Gitmo Lawyers Push Back By William Fisher t r u t h o u t | Report
Friday 04 May 2007 A Justice Department proposal to limit lawyers' access to the nearly 400 detainees at Guantanamo Bay is drawing sharp criticism from much of the legal community in the US. In a court filing, the DOJ claimed that the lawyers' use of mail to communicate with their clients had "enabled detainees' counsel to cause unrest on the base by informing detainees about terrorist attacks." The mail system has been "misused" to inform detainees about military operations in Iraq, activities of terrorist leaders, efforts to fight terrorism, a Hezbollah attack on Israel, and abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, the department said in the filing. The DOJ is seeking to narrow the definition of "legal mail" and to set a three-visit limit on face-to-face meetings once a detainee agrees at an initial meeting to let a lawyer represent him. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is expected to hear arguments on the proposal on May 15. "Creating a legal black hole where rights are denied is as un-American as it is illegal," said Anthony Romero of the American Civil Liberties Union. And Mary Shaw of Amnesty International USA told Truthout, "The right to a fair trial is one of the universally applicable principles recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which the US is a signatory. The US took a huge step away from this standard with the Military Commissions Act of 2006. And now the proposal to limit attorneys' access to their clients at Guantanamo Bay will further hinder detainees' right to full equality under the law." "How a person is treated when accused of a crime provides a concrete demonstration of how far a state respects human rights. Amnesty International strongly urges the Congress and the Bush administration to take immediate steps to restore our traditional American values of justice, rule of law and human dignity. Otherwise the 'war on terror' is merely a war on rights," she said. Lawyers are predicting more suicides and despair at Guantanamo if the Justice Department prevails. They point out that lawyers are virtually the only contact inmates have with the outside world. If their visits are limited, detainee desperation will deepen and more will try to kill themselves, they say. On June 10, 2006 two Saudi detainees and one Yemeni hanged themselves with sheets - the first and only suicides since the 2002 opening of the detention center that now holds about 380 inmates. Clive Stafford Smith, an attorney for several Guantanamo detainees, said curtailing lawyer visits would likely lead more prisoners to attempt suicide. "The level of depression is soaring, I am afraid," he said. He added that many detainees are kept in isolation in small cells with no natural light. With no prison sentence having been pronounced - except for one Australian detainee - the detainees do not know when they will get out, if ever. Many have been there for more than five years. Attorney Stephen Oleskey, who represents six Algerians, said more suicides are "a real risk" if the court restricts lawyer-client contacts. "I've seen firsthand the mental conditions of my clients deteriorate in isolation," Oleskey said. "And I think the impact of further restrictions would be dramatic." Many human rights and legal authorities view the DOJ move to restrict attorney access as an attempt to seal the facility from critics. "If we cannot come in, the only news getting out of here will be the government's carefully crafted version," said one of them. Read the Full Report Here: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050307F.shtml Recommended Resources <http://www.kpfk.org/> http://www.kpfk.org/ <http://www.commondreams.org/> http://www.commondreams.org/ Ara [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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