March 04, 2007

The Other Charles (Mori More Swift than Stimson)

by PG

Major Michael Mori of the U.S. Marine Corps, the lawyer for Gitmo detainee David Hicks, is not happy to hear Hicks's prosecutor say that Mori may be subject to prosecution under Article 88 of the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, which makes it a crime for a military officer to use "contemptuous words" about the president, vice president, secretary of defense and other high-ranking officials. More's vigorous PR efforts have succeeded in convincing Australian politicians to lobby on Hicks's behalf.

Mori, who was in Australia for the seventh time in three years, reacted with dismay and anger.
"Are they trying to intimidate me?" Mori said in a telephone interview Sunday, as he was leaving Sydney to return to Washington.
He compared the attack to the one last year by a senior Pentagon official, Charles Stimson, on law firms that were representing Guantánamo detainees pro bono.
Stimson, then the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said that corporations should consider not using these firms. His remarks brought a torrent of objections and he was forced to resign.
Mori said that Davis's remarks created a conflict of interest that would make it hard for him to represent Hicks. In the future, the question would become, he said, "Am I doing what I'm doing because it is in the best interests of my client, or to avoid being charged?"
Davis did not indicate which remarks by Mori might be "contemptuous." But Mori has been blunt in his comments about the military commissions, calling them kangaroo courts.
This reminds me more of what happened with involuntarily retired Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, actually. Shortly after achieving victory in Hamdan, Swift was informed that he had not been granted promotion and therefore was "out" under the Navy's "up or out" mandate. Military lawyers who advocate vigorously for Gitmo clients -- to the point of challenging whether those clients are receiving due process under the law, and not merely arguing the facts -- all are in the difficult position of being subversive in an intensely hierarchical, rules-driven system.

March 4, 2007 02:19 PM | TrackBack
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?






Sitting in Review
Armen (e-mail) #
PG (e-mail) #
Dave (e-mail) #
Craig (e-mail) #
About Us
Senior Status
Chris Geidner #
Jeremy Blachman #
Nick Morgan #
Wings & Vodka #
Recent Opinions
Symposia
Persuasive Authority
De Novo Reporter
Research


Powered by
Movable Type 3.21