[Pnews] Ammar al-Baluchi - Defense counsel for Guantanamo detainees speaks out

[Prisoner News]

    Defense counsel for Guantanamo detainees speaks out

By FinalCall.com News <http://www.twitter.com/thefinalcall> | Last 
updated: Apr 21, 2014 - 12:47:02 PM
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_101381.shtml

/*'The public is quite often not given the full picture'*/

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Sterling Thomas is the defense counselor 
for Pakistani Ammar al-Baluchi (a 9/11 defendant and high value 
detainee) and Afghani Abdul Zahir (held for 12 years without trial) at 
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp (also referred to as Gitmo).

It is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay 
Naval Base, in Cuba. He sat down with The Final Call's Ashahed M. 
Muhammad recently following a panel titled "Ending the 'Forever War' at 
Home and Abroad" during Amnesty International's 2014 Human Rights 
Conference in Chicago. He is the only Black member of the defense team 
in the Guantanamo 9/11 military commission.

*Ashahed M. Muhammad, The Final Call :  Of course there's a lot of 
propaganda, there's a lot of misinformation in the media and I was very 
happy to hear your representation because quite frankly I didn't expect 
it. You kind of get the feeling that everyone who is in the military 
represents a certain "law and order" view. In your capacity, are you 
able to give me your opinion on the injustices taking place there?*

*Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas:* Well in my capacity for instance as Abdul 
Zahir's attorney, some resolution has to occur. Justice delayed is 
justice denied as Dr. King said. And here we are talking about---for 
Abdul Zahir---a commission that has yet to happen and they continue to 
fail to bring charges or try and resolve his case. So he sits there now 
twelve years removed from his family, three children and twelve years 
removed from wife. Unable to tend to his mother's needs, unable to take 
care of his family back in Afghanistan and the United States government 
has failed in its duty to move this case forward.

*(FC:) What is probably the biggest misconception the American public 
has about Guantanamo Bay?*

*Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas:*  Well there is this phrase that one of the 
prosecutors likes to toss out all too frequently that this is a "fair 
and transparent proceeding." I would think that those who just listen to 
the bullet points, they are being deceived. The public is quite often 
not given the full picture of what the government is attempting to do 
with regard to failing to provide all too appropriate evidence or 
failing to provide witnesses that are required and would just be a 
matter of course in a normal court. Those sorts of things get shoved 
under the rug because it is not convenient for the government.

*(FC:) Switching up a little bit, you have the militarization of police 
forces across the United States ramping up their firepower, ramping up 
their training, learning urban warfare tactics perhaps in preparation 
for urban unrest. You have many of these individuals---and I think it 
was alluded to in the panel discussion---who were overseas and in 
theaters of war who may have seen certain things taking place on certain 
levels, now they're coming back to United States becoming involved in 
law enforcement. What's to say they're not going to try some of those 
things (torture tactics) within some of the police forces across the 
nation?*

*Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas: * Well, American law is supposed to prevent 
that sort of thing from happening and one of the tenets of American 
military practice is that there shall be no torturing and that we 
subscribe and fully believe in the Geneva Conventions which say we do 
not torture and which say we will not allow you to be tortured and we'll 
bring you home.  Those are some of the tenets that make a young airman 
willing to go and risk his life in defense of his country and what we 
have to do to address these issues from the Guantanamo commission's 
perspective and from the perspective of the people who are accused of 
the crimes of 9/11 is we have to address how we behaved, and how the 
United States government behaved when these men were taken into custody. 
Because, there's this blacked-out period from between 2003 to 2006 and 
one of the things that we have been able to prove and that is on the 
record at the military commission is that our client Ammar Al-Baluchi 
suffered a severe head injury while he was in CIA custody. That sort of 
treatment, that whole picture has to be brought out for there to be a 
truth and reconciliation portion to this aspect and that behavior if it 
is indeed part of how the government has behaved has to be addressed in 
order for there to be true justice.

*(FC:) Do you fear retribution or retaliation as far as your military 
career is concerned because you are lining up defending the "bad guys" 
so to speak?*

*Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas:*  It's a very fair question and a question 
that some people actually can answer in the affirmative that their 
careers have been stopped. There is a former JAG (Judge Advocate 
General's Corps) now a civilian who could quite pointedly say that 
because he successfully defended one of the 9/11 detainees, his ability 
to get promoted was negatively impacted. A lot of folks will worry about 
that sort of thing and I can't deny that it has certainly crossed my 
mind. Will this be held against me at some point? But I think the more 
important issue is that our principles as a country, as a nation, are 
important enough that I'm willing to take that risk.

*FC: Thank you.*

/(To keep up to date regarding the latest developments related to 
Guantanamo Bay hearings and trial proceedings, follow @GitmoWatch on 
Twitter.)/

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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