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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/cohn01162007.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/cohn01162007.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>January 16,
2007</b></font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><h1><font size=5><b>Next They Came for the Lawyers...<br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Stimson's Outrageous
Threat</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>By
MARJORIE COHN</font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">I</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>n one of the most severe threats the Bush
administration has dealt to our constitutional democracy, the Pentagon
attacked the lawyers who have volunteered to represent the Guantánamo
detainees. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson
threatened corporate lawyers who agree to defend the men and boys
imprisoned there. Flashing a list of corporations that use law
firms doing this <i>pro bono</i> work, Stimson declared, "Corporate
C.E.O.'s seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative
retainers and representing terrorists." <br><br>
In 1770, John Adams defended nine British soldiers including a captain
who stood accused of killing five Americans. No other lawyer would
defend them. Adams thought no one in a free country should be
denied the right to a fair trial and the right to counsel. He was
subjected to scorn and ridicule and claimed to have lost half his law
practice as a result of his efforts. Adams later said his
representation of those British soldiers was "one of the most
gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and
one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my
country."<br><br>
Federal Judge Green, who has handled the many <i>habeas corpus</i>
petitions filed by the Guantánamo detainees, expressed appreciation for
the lawyers: "I do want to say we are very grateful for those
attorneys who have accepted <i>pro bono</i> appointments. That is a
service to the country, a service to the parties. No matter what
position you take on this, it is a grand service."<br><br>
More than 750 men and boys have been held like animals in cages during
the last five years at Guantánamo. Many were picked up by warlords
and sold to the US military for bounty. None has been tried for any
crime. Very few even have any criminal charges against them.
<br><br>
Ironically, there were no alleged terrorists connected with 9/11 there
until Bush recently transferred 14 men from his secret CIA prisons to
Guantánamo. Meanwhile, hundreds of detainees languish in custody,
aided by 500 courageous lawyers from 120 firms who have volunteered
countless hours to represent them.<br><br>
Under the Military Commissions Act Bush just got Congress to okay
without any notable qualms, the Guantánamo prisoners could be held for
the rest of their lives without ever seeing a judge. Those who
decide that death could not be worse than life at Gitmo have participated
in a hunger strike. Rather than subject the Bush administration to
embarrassment when prisoners die in US custody, military guards force
feed them. Thick plastic tubes are forced down their throats with
no anesthesia. Tubes are not sterilized before being reused on
other prisoners. The UN Human Rights Commission called the
force-feeding "torture." Many prisoners also report being
tortured during interrogations.<br><br>
Guantánamo has become the symbol of US hypocrisy. While fighting
the "war on terror" and attacking other countries for their
human rights abuses, the officials in the Bush administration have become
war criminals. Torture and cruel or inhuman treatment are
punishable as war crimes under the US War Crimes Act.<br><br>
The Supreme Court held in <i>Rasul v. Bush </i>that the Guantánamo prison
is under US jurisdiction, so prisoners there are entitled to the
protections of the Constitution. The Sixth Amendment mandates that
every person charged with a crime has the right to be defended by an
attorney. The government is forbidden by the Fifth Amendment from
denying any "person" - US citizen or not - due process of law.
The presumption of innocence is enshrined in our legal system.<br><br>
Bush's attack on lawyers is the latest assault on our civil liberties,
which now includes warrantless surveillance of our phone calls and email,
and most recently, our US Mail. Although the Bush
admiknistration says it is spying on the terrorists, those who
criticize its policies, including the illegal and immoral war on
Iraq, are also invariably in the cross hairs.<br><br>
All Americans should heed the words of Martin Niemoller: "First they
came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing.
Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat,
so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a
trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a
Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one
left who could stand up for me."<br><br>
George W. Bush should, but won’t, immediately renounce Stimson's
threats and relieve him of his duties. A country that would
sacrifice its own values under the guise of protecting them has no moral
authority in this world.<br><br>
</font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2><b>Marjorie Cohn</b>, a professor at
Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is president of the National Lawyers
Guild and the US representative to the executive committee of the
American Association of Jurists. Her book, "Cowboy Republic:
Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law," will be published in
June.<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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