The Center for Constitutional Rights, an organization of lawyers "dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights", has made the news recently by coordinating the legal representation for the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, some of whom were picked up far from any battlefield and who have languished there years without any evidence against them being disclosed. Their actions have, along with the recent change in public opinion about how the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been handled, have been causing increasing numbers of lawyers to go through the arduous process of gaining access to Guantánamo. The additional scrutiny alone seems to have already had a positive effect:
The influx of defense lawyers at Guantánamo Bay also seems to have had some impact on the character of the detention facility. Some of the lawyers say that it was likely a factor in the authorities' decision to end most of the interrogations in recent months. In addition, some lawyers and human rights officials say that the lawyers' presence has reduced reports of abusive treatment by guards and interrogators that previously were the subject of complaints from the Red Cross and the F.B.I.
The CCR is also "calling for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to conduct a full, independent and public inquiry into the role of high-ranking U.S. officials in the abuse and torture of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo and elsewhere around the world." I doubt that this is going to go anywhere, but it is nice to see more attention being drawn to the fact that while a number of lower-level military personnel have been scapegoated for some of the prisoner abuse that has been revealed, not a single senior officer has gone to jail, and few have even been investigated in more than a cursory fashion. This is despite the fact that the abuse has not been limited to the "torture lite" that the U.S. government has admitted was a matter of policy, but included severe torture (including one man who was tortured to death even though the interrogators believed he was innocent), rapes (not only of Iraqis but even of our own female troops by our own soldiers), outright murders, and even mass murders. At some point, it would be nice if the people setting the policies causing this to happen were finally held accountable.
It is amusing, in a sick sort of way, but not unexpected, that the CCR is already being accused of not being interested in protecting the rights of the detainees as much as "scoring points against the US". This is despite the fact that the CCR has been involved in this sort of work since 1966. The obvious solution to the problem of people "scoring points" in this fashion, namely, for the U.S. to stop torturing people to death and punish those responsible, never seems to come up in those discussions.
Perhaps with enough legal attention, it will. Let's hear it for honest lawyers.
Link credit to Left2Right.
