The Gitmo bar exposed
There has been a lot of indignation about an ad by Keep America Safe about lawyers who worked pro bono in support of the terrorists at Gitmo and later were hired by the Justice Department. Eric Holder repeatedly refused requests form Congress to identify them and the ad called the un-named shysters the al Qaeda Seven. OK a little over the top I thought at the time, I mean there are quite a few on the left who believe it is an issue of civil liberties not national security. They are wrong, but our system is built to have all points of view in play. Well there is an Op-Ed today that breaks some stunning and disgusting news about some of the folks who were helping out those poor innocent goat herds unjustly imprisoned at Gitmo. There is no evidence that the Justice dept. lawyers were involved in this, but it gives cause to question the motives, practices and even the patriotism of some of these scumbags.
On the evening of Jan. 26, 2006, military guards at Guantanamo Bay made an alarming discovery during a routine cell check. Lying on the bed of a Saudi detainee was an 18-page color brochure. The cover consisted of the now famous photograph of newly-arrived detainees dressed in orange jumpsuits—masked, bound and kneeling on the ground at Camp X-Ray—just four months after 9/11. Written entirely in Arabic, it also included pictures of what appeared to be detainee operations in Iraq. Major General Jay W. Hood, then the commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, concurred with the guards that this represented a serious breach of security.
Maj. Gen. Hood asked his Islamic cultural adviser to translate. The cover read: “Cruel. Inhuman. Degrades Us All: Stop Torture and Ill-Treatment in the ‘War on Terror.’” It was published by Amnesty International in the United Kingdom and portrayed America and its allies as waging a campaign of torture against Muslims around the globe.
“One thread that runs through many of the testimonies from prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq, and from Guantanamo,” the brochure read, “is that of anti-Arab, anti-Islamic, and other racist abuse.”
How did the detainee get it? More importantly, who gave it to him?
Majeed Abdullah Al Joudi, the detainee in whose cell the brochure was first found, told guards he received the brochure from his lawyer. An investigation by JTF-GTMO personnel revealed that Julia Tarver Mason, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, had sent it to Al Joudi and eight of the firm’s other detainee clients through “legal mail”—a designation for privileged lawyer-client communications that are exempt from screening by security personnel. Worse, the investigation showed that Ms. Mason’s clients passed it to other detainees not represented by Paul, Weiss lawyers. In all, more than a dozen detainees received a copy.
At Guantanamo, “legal mail” is strictly limited to correspondence between counsel and a detainee that is related to representation of the detainee, privileged documents and publicly filed legal documents. But even “legal mail,” according to the rules mandated by Judge Joyce Hens Green in a 2004 protective order, prohibits lawyers from giving detainees information relating to military operations, intelligence, arrests, political news and current events, and the names of U.S. government personnel. Lawyers are forbidden from discussing other detainee cases not directly related to the representation of their own client.
Yeah no reason to question the kind of people who believe our enemies need aid and comfort in a time of war. The lawyer for the blind sheik from the first WTC bombing is currently in jail for helping him communicate with his fellow terrorists, and we are told we should feel bad for wondering which team these bastard barristers are on? Not Hardly! Out them and let them face the music.
The actions you describe are not part of a vigorous defense within the bounds of the law. Let the facts out, and let the chips fall where they may.