The indispensible Charlie Savage has another blockbuster article out about the Bush administration. This article lays out the new Bush administration plan to have Pentagon political appointees "coordinate" (quotation marks in original article!) the promotions of JAG officers. I assume I don't need to make many comments about what a disaster that could be. Can you imagine Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz determining which military lawyers should be promoted? #shudder#
From the article:
The former JAG officers say the regulation would end the uniformed lawyers' role as a check-and-balance on presidential power, because politically appointed lawyers could block the promotion of JAGs who they believe would speak up if they think a White House policy is illegal.
Retired Major General Thomas Romig, the Army's top JAG from 2001 to 2005, called the proposal an attempt "to control the military JAGs" by sending a message that if they want to be promoted, they should be "team players" who "bow to their political masters on legal advice."
It "would certainly have a chilling effect on the JAGs' advice to commanders," Romig said. "The implication is clear: without [the administration's] approval the officer will not be promoted."
Apparently this decision will be made either this month or the next. It would give a lot of power to Bush appointee, Pentagon general counsel Jim Haynes. Jim Haynes is an ally of John "Torture" Yoo.
I wonder if this proposal has anything to do with this, from Thursday's New York Times:
Back in 2002, a master’s degree candidate at the Naval War College wrote a paper on the Bush administration’s plan to use military commissions to try Guantánamo suspects, concluding that "even a good military tribunal is a bad idea."
It drew little notice at the time, but the paper has gained a second life because of its author’s big promotion: Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann of the Marines is now the chief judge of the military commissions at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The system, Judge Kohlmann wrote in 2002, would face criticism for the "apparent lack of independence" of military judges and would have "credibility problems," the very argument made by Guantánamo’s critics.
Apparently he called the Bush administration "spinmeisters" in the paper, and has not disavowed it. I assume Judge Kohlmann will try to make the tribunals work the best that they can, but he shows a real understanding of critics' arguments. I guess that is probably unacceptable to the Bush administration.