Click on the title for the original blog on cabdrollery....
I did a bit of checking into the history of complaints about gitmo personnel with licenses in California... and it seems there is good reason to make this a state statute as opposed to leaving it in the hands of the agencies that police themselves (we know how that goes, don't we....?)
It seems that back in 2005 a complaint was filed against John Edmondson (the former head of detainee care and a CA licensee). First the California Board denied that it possessed jurisdiction over activities at the base. Then a mandamus action was filed in state court against the board alleging that under CA state law the Board not only possesses jurisdiction but was required to investigate complaints of unprofessional conduct. In response the Board conceded that they possessed jurisdiction but that they were exercising administrative discretion not to proceed in investigating complaints (citing budgetary constraints, inherent difficulties in conducting an investigation abroad, etc.) Ultimately the Guantanamo detainees lost on that point. Anyone familiar with administrative law knows that once an agency gets into the realm of discretion it's almost impossible to force action. Maybe there has been a change on that board since 2005...but I can tell you with certainty that they were rather resistant about digging into this issue at all back then. For that matter so was the AMA, WMA, and WHO.
Maybe we can make all of these agencies do the right thing now? and what about the lawyers and the American Bar Association?
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In my interview with Dr. David Nicholl,
http://thetalkingdog.com/archives2/000511.html there are a number of interesting documents and other items relevant to Dr. Edmondson's case, and related issues, and in my interview with Dr. Steven Miles, http://thetalkingdog.com/archives2/000657.html issues of the medical profession's complicity in abuses in the war on terror are discussed at some length.
Dr. Miles does ask the very pertinent and pointed question of what we lawyers can do vis a vis our own miscreants like Messrs. Yoo, Delahunty, Bradbury, etc.
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