Susan J. Crawford

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... full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system. I resigned on that day because I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively or responsibly. [12]

Davis criticized Susan Crawford as a cause of the problems in the Military Commissions process, through her mixing of convening authority and prosecutor roles and her use of closed-door hearings, which he considered unnecessary. [12] Morris called for removal of the political appointees: Susan Crawford and William J. Haynes, and return of control to uniformed career military authorities in order to restore openness and fairness to the Military Commissions process.

On August 9, 2008, William Glaberson wrote in The New York Times about Crawford's role in the recent Hamdan conviction: [13]

Susan Crawford
Convening authority Susan J. Crawford.jpg
Convening Authority of the Guantanamo Military Commissions
In office
February 7, 2007 –January 2010
There were unknowns. A Pentagon official, Susan J. Crawford, has broad power over the entire tribunal process, including naming the military officers eligible to hear the case. Her title, convening authority, has no civilian equivalent. Her decisions to grant or deny financing for items like the defense's expert witness fees or defense lawyers' transportation were not explained during the trial. She has never granted an interview to a reporter.

In an interview with Bob Woodward published in The Washington Post on January 14, 2009, Crawford responded to questions about why she had not referred the case of Mohammed al Qahtani, the so-called "20th hijacker" of the September 11th attacks, to trial: [14]

We tortured Qahtani. His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case [for prosecution] .... The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge [to call it torture].

Denied travel funds to Mohamed Jawad's military attorneys

Susan Crawford denies travel funds. Susan Crawford denies travel funds.png
Susan Crawford denies travel funds.

Mohamed Jawad was a detainee whose case was referred to the civilian court system, which dropped the charges against him and recommended that he be repatriated. His military attorneys requested funds to travel to Afghanistan to help aid in his repatriation. Crawford declined to fund their travel, since charges against him had been dropped. Eric Montalvo chose to travel to Afghanistan at his own expense to aid Jawad.

Replacement

Crawford retired in January 2010. [15] In March 2010, retired Admiral Bruce MacDonald, a career Navy officer, was named as the convening authority for military commissions. [16] [17]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Nominations Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, First Session, 101st Congress: Hearings Before the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate". Vol. 101, no. 537. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1990. p. 998.
  2. 1 2 "Appointment of Susan J. Crawford as General Counsel of the Army". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara. December 15, 1987. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  3. ↑ "Seasoned Judge Tapped to Head Detainee Trials". Department of Defense. February 7, 2007. Archived from the original on July 10, 2008. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  4. ↑ Two, Part (December 10, 2007). "AWOL military justice". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2008-02-06. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  5. ↑ John T. Woolley, Gerhard Peters (1989-11-09). "Nomination of Susan J. Crawford To Be Inspector General of the Department of Defense". The Presidency Project. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
  6. ↑ "Susan J. Crawford, Class of 1969: 1989 Alumni Association "Achievement in Chosen Profession" Award". Archived from the original on 2007-07-02. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  7. ↑ "Susan Crawford" (PDF). Department of Defense. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-07-10. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  8. ↑ "Crawford to speak at Bucknell". Bucknell University. April 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  9. ↑ Ruling: senator cannot be military judge, too, SCOTUSblog.com, September 21, 2006 (retrieved October 13, 2006)
  10. ↑ "Australian Gitmo detainee sentenced". USA Today. March 30, 2007. Archived from the original on September 6, 2008. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  11. ↑ Sophia Leong (April 27, 2007). "Judge Crawford discusses detainee controversy". The Bucknellian. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  12. 1 2 "AWOL military justice". Los Angeles Times . December 10, 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-06-19. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  13. ↑ William Glaberson (2008-08-09). "A Conviction, but a System Still on Trial". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
  14. ↑ Bob Woodward (2009-01-14). "Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official: Trial Overseer Cites 'Abusive' Methods Against 9/11 Suspect". The Washington Post . p. A01. Archived from the original on 2010-10-09. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
  15. ↑ Carol Rosenberg (2010-03-25). "Obama appoints new chief for war court at Guantanamo". McClatchy News Service. Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2010-04-14. Qahtani was interrogated in isolation—sometimes for up to 20 hours at a time—across a 50-day period from November 2002 to January 2003, menaced with dogs, forced to wear a bra and left naked. Crawford retired in January and quietly left.
  16. ↑ Michael Isikoff (2010-03-24). "Pentagon to Name New Chief for Military Commissions in Sign That Gitmo Trials May Move Forward". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 2010-03-28. Retrieved 2010-04-14. As convening authority, MacDonald—who replaces Susan Crawford, a Bush political appointee who retired two months ago—will have the responsibility to "refer" charges against Guantanamo terror suspects to trials after receiving recommendations from military prosecutors. Such "referrals"--the equivalent of indictments—have been on hold ever since last year when the White House ordered a halt to all military commission proceedings as part of its larger review about how to close Gitmo.
  17. ↑ Michael Isikoff (2010-03-26). "Military-Commission Trials Set for the Summer". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2010-04-14. Since then, however, Congress has passed a new law—signed by Obama—aimed at making the proceedings fairer. And last week Gates named retired Adm. Bruce MacDonald, who helped craft the new law, as the "convening authority" to oversee the commissions.
Legal offices
Preceded by General Counsel of the Army
1983–1989		Succeeded by
Preceded by Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
1991–2006		Succeeded by
Preceded byChief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
1999–2004		Succeeded by
Preceded by Convening Authority of the Guantanamo Military Commissions
2007–2010		Succeeded by
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