How will the left react to this news?

They shouldn't be able to claim unfair trial or improper representation for those on trial at Guantanamo after this news. But dealing with facts has never been the strong suit of the left.

Hat tip- Mudville Gazette

Detainees get new lead defense counselThe new chief defense counsel for the Guantánamo Bay war-crimes court is a lieutenant colonel who was mobilized back into the Marines from the ACLU.

By CAROL ROSENBERG

The Pentagon's new chief defense counsel for the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, war-crimes trials is a Marine reservist called to active duty from a six-year stint at the American Civil Liberties Union.

And some colleagues expect a feisty Marine Lt. Col. Dwight Sullivan, in his 40s, to preside over a Pentagon defense team that is sworn to defend suspected terrorists and has vowed to challenge the Bush administration's military tribunals before the U.S. Supreme Court.

''Dwight Sullivan will bring renewed energy to the defense team at a critical time in the proceedings,'' said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. ``He uniquely possesses substantial knowledge of military law and deep commitment to civil liberties.''

In the military, he was attorney for a Marine sergeant on Death Row for killing his commander and trained defense lawyers from all branches of the U.S. armed services.

And as managing attorney of the ACLU's Baltimore office, he has litigated in civilian courts and worked on a gamut of civil-liberties issues -- including gay rights, police brutality, and the Ku Klux Klan's right to take part in an adopt-a-highway program.

The Pentagon identified him Tuesday. He will oversee attorneys from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines who are so far defending four captives: Australian David Hicks, 29; Yemeni captives Salim Hamdan, 35, and Ali Hamza al Bahlul, 37; and Sudanese Ibrahim al Qosi, 45.

''First of all he's got a brilliant mind. Also, he has just the utmost integrity. And he has, thank God for all of us -- for the country -- the willingness to surmount great odds,'' said Susan Goering, executive director of the ACLU's Maryland division, where Sullivan worked from 1997 until he was mobilized on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Goering added that, in her opinion, Sullivan has inherited in the Military Commissions ''a terrible, terrible process that's outside the Constitution.'' She called it ''a system that's in disarray,'' struggling with ``everything from incompetent translators to the way it's structured, the lack of independent review, to use of secret evidence. But I do trust that Dwight will handle it with integrity.''

Critics complain that the commissions tip the scales toward the government; that secrecy provisions mean an accused terrorist cannot see secret evidence against him, and that only one of the judges has legal training.

Sullivan takes charge at a key time. Last week, a federal appeals court, including Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr., unanimously upheld the constitutionality of President Bush's commissions, overturning a lower court, which froze the process in November.