Another JAG Hero: Colonel Morris Davis

You know. Sometimes the military gets a bad rap, and for good reason. But when it comes to the JAG Corps (Judge Advocate General’s), we are witnessing history in the making. Heroes in our lifetime.

A while back I wrote about a JAG defense attorney, Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey Vokey and Cerveny: True Americans.

Today we can proudly point to a JAG prosecution attorney, Air Force Colonel Morris (Moe) Davis.

In a recnet DemocracyNow! piece Davis exposes William Haynes' bias on the Military Commission trials:

“We can’t have acquittals.” Haynes said, “How can we explain holding these people for so long?” and “We have to have convictions.”

Haynes is the general counsel for the Department of Defense... the top legal position. What makes this devastating is that he is quoted by Morris Davis, the former top military prosecutor at Guantanamo. This isn't an idle claim by a partisan.

According to Scott Horton, international law expert and Harper’s magazine legal affairs contributor:

.. let me first say something about Colonel Davis. He is a very highly respected figure within the JAG court. I think a number of people saw him as someone who was likely to emerge perhaps ultimately as the Judge Advocate General of the Air Force, certainly one of the handful of candidates likely to move forward. And he’s hardly some civil libertarian. In fact, his attitudes are extremely conservative. He’s a prosecutor. The friction he had previously with the Pentagon was essentially over the fact that he was chomping at the bit, ready to go forward with these prosecutions.

But will this bombshell get legs? Nothing has gotten legs to bring down Bush. Only the weight of innumerable crimes if finally grinding him and the Republican party into a slow collapse. Nevertheless, we have to point out the fact that Haynes should be added to the growing list of Bush officials who should be prosecuted.

Background:

The following link is to a central Wall Street Journal article describing serious divisions among Guantanamo prosecutors. Article.

At issue was Davis' independence as the lead prosecutor.

"If someone above me tries to intimidate me in determining who we will charge, what we will charge, what evidence we will try to introduce, and how we will conduct a prosecution then I will resign," Col. Davis said in his written statement.

Davis eventually resigned.

Final note: Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift is another JAG hero, worthy of a blog entry.

Update:

Haynes is out as of February 27, 2008.

Sources:

DemocracyNow! EXCLUSIVE: Rigged Trials at Guantanamo, February 20, 2008.

Credit for the update to Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note, picked up by the Huffington Post.