Navy lawyer on trial for leaking names (of Gitmo detainees-possible 24 year sentence)

[babylonsister]

http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/106243.html

Navy lawyer on trial for leaking names
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
[e-mail]

NORFOLK, Va. --
A Navy lawyer facing up to 24 years in military prison goes on trial Monday for allegedly leaking the once-secret names of Guantánamo detainees to a New York City law firm.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz, in his late 30s, faces five charges ranging from mishandling classified material to conduct unbecoming an officer when his court-martial opens at Naval Station Norfolk.

He's facing the most serious charges against a U.S. military officer since the prison camps opened at Guantánamo in January 2002 with an air-bridge of suspected terrorists from Bagram, Afghanistan.

A jury of seven Navy officers was chosen last week; the court-martial was slated to open with statements from both defense and prosecution lawyers Monday morning.

According to pretrial documents filed in the case, a Valentine's card arrived by U.S. mail at the New York Center for Constitutional Rights in January 2005 containing a detainee list that had been cut into pieces to fit inside.

At the time, the civil liberties group was leading the charge in federal court to file unlawful detention suits called habeas corpus petitions on behalf of hundreds of war-on-terror captives at the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

more...

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Wow...charged under Espionage Act

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/05/jury-selection-begins-in-guantanamo.php

[glitch]

2. How disgusting. I cannot wait until these creepy people are out of power

and in prison. I hope he is getting together with the whistleblowers. Protection in standing together.

On trial for defending the constitution (for that is exactly what he is doing). I wish more of his peers would STAND UP and support him.

[tyedyeto]

6. Which Democratic candidates have recently expressed what ...

they would do about Gitmo and it's prisoners?

Have any of them talked about lawyers being denied the right to confer with their clients? Or how many do not have a lawyers after being there for years? Ot about the many prisoners who have not even been charged for a crime, yet have been there for years?

They will talk about torture there but not about the prisoners rights. When the candidates start discussing Gitmo about some of these habeas corpus issues, then I will start to believe something may change but not until then.

[MADem]

3. Holy shit.

Why do I get the impression that this is a vexatious effort on the part of the Navy? The old "We'll make an EXAMPLE of you" routine? I certainly hope this doesn't turn into a "Let the wheel of justice spin, bring the guilty bastard in" scenario. He's got one thing going for him--a lawyer who REALLY knows how the game is played:

But it would be more than a year before those names were released -- after another court ordered their release in a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the Associated Press.

Diaz's civilian attorney, a former Marine Corps major and military judge, Patrick McLain of Dallas, says one key issue at the trial is whether release of the names compromised national security.

He said neither the list itself was stamped ''secret,'' nor was it described that way in a secured computer system at the base. ''The government says it was classified,'' McLain told The Miami Herald. ``Our position is, prove it.''

Earlier efforts to accuse an Army captain who worked at the base as a Muslim chaplain of likewise mishandling classified documents fizzled, in part, over a challenge by the chaplain's attorney whether the material was actually secret....

[enough]

4. Intimidation of attorneys: part of the strategy.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Another hero for the future Medal of Courage to be conferred by the American people

on those who fought the Bush Junta at the risk of their careers, their liberty and sometimes their lives!

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz! Remember that name! Blessings upon you, Lt. Cmdr. Diaz! It is people like you who give us all hope and courage! Thank you for your tremendous sacrifice on behalf of decency and lawful government!