For those of you not familiar with Matthew Diaz he was a military lawyer at Guantanamo in 2004-05. I have to admit I do not know as much as I should about Diaz. But it seems that about eight months after the Supreme Court ruled in June 2004 that the Guantanamo detainees were entitled to legal representation Diaz sent the name of the detainees to the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. At the time Diaz said that his decision was the right decision because of how the detainees were being treated and he reminded everyone that his oath was to the U.S. Constitution. That would be the same oath (to the same Constitution) that Gonzales took… but it seems that Diaz took his oath a bit more seriously. As Diaz’s time at the base was nearing an end he stated "I had observed the stonewalling, the obstacles we continued to place in the way of the attorneys.” "I knew my time was limited. ... I had to do something."
Diaz has apologized for his actions. I hope one day I can apologize to Diaz for the actions taken by our country against him…. A country that has lost its moral compass and sentenced this man to six months for doing the right thing.
Thank you Lt. Comdr. Matthew Diaz. You are a hero.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
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The only "crime" at GTMO, according to our military, is trying to stop abuse of detainees (or trying to behave in any way that doesn't besmirch this nation's honor). Also-- not being a White Anglo is pretty bad, too.
Hence, we have Captain James Yee, a West Point grad, no less, who tried to intervene to stop abuse of the Koran, disrespect of the detainees and other abuses, for which he got over 80 days of solitary confinement, a huge debt for legal fees and his career destroyed-- for charges that were dropped before trial (!), and now, we see that Lt.Cmdr. Diaz, for attempting to STOP A WAR CRIME, to wit, the refusal to even identify those held as prisoners by a government in a military context, now gets six months in the brig.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the psychotic sadist who turned GTMO from a rough POW camp into a torture chamber...and not to mention, bears overwhelming responsibility for the abuses at Abu Ghraib... got a medal.
Do we need to know much more than this?
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