MB Civic

First They Came for the Lawyers
By Marjorie Cohn

Afterdowningstreet.org

Jan. 15, 2007

In one of the most severe blows the Bush administration has dealt to our
constitutional democracy, the Pentagon
attacked the lawyers who have volunteered
to represent the Guantnamo 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
pro bono work, Stimson declared, Corporate C.E.O.’s seeing this should ask
firms to choose between lucrative retainers
and representing terrorists.

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.”

Federal Judge Green, who has handled the
many habeas corpus petitions filed by the
Guantnamo detainees, expressed
appreciation for the lawyers: “I do want to
say we are very grateful for those
attorneys who have accepted pro bono
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.”

More than 750 men and boys have been
held like animals in cages during the last
five years at Guantnamo. 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.

Ironically, there were no alleged terrorists
connected with 9/11 there until Bush
recently transferred 14 men from his secret
CIA prisons to Guantnamo.

Meanwhile, hundreds of detainees languish
in custody, aided by 500 courageous
lawyers from 120 firms who have
volunteered countless hours to represent
them.

Under the Military Commissions Act Bush
just rammed through Congress, the
Guantnamo 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.

Guantnamo 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.

The Supreme Court held in Rasul v. Bush
that the Guantnamo 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.

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 Bush says he’s
spying on the terrorists, those who criticize
his policies, including his illegal and
immoral war on Iraq, are also invariably in
his cross hairs.

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.”

George W. Bush must 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.

Marjorie Cohn, 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.

Source URL:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/17295