Thursday, January 29, 2009

THE $1000 LETTER

It was actually more than that but the rest of the costs were my own fault. I was multi tasking and clearly had too many tasks on the plate and screwed up. More on that another time. One of the joys of being a Guantanamo attorney is that the mail your client sends to you is read by the “privilege” team before it makes its way to you. Usually they just read it and fax it on to you and leave the original in your secret drawer. But sometimes they “classify” the letter and you cannot read it without going to the secret office near DC.

Maybe you can imagine my surprise when I received an email this past week stating that Mr. Al-Ghizzawi’s latest letter to me was “classified.” Al-Ghizzawi has been wrongly held prisoner for seven years in total isolation. What in the world could he have to say to me, or anyone, that should be classified? I sent an email back to the privilege team and asked them if they could please give me an indication of the reason for the classification. Shortly thereafter, I received an email back that stated that the letter was classified because Al-Ghizzawi’s letter was “too specific on the detainee's exact location within the detention facility.” I literally did a double take. I mean WTF. Did they think I (or someone) was going to try to bust him out or something? They refused to say anything more and told me I could read it next time I was at the Secret Pace.
CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE REST..

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