Tuesday, April 30, 2002

Tribunal - 155

A very rare military tribunal was held aboard the USS Seahawk, of Mustafa Atef (MA), an al Qaeda leader. Chegwidden didn't get anyone to volunteer to be defense counsel, so he did it himself; then, Turner volunteered to be his his 2nd chair. A disagreement over who was 1st chair for the defense was settled with a coin toss. Mac chose "tails" and became 2nd to H. Capt Sebring presided with 6 others. MAs Involuntary confession was obtained by Webb during psychological duress and was not allowed. A local warlord, Gen. Hassan Abdullah, was leading a detention camp of Taliban and al Qaeda captives. He tipped off army Cpt Dale Alexander, who captured MA, but first running into a lone sniper. T had to bodily stop C from choking MA after MA had said that those who died in 9/11 "got what they deserved." W and M went to the detention camp to see if MAs brother, Kabir, the sniper, was there. Mac was taken hostage at knifepoint by the detainees and was saved by the Gunny (who was also there at the camp) and W. H played on MAs vanity during the trial and he arrogantly testified, admitting to being "the Mohandes" who had trained men and planned 9/11. He was convicted but committed suicide in his cell before he could give info about Kabir or the future al Qaeda attack involving russia and payment of $250 million.

Singer was left in charge during Cs absence and abused Harriet with work until she finally told S that: leadership "is not a power trip". Our stripes "give us authority, but it's what's inside which makes us a leader and you would know that if you had it!"

Tuesday, April 9, 2002

Port Chicago - 154

Turner defended retired Chief Aubrey McBride who was charged, along with 49 others, with mutiny when they refused to go back to loading ammunition during WWII after 320 men were killed in an explosion at Port Chicago. The chief, a black man pensioned after 30 yrs of service, said he "owed his buddy Randall Winston" who had just died; so, he demanded "his day in court." He said that it had been a racial issue. C assigned Singer to prosecute; but, when she became hatefully vindictive he assigned Mac to 2nd chair in order to "tone her down." M said that she'd "rather have the electric chair." When the SECNAV was convinced that it would look bad on him he offered the chief a deal. The chief turned down the offer of: an apology to all the men, that racial prejudice had influenced assignments, conditions had been hazardous and discriminatory, a presidential pardon for 50, and congressional exoneration. So, S widened the charges. H advised T, who was defending Aubrey, to make S deal with the racial conditions. He got his father, Chaplain Turner, to testify. The "secret meeting" that was observed being held by the black men in the brig, was to get the men to OBEY their orders. The men had asked for safety changes but they only recieved GLOVES! The Chief was found not guilty on all counts.

H tried to fix Harriet's refrigerator, then she begged him to help her buy a house. He agreed on the condition that she told B that she was accepting her fathers money for the house. She lied to H and didn't tell B. B was also not telling Ht about Co being his legal man.