Gitmo lawyers seek access to classified files

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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — Classified documents regarding a Guantanamo detainee accused of killing a U.S. soldier when he was just 15 were the focus yesterday of a spat between prosecutors and defense attorneys who accused one another of manipulating the rules of the military court.

Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, attorney for Canadian Omar Khadr, appealed to the commission's judge to ask prosecutors to turn over documents deemed secret by the government for their perusal ahead of a yet-to-be determined start of the trial.

"The government swears up and down there was nothing helpful in the document," Cmdr. Kuebler said, referring to a document that supposedly contains details of the July 27, 2002, firefight in which Mr. Khadr purportedly killed Sgt. Christopher Speer with a hand grenade.

The defense for Mr. Khadr, now 21, complained yesterday to the judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, that the government was taking it upon itself to determine what classified documents were relevant to the case and accused prosecutors of withholding information they knew would be damning to their case against the detainee.

Mr. Khadr's defense also contends he was a child soldier forced into battle by his father and should be acquitted of the charges.

"If you read that motion [by the defense] ... that he hadn't reached the age of maturity when he committed the murder, then he cannot be prosecuted by the commissions' process," said a former Department of Defense official who noted that the prosecution was formulating what appeared to be a solid case for argument that the defendant was an "unlawful combatant" and subject to prosecution at the military court here.

"They (the prosecution) simply cannot be trusted to determine what is helpful and relevant" to the defense, said Cmdr. Kuebler, who has been a particularly outspoken critic of the commissions and the withholding of secret evidence from the defense, saying the legal process in Guantanamo was inherently unjust.

Other defense attorneys at Guantanamo also have condemned the tactics of government prosecutors and the military commissions themselves, citing their unlimited resources and access to classified evidence and documents pertaining to their clients' cases.

"I don't believe anyone could get an acquittal in Guantanamo Bay," Mr. Khadr's attorney told reporters later yesterday.

Amid his complaints about the prosecution and military commission itself, Cmdr. Kuebler said that eyewitness accounts of the firefight in which Sgt. Speer was killed suggest he might have been killed by U.S. soldiers who were reportedly seen throwing grenades in the vicinity of the victim at the time of his fatal wounding.

The chief prosecutor for the military court, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, said he was "quite confident that the assertion [by the defense] will be proven groundless."

Maj. Jeff Groharing, prosecutor in the Khadr case, meanwhile argued in court that the defense was purposely delaying the start of the trial with its numerous motions and requests for continuances in hopes of perhaps finding a "political solution" to the case.

Maj. Groharing was likely referring to the uncertain future of the military court. Both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates have asserted they would close the detainment camps here if elected.