Guantánamo Bay: wheels of justice turn slowly – at $7,600 a minute

Cost estimate comes as military commissions’ chief prosecutor proposes relaxing restrictions on lawyers raising their clients’ torture by CIA in court

Protesters listen during a hearing of the Senate armed services committee on Capitol Hill last week. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Spencer Ackerman in New York

@attackerman

Monday 9 February 2015 13.23 EST 

The Guantánamo Bay war court is now costing US taxpayers over $7,600 per minute, according to new Pentagon figures.

Carting the necessary personnel and support to the remote Cuban base has escalated costs for the military commissions, a memo from the top Pentagon commissions official indicated. The controversial tribunals at Guantánamo have attracted criticisms over their inefficiency from their inception, in addition to international concerns about their capacity to distribute justice.

The Pentagon estimates come as the chief prosecutor in the commissions proposed relaxing major secrecy restrictions preventing defense lawyers from addressing torture inflicted on defendants by the CIA and its international allies – the first suggested classification changes for the war court after the Senate released portions of its landmark inquiry into CIA torture.

Vaughn Ary, the retired marine two-star general who oversees the commissions as the chief convening authority, declared his dissatisfaction with the tempo and cost of the tribunals in a December memo.
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