Just when I was feeling all warm and toasty inside, I read this story about Charles "Cully" Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, that really chapped my ass. Apparently, Herr Cully is upset that attorneys from prominent American law firms are representing military detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. You remember the detainees, right? Orange suits ring a bell?
Some of the best law firms in the country have taken the detainee cases pro bono because they feel that these "enemy combatants," who are being detained indefinitely by the United States without due process and without Geneva Convention rights, are entitled to legal representation while they are processed through American "military tribunals." It is fair to say that a great many of the detainees who have been locked up in Guantanamo Bay for the past five years have not been charged with anything close to terrorism. In fact, a lot of these people were turned in to American soldiers by other Afghanis due to personal vendettas and/or cutthroat politics that are part and parcel of life in Afghanistan. Other detainees were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and were picked up by American soldiers, who had to make "snap judgments" on the battlefield. And yes, some of them are really hardcore Taliban who fought and were captured by American soldiers and who sheltered Al Qaeda.
To their credit, in the bold tradition of the literary figure Atticus Finch, the best firms in the country are taking on these unpopular cases and giving the best possible legal representation to Guantanamo detainees, regardless of their guilt or innocence and under the most challenging of circumstances. Hearing about this makes me proud to be a lawyer for a change.
For his part, Herr Stimson recently told Federal News Radio that he finds it "shocking" that lawyers at some of the best U.S. law firms are representing detainees. He listed the names of over a dozen major firms that he claimed should be boycotted by corporate clients because of this pro bono work. Then there's this wonderful quote:
"And I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms."
When he was asked who might be paying the law firms to represent Guantanamo detainees, Stimson suggested that some firms may be receiving money from improper sources (Gasp! terrorist groups?!):
"It's not clear, is it? Some will maintain that they're doing it out of the goodness of their heart -- that they're doing it pro bono, and I suspect they are. . . . Others are receiving monies from who knows where and I'd be curious to have them explain that."
Wait, there's more.
Stimson downplayed international condemnation of the detention center as "small little protests around the world" that were "drummed up by Amnesty International" and exaggerated by the liberal news media.
This guy should be fired -- shitcanned -- as soon as possible for encouraging boycotts of law firms who are doing the thankless work of representing people whom no one else will represent. His remarks are disgusting, and sure, I'll say it: un-American.
Now, I am sure there is no shortage of people in this country who agree with Herr Stimson, who would do well governing in present-day Zimbabwe. (Is Mugabe looking for people?) Maybe some of you think that nobody should feel sorry for the detainees being held indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay. Perhaps you've concluded that they are all terrorists and war criminals and should not be represented by anyone. You don't need more facts. They were captured, they should pay.
To those of you, and to Herr Stimson, I say this: The United States is being judged by how it treats these people. In present and future conflicts, the treatment of captured American soldiers, i.e. American "detainees," will depend in part upon how we treat the Guantanamo prisoners. If we deprive our prisoners of rights and legal representation, the same will be true of American prisoners who are captured by the enemy. And even if American prisoners are treated worse, we have a moral obligation as a country to be better than our adversaries in the treatment of prisoners. Even Saddam Hussein was represented by American attorneys at his farce of a trial. He killed hundreds of thousands of people. Do these detainees, many of whom haven't done anything other than be conscripted by the Taliban, deserve any less?
When I hear people in power speak the things that were said by Herr Stimson, I wonder how far we are from a police state. If you think that's a joke, make sure you pay close attention to those news stories about how the U.S. military is expanding its domestic spy powers. This issue doesn't just apply to how we treat foreigners. Just ask Jose Padilla. He is an American citizen who was pulled off a plane by federal agents in Chicago in 2002 under suspicion of plotting to build a "dirty bomb." Padilla was held in a military brig in Charleston, S.C. for several years without due process and without access to an attorney. If that doesn't scare you, it should.
At times like this, people should look at history and remember McCarthyism, the shameful internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, and the wrongful prosecution and execution of the innocent Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in 1927. This country does not always get it right, and sometimes lawyers are the only obstacle between freedom and the wrongful prosecution and imprisonment of innocent people. This is why we have due process and constitutional rights. They are the two primary things that make this country great and unlike most nations on earth. We should protect these rights and safeguard them carefully, including for people whom we feel may not deserve their protections. Even for people we decide to jail on American soil (and Guantanamo qualifies, much to the chagrin of Fidel Castro, who justifiably has never cashed an American "rental check" for G.B. in nearly 50 years) who are not American citizens. In fact, our legal system loses all meaning if it only serves to protect the innocent, the privileged, and those who are sympathetic to the majority. This is why the law firms who are representing the Guantanamo detainees should be commended, not criticized.
People forget that when due process rights are lost, they are not lost overnight. They are slowly chipped away, bit by bit, so that one does not even see them disappearing until it is too late. Someone should remind Herr Stimson of this. Herr Stimson should also read and ponder the following poem by Martin Niemollier, a German Pastor during World War II. He was speaking of the political apathy of German intellectuals during the Holocaust, but his words are certainly relevant to the situation facing attorneys representing the detainees of Guantanamo Bay, and other issues of justice that we face in the world today:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
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