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Washington Post Op-Ed
The Washington Post published an op-ed by Wilner on January 1, 2008.[5]
He noted:
"All these prisoners have asked for is a fair hearing, one in which they have the chance to learn the charges against them and to rebut the accusations before a neutral decision maker."
Guantanamo cases
Wilner has been critical of the conditions under which the US holds Guantanamo detainees. In a February 26, 2006 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times Wilner reported:
- It took two and a half years of legal wrangling before he won access to interview his clients.[6]
- None of his clients were "captured on the battlefield".
- None of his clients were accused of engaging in hostilities.
- All of his clients claim they were captured by warlords, and sold to the US forces in return for a bounty.
- All of his clients describe brutal beatings and other abuse while they were held in Afghanistan. Several of them describe brutal beatings after their arrival at Guantanamo.
- Wilner described the brutality of the forcefeeding of the Guantanamo hunger strikers in great detail.
Wilner has also reported that interrogators have warned Guantanamo captives that the Guantanamo attorneys were all jewish, and they couldn't trust them.[7]
On September 19, 2008 the Washington Post published a letter to the editor from Wilner in reply to a recent editorial on whether the Congress should pass legislation on how the Justice system should conduct captives' habeas corpus appeals.[3] The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Boumediene v. Bush had overturned Congress's proscription on allowing captives access to the US justice system.
Senators Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman had introduced a bill "..to mandate the procedures the courts must follow in the habeas hearings for Guantanamo Bay detainees."[3] The Washington Post's editorial had applauded the Senator's proposed bill. Wilner's letter expressed concern that the bill was unnecessary, and could:
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- "...interfere with habeas cases underway, cause confusion and raise constitutional issues that could only delay the "prompt" habeas corpus hearings ordered by the Supreme Court."
References
- ^ "Guantanamo Bay: Dealing with the Enemy in an Age of Terror", Justice's talking (May 16, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
- ^ "American gulag: Torture, force-feeding and darkness at noon -- this is Guantanamo, a lawyer for prisoners says", Los Angeles Times (February 26, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-03-02.
- ^ a b c Thomas Wilner (2008-09-19). "Guantanamo Detainees and the Courts", Washington Post, p. A18. Retrieved on 2008-09-19. "The habeas corpus review ordered by the Supreme Court is modest but fundamental. It simply requires the government to demonstrate to an independent judge that it has a reasonable basis for detaining a prisoner. It is the most basic protection against arbitrary and mistaken imprisonment. U.S. courts have handled these cases since our country was founded. They are fully capable of handling these cases now without further legislation."
- ^ "Findlaw Lawyer Directory". Findlaw. Retrieved on 2007-02-05.
- ^ Thomas B. Wilner (January 1, 2008). "Guantanamo detainees deserve a chance to defend themselves", Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
- ^ "Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah, et al., Petitioners v. United States, et al.". US Supreme Court (July 30, 2004). Retrieved on February 5, 2007.
- ^ Estaban Rodriguez (June 30, 2005). "Reply of June 30, 2005, to Henry Waxman" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-05-07. mirror
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