Thomas W. Hartmann

Thomas W. Hartmann is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Air Force Reserve.In July 2007 Brigadier General Hartmann was appointed the Legal Adviser to the Convening Authority in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions.cite news
url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119076761746939436.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
title=Dispute Stymies Guantanamo Terror Trials: Chief Prosecutor Claims Interference; Office Is in Disarray
author=Jess Bravin
publisher=Wall Street Journal
date=September 26, 2007
page=A4
accessdate=2007-09-26] cite news
url=http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=10078
title=BRIGADIER GENERAL THOMAS W. HARTMANN
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2007-09-26] After military judges barred him from further involvement in three separate trials, on September 20, 2008 Hartmann was transferred to a new position at Guantanamo as director of operations, planning and development. Hartmann reports to Susan Crawford, a retired judge, who is the Convening Authority.

Dispute with senior Guantanamo Prosecutor

Colonel Morris Davis, the Guantanamo military commission's senior prosecutor complained that Hartmann was overstepping his authority. He has issued a statement where he wrote:

The "Wall Street Journal" reported that Davis and Hartmann had clashed over which captives should face charges. Its report states that Davis had refused to charge any more captives until the dispute was resolved.Its report also stated that
William J. Haynes, II, the Pentagon's Chief Counsel, had assigned the chief judge of the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, Brigadier General Butch Tate to conduct an inquiry into the dispute. Tate's report backed Hartmann.

The "Wall Street Journal" speculated as to two areas the two officers' dispute could be focussed around:
*the possibility of plea bargain negotiations with Salim Ahmed Hamdan, one of Osama bin Laden's drivers;
*Davis's preference to confine his charges to captives for whom there was unclassified evidence, so the trials could be open to the Press.

On Thursday November 8 2007, before Guantanamo captive Omar Khadr's military commission, his military defense counsel, Lieutenant Commander William Keubler revealed that he had been informed just two days earlier about an eyewitness whose testimony could help clear Khadr.cite news
url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-khadr9nov09,1,6141237.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=2&cset=true
title=Terror case could turn on eyewitness: Defense lawyers say they just became aware of a potentially helpful onlooker in a Canadian suspect's alleged attack on U.S. troops
publisher=Los Angeles Times
author=Carol J. Williams
date=November 9, 2007
accessdate=2007-11-10]
Major Jeff Groharing told reporters, in the courtroom, that Hartmann had ordered him not to talk about the case.

According to Jennifer Daskal, an attorney at Human Rights Watchcite news
url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071109.GITMO09/TPStory/TPInternational/America/
title=Secret Khadr witness disclosed: Doubt cast on whether teen was 'unlawful' combatant, defence says
publisher=Globe and Mail
author=Paul Koring
date=November 9, 2007
accessdate=2007-11-10] :blockquote|“It is totally outrageous that the prosecution would try to push ahead with a hearing on whether or not Khadr was an unlawful enemy combatant, while all the time withholding from the defence potentially exculpatory information. Anyone who has ever gone to law school knows the fundamental legal and ethical rule: The prosecution cannot withhold exculpatory information from the defence.”

Disqualified from participation

Captain Keith Allred, the Presiding Officer of Salim Ahmed Hamdan's Military Commission, disqualified Hartmann from participating in Hamdan's prosecution.cite news
url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/528142.html
title=Judge removes legal adviser from Guantanamo case
publisher=Associated Press
author=Michael Melia
date=Saturday May 10 2008
accessdate=2008-05-11
quote='The decision makes clear that whatever other rights Mr. Hamdan may be due,' lawyer Andrea Prasow said, 'he is certainly entitled to be tried in a system in which no person seeks to influence, whether through command authority or otherwise, the independent judgment' of prosecutors and defense attorneys.] cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7562205.stm
title=Judge removes Guantanamo adviser
publisher=BBC News
date=2008-08-14
accessdate=2008-08-14
quote= ] cite news
url=http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=235728&version=1&template_id=43&parent_id=19
title=General barred from another Gitmo trial
publisher=Gulf Times
date=2008-08-15
accessdate=2008-08-14
quote= ] cite news
url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/642508.html
title=General vs. general at war court
publisher=Miami Herald
author=Carol Rosenberg
date=2008-08-14
accessdate=2008-08-14
quote= ] He ordered that Hartmann be replaced. In a pre-trial hearing for Mohammed Jawad, Hartmann defended his "intense and direct" management style. [Rosenberg, Carol, [http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/v-print/story/576765.html "Terror-court general defends his role"] , Miami Herald, June 20, 2008.]

On August 14 2008 Colonel Stephen Henley barred Hartmann from future participation in Mohammed Jawad's commission.cite news
url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwTQkl5OMC2bd1ydFEoEwau_jaHgD92I83VG4
title=Pentagon official removed from 2nd Gitmo trial
publisher=Associated Press
author=Mike Melia
date=2008-08-14
accessdate=2008-08-14
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fap.google.com%2Farticle%2FALeqM5hwTQkl5OMC2bd1ydFEoEwau_jaHgD92I83VG4&date=2008-08-14 mirror] ] cite web
url=http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/08/15/16/jawad-hartmann.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf
title=United States of America v. Mohammed Jawad: D-004 Ruling on motion to dismiss--unlawful influence
publisher=Department of Defense
author=Stephen R. Henley
date=2008-08-14
accessdate=2008-09-22
quote=From at least February 2008 through early April 2008, BG Hartmann scheduled and moderated several secure video teleconferences (SVTC) for senior Joint Task Force - Guantanamo Bay personnel and himself regarding the status of and support to commission cases. To at least one attendee, BG Hartmann appeared to be running the prosecution and ordered all ICRC, medical and intelligence records to be sent to him. [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.miamiherald.com%2Fsmedia%2F2008%2F08%2F15%2F16%2Fjawad-hartmann.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf&date=2008-09-22 mirror] ] The "Associated Press" reported that Jawad's attorney David Frakt was authorized to submit arguments directly to Susan J. Crawford, the Convening Authority, as to whether charges against Jawad were justified.

Jawad's lawyer David Frakt and chief prosecutor Lawrence Morris both told reporters they anticipated that Hartmann's role in other Guantanamo commissions would be challenged. Morris stated, "We are going to have to address those in court."

The "Associated Press" reported that, in his testimony on August 13 2008, Hartmann testified that he would not resign over his behavior because he believed he was doing his job properly.

In his August 14 2008 ruling Henley wrote::

Henley also noted that one of Hartmann's responsibilites was to review and summarizefor the Convening Authority pre-trial arguments from the Defense. Jawad's Defense had filed pre-trial arguments, which Hartmann reviewed, and which he failed to forward and summarize for the Convening Authority. Henley noted that Hartmann failed to explain why he failed to forward or summarize the Defenses arguments for the Convening Authority.

Henley anticipated that Hartmann's failures to perform his duties during the pre-trial period would be arguments the Defense would want to submit to the Convening Authority during the post-trial period. He stated a new Legal Advisor, one not associated with Hartmann's judgment calls, would have to advise the Convening Authority on how to address Hartmann's actions.

In testimony at a pre-trial hearing for Jawad on August 20, 2008 US Army Brigadier General Gregory Zanetti, deputy prison camps commander at Guantanamo, described Hartmann as, "abusive, bullying and unprofessional. . . pretty much across the board."cite news
url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/campaign-2008/story/641318.html
title=It's general vs. general at Guantánamo war court
publisher=Miami Herald
author=Carol Rosenberg
date=2008-08-14
accessdate=2008-09-06
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.miamiherald.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fcampaign-2008%2Fstory%2F641318.html&date=2008-09-06 mirror] ]

On Thursday September 4 2008 Colonel Patrick Parrish barred Hartmann, from participating in Omar Khadr's Tribunal because of his "undue command influence".cite news
url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/256/story/51760.html
title=Pentagon adviser banned again from Guantanamo case
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Carol Rosenberg
date=2008-09-04
accessdate=2008-09-06
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mcclatchydc.com%2F256%2Fstory%2F51760.html&date=2008-09-06 mirror] ] Khadr's Tribunal is the third that Hartmann has been barred from participating in.

On September 19, 2008 Hartmann was removed from his position as legal advisor and transferred to a position as director of operations, planning and development for the military commissions.cite news
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/19/AR2008091903507.html
title=Guantanamo Trials' Overseer Reassigned
publisher=Washington Post
author=Peter Finn
date=2008-09-20
page=A02
accessdate=2008-09-22
quote='Elevating his deputy and leaving him in the process, I'm afraid, will be like the Vladimir Putin-Dmitry Medvedev relationship where there's some real doubt over who pulls the strings,' said Col. Morris Davis, a former chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drawing a parallel to the Russian prime minister and the protégé he helped elevate to the presidency. ] Hartmann was replaced by his deputy Michael Chapman, who had been the deputy Legal Advisor since April 2005.

Hartmann attributed his removal, and appointment to the new position, to the: "explosive growth of the commissions over the last 10 or 12 months."

References