WASHINGTON — The Defense Department on Friday stripped a controversial can-do general of legal authority at Guantanamo military commissions but created for him a job as war court czar in charge of logistics from the Pentagon to the outpost in southeast Cuba.
Within hours, Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann declared his biggest challenge in his new job is ''to keep the process moving, really intensely.'' He pledged a brisk pace for war on terror prosecutions.
''Everybody needs to start seeing more trials,'' he told The Miami Herald. "I want those courtrooms to be as filled up as they can possibly be -- six days a week.''
Three separate military judges had three times this year disqualified the Air Force brigadier from his role as impartial legal advisor at war court trials. Each found a perception of pro-prosecution bias that was at odds with his ostensible role as objective legal advisor.
Read the complete story at the miamiherald.com