The Tortured Journey

It is hard to know where to start with this piece by Jason Leopold. I guess I will start by asking you to read it (click on the title).
I think it is fair to say that everyone who gets involved in the guantanamo litigation (on behalf of the detainees) is forever changed. I have watched this with the many attorneys I have worked with over this years and with other people I have met along the way. For those of us who are U.S. citizens we also have to deal with the shame of what our country has done and is continuing to do.
As many of you know I first became involved in the Guantanamo litigation in 2005 when I took on the representation of one man being held there. Shortly thereafter I took on the representation of a second man. Soon Guantanamo and everything that it symbolizes literally took over my life....to the point that I closed my law practice and solely focused on my two guantanamo clients and the institution itself.
I have been an attorney now for almost 30 years and when I started on this probono project I thought two things "how hard could it be?" and "this will probably last about a year." Both of those questions were really point on...because this litigation should not have been hard and it really should have been over in a year---years ago.
But I did not realize just how dishonest the department of "justice" had become and I did not realize how readily our once commanding judicial system would acquiesce its role as the independent arbiter.
Like Jason, those of us who are paying attention cannot help but become obsessed with the injustice of the Guantanamo gulag and the complacency and ignorance of the american people.
I just wish more people were paying attention.
Click here to read Jason's interview with David Hicks.