| Subject: The Consequences of Suppositions, Chapter 3 |
Author:
Cammy
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Date Posted: 12:55:55 01/04/09 Sun
The Consequences of Suppositions, Chapter 3
By: Cammy
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Rated: R (for language and sexual situations)
Author’s Notes: See Chapter 1.
New Note: Since these first few chapters were so short, thought I would post this next one now. It's very short. Longer ones to come, promise!
From Chapter 2:
It was rare that Admiral A.J. Chegwidden was in his office this early. He was certainly not a 9-5 man, but this was early by anyone's work standards, especially when he would probably not leave the office for at least another twelve to fourteen hours.
A call from the SecNav on Friday afternoon had severely upset him and he devoted the entirety of his weekend to finding grounds to dismiss the allegations against one of top his aides. His efforts had been extraordinarily unfruitful, and in the end he found
nothing to stop the impending train wreck.
He briefly allowed himself to reminisce about how nice this past year had been and then mourned it because the calm wouldn't be lasting very long before the next storm hit.
He spent two more hours glancing through the files before summoning his yeoman. "Coates, I need to see Commander Rabb and Colonel Mackenzie ASAP."
The Consequences of Suppositions, Chapter 3
0910 EDT
September 1, 2003
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
“I laughed and she’d smile. It would last for awhile. You don’t know what you got till you lose it all again.” – Bruce Hornsby, Mandolin Rain
Mac chuckled to herself as she caught sight of Harm through the open blinds and glass of her office partition. He was rushing to his office while managing to balance his briefcase, numerous files, a cup of coffee and an apple with mild success. Eventually, he spied her
watching him from her office and altered routes.
Harm unceremoniously dropped his load in one of the guest chairs. "Tell me I didn't already miss staff call, I'm only ten minutes late."
Mac had a brief flashback of the rather strong objection he had raised on Saturday night when she had noted his propensity for unpunctuality and restrained the sarcastic remark that rested on the tip of her tongue. Ah, the irony. "The Admiral cancelled staff call
for this morning, something about an important issue he needs to handle. Anyway, he's rescheduled it for late this afternoon."
Harm visibly relaxed and perched himself on the edge of Mac's desk. She shivered at the thought this was the first time she had seen him since Saturday night at her apartment, since they nearly kissed.
Mac dragged her eyes away and distracted herself with a file. "Is your back feeling any better today, Commander Rabb?"
"I'm feeling much better actually. Thank you for asking, Colonel. I…"
Before he could say anything else, Jen Coates knocked on open door of her office. "The
Admiral wants to see you both ASAP, sir, ma'am."
The officers shared a slightly concerned look before making their way to the Admiral's office. Harm knocked and allowed Mac to enter first when they were bid in with a terse, "Enter."
The Admiral cut them off before they even had a chance to come to attention and instructed the pair to have a seat. Silence reigned for an extremely long minute as their CO finished reading whatever it was that had his attention. Finally, the Admiral addressed them, "Do you two remember the case involving a Lt. Asmar Rasul?"
It would have been impossible to forget. The investigation had commenced in early March; Rasul was court-martialed and subsequently convicted in April. There had been a whirlwind of media attention surrounding the Rasul trial and reporters and photographers had plagued both Harm and Mac day and night.
Asmar Rasul was a Navy lieutenant who had been stationed at NAVSTA GTMO in Guantanamo Bay for approximately a year prior to the time he was charged with conspiracy to commit treasonous acts. Rasul served as one of many translators at the base and spent much of his time in direct contact with the POWs. In addition to his duties as an interpreter, he assisted the special task force assigned to determine the level of threat posed by each prisoner. The task force was responsible for making recommendations directly to the Pentagon regarding the ultimate future of each captive. Some prisoners were sent back to their native soil to be dealt with by their respective governments, some were sent to Saudi Arabian prisons for more permanent detention, and others would be retained indefinitely at Gitmo in an effort to extract more intelligence.
There were suspicions that Rasul was in someway altering the data and swapping the identities of some of the prisoners. There were at least two incidents in which it was discovered that the detainees that had been released were actually not the two intended for release. These two were once again added to the list of known terrorists presenting a
clear and present danger to the U.S and neither has been recaptured.
Mac had prosecuted the case and Harm had defended the lieutenant. She had found herself in a losing position before the trial even started.
The case against Rasul had initially been solely circumstantial and Harm had done an excellent job providing counter explanations for the suppositions presented by the prosecution. It wasn't until the trial was well underway that Mac had made a breakthrough discovery. It had taken a dogfight to convince the judge to allow the evidence to be entered, but Mac had eventually prevailed. The evidence heavily swayed the trial in the government's favor and Harm wasn't able to prevent the fallout. Rasul was convicted in record time by the jury and was sentenced to life without parole in Leavenworth.
Mac was the first to respond to the Admiral's question. "Of course, sir. Asmar Rasul will be spending the rest of his life behind bars in the lovely state of Kansas, courtesy of the United States Navy."
Harm briefly glanced at her, "Actually, I believe it was technically courtesy of the United States Marine Corp."
Mac bit back a small smile at his backwards compliment.
Before any real curiosity could brew within her, the Admiral cut to the chase. "Rasul has retained civilian counsel and is appealing the verdict. His attorney has filed a motion to expedite the appellate hearing and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has
granted the request."
The Admiral's countenance told her there must obviously be much more to this story. Almost every prisoner in the U.S. corrections system, both civilian and military, appealed capital or life sentences. Rasul's rejoinder was a routine one. "That was to be expected, sir. On what grounds is he appealing," Mac asked, her curiosity now evident.
The Admiral paused a moment before answering, "Rasul claims that Commander Rabb violated the attorney-client privilege and intentionally slipped confidential information to opposing counsel."
The Admiral waited another moment while the two processed the information. "The brief relies heavily on a single mitigating factor: the existence of his attorney's romantic relationship with the prosecutor, Lt. Colonel Sarah Mackenzie."
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