Legal Advisor (OARDEC)
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A Legal Advisor, and an Assistant Legal Advisor were part of the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants team tasked to conduct Combatant Status Review Tribunals of captives held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
The identity of the officers who served as the Tribunal Presidents, the Tribunal members, the Recorder or the Personal Representative were kept secret. 58 unclassified dossiers containing a review of the Tribunal's legal sufficiency were separately released under separate Freedom of Information Act requests in 2005. And additional 121 unclassified dossiers were released in September 2007.[1] Most of those reviews were signed by Commander James R. Crisfield. Crisfield has subsequetnly been called to testify before committees of the United States Congress. The rest were signed by Commander Teresa A. McPalmer. A limited number of documents drafted by Assistant Legal Advisor Navy Lieutanant Peter C. Bradford have been released.
[edit] Moazzam Begg's Tribunal
UK citizen Moazzam Begg had requested two witnesses who he felt would substantiate that an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross had issued him a Geneva Convention Prisoner of War card.[2] Begg had requested the testimony of the ICRC employeed, and of an American officer, who had knowledge of his POW status. His Tribunal's President had initially ruled that Begg's witnesses were relevant.
However Crisfield convinced her that these witnesses were not relevant, because Combatant Status Review Tribunals weren't authorized to determine whether captives were entitled to the protections of Prisoner of War status.[2]
