Thursday, July 12, 2007

ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL HIM?

I just returned today from Gitmo. I will do a longer post in the next few days but many people have been emailing and asking me about Mr. Al-Ghizzawi and I feel compelled to alert you to what is happening to him. I do not have good news on that front. In fact everything about this latest trip was dismal. Mr. Al-Ghizzawi was extremely weak and had a very difficult time communicating. He was confused, disoriented and depressed. We had planned on spending the first of our two days of meetings discussing legal issues and going over documents that we were readying for court.... but that was not to be as Mr. Al-Ghizzawi was not allowed to bring his documents (with all of his notes and questions) to our meeting. Our choice was to start from scratch or wait until the following day...given his medical condition I opted for waiting to review the legal documents the following day in the hopes that he would be allowed to bring the legal materials for that visit. Unfortunately the second day of meetings did not take place as Mr. Al-Ghizzawi, for the first time since I have been coming to the base, was too weak to attend the second day of meetings. Mr. Al-Ghizzawi sent me a heart wrenching note apologizing for not being able to meet with me; he explained to me not only the physical reasons why such a meeting was not possible but also the mistreatment he had received on the day of our meeting and the effects he was suffering from that ill treatment. I will share all of this with you soon but first I must prepare papers to file with the court seeking (perhaps in vein) the court's intervention in what will otherwise result in the death of Mr. Al-Ghizzawi.