More Outrage
I was away from the internet for a week, and I am just now getting caught up on my reading. I almost wish I hadn't been so compulsive, because most of the news was horrifying. The outrage really hit when I went over to H. Candace Gorman's The Guantanamo Blog. As most of you know, Candace is one of the civilian attorneys trying to aid the detainees at Guantanamo, struggling against the authorities there for even a moment's meeting with their clients.
In a post dated May 7, Candace links to this NY Times article, in which she and several other Guantanamo Bay lawyers are mentioned.
In interviews and a court filing Tuesday, lawyers for detainees at Guantánamo said they believed government agents had monitored their conversations. The assertions are the most specific to date by Guantánamo lawyers that officials may be violating legal principles that have generally kept government agents from eavesdropping on lawyers.
“I think they are listening to my telephone calls all the time,” said John A. Chandler, a prominent lawyer in Atlanta and Army veteran who represents six Guantánamo detainees.
Several of the lawyers, including partners at large corporate law firms, said the concerns had changed the way they went about their work apart from Guantánamo cases. A lawyer in Chicago, H. Candace Gorman, said in an affidavit that she was no longer accepting new clients of any type because she could not assure them of confidentiality. ...
Ms. Gorman’s court filing said that during a visit to the Guantánamo naval base in Cuba, her military escort “referred in conversation to personal information about my family that I had not disclosed to him,” leaving her to wonder how that information had been obtained. [Emphasis added]
Maintaining confidentiality with a client is an absolute requirement in the practice of law and is supposed to be treated with the same seriousness as the confidentiality between priest and confessor and doctor and patient. It is absolutely crucial in the attorney-client relationship so that the client can trust his or her lawyer enough to speak freely and candidly. Confidentiality is so important that violation of the rules of confidentiality is a sure ticket to disbarrment, as it should be.
The courts have long respected those rules, and have expected prosecutors and other government officials to do so as well. A Federal Court has even busted the chops of the Guantanamo Bay officials for eavesdropping on conferences between the detainees and their lawyers:
Several of the lawyers said a program of surveillance would be consistent with obstacles they had encountered in representing detainees. In 2004, officials proposed “real-time monitoring” of lawyers’ interviews with Guantánamo detainees.
A federal judge barred that, saying that listening to lawyers’ meetings failed to recognize “the exceptional place in the legal system of the United States” for attorney-client communications.
But that isn't what's at issue here. It now appears that the government has tapped the business and private phones of the Gitmo attorneys. When asked about that, according to the Times article, the government coyly responded that maybe they were and maybe they weren't.
So, because Candace Gorman can't be sure she can deliver on her obligation to provide absolute confidentiality in the communications with her clients, she has stopped taking new clients. In other words, her very livelihood is being threatened by the government.
And for what? National security?
Baloney.
This is simply a case of government intimidation. Even though it doesn't appear to be working very well, it needs to be stopped. Now.
Outfuckingrageous.
In a post dated May 7, Candace links to this NY Times article, in which she and several other Guantanamo Bay lawyers are mentioned.
In interviews and a court filing Tuesday, lawyers for detainees at Guantánamo said they believed government agents had monitored their conversations. The assertions are the most specific to date by Guantánamo lawyers that officials may be violating legal principles that have generally kept government agents from eavesdropping on lawyers.
“I think they are listening to my telephone calls all the time,” said John A. Chandler, a prominent lawyer in Atlanta and Army veteran who represents six Guantánamo detainees.
Several of the lawyers, including partners at large corporate law firms, said the concerns had changed the way they went about their work apart from Guantánamo cases. A lawyer in Chicago, H. Candace Gorman, said in an affidavit that she was no longer accepting new clients of any type because she could not assure them of confidentiality. ...
Ms. Gorman’s court filing said that during a visit to the Guantánamo naval base in Cuba, her military escort “referred in conversation to personal information about my family that I had not disclosed to him,” leaving her to wonder how that information had been obtained. [Emphasis added]
Maintaining confidentiality with a client is an absolute requirement in the practice of law and is supposed to be treated with the same seriousness as the confidentiality between priest and confessor and doctor and patient. It is absolutely crucial in the attorney-client relationship so that the client can trust his or her lawyer enough to speak freely and candidly. Confidentiality is so important that violation of the rules of confidentiality is a sure ticket to disbarrment, as it should be.
The courts have long respected those rules, and have expected prosecutors and other government officials to do so as well. A Federal Court has even busted the chops of the Guantanamo Bay officials for eavesdropping on conferences between the detainees and their lawyers:
Several of the lawyers said a program of surveillance would be consistent with obstacles they had encountered in representing detainees. In 2004, officials proposed “real-time monitoring” of lawyers’ interviews with Guantánamo detainees.
A federal judge barred that, saying that listening to lawyers’ meetings failed to recognize “the exceptional place in the legal system of the United States” for attorney-client communications.
But that isn't what's at issue here. It now appears that the government has tapped the business and private phones of the Gitmo attorneys. When asked about that, according to the Times article, the government coyly responded that maybe they were and maybe they weren't.
So, because Candace Gorman can't be sure she can deliver on her obligation to provide absolute confidentiality in the communications with her clients, she has stopped taking new clients. In other words, her very livelihood is being threatened by the government.
And for what? National security?
Baloney.
This is simply a case of government intimidation. Even though it doesn't appear to be working very well, it needs to be stopped. Now.
Outfuckingrageous.
Labels: Fourth Amendment, Guantanamo Bay, Terra Terra Terra
posted by Diane at 4:00 PM
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