DOD upholds conviction in Cole case

The senior Defense Department official in charge of the U.S. war court at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has upheld the USS Cole trial judge’s contempt conviction of Marine Brig. Gen. John Baker, who oversees the defense team, according to a DOD statement released Nov. 21. The statement also suggested that the three civilian defense attorneys who quit the case are still bound to litigate in the USS Cole case. The official, Harvey Rishikof, convening authority of military commissions, decided that Maj. Gen. Baker did not need to serve the remainder of 21-day confinement and fine of $1,000 placed on him by the Cole case judge Air Force Col. Vance Spath. The judge sentenced Baker to both on Nov. 2 for invoking a privilege and refusing to answer the judge's questions in court. Rishikof will forward the conviction to Baker's chain of command as an administrative and ethics matter, which keeps the issue from federal court. The general's civilian attorney said Nov. 22 that Baker and his attorneys were considering a military judicial challenge to the “erroneous contempt finding or whether to return to Judge Lamberth to ask him to overturn the contempt finding.” (Source: Miami Herald 11/22/17)