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Executions May Be Carried Out at Guantanamo
By Michael Melia and Andrew O. Selsky
The Associated Press
Wednesday 13 February 2008
San Juan, Puerto Rico - If six suspected terrorists are sentenced to death
at Guantanamo Bay for the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. Army regulations that were
quietly amended two years ago open the possibility of execution by lethal injection
at the military base in Cuba, experts said Tuesday.
Any executions would probably add to international outrage over Guantanamo,
since capital punishment is banned in 130 countries, including the 27-nation
European Union.
Conducting the executions on U.S. soil could open the way for the detainees'
lawyers to go to U.S. courts to fight the death sentences. But the updated regulations
make it possible for the executions to be carried out at Guantanamo.
David Sheldon, an attorney and former member of the Navy's legal corps, said
an execution chamber at Guantanamo would be largely beyond the reach of U.S.
courts.
"I think that's the administration's idea, to try to use Guantanamo as
a base to not be under the umbrella of the federal district courts," he
said. "If one is detained in North Carolina or South Carolina in a Navy
brig, one could conceivably file a petition of habeas corpus and because of
where they're located, invoke the jurisdiction of a federal court."
The condemned men could even be buried at Guantanamo. A Muslim section of the
cemetery at Guantanamo has been dedicated by an Islamic cultural adviser, said
Bruce Lloyd, spokesman for the Guantanamo Naval Station. Among those buried
elsewhere at the cemetery are U.S. servicemen.
"A small area of the cemetery has been fenced off and remains ready for
the burial of any Muslim who may die here and not be repatriated to another
country, for whatever reason," Lloyd told The Associated Press.
When two Saudis and a Yemeni committed suicide at Guantanamo in 2006, military
officers said the men could be buried at the cemetery, but the remains were
instead sent back to their homelands.
Up until recently, experts on military law said, it was understood that military
regulations required executions to be carried out by lethal injection at Fort
Leavenworth in Kansas.
But in January 2006, the Army changed its procedures for military executions,
allowing "other locations" to be used. The new regulations say that
only the president can approve an execution and that the secretary of the Army
will authorize the location.
"Military executions will be by lethal injection," the regulations
say.
The last U.S. military execution was in 1961, when President Kennedy signed
off on the hanging of Army Pfc. John A. Bennett for the rape and attempted murder
of an 11-year-old Austrian girl.
Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann refused to discuss details on executions when
he announced Monday the Pentagon was charging the six Guantanamo detainees and
seeking the death penalty.
"We are a long way from determining the details of the death penalty,
and when that time comes ... we will follow the law at that time and the procedures
that are in place," Hartmann said.
Eugene Fidell, a Washington defense attorney and expert on military law, said
Guantanamo Bay could be an execution site, but added that the U.S. would face
an international outcry.
"It would be highly controversial because a lot of the world simply doesn't
believe in the death penalty any more," Fidell said.
The Bush administration has instructed U.S. diplomats abroad to defend its
decision to seek the death penalty for the six men by recalling the executions
of Nazi war criminals after World War II.
A four-page cable sent to U.S. embassies and obtained Tuesday by The Associated
Press says that execution as punishment for extreme violations of the laws of
war is internationally accepted.
The cable points to the 1945-46 Nuremberg war crimes trials in Germany. Twelve
of Adolf Hitler's senior aides were sentenced to death at the trials, though
not all were executed in the end.
No death chamber is known to exist at Guantanamo, but Scott Silliman, a former
Air Force lawyer and who is now a Duke University professor, said the military
may decide to build one there. The 2006 Army regulations also call for a viewing
room to the death chamber, where at least two news media representatives would
be witnesses.
The trial for the six detainees is still months away. And given the slow pace
of the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, verdicts are unlikely before
President Bush leaves office next January.
The accused include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of Sept.
11; Mohammed al-Qahtani, whom officials have labeled the 20th hijacker; and
Waleed bin Attash, who investigators say selected and trained some of the 19
hijackers.
Many support the use of the death penalty for men blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks.
"If these guys are found guilty, I can't think of any other case more
appropriate for the death penalty," said Charles "Cully" Stimson,
a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
"An overwhelming majority of Americans support the death penalty."
Michael Khambatta of the International Committee of the Red Cross said his
organization would approve the death penalty only when there are "procedural
and judicial guarantees that meet international standards."
Khambatta, who is the deputy head of the ICRC's Washington delegation, declined
to comment publicly on whether the ICRC considers the U.S. war-crimes trials
fair.
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On the Net:
US Army execution procedures: http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/r190-55.pdf
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