1115.org

In case you have been wondering whether Bush’s military commissions would provide Guantanamo detainees with fair trials, you should look in the mirror, laugh at yourself and stop needlessly worrying.

J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said yesterday that … the military commissions will provide detainees with fair trials.

See? That’s your government talking. And you can always believe your government. Because they are, all, honorable men. And it is, after all, your patriotic duty as well.

In case you’re wondering why J.D. Gordon felt the need to make such a statement, here’s the context:

Politically motivated officials at the Pentagon have pushed for convictions of high-profile detainees ahead of the 2008 elections, the former lead prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantanamo Bay said last night, adding that the pressure played a part in his decision to resign earlier this month.

Senior defense officials discussed in a September 2006 meeting the “strategic political value” of putting some prominent detainees on trial, said Air Force Col. Morris Davis. He said that he felt pressure to pursue cases that were deemed “sexy” over those that prosecutors believed were the most solid or were ready to go.

Why should the politicization of prosecutions be limited just to the Dept. of “Justice”? Government works best when different arms and branches and tentacles of government compete to be the best.

“There was a big concern that the election of 2008 is coming up,” Davis said. “People wanted to get the cases going. There was a rush to get high-interest cases into court at the expense of openness.”

Davis said he thought the military commissions could go forward as a legitimate way to try alleged terrorists in U.S. custody, but he said he had serious concerns about how the new officials were approaching the commissions. He said he felt a sense of expediency over thoroughness was taking hold and that efforts to use classified evidence — a controversial idea that has drawn congressional concern — could taint the trials in the eyes of international observers.

Davis abruptly resigned after complaining that his authority in prosecutions was being usurped. He argued that Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, a new legal adviser to the convening authority for military commissions, should remain a neutral and independent party and should leave prosecuting cases to prosecutors.

In his complaint, Davis alleged that Hartmann inappropriately requested detailed information on pending cases, defined the sequence in which cases would be brought forward and expressed an intent to personally conduct pretrial negotiations with defendants’ attorneys.

Fair trials sound like a fairy tale at this point, don’t they? That legal mirror-on-the-wall does seem to be saying that we are not the fairest of them all.