The first full military commission hearings here since Barack Obama became president and pledged to deliver transparency were no more open than the court process had been under President George W. Bush, critics say.
The hearings on Canadian Omar Khadr's claim of abuse opened with a new rule book and closed with the Pentagon banishing four veteran reporters. One of the witnesses was subpoened in secret, six testified under pseudonyms and security officers closed the court to screen a video that's available on YouTube.
"That's what's so heartbreaking. Obama actually promised transparency,'' said Human Rights Watch observer Stacy Sullivan, a veteran war court observer who passed a note to the judge asking for release of updated case pleadings.
"I was down there for four days, but I never had access to any of the motions being argued. We only had access to motions that were filed in November and December 2008, when the rules on coercion were different.''
Most of the motions were posted on a Pentagon website days into the hearing -- as was the 281-page rule book, or Manual for Military Commissions, by which lawyers framed their cases and provided guidance to the judge on evidence.
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