Keith J. Allred

Keith J. Allred is an American lawyer and retired Naval officer.

Early Life and Career

Allred entered the Navy in 1979. He received his juris doctorate in 1985 from the University of Washington. He served in the U.S. Navy in various capacities: in 1995 as general counsel, Naval Medical Center, San Diego, Calif.; in 1999 as circuit trial judge, Western Pacific Judicial Circuit, Yokosuka, Japan; and in 2005 as senior trial judge, Western Judicial Circuit, and military

Military career

2003 - 2005	Professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.
Summer 2006	Captain Allred published a report, in 2006, about how NATO should address human trafficking.
2006-2007	Presided over Guantanamo military commissions.

Dismissed all charges against Salim Ahmed Hamdan

On June 4, 2007 Allred dismissed all charges against Salim Ahmed Hamdan. Hamdan had been one of the first four Guantanamo captives to face charges before a military commission. It was Hamdan's habeas corpus request, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, that resulted in the United States Supreme Court ruling that the first version of the Guantanamo military commissions were unconstitutional.

The United States Congress, which the Supreme Court had ruled did have the constitutional authority to institute military commissions passed the Military Commissions Act in the fall of 2006.

Allred, and Peter Brownback, the officer presiding over Omar Khadr's Tribunal, ruled that the since the Act only authorized the Commissions to try "unlawful enemy combatants", and that Hamdan and Khadr's Combatant Status Review Tribunals had merely confirmed that the captives were "enemy combatants", the Commissions lacked jurisdiction.

See also

• Military Police: Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees and Other Detainees