to the military commission, but Defense stated that it had already made substantive changes and replaced the top personnel. Prosecutor complaints about Swann On March 31, 2007 The Wall Street Journal published a long article about Stuart Couch, a military prosecutor who had worked under Swann. According to The Wall Street Journal, Couch considered requesting reassignment from the prosecution team, but ultimately requested reassignment from the prosecution of Mohamedou Ould Slahi. While Couch believed that Slahi was guilty, he had come to believe that the confessions and other evidence against Slahi were too tainted by having been obtained by abusive interrogation techniques for them to be admissible as evidence in court. Couch thought that the interrogation techniques had violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the United States' own laws, and International treaties to which the United States was a signatory. Couch and Swann reportedly had a loud and acrimonious confrontation over his decision. The WSG reported that when Swann learned of Couch's moral reservations, he demanded: What makes you think you're so much better than the rest of us around here?" Further, "An impassioned debate followed, the prosecutor recalls. Col. Swann said the Torture Convention didn't apply to military commissions. Col. Couch asked his superior to cite legal precedent that would allow the president to disregard a treaty. In 2008 Swann was appointed as the lead prosecutor in what were to be military commission trials of Sheikh Khalid Mohammed and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. References Guantanamo Military Commission Prosecutors Swann, Robert L. (military lawyer) American military lawyers United States Army officers Year of birth missing (living people)