The New York Times
August 29, 2004
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba, Aug. 28 - The building in which the first United States military tribunals since the end of World War II are being held sits at the top of the highest bluff overlooking the sparkling Guantánamo harbor.
The few American military vessels that are docked at the naval base here do not venture more than two miles into the bay because that would put them in Cuban territory, a situation that makes this one of the oddest places in the world in geopolitical terms. The base is enclosed by two parallel 17-mile fences, one on the Cuban side, and one on the American side, with a minefield in between. American marines stand guard in several watchtowers; on the Cuban side, few of the towers are manned, there having been no incident for many years now.
The 45-square-mile territory was leased in perpetuity to the United States in 1903 as a coaling station under a treaty that allowed Washington to control the place as long as it maintained a presence here.
Although the territory is part of Cuba, like all American military enclaves it has the character of a small town with its own movie theater, a McDonald's, a high school and a bowling alley.
The courtroom is an efficient modern hall.
Many Muhammads
The contingent of nearly 70 journalists includes reporters from the three Arabic satellite stations: Al Jazeera, sponsored by Qatar; Al Arabiya, a privately financed network based in Dubai; and Al Hurra, sponsored by the United States government as kind of a latter-day Radio Free Europe. The three reporters have been instrumental in escalating the issue of poor translations during the proceedings. They have been vociferous in asserting that the translations provided by the government-hired interpreters have been significantly flawed, something the military authorities acknowledge and have promised to improve.
Mohammad Alami, Al Jazeera's jovial Washington correspondent who is reporting on the tribunals, took a tour of the prison compound known as Camp Delta, which holds 585 men, mostly of Middle Eastern heritage. He was saddened by what he saw, he said. But as he left, he brightened, describing it as a place where "many Muhammads go in, but" - pointing to himself - "only one Mohammad comes out."
The dominant personality at the tribunals clearly has been Col. Peter S. Brownback III, the presiding officer of the panel. Coming out of retirement to conduct the preliminary hearings for the first four detainees, Colonel Brownback has given signs that the task is proving more troublesome than he had anticipated.
Because the rules make him a juror as well as a judge, defense lawyers are entitled to question him about potential biases.
Colonel Brownback, who is not gifted with a poker face, did not seem to enjoy the process. On the first day of being questioned, he tried at times to be solicitous of Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who questioned him politely but thoroughly. "Sure, ask me anything," he said once. Most of the time, however, he seemed as if he wanted to lunge across the tables that separated him from Commander Swift and grab him by the neck just above the defense lawyer's dress white uniform.
In the morning session, Colonel Brownback denied he had told a group of military lawyers on July 15 that he believed the detainees did not have any right to a speedy trial. A few hours later, Commander Swift brought up the matter again, asking permission to enter into evidence an audio recording of the meeting in which Colonel Brownback was supposed to have made the remarks.
Colonel Brownback said he did not know anyone was recording the meeting. He then put his head in his hands. Reporters who timed the incident said he sat that way for 90 seconds before he agreed to have the evidence included.
A Question of Status
While the war crimes tribunals began under the eyes of many journalists and representatives of human rights organizations at the courtroom here, another set of tribunals was being conducted inside Camp Delta, a few miles away.
These are the reviews of the designation of the unlawful combatant status for the 585 people in the prison camp. The Bush administration quickly put these hearings into place after the Supreme Court ruled in June that the Guantánamo detainees were entitled to assert in federal court that they had been imprisoned without fair hearings.
Some of the journalists here for the war crimes trials attended the other proceedings and acted as a pool for the news media contingent. The pool reporters said there had been disputes about the quality of these translations as well. At one hearing, the pool journalists reported that a Saudi prisoner in his 20's denied charges he had been at a certain Qaeda training facility and asked who had made that charge. The three-member panel said the information was classified and could not be shared with him.