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Gitmo Cases Bear Watching

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The Associated Press

Published: October 27, 2008

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A former prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who roiled America's war-crimes trials with accusations the Pentagon withheld evidence from detainees says he will continue to monitor his old cases for any wrongdoing.

Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld quit as prosecutor of a half-dozen cases at Guantanamo last month, accusing the government of keeping material from defense teams that could have helped their clients. The U.S. military then dropped charges against five Guantanamo prisoners who Vandeveld had been prosecuting.

In some of his first public remarks since leaving active duty, the reservist told The Associated Press that military prosecutors named to take over his cases are honest, dedicated professionals - but that he will be watching and would testify if subpoenaed about any missteps.

Guantanamo's chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, has denied the government withheld evidence. He said charges were dropped against the five suspected al-Qaida and Taliban-linked defendants to allow the war-crimes courts, known as military commissions, to examine evidence more closely - not because of Vandeveld's complaints.

"They want to have new prosecutors look at the cases so they can say Vandeveld's criticisms are moot," said Clive Stafford Smith, an attorney for Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian resident of Britain whom the United States had charged with plotting to detonate a dirty bomb in America.

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