HIS OWN FAULT

As I reported earlier this week Judge John B. Bates of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled once again that Guantanamo prisoner Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi was not entitled to any medical care beyond what the government decides he needs, assuming that it is any at all, and that neither Al-Ghizzawi nor his attorney were, are or presumably ever will be, entitled to look at his medical records.… Judge Bates apparently has no interest in viewing the medical records himself because the government's word appears to be sacrosanct if not ex cathedra, and certainly not subject to challenge by some mere arbitrarily held prisoner. Judge Bates held that allowing Al-Ghizzawi access to his own records would allow him to “second guess” the medical care (that he is not receiving) at the base…. Of course it would also allow Al-Ghizzawi to show the court (and the world) that the government of the United States is deliberately lying about his health care… That, of course, is beside the point.

(Click on the title to read the rest of what I have to say about the decision....)