Head of Military Commissions Quits

[kpete]

When I sign this bill (Military Commissions Act)into law, we will use these commissions to bring justice to the men believed to have planned the attacks of September the 11th, 2001.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061017-1.html

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN ANYTIME SOON:

November 15, 2006, 6:52 pm
Head of Military Commissions Quits

As the Bush administration gears up for another try at prosecuting suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, it’ll have to proceed without the retired Army major general who’s run the effort since 2004.

John Altenburg said that when he accepted the job as “appointing authority” for the military commissions, he expected Guantanamo trials to start in short order—and that he’d be back at his job at the Washington law and lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig by mid-2005. Instead, the military commissions collapsed under a concerted assault by military and civilian defense attorneys, who eventually won a landmark Supreme Court decision in June declaring the entire project unlawful.

“I’m disappointed that we couldn’t do more when I was there, but that’s the way the system works,” Altenburg said. As appointing authority, he was in charge of the whole system, resolving administrative and legal questions posed by the prosecution, defense and panel members below him.

The Supreme Court scored the president for acting without congressional approval. So the administration got legislation through Congress in October to allow a modified form of the commissions to proceed, providing defendants a few more rights than the president initially intended. Altenburg said he agreed to stay on the job until a draft manual implementing the new Military Commissions Act was done.

more at:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/11/15/head-of-military-commissions-quits/