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GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- In a surprise move Friday, reflecting uncertainty in the future of President Bush's war
court, the Pentagon prosecutor sought -- and lost -- a late-night bid to delay next week's terror hearings that straddle the
inauguration of Barack Obama.
''Both motions were denied. It's full-speed
ahead,'' said Air Force Lt. Col. Ann Knabe,
spokeswoman for military commissions.
Had the judges granted the request, the
Defense Department would have had to
ground a special flight of war crimes court staff,
including lawyers, judges and clerks, plus
dozens of reporters and victims of the Sept. 11,
attacks that was slated to arrive here Saturday.
''The government cannot represent with
confidence that there will not be an
interruption in all commission proceedings,''
Army Col. Lawrence Morris wrote Judge
Stephen Henley, an Army colonel presiding in
the war crimes prosecution of five men
A U.S. flag flies above a razorwire-topped fence at the 'Camp Six'
accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11, 2001 detention facility at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in this
attacks. December 10, 2008 file photo
A day earlier, attorney general nominee Eric Holder told a Senate confirmation hearing that the Obama administration would
review war court prosecutions in search of a new approach.
Obama prefers traditional criminal trials and courts martial, and Holder said that, were the new government to use
commissions, they would have to be ``substantially revamped to provide the due process rights that I think are consistent with
who we are as Americans.''
Morris had different reasons for seeking delay, not dismissal.
''The Prosecution believes that the interests of justice would be served by taking this action and that they outweigh the best
interests of both the public and the accused in a hearing commencing on 19 January,'' he wrote.