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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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August 18th,
2008 - Marine Lawyer has Sought Judicial Reform News article by the San Diego
Union-Tribune |
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Marine Lawyer has Sought Judicial
Reform Officer was retired over his objections By Rick Rogers San Diego Union-Tribune August 18, 2008 Camp Pendleton – When Colby
Vokey joined the Marine Corps, he didn't plan on becoming a prominent and
sometimes divisive figure in the military's legal system. That's how he left the
service this month after years of defending Marines tried for offenses at
Camp Pendleton, troops accused of war crimes in Iraq and a detainee at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, suspected of terrorist activity. He retired as a lieutenant
colonel and chief of the Marine Corps' defense lawyers for the western United
States. One of his last major duties was representing Frank Wuterich, the
Camp Pendleton staff sergeant accused of leading his men on a rampage and
killing two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005. Over his objections, the
Marine Corps retired Vokey even though Wuterich is scheduled to be
court-martialed. Vokey has pressed for
changes to the military's judicial process, and he is an outspoken critic of
the tribunal system being used to prosecute alleged terrorists at Guantanamo
Bay. “I speak my mind when I see
something wrong,” he said. “I think that (angered) a lot of people.” Vokey said he has no
sympathy for terrorists or their sympathizers. “There are guys down in Guantanamo
who would, if you sat down next to them, try to kill you,” he said. But Vokey said many of the
detainees are being deprived of their legal rights and are physically and
mentally mistreated. “I walked in thinking that
trials in Gitmo were going to be like a court-martial,” Vokey said. “Then you
realize the whole trial system is a sham. There was a complete lack of due
process. It is disturbing and embarrassing what is going on down there.” Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a
spokesman at the Pentagon, disputes Vokey's assertions. “He has said a lot of things
that don't stand up to facts,” Gordon said. Camp Pendleton officials
declined to comment on Vokey's criticisms. Haytham Faraj, a former
Marine lawyer who served with Vokey for three years at Camp Pendleton, said
military lawyers usually don't speak publicly about court cases. “But in his case, he was
operating in Guantanamo Bay with no rules,” Faraj said. “You have to
understand that Colby is not a liberal. He is a conservative who supported
the administration, and he believed in the war. He was a true believer. It
took a long time for his views to shift.” The military appointed Vokey
in November 2005 to defend Omar Khadr, who is accused of killing an Army
sergeant with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002, when the defendant was 15. While at Guantanamo, Vokey
said, he heard first-hand accounts of the harsh interrogation tactics that
largely have been confirmed by federal and Pentagon officials in the past
year. He said detainees were routinely exposed to temperature extremes,
marathon questioning and frequent moves from one holding cell to another. Vokey offered an example in
an interview with National Public Radio late last year: “Omar was in this
stress position, his hands behind his legs, chained to his feet, and he was
chained to the floor. And he was trying to stand on his knees like that, and
he would eventually fall over. They'd come and pick him back up. He'd fall
over, they'd pick him up. And after somewhere between four and six hours, he
ended up urinating on himself. So when they came in, he's lying there in the
puddle of his own urine. “They come in, they squirt Pine-Sol on the ground
and they grab Omar, and they use him as a human mop – mopping up the urine in
the Pine-Sol with him – and then just leaving him there with the urine and
Pine-Sol on his body.” About a year earlier, Vokey
had complained to the Inspector General's Office at the Pentagon about
alleged abuses at Guantanamo after his paralegal said guards bragged to her
about beating detainees. The military later concluded
that those claims were groundless. Vokey's blunt assessments
aren't limited to Guantanamo cases. He sees a need to overhaul the Uniform
Code of Military Justice, the bedrock of the military's legal system. For example, he wants to
change the way military juries – officially called panels – are chosen.
Currently, certain generals get to decide whether a service member should be
charged, whether that person should be court-martialed and who is chosen for
the jury pool. Some legal experts have said the practice concentrates too
much power in the hands of those generals. Vokey has returned to his
native Texas, where he now lives in the Dallas area with his wife and three
children, ages 9, 14 and 19. He plans to continue practicing law – as a
civilian attorney – and hopes to help military lawyers defend service members
charged with crimes. External link: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080818-9999-1m18vokey.html |