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Berg, Thomas - short clip - WeWereNaive

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-	We had offices in the Pentagon	0:00
	directly adjacent to the area that had	0:03
	been blown out by the impact of the aircraft	0:04
	that hit the Pentagon.	0:07
	So we worked with the smells	0:09
	and with mold and everything else	0:10
	that was related to the damage in the place.	0:13
	As we were trying to grind out, I guess,	0:16
	doing, do the grunt work of developing rules	0:19
	and procedures using primarily resources	0:22
	from the uniform code of military justice	0:26
	and experience based on the Nuremberg trials	0:28
	because we read transcripts of a number of those cases	0:32
	and talked with some of the surviving lawyers	0:35
	to try and come up with a process	0:38
	that we thought would look fair in 50 years.	0:40
	That was, that was our goal was to create something	0:44
	that was transparent and fair.	0:47
	We were naive because we didn't appreciate	0:51
	how political the process really was.	0:54
	And who was, who was ultimately calling the shots.	0:57
	We thought the army would have the lead.	1:00
	We had lots of interference from civilians	1:02
	and department of defense, from the white house,	1:04
	from the department of justice,	1:06
	who ultimately took control of the process.	1:08
	We went in there with a great deal of enthusiasm.	1:11
	I think a sense of patriotism thinking	1:13
	that this was going to be an opportunity	1:15
	for America to show the world	1:17
	how it could- it was truly great.	1:18
	That we would rise above what had happened to us	1:20
	to do the right thing.	1:23
	And it was clear that some people wanted	1:26
	immediate political gain out of this, right?	1:27
	As opposed to long-term perspective.	1:29

Item Info

Title:

Berg, Thomas - short clip - WeWereNaive

Date:

May 16, 2012

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Berg, Thomas

Role:

Military

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Military Legal Advisor
Thomas Berg, male, age 60, helped the Defense Department set up war crimes tribunals for captured al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners after 9/11. The tribunals were based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions, but the Pentagon civilian leadership rejected them. He also served as Judge Advocate General, military legal adviser, to Gen. Rick Baccus in Guantanamo.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo, LLC.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

1:05:30

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection

Rights:

Limited Re-UseCC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Witness to Guantanamo, LLC. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Witness to Guantanamo, LLC as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

ark:/87924/r44m97w4d
f2ec3a6c-5409-4669-b042-ae7560643815

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r44m97w4d

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Berg, Thomas - short clip - WeWereNaive

Transcript

Item Info

Human Rights Archive