July 27, 2015
Marine LtCol Thomas Jasper - Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi - Guantanamo July 2015
Military trial inches on for alleged al-Qaida commander (Marine Corps Times, Jul. 24, 2015)
Conflict of interest issues throw wrench in hearing for alleged war criminal (UPI, Jul. 22, 2015)
Guantanamo prisoner balks at working with defense lawyers (Associated Press, Jul. 22, 2015)
New snag stalls war crimes hearings, sidelines Elizabeth Smart case prosecutor (Miami Herald, Jul. 22, 2015)
Conflict of interest issues throw wrench in hearing for alleged war criminal (UPI, Jul. 22, 2015)
Guantanamo prisoner balks at working with defense lawyers (Associated Press, Jul. 22, 2015)
New snag stalls war crimes hearings, sidelines Elizabeth Smart case prosecutor (Miami Herald, Jul. 22, 2015)
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