Air Force colonel publicly rebukes US Supreme Court justice

Even more revealing, this act of public military insubordination provoked no protest within the political establishment or the media. Indeed, the provocative remarks of Col. Morris Davis went barely reported by most major print and broadcast media. The New York Times relegated the story to a brief at the bottom of page 18 of its Wednesday addition.

Davis read out his statement to reporters at the US Naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba following a preliminary hearing for one of the 10—out of nearly 500—detainees who have been formally charged before the military tribunals.

Davis criticized remarks made by Justice Breyer during last week’s oral arguments before the high court in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, one of the 10 charged, who is challenging the legal limbo of a tribunal system that denies detainees basic rights under both US criminal law and the Geneva Conventions governing prisoners of war.

Noting that Justice Breyer had questioned whether the so-called “global war on terror” allows the Bush administration to claim virtually unlimited presidential war powers, Colonel Davis stated, “Towards the end of the argument Justice Breyer said, in talking about the current conflict, ‘This is not a war, at least not an ordinary war.’”

The colonel continued: “A few hours after Justice Breyer said this is not a war, enemy combatants launched a major attack on coalition forces in southern Afghanistan,” leading to 34 American, Canadian and enemy deaths.

Davis added that while a state of war might not be “readily apparent” to someone in Washington, where Justice Breyer lives, it was clear to those at Guantánamo. He cited a statement by one of the detainees, who objected to being “defended” before the tribunal by military officers, saying they were “his enemy.”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/mili-a06.shtml