TPMMuckraker linked to aWall Street Journal blog today reporting that the head of Chimpy’s GITMO military commissions has resigned. One detail slipped by the Muckers that I found fascinating.
As the Bush administration gears up for another try at prosecuting suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, it’ll have to proceed without the retired Army major general who’s run the effort since 2004.
John Altenburg said that when he accepted the job as “appointing authority” for the military commissions, he expected Guantanamo trials to start in short order—and that he’d be back athis job at the Washington law and lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig by mid-2005. Instead, the military commissions collapsed under a concerted assault by military and civilian defense attorneys, who eventually won a landmark Supreme Court decision in June declaring the entire project unlawful.
Greenberg Traurig — that’sJack Abramoff’s old firm.
Now how did an Abramoff associate become the appointing authority for the GITMO military commissions?