DEREK STOFFEL, CBC HOST: Mr. Willett, what’s your client’s reaction to this ruling?
SABIN WILLETT (Parhat’s Lawyer): Boy, what a great question that is because my client doesn’t know about this ruling because I’m not allowed to tell him.
STOFFEL: He doesn’t know?
WILLETT: We’ve asked — the first thing we did was ask the government for permission to make a phone call and they haven’t given it to us. Now we have a way to send him a letter that goes through clearance and we’ve sent it and maybe in three weeks he’ll get it.
He’s sitting in solitary confinement today. He has no idea what’s happened as far as I know.
STOFFEL: Well, let me ask you then, what’s your reaction to this ruling?
WILLETT: Well, I’m thrilled except for the constant vexation of the inabilitiy to bring this thing to a real and human close. Huzaifa Parhat has now been determined by about as conservative a court as there is not to be an enemy combatant — this is what we’ve been saying for years — and yet I can’t get him out of solitary confinement in the hands of my own government. So it is a frustrating but somewhat thrilling moment for us. []
STOFFEL: I suppose the next thing you need to do is to let your client know what’s happened.
WILLETT: That’s what we’re trying to do. I mean, we’ve sent him a letter. We’re going to file a motion with a judge to order them to let us call him on the phone and take him out of solitary confinement. I mean we’ve got a man in solitary confinement that they’ve got no authority to hold at all. It’s unbelievable. So we’ll be in court pretty soon, trying to get some more relief but it was a good day to get that notice.
I’d say “Unfrickenbelievable” . . . but this is, after all, BushCo we’re talking.
SCOTUS, or the D.C. Circuit?
Not that it affects your point, of course. I was freaked out b/c I was away from my computer last Thursday and had to wait *50 minutes* to see the handdown of a successful appeal … and I wasn’t even the client, much less in jail at GTMO.
Oop, thanks for the correction, Anderson. Been a long day.
Well, that is not good. Since the Court has made its ruling, AND the US govt. has long ago announced its intent to release all of the 22 Uighurs, it would seem that they should be placed into a holding area much less restrictive under different rules than the others who are considered dangerous while waiting to find a country willing to take them upon their release.
And it would seem that being able to communicate with others –lawyers, family, etc. — would make it more easy to assist the Uighurs in making decisions (assuming they get any input) about to whom they would be released to. These are people with no country at this point, and a big world gorilla named China wants them and doesn’t want anyone else to take them.
While, as I earlier opined that they are at least in part to blame for their own initial plight, that does not excuse the US from unnecessarily continuing their plight.
Before I go too far in my condemnation of this situation, is there any possibility that they could be in solitary for their own protection from other prisoners? Would they be in danger from being with other prisoners? IF so, but only due to GITMO circumstances, then they should be moved to a minimum security holding area within the US.