Guantanamo General Slams Bullying, ‘Spray & Pray’ Approach

A US general on Wednesday accused another general of bullying and having a “spray and pray” approach to detainees at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a US daily reported. “Spray and pray. Charge everybody. Let’s go. Speed, speed, speed,” was the method of Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, deputy prison camp commander Brigadier General Gregory Zanetti told the hearing, the Miami Herald said.

In a rare criticism of a fellow officer, Zanetti said Hartmann’s demeanor “as an attorney from a thousand miles away,” was “abusive, bullying and unprofessional ... pretty much across the board”.

Zanetti was appearing as a defence witness at a pretrial hearing for Afghan national Mohammed Jawad, who was 16 or 17 at the time of his arrest, and is accused of wounding two US soldiers in a grenade attack in Kabul. The defence is calling for the case to be dropped, arguing that Hartmann, who is the Pentagon-based legal advisor to the military official overseeing the tribunals, exerted “unlawful influence” on the Guantanamo hearings. The Miami Herald said it was the first time that a high-ranking officer has denounced Hartmann’s methods.

But chief prosecutor Colonel Lawrence Morris dismissed criticism of Hartmann’s leadership style, saying it came from a “superficial personality conflict. General Hartmann came in, kicked over some furniture, wasn’t so gentle as some subordinates wish.” Hartmann was banned however from having any role in last week’s trial of Osama Bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan, who was convicted and sentenced to 66 months for providing material support for terror. Colonel Morris Davis, who resigned last year as the Pentagon’s chief prosecutor for terrorism cases, in April accused Hartmann of tolerating evidence obtained from waterboarding, an interrogation method that simulates drowning and is widely condemned as a form of torture. “To allow or direct a prosecutor to come into the courtroom and offer evidence they felt was torture, it puts a prosecutor in an ethical bind,” Davis told the court in April. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday’s proceedings.

Jawad, who has spent six years in the remote military base, appeared at his hearing in a clean suit, with his hands and feet free, Amnesty International observer Michael Bochenek told AFP.

Source: www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C08%5C15%5Cstory_15-8-2008_pg4_2