Former Gitmo Prosecutor: "torture has no place as evidence in what purports to be an American military court of justice"

Morris Davis used to be the United States government's chief prosecutor for military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. He resigned in late 2007 to protest the admission of evidence obtained via torture. Over at Crimes of War, Davis writes an account of his turn from prosecutor to dissident that is worth reading regardless of where you stand on any of the relevant issues. Excerpt:

In the fall of 2005, […] I sat down for a lengthy discussion with a veteran member of the prosecution team, a Marine Corps officer with an extensive background in criminal prosecution. We discussed a case that caused him concern, one he said he was not comfortable prosecuting. After describing some of the specifics of the detainee's treatment at Guantanamo, which was documented in official records, the prosecutor said: "Sir, they fucked with him and they fucked with him until now he's as crazy as a shit-house rat." In an interview with Bob Woodward published in the Washington Post in January 2009, Susan Crawford, the Bush administration official who supervised the military commissions, explained why she refused to send the same case to trial when it reached her desk in the spring of 2008. "We tortured Qahtani," she said, "His treatment met the legal definition of torture." […]

As chief prosecutor for the military commissions, I personally approved the charges against some of the detainees now convicted of war crimes and I participated in discussions on potential charges against others like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. A phrase used repeatedly in detainee charges is "in violation of the law of war." As a career military attorney, prosecuting those who violated the law of war was a duty I readily accepted. For nearly two years, I was a vocal supporter of the detention facility at Guantanamo and the military commissions. In June 2007, I published an op-ed entitled "The Guantanamo I Know," where I defended the detention facility and the military commission process.

I instructed the prosecutors that we would not use information derived by waterboarding or any other technique that went too far, and for two years that policy was unchallenged. Then, in October 2007, I received a written order from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England placing me under the command of Brigadier General Tom Hartmann and Defense Department General Counsel Jim Haynes. Hartmann disputed the policy I established arguing that "President Bush said we don't torture, so what makes you think you have the authority to say we do?" He believed the information I had excluded should be introduced as evidence in detainee trials. Haynes was the architect of the memo former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed authorizing enhanced interrogation techniques, the memo on which Rumsfeld scribbled, "I stand 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?" I was summoned to the Pentagon and given a copy of the order. I went back to my office and drafted my resignation. Information obtained by extreme coercion – what most call torture – has no place as evidence in what purports to be an American military court of justice. […]

Torture violates both domestic and international law, and like the basis for the charges against the detainees, torture is "in violation of the law of war." The law requires that allegations of torture be investigated and those who engaged in it be held to account. To ignore that binding legal obligation is indefensible and inexcusable, whether it is the government of Syria, Pakistan or the United States who is derelict in performing its duties.

Whole thing here; link via the Twitter feed of Human Rights Watch's Laura Pitter. Reason on torture here.

Comments

[Hugh Akston]

“President Bush said we don’t torture, so what makes you think you have the authority to say we do?”

Truth comes from the CiC, not from the facts.

[MJ]

The chief executive has the ultimate authority to set policy within the law. The dispute was between a member of the executive branch and his boss, naturally Bush had the final say in that dispute (which does not mean he was factually correct, just that Davis can only advise and not overrule the president).

[sarcasmic]

“Sir, they fucked with him and they fucked with him until now he’s as crazy as a shit-house rat.”

Just exactly how crazy is a shit-house rat?

[Episiarch]

Probably about the same as rectal.

[cynical]

Jesus. I guess I understand why they hate us now.

[Che is dead]

Really? Then what was their reason for hating us when they flew those fucking planes into the Twin Towers? Moron.

[Che is dead]

“Sir, they fucked with him and they fucked with him until now he’s as crazy as a shit-house rat.” — Marine Corps officer

Was this “Marine Corps officer” also a trained psychiatrist? And isn’t “crazy as a shit-house rat” the very definition of a muslim terrorist? Someone who deliberately targets innocent civilians, executes homosexuals and throws acid into the faces of little girls on their way to school. I’m thinking that the asshole was “crazy as a shit-house rat” before we got him.

[Medieval Apologist]

Without torture, we never would’ve collected the evidence necessary to prove that the Black Plague was caused by Jews poisoning the wells on their rabbi’s orders.

[OO]

now that’s blood liable

[Renaissance Apologist]

Without torture, we never would’ve collected the evidence necessary to prove the existence of a continent-wide conspiracy of women who sold their souls to Lord Satan in exchange for the ability to fly through the air on enchanted household cleaning devices.

[db]

Washing machines? Because I heard the ladies for some reason like to sit on them.

[MJ]

“I instructed the prosecutors that we would not use information derived by waterboarding or any other technique that went too far, and for two years that policy was unchallenged.”

Was the prime purpose of the interrogations to obtain evidence to prosecate in criminal court or to discover information on attacking the enemy and foiling their plans. That’s part of the problem here, prosecutions in court may not have been priority here, prosecuting the war may have been. Those are different goals.

[Nick Griffin]

Morris Davis is a man of integrity and courage.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

This.

It take balls actually turn in your resignation as a protest, and the country is better for having people that have the requisite spine.

[Che is dead]

When will Obama’s people be turning their resignations over his full acceptance and implementation of Bush’s policies?

[Che is dead]

“link via the Twitter feed of Human Rights Watch’s Laura Pitter.”

Human Rights Watch? You mean this Human Rights Watch?:

NGO Monitor has called for the resignation of Sarah Leah Whitson, the director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division, amid allegations that she whitewashed the atrocities committed by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi for years.

In July, HRW found itself under fire when a Wall Street Journal op-ed noted that the organization had solicited donations in Saudi Arabia by trumpeting the criticism it faces from “pro-Israel pressure groups.” In August, the blogosphere leapt on one of the organization’s top Middle East officials for having once been part of a team that edited a radical anti-Israel journal. And, in September, HRW suspended one of the primary contributors to its reports on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon after his private hobby?collecting Nazi memorabilia?became public.