William C. Kuebler

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Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler

William "Bill" C. Kuebler is an American lawyer and a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, assigned to the Office of Military Commissions.^[1]

Prior to the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, to overturn the then current version of the Guantanamo military commissions on constitutional grounds Kuebler was detailed to defend Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi. Al Sharbi had insisted on representing himself and Kuebler refused superior orders to act as his lawyer.^[2]

On June 4, 2007 Kuebler was the detailed counsel for Canadian youth Omar Khadr,^[3] Kuebler declined to join in the discussion as to whether charges against Khadr should be dropped, on jurisdictional grounds, because he had not had a chance to meet with Khadr, and didn't feel comfortable representing him without his consent. Peter Brownback, the officer presiding over Khadr's commission, did dismiss all charges, because the Military Commissions Act only authorized the commissions to act against "unlawful enemy combatants", and Khadr's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, like those of all the other Guantanamo captives, had only confirmed that he met the Bush Presidency's definition of an "enemy combatant".

On 11 August 2007, Kuebler spoke to the Council of the Canadian Bar Association at its annual meeting being held in Calgary, Alberta, urging the Bar Association to use its position to pressure publicly the Canadian government to repatriate Khadr. By the next day, the President of the Canadian Bar Association announced that, given the overwhelmingly positive reception that Council had given to Kuebler's speech, the Association was writing to the Canadian Prime Minister to urge immediate action. The announcement received prominent coverage in the Canadian print and television media.

Kuebler and Snyder

Canadian attorney Dennis Edney was barred from appearing at the October arraignment after an early dispute over comments Kuebler had made to the Canadian press critical of Khadr's father. ^[4] Kuebler continues, however, to work closely with Edney and Nathan Whitling in legal proceedings in both Canada and the United States. All three appeared at a hearing in February 2008, along with U.S. assistant counsel Rebecca Snyder, where Kuebler moved to dismiss Khadr's case before the military commission because Congress did not intend for child soldiers to be prosecuted before military commission. Kuebler argued to the military judge that a child soldier, such as Khadr, was a "victim of Al Qaeda, not a member." In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham, author of the Military Commissions Act seemed to agree. When asked about Khadr's case, Graham said, "I'm not comfortable on an issue like this with minors." ^[5]