The administration didn’t let Col. Morris Davis, the former chief war crimes prosecutor, testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. But they did send Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, a legal advisor to the officials who oversee the military commissions, to defend the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) took advantage of the opportunity, asking Hartmann what he thought about the fact that after six years and 775 detainees, the commissions had only produced one conviction. “I cannot explain that,” replied Hartmann, citing “various legal delays,” adding “I’m as disappointed in that as you are.”
But when Durbin pressed, asking whether Hartmann ever thought that maybe this wasn’t the best way to do things, he demurred. The military commissions are an “honor to the American justice system,” he said, of which Americans should be “very proud.”
