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November 14, 2005
the real face of gitmo
If you aren't outraged, you're not paying attention. Either way, read Detainees Deserve Court Trials, an outstanding opinion piece in today's Washington Post.
As the Senate prepared to vote Thursday to abolish the writ of habeas corpus, Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jon Kyl were railing about lawyers like me. Filing lawsuits on behalf of the terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Terrorists! Kyl must have said the word 30 times.
As I listened, I wished the senators could meet my client Adel. Adel is innocent. I don't mean he claims to be. I mean the military says so. It held a secret tribunal and ruled that he is not al Qaeda, not Taliban, not a terrorist.
The military people reached this conclusion, and they wrote it down on a memo, and then they classified the memo and Adel went from the hearing room back to his prison cell. He is a prisoner today, eight months later. And these facts would still be a secret but for one thing: habeas corpus.
This deserves to be read far and wide. I'm ashamed that my government is doing this in my name, and I want it stopped right now.
Posted by Chris at November 14, 2005 10:35 AM