State Department email concerning a meeting of the Army General Counsel and a briefing on the legal status and possible release of the Guantanamo detainees.
UNCLASSIFIED
CWG PM-Director
To: Suchan, Gregory M; Harris, William T; PM-ISO; SWCI; CoalitionWG_PM Cc:: Bloomfield, Lincoln P Jr subject: Army General Counsel Briefing on GTMO
RELEASED IN PART"----B 1, 1.4(A), 1.4(D), B7(E)
(U)
At 1115 hours, Legal Advisor Taft said he had just been in contact with the White House and expected White House guidance today on this issue. At 1250, CNN reported that POTUS had decided that at least some detainees "were covered by the Geneva Convention." At about 1340, White House Spokesman An Fleischer announced that POTUS had decided that Taliban detainees would be treated legally as POWs, but foreign (non-Afghani) al Qaida detainees will All will continue to be treated well and humanely.
(U)
Army General Counsel (GC) Steve Morello said this meeting was the start of the inter-agency coordination process on detainees. The next such meeting will be with the FBI. Coordination within the DOD family has already taken place.
(U)
PROCESSING
B I , B7(E)
(C)
Mr. Morello said there were three levels (stages) of processing: intelligence, war crimes, and US criminal.
(U)
ACCESS B I, B7(E)
(Cl Mr. Morello and other general counsels said they welcomed]
(C) Mr. Taft noted that some non-Afghani detainees may alieady have been indicted or convicted by their countries of nationality. The DOD-related participants said an SOP should be prepared to assure that if such Information reaches one B1,7part of the USG that the information reach SouthCom's electonic file. I B7(E)
((No government has mace mis
formal request yet, although there are reports1 --Itheir nationals to be turned over.)
B I
(U)
VISIT •
(U)
The Secretary of the Army may visit Camp X-Ray for a couple of days this weekend or next.
Participants
1
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE
REVIEW AUTHORITY: SHARON E AHMAD
DATE/CASE ID: 15 MAR 2005 200303827 UNCLASSIFIED
DOS 002984
UNCLASSIFIED
(LJ) Steve Morello (Army GC) lead a briefing team that included Army, Air Force, Navy and OSD General Counsels (GCs), the Poled to the Army Chief of Staff and the Army's Judge Advocate General. State participants included the Legal Advisor and two staff, S/CT (Amb. Taylor), S/WCI (Brent Blashke and Mike Newton) and PM (CWG - Dave Pierce).
'Original Message-erom: Harris, William T Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 11:03 AM To: CWG PM-Director Subject: army general counsel briefing on GTMO
dave and sheila: could either of you attend a briefing hosted by will taft tomorrow on legal issues associated with GTMO? i was to go, but now cannot. army general counsel steve morello will be briefing on a recent visit by service gc's and jag's to cuba. no pm speaking role, but readout would be interesting for linc, greg and others. meeting is in I conference room 6417 at 1100. if one of you can make it, pls e-mail even bloom in I and let him know you will represent pm. pls let me know what you decide. thanks, bill h
William T. Harris Special Adviser for OEF Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
U.S. Department of State
(202) 647-9095
2
UNCLASSIFIED
DOS 002985