The Pentagon-appointed lawyer for Australia's sole inmate at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said yesterday a chief US prosecutor threatened him with charges that could slow his client's case from going to trial.
Marine Corps Major Michael Mori said he was warned last week by the US military's chief prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, that he could be charged under Article 88 of the US Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The article prohibits officers from using "contemptuous words" against the US president, vice president, secretary of defense and other senior officials.
An outspoken critic of Washington's policy of trying Guantanamo detainees before military tribunals, Mori has made a number of speaking tours to Australia to drum up public support for his client, David Hicks.
In an interview with a US-based reporter from the Australian newspaper published on Saturday, Davis accused Mori of inserting himself into Australian politics and said he could be prosecuted for some of his comments.
But Davis, a US Air Force prosecutor, conceded it was up to the Marine Corps to decide whether to lay charges against Mori.
"Certainly in the US it would not be tolerated having a US Marine in uniform actively inserting himself into the political process," he said. "It is very disappointing to see that happening in Australia and if that was any of my prosecutors, they would be held accountable."
Mori said any such move could delay Hicks' case for months.
"When a prosecutor uses this tactic of making criminal charges against someone's lawyer, it really could lead to that lawyer having to be removed from the case," Mori told ABC radio.
Hicks, who was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 and is accused of supporting the Taliban, was charged last week with providing material support for terrorism. He must appear before a military commission on the charge within 30 days.
"Unfortunately it's just not going to be a speedy thing to get David another lawyer down at Guantanamo," Mori said.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS