The New York Times > AP > National > White House Wants Detainee Ruling Reversed: "By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Published: April 8, 2005 | Filed at 12:23 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawyers for a Guantanamo Bay detainee ran into tough questioning Thursday from a federal appeals court that is being pressed by the Bush administration to allow military trials that don't afford foreign terror suspects the same legal protections as Americans."
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Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, one of Hamdan's Pentagon-appointed lawyers, pointed out his client was barred from the courtroom when his trial began.
``It makes no sense to say that we adhere to international law and the first thing we do at the beginning of a trial is violate a canon of international law,'' Swift told three judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. ...
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Out of the roughly 550 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, just 15 have been designated for such trials and only four have been charged. Among them is Hamdan, a mechanic with a fourth-grade education who left his home country of Yemen looking for work. He is charged with conspiracy to engage in acts of terrorism.
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During the appeals court arguments, Judge A. Raymond Randolph noted other countries' legal systems don't allow a defendant to be present for all parts of a trial. And some countries don't allow cross-examination of witnesses, Judge John Roberts added.
``This is the law in Rwanda'' but not in the United States, Swift replied.
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