Carol Rosenberg, dean-for-life of the Guantánamo Bay press corps, has
this report in
The New York Times on the current obstacles facing the military commission trials. In a nutshell,
Murphy's Law is in full force and effect: "anything that can go wrong will go wrong," or words to that effect. COVID-19-related quarantine arrangements; a broken boiler; a new lawyer who needs 30 months to get ready; child care needs; another defense counsel who cannot travel because he is in a coronavirus "hot zone" in Florida; a
Brady violation that slices a year off one case's maximum sentence. "None of the defense lawyers have met personally with any of the 40 wartime detainees at Guantánamo since the start of the outbreak because they are considered particularly vulnerable if they are infected. All the detainees are in their second decade of custody and many have conditions that put them at high risk, including obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure."
Watch for a new administration to figure out a way out of this unfair-to-everyone, prodigiously-expensive, legal box canyon.
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