Pentagon Gives Leftist Groups Prime Spots at GTMO Trials -- By Judicial Watch

 (text from within article)

On September 3, 2013, I received a cut-and-pasted letter ripped from the original August 19 memo. The letter, sent under the signature of Military Commission Chief of Staff Michael Quinn, denies our request and reiterates that the five NGOs “were selected due to their ability to reach an international audience, their experience with international human rights in criminal trials and their stated mission to advance human rights through advocacy and respect for the law.”   Of course, Judicial Watch fits all those criteria.

Quinn ends by expressing appreciation for “Judicial Watch’s interest in the conduct of military commissions” and invites JW to watch proceedings on closed-circuit television at Fort Meade, Maryland, if we don’t make the cut for a trip to GTMO.

The Pentagon has yet to provide any response to our concern that they are giving five permanent “observer” seats to what in effect is the defense bar for terrorists.  Again, we’re the only conservative organization that has, at great expense, participated as observers in these proceedings.  And now we’ve been told that we may not be invited to future 9/11 terrorist criminal proceedings there.

Let me boil this down. President Obama has stated on a number of occasions that he intends to shut GTMO down. He said it during his first presidential campaign. He said it again the day he took office. And he said it again as recently as May 2013.

Thus far, public opposition to the notion of releasing terrorists into the courts or onto the streets altogether, has prevented Obama from fulfilling this promise. In order to build his case, he needs to control the messaging coming out of the GTMO proceedings and persuade the public to adopt his anti-GTMO stance. The way to do that is to simply cherry-pick a group of “friendlies” to “monitor” and report on what takes place. It’s as simple as that.

This administration has demonstrated time and time again hostility to alternative viewpoints. And this is just another in a long line of examples. Judicial Watch will continue to protest this new policy while continuing our work to bring fairness and objectivity and, yes, “respect for the rule of law” to the efforts to monitor GTMO.  And we intend to do it live, not on television.

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