Shhhh, Mr. Al-Ghizzawi's Torture is "Secret"

During the week of September 24th I went to visit my client Mr. Al-Ghizzawi at Guantanamo again. It is clear to me that our visits are nearing the end... Mr. Al-Ghizzawi won't be with the living much longer. Mr. Al-Ghizzawi knows his days are limited, not only can he barely walk but he sat at our meeting doubled over in pain. For the first time in our two year attorney-client relationship Mr. Al-Ghizzawi shared with me pictures of his little girl... she is now almost six years old and he has not seen her since she was a few months old. She is a beautiful little girl with big green eyes and a mischievous grin. Mr. Al-Ghizzawi lamented the fact that he will never see his little girl again and that his little girl will not even have a picture of him to remember her father by.

Mr. Al-Ghizzawi wanted to share something else with me before he died. He wanted to share with me some of the torture that he has been subjected to over his now almost six years of captivity. He handed me a letter that he had been working on since July... it was a six page letter... he asked me to mark each page so that when I received it I would know if I was receiving the correct pages. I put my initials on the pages and I handed the letter over to my escort so that the military could send it to me... after "reviewing" it first for "secret information."

I have only had one letter held over these more than two years because it contained "secret" information. On that occasion I flew to DC, hired an interpreter with the "secret clearance" and went to the "secret place" to read the mysterious letter. As you might have suspected there was nothing mysterious in the letter... the interpreter first read the letter to me and after I expressed my dismay he typed out the translation... I resubmitted the letter in English and it was approved without so much as a mention of the previous "secret" designation... It was an expensive letter.

So now I have had a second letter withheld... well actually only half of a second letter...The government has designated three pages of Mr. Al-Ghizzawi's six page letter as "secret." It seems that the three pages that discuss recent issues that Mr. Al-Ghizzawi experienced while at Gitmo are ok .... It is the three pages that talk about what happened at the hands of the US while he was still in Afghanistan and his early days at Guantanamo that needs to be kept secret... and I don't blame them one bit for trying...it is ugly. ... really ugly. So there you have it, the ugliest facts are classified as "secret" to protect... I'm sorry, what is it again that we are protecting here?

Comments

[alfrede]

Hi,

Guantanamo was chosen as the place to put those "captured" because the Bush Administration figured it was not subject to US law or jurisdiction.

We probably won't conclude this chapter in our history until the next President takes office.

The fact that when the jihadists captured our people (e.g. Nicholas Berg) and cut their heads off is no reason for us to treat them in the same manner (this observer's opinion).

Most of those at Guantanamo were sold to the US (we paid the Afgans to turn people in) or were turned in to settle personal scores. They are guilty of no more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What do U think?

[desertdweller]

Make no mistake, these are not the Boy Scouts that we have locked up in Gitmo.....

[rlehman]

Maybe not Boy Scouts, definitely human beings. Once upon a time in America that meant something, if for no other reason than we wanted our enemies to see us as human. But, we are now our own worst enemy and we are becoming the very worst of the worst, if not already there.

[Sephirothii13]

they are protecting the GROSS lack of human caring and GROSS attacks against everything that we as Americans hold dear and some would say "Holy" like right to a trial, right to not be beaten until you say what ever they want to hear, and then beaten again. to die under our care, right to be HUMAN I am sorry your client is going through this hell, america is suppost to be like this. I am sorry he is going to see us when we have lost our way.

[BadChristian]

Some call it, "Jahalia."

[blueraven]

We're protecting the right of rich, white bozos to take the great experiment and flush it down the toilet. They have the freedom to do it, and we have the freedom to let them or be damned.

[sorenmeetsdylan]

And you swallowed it all like a fish. What a tool.

[holliwoodinc]

Swallowed what?

[Sephirothii13]

saying that she was being lied to by her client that he was feeding her a line of bs because we don't hurt people like that, causing them die while in our care. of course that is real lie and real line isn't "sore"
Daniel Jacobs
MT. Holly