Fayiz al-Kandari has been stuck in a Gitmo cell for eight and a half years. He has done nothing wrong, broken no laws, hurt no one. All “evidence” against him is hearsay upon hearsay upon word-of-mouth upon blahblahblah (see links below). He is the first client who his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, is fully convinced is absolutely innocent of any and all charges. Yet Fayiz still remains imprisoned… indefinitely.
Other cases may not be so clear cut, but indefinite detention and military commissions are not the answer. Federal court is:
US government prosecutors must present evidence that an Algerian detainee held at Guantanamo Bay for over eight years truly belongs to Al-Qaeda or release him, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The decision by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has broad implications for the credibility of evidence the administration of President Barack Obama has presented to justify holding terror suspects without trial.
Another ruling was overturned in favor of another detainee:
…Belkacem Bensayah, who was nabbed from Bosnia with five other dual Bosnian-Algerian nationals in 2001.
Those detainees have been imprisoned since 2002, and were accused of planning to go to Afghanistan to fight against us.
Judge Douglas Ginsburg:
“[T]he evidence upon which the district court relied in concluding Bensayah ‘supported’ Al-Qaeda is insufficient… to show he was part of that organization.”
Insufficient evidence. That is often the case. Fayiz was faced with pages and pages of redacted “evidence” that Barry has no way of challenging. He can’t possibly know what it says. It’s redacted. Or hearsay.
In 2008, a judge ruled that Bensayah could be held indefinitely without trial. That is not the America we should accept, unless, of course, we become desensitized and accustomed to a form of “democracy” that we would have previously shunned.
Our system of justice worked effectively until September 11, 2001. We only weaken ourselves as a nation and threaten the liberty of our own citizens if we acquiesce to the wrong kind of “justice” now.
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All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari’s story here.
Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.
Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is a military attorney who represents Fayiz Al-Kandari in the Military Commission process and in no way represents the opinions of his home state. When not on active duty, Colonel Wingard is a public defender in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.
If you’d like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.
Then read Jane Mayer’s book The Dark Side. You’ll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I’m all over the CIA deception issues, too.
More of Fayiz’s story here, at Answers.com.
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