2008-05-08 23:42:11 -
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - A frustrated military judge vowed Thursday to suspend the war-crimes trial of a Canadian detainee unless the Guantanamo Bay detention center provides a «day by day, hour by hour» record of his confinement.
Attorneys for Omar Khadr say details, including logs of interrogations at this U.S. Navy base
in Cuba, could provide grounds to suppress self-incriminating statements. Khadr is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old.
At a pretrial hearing, Judge Peter Brownback, an Army colonel, said he understands the military's worry that the documents might identify prison officials who fear retribution, but ordered the government to provide records of Khadr's day-to-day confinement by May 22, in complete or edited form, or he will suspend proceedings.
Brownback also criticized the prosecution team led by Marine Maj. Jeffrey Groharing for demanding an expedited trial, even though evidence that the defense requested during discovery was still lacking.
«I have been badgered, beaten and bruised by Maj. Groharing since the 7th of November to set a trial date,» Brownback said. «To get a trial date, I need to get discovery done.
The judge's frustration highlights the dueling interests of two military entities at Guantanamo _ the tribunal system and the Joint Task Force that runs the prison and tightly restricts information about inmates whom officials describe as some of America's most dangerous enemies.
The Toronto-born Khadr was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and was taken to Guantanamo four months later. In a sworn affidavit, he said he was threatened with rape and left short-shackled to a bolt in the floor for as long as six hours. He says he was so scared that he told interrogators what they wanted to hear.
Khadr is accused of lobbing a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer during a firefight at an al-Qaida compound in eastern Afghanistan. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on charges including murder, conspiracy and supporting terrorism.
His Pentagon-appointed attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said he believes Khadr's treatment at Guantanamo was designed to prevent him from recanting a false confession that he made under coercion at Bagram air base in Afghanistan.
«He was essentially punished for not cooperating with interrogators while at Guantanamo Bay,» Kuebler said.
Failure to produce the documents could derail what was likely to be one of the first trials of a terror suspect at Guantanamo, where the U.S. holds about 270 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Military prosecutors say they plan to prosecute as many as 80 of the suspects.
A spokeswoman for the detention center, Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum, said officials expect to receive guidance soon from the Defense Department that will allow them to «fully support all requests for access to and release of information.
The judge could eventually dismiss the case if the military does not deliver the documents, said Air Force Maj. Gail Crawford, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon office overseeing the tribunals.
But Kuebler said that possibility was unlikely. He has urged Canada to demand Khadr's repatriation to spare him a trial that he says is guaranteed to produce a conviction.
