Australian pleads guilty in first Guantanamo trial

Bedraggled and appearing irritated, Hicks showed little emotion at the prospect of potentially leaving Guantanamo after more than five years in military detention. The Commission’s presiding officer, Marine Col Ralph H Kohlmann, is expected to hear the details of what Hicks has admitted to on Tuesday afternoon, and the full 10-member Military Commission could gather here by the end of the week to determine a sentence, said Major Beth Kubala, spokeswoman for the Military Commissions, as the tribunals are formally known. While she proclaimed herself a neutral party in the Pentagon’s newly reconstituted war-crimes process, Kubala said, “Monday’s proceedings demonstrated that this is a process that is transparent, legitimate and moving forward.” Hicks was the first detainee to be prosecuted among the nearly 800 men who have been brought here as enemy combatants since January 2002, and the only one charged formally with a war crime.

–Carol J Williams