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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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April 30th,
2007 - Guantanamo Lawyers Predict More Suicides |
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Guantanamo Lawyers
Predict More Suicides By David McFadden Associated Press April 30, 2007 San Juan, Puerto Rico - Lawyers
envision more suicides and despair at Guantanamo Bay if the U.S. Justice
Department succeeds in severely restricting access to detainees by defense
attorneys, virtually the only contact inmates have with the outside world. The Justice Department has
asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to limit
the number of lawyer visits allowed to three after an initial face-to-face
meeting, to tighten censorship of mail from attorneys and to give the
military more control over what they can discuss with detainees. Lawyers for detainees
believe that if their visits are limited, detainee desperation will deepen
and more will try to kill themselves. 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. "Visits by lawyers are
one of the few bright spot these men have," attorney Zachary Katznelson
told The Associated Press from Guantanamo, where he is spending two weeks to
meet with 18 client detainees. 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 over the weekend. 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 from Boston. "And I think the impact of further restrictions would
be dramatic." Meanwhile, Katznelson sees
the 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," Katznelson said in an e-mail Saturday. It is the attorneys,
arriving at the base in southeast Cuba aboard military planes or tiny
commuter flights, who provide the world with information about hunger
strikes, solitary confinement and other details about the detainees. Journalists can visit but
are barred by the military from interviewing detainees. The Red Cross, which
occasionally visits, keeps its findings confidential. But military commanders at
Guantanamo and the Justice Department view the lawyers with suspicion. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a
Pentagon spokesman, told the AP the military has been giving broad lawyer
access to many detainees - even though they are accused of having al-Qaida or
Taliban links and the United States is still at war. The mail system was
"misused" to inform detainees about military operations in Iraq,
activities of terrorist leaders, efforts in the war on terror, the Hezbollah
attack on Israel and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, the Justice Department said
in this month's court filing. Barry M. Kamin, president of
the New York City Bar, called the assertions "astonishing and
disingenuous" in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Lawyers for detainees also
dismissed the claims, calling them a pretext to deprive detainees of proper
legal representation. "There have been a lot
of extreme statements made," said Oleskey, referring to U.S. government
criticism of legal defense efforts. "I think it's unfortunate and it
should stop." External link: http://www.star-telegram.com/468/story/85712.html |