It looks like the administration is continuing to use one of their favorite tactics in the war on terror - handicap the defense by intimidating their lawyers before they get into the courtroom. Ed Brayton calls this the "Tonya Harding strategy," and he's right - the government wants to win, and they're not above putting a cheap hit in if they think it'll increase their chances.
Earlier this year, a senior pentagon official publicly suggested that companies should boycott law firms that provide pro bono defense to Gitmo detainees. That particular escapade did nothing for them. It outraged (rightly) a wide range of groups, and resulted in the eventual resignation of the idiot who made the statements. Apparently, the administration learned a lesson from that.
Unfortunately, it was the wrong lesson.
The message that the administration seems to have received was just that wholesale intimidation is a bad idea - so now they're trying retail intimidation, one lawyer at a time.
There are now widespread reports stating that Col. Morris Davis told an Australian newspaper earlier this weekend that he felt that the behavior of the defense lawyer, Major Michael Mori, was inappropriate. After citing a specific section of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that prohibits "contemptuous words," Davis said that it would be up to the Marines to decide whether actual criminal charges were warranted. As Mori points out, it becomes difficult to provide the best possible defense if you have to try and figure out how much your advice is being driven by a desire to avoid criminal charges.
This administration continues to demonstrate that they view the rule of law not as an ideal to live up to, but as an inconvenience to dodge. Way to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Constitution, guys.
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The local news is reporting that Mori will be charged. I have enormous respct and admiration for Mori - he has called a spade a spade, as we say here, from the very beginning, arguing that Hicks is illegally detained, is being tortured, that the military commissions are a farce, and criticising everyone from the President down, which is not a good career move for a military lawyer. He shows the very best of our legal system, and ought to be given a Freedom Medal, in my view.
The local news is most likely wrong in this case - the prosecutor who made the accusations is an Air Force lawyer, and does not have the authority to bring charges against Mori himself. The New York Times quotes the senior defense lawyer and mori's supervisor, a marine colonel, as saying that Mori's behavior has been absolutely proper.