Guantanamo prosecutor retires as controversial 9/11 trial remains distorted

The US Army general who spent the past decade leading the mostly mired efforts to prosecute five suspects held at the notorious Guantanamo Bay military prison and torture facility for alleged involvement in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks is reportedly retiring from the military.

The retirement of Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, who was the chief prosecutor in the controversial case as the trial remains bogged down with repeated delays, was disclosed by a civilian employee of the US Defense Department and not publicly announced by the Pentagon or the Office of Military Commissions, which oversees the tribunals, AP reported Friday.

According to the report, Martins decided to quit now because he said 10 years is “about the longest any military officer can serve in a single assignment,” adding that it was “time to transition to new leadership” of the tribunals for inmates held nearly 20 years -- without charges, trial or the right to a lawyer -- at the Cuba-based military facility.

Critics have long expressed serious concerns about the brutal treatment and unfair trial of suspects such as the 9/11 defendants, who were imprisoned and tortured in clandestine CIA prisons for several years in what was then euphemistically referred to as “enhanced interrogation."

According to the report, the prosecution's case in the 9/11 attacks rests on statements that the defendants — who include Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the self-described mastermind of the September 11 attacks — gave to the FBI, under torture, after they were transferred by the CIA to the military at Guantanamo in September 2006.

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Still, legal challenges largely revolving around what evidence can be used at an eventual trial have kept the case bogged down. The effort has also been beset by the logistical difficulty of trying to hold proceedings in a specially designed courtroom on the isolated US military base.

There have been more than 40 rounds of pretrial hearings since the May 2012 arraignment and the estimated start date for what would likely be a lengthy trial before a jury of military officers has been repeatedly put off, the report added.

“With the actual trial dates not yet set, there is an ideal window to identify a successor and get her/him settled in before the merits phase actually begins,” said the director of the prosecution’s Victim Witness Assistance Program, Karen Loftus, in an email sent to victims of the 9/11 attacks that first disclosed Matrins’s retirement.

Michael O’Sullivan, a deputy chief prosecutor, will assume the position of acting chief, according to the email.

Martins, a Harvard Law School classmate of former President Barack Obama, started as a vocal defender of the widely condemned military tribunals, or commissions, process that combines elements of civilian and military law.

He has since stopped publicly speaking about proceedings mired in legal challenges and which could be shut down entirely if US President Joe Biden achieves his intention to close the Guantanamo military prison.

Taking up his duties as chief prosecutor in 2011, Martins predicted that the revamped commissions for the five men charged in the 9/11 attacks would be more transparent and fair to defendants than a previous effort.

Obama sought to shut down the controversial Guantanamo prison but was blocked by Congress, which passed legislation barring the transfer of prisoners to the US for any reason — including prosecution or imprisonment.

After backing off a plan to try 9/11 suspects in federal court in New York, the Obama administration worked with Congress on an overhaul of the tribunals. Changes included restrictions on the use of evidence gained through torture and improved viewing access for the media and select observers.

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The Biden administration has said it intends to close Guantanamo after a review of operations, but has not publicly released details about when or how that will happen.

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