<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<h2>Defense counsel for Guantanamo detainees speaks out</h2>
<small>By <a href="http://www.twitter.com/thefinalcall">FinalCall.com
News</a> | Last updated: Apr 21, 2014 - 12:47:02 PM<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_101381.shtml">http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_101381.shtml</a><br>
</small>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><em><strong>‘The public is quite
often not given the full picture’</strong></em></span></p>
<p>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). </p>
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.
<p><strong>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?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas:</strong> 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.</p>
<p><strong>(FC:) What is probably the biggest misconception the
American public has about Guantanamo Bay?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas:</strong> 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.</p>
<p><strong>(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?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas: </strong> 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.</p>
<p><strong>(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?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Lt. Col. Sterling Thomas:</strong> 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.</p>
<p><strong>FC: Thank you.</strong></p>
<p><em>(To keep up to date regarding the latest developments related to
Guantanamo Bay hearings and trial proceedings, follow @GitmoWatch on
Twitter.)</em></p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>