But the defense lawyers said that poses a conflict, too, because Brownback and Altenburg are "close personal friends." They said that the two have known each other since 1977, that Brownback's wife worked for Altenburg, and that Altenburg hosted Brownback's retirement ceremony in 1999.
The civilian attorney for Hicks, Joshua Dratel, asked Brownback whether he might be influenced by his relationship with Altenburg.
A U.S. soldier stands guard at the maximum security prision at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba where those charged as enemy combatants are held.
(Pool Photo Mark Wilson)
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"A reasonable person who took the time to examine my record would say no," Brownback said. The defense lawyers also challenged the backgrounds and qualifications of four other commission members selected to serve on the panel.
Air Force Lt. Col. Timothy Toomey served as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan and Iraq. Marine Col. R. Thomas Bright supervised an operation that sent suspected terrorists and Taliban fighters to Guantanamo Bay. Marine Col. Jack Sparks Jr. lost one of his Marine reservists, a firefighter, in the attack on the World Trade Center. Army Lt. Col. Curt Cooper said he did not know precisely what the Geneva Conventions were and noted in a commission questionnaire that he was deeply affected by a visit to Ground Zero at the World Trade Center site.
"How are you supposed to separate that experience?" Dratel asked.
"They are separate things," Cooper said.
"How do you go about doing that?"
"I make no connection in my mind between these charges and my visit to the World Trade Center," Cooper said.
The lead prosecutor in the Hicks case said the commissioners could be fair and they should not be removed from the panel.
"We believe that none of these challenges should be granted," Marine Lt. Col. Kurt J. Brubaker said.
Brownback told the defense attorneys that he will forward to Altenburg the request to dismiss the commissioners. But the defense lawyers said that, too, poses a potential conflict. Altenburg was the officer who selected the commissioners in the first place.
On Friday, Altenburg said in a telephone interview that he could not discuss the challenges because he would have to rule on them. He said he has tried to distance himself from the proceedings -- he will not travel to Guantanamo -- so he can remain neutral when he rules on challenges and motions.
"We'll have to look at each one of these cases and make a decision: Do they in fact have too much involvement?" Altenburg said, referring to the defense contentions of conflicts on the commission.
The defense attorneys are also trying to establish that the rules of the commission are unclear, undermining the integrity of the trials.
On Thursday, an accused propagandist for al Qaeda, Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul, blurted out in the courtroom through an interpreter that he was a member of the terrorist organization. He was about to describe his relationship to the Sept. 11 attacks when Brownback cut him off.
The presiding officer then turned to the commissioners and told them to disregard al Bahlul's remark. It could not be considered evidence under the rules of the commission, he said. But prosecutors objected, saying such remarks could be admitted because there is no requirement to warn suspects against self-incrimination in commission rules.
"We note our objection to that statement," one prosecutor said.
After the hearing, Navy Lt. Susan McGarvey, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the commissions, said the prosecutors were correct and that the evidence could be admitted.
The defense attorneys issued a range of other objections, including that the translations provided to their clients were uneven at best.
Those assertions were included in an hour-long special aired Thursday throughout the Arab world on the television network al-Jazeera. A reporter for the network here, Mohammed Alami, asked Swann on Friday whether he was troubled that international observers and foreign governments were criticizing the commissions as unfair.
Swann defended the fairness of the commissions: "They're entitled to their opinion. I'm entitled to mine."
