The case of Mohammed Jawad is one of the more disconcerting products of the military commissions. The key evidence against Jawad was obtained under torture, and there's very little to suggest that he's actually guilty of what he's accused of. So little, in fact, that the prosecutor on the case, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld resigned, saying Jawad should be released. Vandeveld released a 14-page statement in support of the ACLU's petition of habeas corpus on behalf of Jawad, which also functions as a compelling argument against the military commissions as a whole. Vandeveld wrote:
The chaotic state of the evidence, overly broad and unnecessary restrictions imposed under the guise of national security, and the absence of any systematic, reliable method of preserving and cataloguing evidence, all of which have plagued the Tribunals and Commissions since their inception in 2002 and 2006, make it impossible for anyone involved (the prosecutors) or caught up (the detainees) in the Commissions to harbor even the remotest hope that justice is an achievable goal.
Jawad is now 23 and has been in custody since he was 16 or 17. The Department of Justice is trying to dismiss or delay Jawad's habeas petition until his military commissions case is complete. But the Obama administration halted all the military commissions proceedings, so basically Jawad's petition would be delayed until the administration figures out how it intends to prosecute terrorist suspects. The ACLU has filed a motion in opposition.
There's little reason to prevent Jawad from having his day in court, other than that the possibility that the administration is trying to avoid the politically harmful optics of a suspected terrorist being set free, no matter how nonexistent the case against him is.
-- A. Serwer
