July 25, 2007
Stephen E. Abraham
Over the past several years, the Bush Administration
has endured several setbacks to its pit of injustice at Guantánamo.
Its most recent slap on the hand by the courts may have resulted
from Stephen E. Abraham's courageous stance.
It is not an easy thing to do, to break ranks against the "Commander
in Chief" to honor the Constitution and rule of law before
blind loyalty to the titular head of the military.
But that is just what Stephen E. Abraham did.
According to a July 23 article in
The New York Times:
"Nobody stood up and said the emperor's wearing no
clothes," Colonel Abraham said in an interview. "The
prevailing attitude was, 'If they're in Guantánamo, they're
there for a reason.' "
The curtain on the hearings had been pulled back a bit previously,
when the Pentagon, under pressure, released some transcripts. But
by stepping forward, Colonel Abraham gave the Supreme Court and
the public a look from an insider at a process that remains heavily
shielded.
He expanded on that account in a series of recent conversations
at his law office here, offering a detailed portrait of a system
that he described as characterized by superficial efforts to gather
evidence and frenzied pressure to conduct hundreds of hearings
in a few months.
Most detainees, he said, have no realistic way to contest charges
often based not on solid information, but on generalizations, incomplete
intelligence reports, and hints of terrorism ties." Abraham, an attorney, has spent 22 years specializing in counterintelligence
and counterterrorism in the military reserves, earning the rank
of lieutenant colonel. He knows of what he speaks.
And for speaking out on behalf of the rule of law, he has honorably
earned this week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award.
* * *
Nominated by Karen Porter of Pennsylvania. Karen is a past
recipient of the Wings of Justice Award.
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