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Locking Attorneys out of Guantánamo

Government launches war against habeas counsel under claim that lawyers are “acting as a conduit for the media”

By H. Candace Gorman

In recent weeks, disastrous court decisions have set back the cause of the hundreds of men and boys languishing in Guantánamo. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. has ruled that the Military Commissions Act (which strips Guantánamo inmates of habeas corpus rights) is a viable law, and the Supreme Court has told us Guantánamo attorneys that we must… return to article

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    Page 1 of 1 pages

    True or not true? Real or not real?

    “..the Supreme Court has told us Guantánamo attorneys that we must work within the framework of the Act before the Court will determine whether it is constitutional..”

    Abdication of responsibility, refs judicial review?

    “..[the Court] also eliminated habeas corpus (the right to challenge unlawful imprisonment in a court of law) for those who were not going to be charged (98 percent of the detainees).”

    Hm, continuing to be held, but will not be charged. I can hear the echo of self-righteousness from back in my youth during the Cold War days, the verbal finger of shame-shame, figuratively pointing at the USSR.

    “..the Guantánamo military commissions, Col. Morris Davis, went after Hicks’ military lawyer, USMC Major Michael Mori. Davis suggested Mori should be brought up on charges for speaking out against the Bush military commissions.”

    No questioning, no criticizing, just get the fuck in line and do your job, Mori. No, the real job, not the defense bit. You want to get along? Better go along!

    “The government has now launched its latest attack, moving to dismiss all of the Guantánamo cases now pending and changing the rules that have allowed attorneys like me to visit and communicate with our clients.”

    A new twist on obstruction of justice.

    “The government has asked the court to enforce new rules that will grant us only three visits to our clients. Under this new regime, the government would reserve the right to read every communication between Guantánamo inmates and their attorneys.”

    We’ll just toss out attorney-client privilege too.

    “If the government succeeds, it will put us back in the days when Guantánamo was a legal black hole.”

    No, that’s an “illegal” black hole. Extra-legal? Thoroughly detached from any pretense of legal due process? (The law is what we say it is… I said get back in line!)

    “As the government claims in a recent filing: “no court has jurisdiction over conditions” at Guantánamo. If no court has jurisdiction, that leaves the Bush administration free to both set the rules and monitor them.”

    And the grand finale (or really, the basis of it all), disappearance of checks and balances.

    On Jan 20, 2009, that tremor in the atmosphere you’ll feel will be the vibration of billions of people breathing a big sigh of relief with the inauguration of the new Prez. Won’t matter which party hooks 1600 Penn Av.

    Philippines Posted by Kuya on May 24, 2007 at 9:24 PM
    Page 1 of 1 pages

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Also by H. Candace Gorman
  • A Kinder, Gentler Torture
  • The Hippocratic Oath Dies in Gitmo
  • Catch-22 in the 21st Century
    Government censors are making like Joseph Heller's character Yossarian and blacking out random information in letters from Guantánamo that has nothing to do with "national security"
  • Third Time’s the Charm?
    The military didn't even bother to retain most of the documents from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals conducted in 2004, so the government has no documents showing any reason for holding these men
  • Suicide and Spin Doctors
    There are many ways for the oppressor to force himself into the mind of the oppressed, but one surefire way is through indefinite detention. Never knowing when--or if--you will be released is a cruel form of psychological torture and allows you to keep hope while simultaneously filling you with fear
  • Inside the Secret Facility
    In an Orwellian twist, the U.S. government monitors all correspondence between a Guantánamo attorney and her client
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