At Guantanamo, the US System Itself Is on Trial

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President Bush ordered that trials for so-called -enemy combatants- at Guantanamo Bay be -full and fair,- but even the staid American Bar Association agrees with human rights groups that the war crimes tribunals are anything but. Secrecy and biased judges are just some of the charges. The first military tribunals since World War II are being conducted by five non-lawyers, and presided over by a retired colonel whose license to practice has expired. On Day Four of the hearings, are the defendants dangerous terrorists or low-level functionaries? Is the presiding judge making it up as he goes along? Warren Olney discusses due process and the Constitution with journalists from the US and Australia, human rights advocates, experts in military law, and a former Justice Department official from the Reagan and Bush, Sr. White House. Making News: Najaf Peace Deal Reached At the Shrine of Imam Ali, Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered his forces to give up their arms, and at least some of them have. That-s part of the peace agreement brokered by the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and agreed to by the US and Iraq-s interim government. Scott Baldauf, who has returned to Baghdad from Najaf for the Christian Science Monitor, says the peace deal has produced both relief and sadness. Reporter's Notebook: Is the Electorate Really Polarized? The latest polls show Americans almost equally divided between George Bush and John Kerry, with few potential voters undecided. That-s true nationally as well as in the so-called -battleground states.- While conventional wisdom says it reflects the -polarization- of America, Stanford University political scientist Morris Fiorina claims just the opposite in Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America, which blames the activists, elected officials and pundits.
President Bush ordered that trials for so-called -enemy combatants- at Guantanamo Bay be -full and fair,- but even the staid American Bar Association agrees with human rights groups that the war crimes tribunals are anything but. Secrecy and biased judges are just some of the charges. The first military tribunals since World War II are being conducted by five non-lawyers, and presided over by a retired colonel whose license to practice has expired. On Day Four of the hearings, are the defendants dangerous terrorists or low-level functionaries? Is the presiding judge making it up as he goes along? Warren Olney discusses due process and the Constitution with journalists from the US and Australia, human rights advocates, experts in military law, and a former Justice Department official from the Reagan and Bush, Sr. White House.
  • Making News: Najaf Peace Deal Reached
    At the Shrine of Imam Ali, Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered his forces to give up their arms, and at least some of them have. That-s part of the peace agreement brokered by the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and agreed to by the US and Iraq-s interim government. Scott Baldauf, who has returned to Baghdad from Najaf for the Christian Science Monitor, says the peace deal has produced both relief and sadness.
  • Reporter's Notebook: Is the Electorate Really Polarized?
    The latest polls show Americans almost equally divided between George Bush and John Kerry, with few potential voters undecided. That-s true nationally as well as in the so-called -battleground states.- While conventional wisdom says it reflects the -polarization- of America, Stanford University political scientist Morris Fiorina claims just the opposite in Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America, which blames the activists, elected officials and pundits.

Baldauf's article on the end to the siege in Najaf

ABA on Guantanamo legal process

Hendren's article on Yemeni prisoner's confession

HRW on lack of access to participants at Guantanamo Bay

Bush re-election campaign

Kerry presidential campaign

Credits

Host:

Warren Olney