Like a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby Road picture, The Road to GITMO is full of adventure, mayhem, and an odd cast of characters. Take for instance Peter E. Brownback III — judge, Army officer …
… Road Crew Flagman.
That’s right. Brownback traveled The Road to GITMO out of retirement to serve as a presiding officer for the military commissions. Somewhere along the road, a source tells us, he stopped in the tanned, toned, and glistening world of road crew flagmen.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Brownback, who retired as an Army colonel, served as the judge in the reasonably well-known if not notorious Kreutzer case. Sgt. William J. Kreutzer is the guy who took the wrong road when he shot nearly 20 soldiers one morning at Fort Bragg, N.C. His death sentence was vacated on appeal, because it seems Judge Brownback denied certain defense requests. A source says this type of victory for the defense is almost unheard of in the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. Fork in the road?
But that’s ancient history. Why use that as criteria for Brownback’s current line of work?
Citizen Brownback’s post-retirement choice to take the low-stress road as a census taker and one more catatonic as a road crew flagman is … interesting. He has also rented beach chairs, which is actually pretty hip in beach culture. While Inside the Headquarters agrees that such jobs can be a lot of fun and provide a well-earned respite from, oh, say being a judge, sources wonder if Brownback was the best choice to preside over commissions, despite his newfound perspective from alternative careers. Unless of course, his appointment was a precursor to the staffing drama that continues to plague the prosecution and defense teams.
The jury is still out on this one.