Many Detainees At Guantanamo Rebuff Lawyers

[Hissyspit]

Source: New York Times

Many Detainees at Guantánamo Rebuff Lawyers

By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: May 5, 2007
Many of the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are no longer cooperating with their lawyers, adding a largely invisible struggle between the lawyers and their own clients to the legal battle over the Bush administration’s detention policies.

Some detainees refuse to see their lawyers, while others decline mail from their lawyers or refuse to provide them information on their cases, according to court documents, writings of some of the detainees and recent interviews.

The detainees’ resistance appears to have been fueled by frustration over their long detention and suspicion about whether their lawyers are working for the government, as well as anti-American sentiment, some of the documents and interviews show. “Your role is to polish Bush’s shoes and make the picture look good,” a Yemeni detainee, Adnan Farhan Abdullatif, 31, wrote his lawyer in February. Some of the lawyers accuse Guantánamo officials of feeding the detainees’ suspicions of the lawyers, a charge Pentagon officials deny.

- snip -

“Every lawyer is afraid, every time they go down there, that their clients won’t see them,” said Mark P. Denbeaux, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law who represents two Guantánamo detainees. “And it’s getting worse, because it’s pretty hard to say we’re offering them anything.”

The situation is awkward for the lawyers, who have become a considerable force not only in the courts but also in legislative, diplomatic and public debates about detention policies. Tense relationships or outright resistance from their clients could undercut their credibility and complicate their legal work.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/05/us/05gitmo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Kali]

1. History is going to have some interesting thigs to say about all of this

and I want to see what becomes of these lawyers eventually.

[w4rma]

2. Didn't the GOP leadership impliment some rules where lawyers could only visit their clients three

times total? Not much time to get acquainted.

[Hissyspit]

3. .

[3waygeek]

4. I don't buy this story for a second...

sounds to me like propaganda to make the lawyers look as bad as possible and to discourage others from acting on behalf of the detainees.

[annabanana]

5. not necessarily

I can completely understand why a detainee, with no verifiable way to trust anything, and perhaps a limited understanding of how a legitimate justice system OUGHT to behave would have decided that there is no one to speak for them.

I doubt that this would deter a determined advocate.

[Richard Steele]

6. How does this "make the lawyers look as bad as possible"?

I don't see it. :shrug:

[The Stranger]

7. Two weeks ago, the Pentagon was going to limit visits to 2/year -- now this.

What is going on down there between these SS interrogators and the "detainees" while the lawyers are away?

[Sabriel]

8. Did anyone hear the "This American Life" show about Gitmo?

It was absolutely appalling.

Podcast it here, but be quick before they remove it:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=310