Mark Martins, Top Prosecutor At Guantanamo Military Commissions, To Retire

NPR has learned that the top prosecutor at the Guantanamo Bay military commissions has asked to retire from the military after he finishes his assignment there.

Brig. Gen. Mark Martins says he hopes the decision will drain some of the politics out of the chief prosecutor's position and will provide some continuity.

Read the whole story at NPR

Comments

[taylor5]

12:52 PM on 04/02/2012

GITMO is a prisoner's dream. Beaches, no rapes, no gangs, plenty of reading material, and plenty to eat. The GITMO prisoners would not last a week in general population without succumbing to wearing dresses.

[v eyepete]

12:04 PM on 04/02/2012

I would just move out of the neighborhood if I knew he was coming back. What kind of karma do you put on yourself being a party to torturing and holding people indefinitely without trial? Now let's retire Guantanamo and treat people with the rights our forefathers wrote into the constitution, instead of judging people with hysteria and heresay.

[v eyepete]

12:06 PM on 04/02/2012

Hearsay... sorry.

[April22]

11:51 AM on 04/02/2012

Present counterterrorism policy which includes the use of drones to kill "suspected" terrorists abroad and soon here at home and keeping Guantanamo open have broad public support, including the left wing of the Democratic Party.

This may explain why Pres. Obama's pre-election campaign pledge - claiming the prison in Cuba to being inconsistent with U.S. law and values, failed to come through and why he cleared the way for military trials in Guantanamo to continue.

What Martins claimed was continuity in his job!

U.S. foreign policy hasn't changed in 11 years!

[taylor5]

12:50 PM on 04/02/2012

How would you close GITMO if all other alternatives have had their funding denied.

[sharpstick]

11:49 AM on 04/02/2012

Wow, I'm sure he had to be reeeally on top of the law working there.

Mark Martins: "He's a terrorist."

Judge: "Ok, good enough for me, lock him up for life."

The Accused: "But..."

[spytheweb]

09:56 AM on 04/02/2012

top prosecutor at the Guantanamo Bay? Were there any trials?

[Holly Smoke]

09:37 AM on 04/02/2012

Sound like an honorable professional soldier who want to do his job objectively.

[AbeMartin]

09:28 AM on 04/02/2012

If General Martins is the best the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army can produce as a prosecutor, then the entire Corps should be decommissioned, STAT, including top JAG's Chipman and Tate. 

What has it been, eleven, twelve years since the bombings of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and the attempted bombing (Flight 93) of the White House?  And how many hundreds of millions of dollars has been squandered by the Department of Defense under Romney, Gates and Pannetta supposedly building a case against ADMITTED terrorists?  Not to mention keeping the prison at Guantanamo Bay staffed and functioning to keep a few dozen rapidly aging detainees safe from being incarcerated at one of the high security prisons on the mainland.

[AbeMartin]

09:58 AM on 04/02/2012

Oops.  Not Romney. Rumsfeld.  Hmmm.  But what's the difference?  Never mind.

[Harleigh]

09:11 AM on 04/02/2012

Anyone that 'served' at Gitmo is a war criminal same as the camp guards in Europe in the 1930's and 40's. This klown prosecuted almost none of the detainees.... and the repubs are sssoooo afraid of these prisoners they cannot be brought to trial in merika. Despite all the ribbons he displays on his chest like a peacock this man is a liar an a coward in uniform. No more and no less.

[tryagainandagainandagain]

01:05 PM on 04/02/2012

please don't insult the peacocks, he looks to me, like a human

[ladydragon]

08:09 AM on 04/02/2012

The trials at GITMO should have been turned over to some other agency a long time ago. Every trial that was held resulted in "downward departures". David Hicks was the 1st trial, he got a downward departure, was sent back to his country to only serve 9 months then set free. Omar Khadar was taken into custody at the age of 14, he's been at GITMO for 8 years, he got a plea agreement and is waiting for some kind of decision so he can go home, Omar is blind in one eye and has limited sight in the other, he lost his sight since he's been detained at GITMO. Salim Hamdan the "supposed driver for Bin Laden" turn out the man had absolutely ZERO knowledge of 911, he not only was not Bin Ladin's driver, it came out at trial that the man couldn't recognize his own name written on paper. Hamdan spend 5 or 6 years at GITMO for nothing, he had absolutely nothing to do with 9-11. OMC and the Convening Authority still has KSM in detention, he's the mastermind or one of them for 9-11, they failed at all the other trials, OMC needs to STOP wasting tax payers money turn those trials over to an agency capable of putting these people away for life. If the taxpayers knew about all the money that's being thrown away down at GITMO, they should have demanded that President Obama keep his promise to shut it down

[v eyepete]

12:10 PM on 04/02/2012

This is such a sad moment in our national history. It's un-American and a huge fail for us as a people. Thanks for some incidentals.

[LouGots]

08:06 AM on 04/02/2012

They told me that if I voted for McCain, Guantanemo would stay open for business as usual. I voted for McCain anyway, and the s.o.b.'s were right!

No surprise, really. There are JAGs in law school who are going to retire before the so-called "Global War on Terror" is over and done with.

[kent4620]

08:02 AM on 04/02/2012

Has he prosecuted anyone??

[Fireslayer]

07:40 AM on 04/02/2012

When I sent a letter to Gen Miller complaining about fairly blatant abuses of human rights at Guantanamo I got a fairly stock form letter formatted response alleging that all of the inmates were fairly treated. On the strength of personal accounts from waterboarded and otherwise abused prisoners, included two who were eventually released, I did not believe him for a minute.

General Miller, in a just world would be at the Hague in irons answering for his war crimes..

[Fireslayer]

07:53 AM on 04/02/2012

Note that Brig Gem Martin is one of Miller's flunkies and the law of parties would put him in complicity with Miller. The idea of him on the Supreme Court is nauseating in the extreme.

[freddsky]

07:24 AM on 04/02/2012

In anticipation of Obama losing the Presidency, General Martins wants to be ready for nomination to the Supreme Court.
You can count on President Romney to address the current gender imbalance on the Court and General Martins clearly "has what it takes."

[msc13]

07:21 AM on 04/02/2012

Thank you for your service.

[AbeMartin]

09:30 AM on 04/02/2012

And thank you for the funniest and most sarcastic comment on the board today.

[Donns]

06:34 AM on 04/02/2012

What is the government going to do if the next guy actually goes ahead with real trials and allows the defendants to speak? (assuming someone will actually let that happen) Maybe there is a reason that they have been kept in limbo maybe there are things that the government and military don't want said, especially for the record.