Colonel Frederic L. Borch is a former military attorney who served as Chief Prosecutor of the Guantanamo military commissions before he was replaced by Robert L. Swann after it was alleged that Borch was trying to corrupt the commissions.[1][2][3]
Contents |
Borch received a B.A. in history from Davidson College in 1976, and was commissioned into the U.S. Army. He studied law at the University of North Carolina for his J.D. degree, then at the University of Brussels for an LL.M. in International and Comparative Law (magna cum laude) "Biography: COLONEL FREDERIC L. BORCH III." (PDF). Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2003/d20030522borch.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-14. mirror </ref>
A legal assistant to Fort Benning's Army Infantry School and the 325th Infantry Regiment, Borch spent two years as a defense counsel at the Army's Trial Defense Service in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
In 1987, Borch enrolled for a year at the Judge Advocate General's school in Charlottesville, Virginia and received his degree in Military Law before being assigned to Fort Bragg's XVIII Airborne Corps, while also serving as a civilian assistant District Attorney for North Carolina
In 1990, Borch began a 3-year term as professor of Criminal Law at the JAG school, specialising in Fourth Amendment application. Following this position, he enrolled at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, which led to a job in the Joint Service Committee for Military Justice between the JAG office and the Pentagon - where he drafted legislation related to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and proposed changes to the Manual for Courts-Martial.
Borch oversaw the successful 1997 prosecution of 13 drill sergeants accused of sexual misconduct at Aberdeen Proving Ground, and was consequently made Deputy Chief in the Army’s Government Appellate Division. The following year, he was made Staff Judge Advocate for Fort Gordon's Army Signal Center.
He attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and graduated at the top of his class receiving his Masters degree in National Security Studies in 2001, before taking a position as a professor of International Law focusing on counter-terrorism.
On June 15, 2005 Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that:[4]
"...regarding my decision to file a next friend habeas petition on behalf of Mr. Hamdan... when the Chief Prosecutor for commissions requested assignment of counsel to Mr. Hamdan, he specified that access to Mr. Hamdan was contingent upon negotiating a guilty plea on Mr. Hamdan’s behalf."
Other prosecutors including Capt. John Carr and Maj. Robert Preston wrote that Borch told them that the presiding officers had been chosen because they would be sure to convict, and that all the evidence that suggested that the suspects were innocent would be given a secret security classification, so that defense teams would not learn of its existence. Borch denounced the two men, claiming they were "monstrous lies", but consequently resigned his commission[5]
Following Borch's replacement both Peter Brownback, the commission's President, and Swann, his replacement, recommended the removal of other members of the commission.[6] Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Timothy K. Toomey was an intelligence officer who was involved in capture of suspects in Afghanistan. Army Lieutenant Colonel Curt S. Cooper admitted calling Guantanamo prisoners "terrorists."
An article in the March 31, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal noted that while Borch had retired from the military, he continued to work for the Guantanamo prosecution teams as a civilian consultant.[7][8]
He has had a number of works published by the military, including the 2001 Judge Advocates in Combat: Army Lawyers in Military Operations from Vietnam to Haiti, the 2002 The Silver Star: A History of America’s Third Highest Award for Valor, the 2003 Judge Advocates in Vietnam, a history of Army lawyers in Southeast Asia from 1959 to 1975 and the 2005 Kimmel, Short and Pearl Harbor: The Final Report Revealed.
In addition, he is an active contributor to the Orders and Medals Society of America journal[9] and the first-ever archive historian for the JAG office.[10][11]
In 2009, Borch was hired by The American Film Company to be an advisor on The Conspirator. Directed by Robert Redford, the movie is about the military commission that tried Mary Surratt and the other Lincoln assassination conspirators in 1865. The film stars James McAvoy and Robin Wright and was released in 2010.