The Marine general in charge of war court defense teams has been ordered into confinement for 21 days after being found guilty of contempt for disobeying a judge’s decree, in relation to a case involving the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
On Wednesday, Marine Brigadier General John Baker, 50, who serves as the chief defense counsel for military commissions, was sentenced into confinement by Guantanamo Bay Air Force Judge Colonel Vance Spath at the Guantanamo Bay Navy Base in Cuba.
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FILE PHOTO: USS Cole © ReutersSupreme Court clears path for military trial of USS Cole attack suspect
Spath also ordered Baker to pay a $1,000 fine for excusing civilian, Pentagon-paid attorneys Rick Kammen, Rosa Eliades and Mary Spears, from a military case involving a terrorist attack against the USS Cole Navy ship in 2000, the Miami Herald reported.
The case in question accuses Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, 52, of orchestrating the Al Qaeda-led attack on the ship. Nashiri was arraigned in 2011, and has been in US custody for 15 years. The attack led to the deaths of 17 US sailors, and injured many more.
At issue is Baker’s decision to excuse the three attorneys representing Nashiri in the case when they asked to resign last month due to a secret ethics conflict involving attorney-client privilege. Baker claims he found “good cause” to dismiss the attorneys.
Spath ordered the three attorneys to appear before him in person at Guantanamo this week, but they refused. The judge also o
