Military judge refuses to delay Gitmo trial

Washington Post:

A military judge has refused the Obama administration's request to delay proceeding for 120 days in the case of a detainee held at the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who is accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship, an al-Qaeda strike that killed 17 service members and injured 50 others.

The decision throws into some disarray the administration's plan to buy some time as it reviews individual detainee cases as part of its plan to close the prison. The Pentagon may now be forced to withdraw the charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi citizen of Yemeni descent. In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors to seek 120-day suspensions of legal proceedings in the cases of 21 detainees who have been charged.

The request was quickly granted in other cases when prosecutors told military judges that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."

...

Col. James Pohl found the Obama request unpersuasive. It certainly is an interference in the judicial process approved by Congress and signed into law that has also been upheld by the Supreme Court. It seems to me that those judges who granted the delay are the ones making a mistake. It is another example of an Obama screw up on dealing with detainees.

Update: I think the commenter probably meant quo warranto which means "by what authority do you order this action." Res ipsa loquitor means "it speaks for itself."

I think the real issue is whether the commander in chief has the authority to interfere with a case brought under the act authorizing judicial action against the detainees. Normally command influence is frown on.