Susan J. Crawford

• Diploma, Mt. Lebanon High School, June 1965
• Bachelor of Arts, History, Bucknell University, June 1969{{cite web |url=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/d20070207crawford.pdf |title=Susan Crawford |publisher=Department of Defense. |accessdate=2007-06-01 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080710192627/http://www.defenselink.mil/news/d20070207crawford.pdf |archivedate=2008-07-10 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.bucknell.edu/x34091.xml |title=Crawford to speak at Bucknell |publisher=Bucknell University |date=April 2007 |accessdate=2007-07-20}}
• J.D., New England School of Law, June 1977

Crawford was an active judge on the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) from 1991 to 2006. She was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as a justice to the nation's highest military court in 1991 for a fifteen-year term. She served as its chief judge from 1999 to 2004. She is now a judge in senior status.

Crawford was the lone dissenter in a case involving Senator-Military Judge-Colonel Lindsey O. Graham. In 2006, by a vote of 4–1, the CAAF found unconstitutional the dual role of Lindsey O. Graham as a senator (Republican from South Carolina) and as a reserve officer sitting as a military judge on the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals. Crawford, in dissent, contended that there was no constitutional error in Senator Graham's role, and that, even if there were, it was harmless. In the case in point, the military appellant Airman Lane had been unable to show he suffered any "actual prejudice." She also said that, if Congress thought there were a constitutional problem in Sen. Graham's service, it would have been free to take action, and it has not.

The majority's opinion relied upon the Constitution's "incompatibility clause" in Article I, " saying that "no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in service." It also relied upon separation-of-power principles, primarily as discussed by the Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) and three Supreme Court precedents from the 1990s dealing with appointments to military courts. Congress, Crawford wrote, "may well desire the synergism that would result from having a member of Congress serving as a trial or appellate judge in the military justice system."[http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/ruling-senator-cannot-be-military-judge-too/ Ruling: senator cannot be military judge, too], SCOTUSblog.com, September 21, 2006 (retrieved October 13, 2006)

Crawford is reported to have directly negotiated the plea bargain of David Hicks, an Australian linked with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, without any input from the Prosecution.{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-30-guantanamo-hicks_N.htm |title=Australian Gitmo detainee sentenced |publisher=USA Today |date=March 30, 2007 |accessdate=2007-07-20 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906144751/http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-30-guantanamo-hicks_N.htm |archivedate=September 6, 2008 }}

When speaking at Bucknell University on April 27, 2007, Crawford said:

"Much of the media coverage and commentary has been negative, questioning our legal authority to hold detainees without a trial in U.S. Federal Courts," Crawford said. "Under the law of war, the detainees at Guantanamo Bay are not held pending criminal charges. While detainees may be tried for violations of the law of war, there is no obligation to so charge them."{{cite news |url=http://www.bucknell.edu/x34233.xml |title=Judge Crawford discusses detainee controversy |publisher=The Bucknellian |author=Sophia Leong |date=April 27, 2007 |accessdate=2008-04-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521012351/http://www.bucknell.edu/x34233.xml |archivedate=May 21, 2011 }}

During the same presentation, Crawford said:

"One of the biggest problems at Guantanamo is that the detainees gain too much weight because we feed them so well." In response to a question as to whether she endorses the practice of extraordinary rendition and the CIA's kidnapping of foreign citizens in other countries, Crawford said: "Well, I don't think we always have the right to kidnap foreign citizens."{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

On October 10, 2007, Morris D. Davis, the Chief Prosecutor for Office of Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, resigned in protest, concluding that:

{{blockquote|... full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system. I resigned on that day because I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively or responsibly.{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-davis10dec10,0,2446661.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail |title=AWOL military justice |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 10, 2007 |accessdate=2007-12-10 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619071752/http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-davis10dec10,0,2446661.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail |archivedate=2008-06-19 |url-status=dead }}}}

Davis criticized Susan Crawford as a cause of the problems in the Military Commissions process, through her mixing of convening authority and prosecutor roles and her use of closed-door hearings, which he considered unnecessary.

Morris called for removal of the political appointees: Susan Crawford and William J. Haynes, and return of control to uniformed career military authorities in order to restore openness and fairness to the Military Commissions process.

On August 9, 2008, William Glaberson wrote in The New York Times about Crawford's role in the recent Hamdan conviction:{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/washington/10gitmo.html |title=A Conviction, but a System Still on Trial |work=The New York Times |author=William Glaberson |date=2008-08-09 |accessdate=2008-08-08 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209032917/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/washington/10gitmo.html |archivedate=2008-12-09 }}

In an interview with Bob Woodward published in The Washington Post on January 14, 2009, Crawford responded to questions about why she had not referred the case of Mohammed al Qahtani, the so-called "20th hijacker" of the September 11th attacks, to trial:

{{cite news

|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372.html?hpid=topnews

|title = Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official: Trial Overseer Cites 'Abusive' Methods Against 9/11 Suspect

|newspaper = The Washington Post

|page = A01

|author = Bob Woodward

|date = 2009-01-14

|accessdate = 2009-01-14

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20101009105352/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372_pf.html

|archivedate = 2010-10-09

|url-status = dead

}}

We tortured Qahtani. His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case [for prosecution] .... The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge [to call it torture].

File:Susan Crawford denies travel funds.png

Mohamed Jawad was a detainee whose case was referred to the civilian court system, which dropped the charges against him and recommended that he be repatriated. His military attorneys requested funds to travel to Afghanistan to help aid in his repatriation. Crawford declined to fund their travel, since charges against him had been dropped. Eric Montalvo chose to travel to Afghanistan at his own expense to aid Jawad.

Crawford retired in January 2010.{{cite news

| url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/25/91079/obama-appoints-judge-for-war-court.html

| title=Obama appoints new chief for war court at Guantanamo

| publisher=McClatchy News Service

| date=2010-03-25

| author=Carol Rosenberg

| accessdate=2010-04-14

| quote=Qahtani was interrogated in isolation—sometimes for up to 20 hours at a time—across a 50-day period from November 2002 to January 2003, menaced with dogs, forced to wear a bra and left naked. Crawford retired in January and quietly left.

| archive-date=2012-09-02

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902121154/http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/25/91079/obama-appoints-judge-for-war-court.html

| url-status=dead

}}

In March 2010, retired Admiral Bruce MacDonald, a career Navy officer, was named as the convening authority for military commissions.

{{cite news

|url = http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/03/24/pentagon-to-name-new-chief-for-military-commissions-in-sign-that-gitmo-trials-may-move-forward.aspx

|title = Pentagon to Name New Chief for Military Commissions in Sign That Gitmo Trials May Move Forward

|publisher = Newsweek

|date = 2010-03-24

|author = Michael Isikoff

|accessdate = 2010-04-14

|quote = As convening authority, MacDonald—who replaces Susan Crawford, a Bush political appointee who retired two months ago—will have the responsibility to "refer" charges against Guantanamo terror suspects to trials after receiving recommendations from military prosecutors. Such "referrals"--the equivalent of indictments—have been on hold ever since last year when the White House ordered a halt to all military commission proceedings as part of its larger review about how to close Gitmo.

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20100328122319/http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/03/24/pentagon-to-name-new-chief-for-military-commissions-in-sign-that-gitmo-trials-may-move-forward.aspx

|archivedate = 2010-03-28

}}

{{cite news

|url = http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/03/26/military-commission-trials-set-for-the-summer.aspx

|title = Military-Commission Trials Set for the Summer

|publisher = Newsweek

|date = 2010-03-26

|author = Michael Isikoff

|accessdate = 2010-04-14

|quote = Since then, however, Congress has passed a new law—signed by Obama—aimed at making the proceedings fairer. And last week Gates named retired Adm. Bruce MacDonald, who helped craft the new law, as the "convening authority" to oversee the commissions.

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20100401061847/http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/03/26/military-commission-trials-set-for-the-summer.aspx

|archivedate = 2010-04-01

}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |url=http://www.bucknell.edu/x35657.xml |title=ROTC Commissioning ceremony |author=Brian C. Mitchell |publisher=Bucknell Hall |date=May 19, 2007 |accessdate=2007-07-20 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929103012/http://www.bucknell.edu/x35657.xml |archivedate=September 29, 2007 }}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21618211-5005961,00.html |title=Murder charge for Guantanamo Canadian |date=April 25, 2007 |publisher=Herald Sun |accessdate=2007-07-20 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070603065317/http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21618211-5005961,00.html |archivedate=June 3, 2007 }}
• {{cite news |title=Australian charged under new terror law |author=Anne Flaherty |publisher=USA Today |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-01-4223805767_x.htm |date=March 1, 2007 |accessdate=2007-07-20 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523105343/http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-01-4223805767_x.htm |archivedate=May 23, 2011 }}

{{s-start}}

{{s-legal}}

{{s-bef|before=Delbert Spurlock}}

{{s-ttl|title=General Counsel of the Army|years=1983–1989}}

{{s-aft|after=William J. Haynes, II}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Robinson O. Everett}}

{{s-ttl|title=Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces|years=1991–2006}}

{{s-aft|after=Scott W. Stucky}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=Walter Cox}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces}}|years=1999–2004}}

{{s-aft|after=Sparky Gierke}}

|-

{{s-bef|before=John Altenburg}}

{{s-ttl|title=Convening Authority of the Guantanamo Military Commissions|years=2007–2010}}

{{s-aft|after=Bruce MacDonald}}

{{s-end}}

{{USCAAF Judges}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Susan J.}}

Category:1947 births

Category:Living people

Category:Lawyers from Pittsburgh

Category:Bucknell University alumni

Category:Mt. Lebanon High School alumni

Category:New England Law Boston alumni

Category:General Counsels of the United States Army

Category:Women in the United States Army

Category:Reagan administration personnel

Category:United States Department of Defense officials

Category:Women government officials

Category:United States Article I federal judges appointed by George H. W. Bush

Category:Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

Category:20th-century American women judges

Category:Guantanamo Bay attorneys