So, one Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld’s military career stands a good chance of ending, due to him following his conscience and standing against the perversion of justice at Guantanamo prison.
Theoretically, the military brass reviewing his record could reward his distinguished service—to which various awards and commendations attest—and bump him up to full-bird colonel. Or, they could derail his military career. Vandeveld has reason to believe the board may attempt the latter—forcing into retirement the officer who, in a July 2009 congressional hearing [pdf], declared that “the military commission system is broken beyond repair.”…
Vandeveld had been assigned to prosecute Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan detainee accused of lobbing a grenade through the window of a Jeep carrying two Special Forces soldiers and their interpreter near Kabul….
“Gathering the evidence against Mr. Jawad was like looking into Pandora’s box,” he testified. “I uncovered a confession obtained through torture, two suicide attempts by the accused, abusive interrogations, the withholding of exculpatory evidence from the defense, judicial incompetence, and ugly attempts to cover up the failures of an irretrievably broken system.”
Vandeveld ultimately became the seventh military prosecutor since 2004 to resign from the commissions over ethical qualms. In a strange turn of events, he was called to testify as a witness for the defense during a pre-trial hearing in Jawad’s case. Vandeveld, a devout Catholic, saw it as a confession of sorts. He went on to file a declaration in support of Jawad’s petition for habeas corpus, which was ultimately granted by a federal judge last summer. Jawad was subsequently released from Gitmo.
I have no idea what Vandeveld’s politics are; I do know that his integrity should be a shining example for Catholics who are tasked with supporting a system of manifest evil.
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