Charges Dismissed Against USS Cole Suspect

[Arrow]

“And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands far off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth fails and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.”

Isaiah 59:14-15

[phuloi]

So...What do they say to the families of the 17 dead sailors, pray tell?

[namvet]

Originally Posted by phuloi

So...What do they say to the families of the 17 dead sailors, pray tell?

we'll do better next time?????

[phuloi]

No consolation there...They won`t do better next time because the invitation for a much bigger and more deadly 'next time' has been extended by our now slobbering and apologetic Washington.

[namvet]

well what do you expect??? democraps forget history the day after it was made !!!!

[phuloi]

Or, more acurately, rewrite it!

[darrels joy]

USS Cole: Untold Story of Military Defiance and Way Beyond

This is not a good story… Barack Obama is under siege from virtually every quarter. Let’s start at the beginning…

In the military, disobeying an order is a big deal… Disobeying an order from the Commander In Chief is almost unimaginable. From MSNBC:

In his Jan. 22 order, Obama promised to shut down the Guantanamo prison within a year. The order also froze all Guantanamo detainee legal cases pending a three-month review as the Obama administration decides where — or whether — to prosecute the suspects who have been held there for years, most without charges.

Two military judges granted Obama’s request for a delay in other cases.

But a third military judge, Army Col. James Pohl, defied Obama’s order by scheduling a Feb. 9 arraignment for al-Nashiri at Guantanamo. That left the decision on whether to continue to Crawford, whose delay on announcing what she would do prompted widespread concern at the Pentagon that she would refuse to follow orders and allow the court process to continue.

That bit about Col. Pohl is huge… Officers do not disobey orders from superiors, let alone the POTUS. (There are, by the way, methods by which a military member may refuse to execute an order when that order seems immoral or just flat out nuts. But defying an order is as grave as grave can get.)

Perhaps the larger concern here is the big picture of overall confusion in American government and the “in your face” challenges that President Obama faces both on the domestic and global fronts. Consider:

It’s no great secret that the current “Spending Bill” before the Senate is a Pelosi/Reid boondoggle, and Obama is struggling to find some sanity

The media is beginning to sour as well

Iran demands an apology

Obviously, the GOP ain’t exactly happy

OPEC is trying to flex its muscle, cut supply, and raise oil prices

Canada/EU fret over protectionist politics

Russia is rising

No doubt that India and/or Pakistan will push Barack just to see how much leverage each can muster

And finally, there’s North Korea’s Nuke-Size Headache

Nope… There are plenty of hassles ahead of Mr. Obama… and the absolute last thing he needs is a colonel in his own army defying his orders.


Alan Speakman

http://grandrants.wordpress.com/2009...nd-way-beyond/

[namvet]

Originally Posted by darrels joy

USS Cole: Untold Story of Military Defiance and Way Beyond

This is not a good story… Barack Obama is under siege from virtually every quarter. Let’s start at the beginning…

In the military, disobeying an order is a big deal… Disobeying an order from the Commander In Chief is almost unimaginable. From MSNBC:

In his Jan. 22 order, Obama promised to shut down the Guantanamo prison within a year. The order also froze all Guantanamo detainee legal cases pending a three-month review as the Obama administration decides where — or whether — to prosecute the suspects who have been held there for years, most without charges.

Two military judges granted Obama’s request for a delay in other cases.

But a third military judge, Army Col. James Pohl, defied Obama’s order by scheduling a Feb. 9 arraignment for al-Nashiri at Guantanamo. That left the decision on whether to continue to Crawford, whose delay on announcing what she would do prompted widespread concern at the Pentagon that she would refuse to follow orders and allow the court process to continue.

That bit about Col. Pohl is huge… Officers do not disobey orders from superiors, let alone the POTUS. (There are, by the way, methods by which a military member may refuse to execute an order when that order seems immoral or just flat out nuts. But defying an order is as grave as grave can get.)

Perhaps the larger concern here is the big picture of overall confusion in American government and the “in your face” challenges that President Obama faces both on the domestic and global fronts. Consider:

It’s no great secret that the current “Spending Bill” before the Senate is a Pelosi/Reid boondoggle, and Obama is struggling to find some sanity

The media is beginning to sour as well

Iran demands an apology

Obviously, the GOP ain’t exactly happy

OPEC is trying to flex its muscle, cut supply, and raise oil prices

Canada/EU fret over protectionist politics

Russia is rising

No doubt that India and/or Pakistan will push Barack just to see how much leverage each can muster

And finally, there’s North Korea’s Nuke-Size Headache

Nope… There are plenty of hassles ahead of Mr. Obama… and the absolute last thing he needs is a colonel in his own army defying his orders.


Alan Speakman

http://grandrants.wordpress.com/2009...nd-way-beyond/

and the absolute last thing he needs is a colonel in his own army defying his orders

nope. we need entire militay defiance. period. and I want to see more problems than he can handle. his first, primary and only job is president. period.

[darrels joy]

Case Dismissed? Not Quite.
Reader Lawrence Morris, an army colonel who serves as chief prosecutor in the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, writes to clarify a few points in our Friday item about the latest developments at Guantanamo Bay:

The charges against the 9/11 detainees were not dismissed. The judge in that case, and most of the pending cases (a couple of rulings still have not been issued), granted our request for 120-day continuances, in accord with direction from the secretary of defense, who of course was acting at the president's behest, to give time for the "review" to be accomplished. Still, you are right that the dismissal is of little consequence, as we will--should commissions be revived or altered--charge Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri again.

The judge in this case did not "defy" the order, however, because it applied to us, the prosecutors, not the independent judge. It directed us to seek continuances--which we did and which he lawfully denied (and the arraignment was scheduled well before Jan. 20). The president and secretary had chosen the most legally modest course in directing us to seek continuances, rather than directing that charges be withdrawn; they always had the authority to withdraw or dismiss and then chose to go that route when the judge denied the continuance. As there had been no proceedings in this case, the withdrawal (these charges weren't dismissed) won't matter. Dismissal in other cases in which we have had considerable litigation (9/11, Omar Khadr and a couple of others) would have been much more consequential.

You are also right, of course, in your point about the president being commander in chief, which the public--and sometimes politicians--has trouble remembering or respecting, but which is a given for us who are soldier-lawyers. We speak up, give our advice, then execute any lawful orders.

We wrote that the judge had effectively defied the order, but we suppose it is worth emphasizing that it was not actually an act of insubordination.