Mark Martins (Rhodes 1983)
U.S. Army Brigadier General. U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Rhodes Scholar, University of Oxford
His final position was Chief Prosecutor of Military Commissions, overseeing the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-defendants.[2] Martins is the legal stud who will oversee the prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow apparent jihadists. Martins will also sell the world—our allies, enemies, even the Washington Post—on the legitimacy of these military tribunals.[4] Martins officially started his new gig at Guantánamo on September 15. He is effectively running an 80-attorney law firm. In an interview from Kandahar, he said this of the Military Commissions: “I believe that within the space defined by our values, we must be relentlessly empirical and pragmatic in the means that we use to protect our people and our national security interests. While this new assignment has significant challenges, I am a soldier and will certainly do my best to prosecute these cases in a manner that contributes to the legitimacy of all that we undertake in opposing terror networks of global reach.”[4]
[Research Tali Farimah Farhadian S&B 1997, Frank Arne Sieverts Rhodes 1954.]
For years, U.S. military detention and interrogation policy in Afghanistan had been an awful mess. Ugly politics at home. Tensions with allies. And we were losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghans. Then David Petraeus slapped a star on Col. Martins’s chest in 2009 and effectively said, “Now you’re a general: Go fix the darn thing.” And, with help, Martins did just that, instituting new policies based on joint mantras of transparency and accountability. (Actually, with a lot of help. Martins worked under a hard-charging, no-nonsense Navy SEAL named Vice Admiral Robert Harward, leader of the detentions task force.)[4]
He supervised a legal staff of more than 100 military and civilian attorneys and paralegals as a staff advocate to the commanding general in Germany and, in 2003, he organized law teams in and around Baghdad.[6]
He went on to serve as deputy legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., with duty in Baghdad as counsel to Multinational Security Transition Command–Iraq; and staff judge advocate for Multi-National Force - Iraq.
Feb 2010 - overseeing detainee operations at the Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP) which replaced the Bagram Theater Internment Facility.
Sep 2009 - Deputy Commanding General of Joint Task Force 435, charged with reforming military detention operations in Afghanistan.[6]
2006 to 2008 - Led the Rule of Law campaign for Multi-National Force - Iraq.[4]
2001 to 2003 - Staff Judge Advocate to Commanding General of 1st Armored Division.
1990 - Judge Advocate in the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
1990 - Harvard Law School (where he served on the Harvard Law Review with future President Barack Obama and graduated magna cum laude).[4]
1987 - Accepted into the Army’s Funded Legal Education Program (FLEP). Master of Law (LLM) in Military Law from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virgina (graduating first in his class).
Commissioned into the Infantry branch, served as platoon leader in the 82nd Airborns Division.
1983 to 1985 - Rhodes Scholar, Balliol College, University of Oxford.[1][2]
1983 - United States Military Academy at West Point.[6]
[2] - FYI - Wiki Mark S. Martins
[3] 23 Jun 2011, Washington Post - Pentagon names new guantanamo prosecutor
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