2635 The Guantanamo Bay Bar Association

Their pro-bono work is aiding the enemy. So how do these prisoners get a case to go up through the courts with some of the best lawyers in the country? Lawyers you and I couldn't afford? Well, we're paying for it--indirectly because they are being paid huge fees by firms we invest in.

Blogged about this in January. I wrote letters. Did you? Deroy Murdock's original article

It's a recruiting tool for these firms:

From Fredrikson & Byron
Fredrikson & Byron has put together a team of lawyers representing one of the Guantanamo detainees, Ahcene Zemiri. We are working to ensure that he has the opportunity to present the facts of his case to a federal court. Our lawyers worked with the Center for Constitutional Research (“CCR”)**, a non-profit organization based in New York, to arrange for our representation.

Although more than 150 Guantanamo detainees are now represented by counsel from across the country, Fredrikson & Byron remains the only law firm in Minnesota that is representing a detainee. Our habeas petition has become the model petition that CCR provides to other counsel planning to file petitions in their own cases. Individuals who have worked on this case include: Matt Boos, Ingrid Culp, Wade Davis, Jim Dorsey, Emily Duke, Lilhja Emery, Dulce Foster, Roxanne Gangl, Michelle Hanson, Sharen Keehr, Faye Knowles, John Lundquist, Nicole Moen, Debra Schneider, Jessica Sherman, Rhona Shwaid, Asmah Tareen, and Heather Thayer.

Sutherland Asbill & Brennan: "Here are a few highlights of our most recent pro bono work:

In January 2005, John Chandler accepted a challenge from the American College of Trial Lawyers to represent alleged "enemy combatants" detained at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On February 7, 2005, Sutherland filed a petition for habeas corpus and other relief on behalf of five Yemeni detainees. The petition, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, notes how "[e]ach of the Detained Petitioners is being held virtually incommunicado in military custody at Camp Delta...without basis, without charge, without access to counsel and without being afforded any fair process by which they might challenge their designation and detention." Because the U.S. government prevents lawyers from visiting Guantanamo detainees unless they have a pending case, Sutherland brought these cases through the detainees' relatives, who authorized the filings as "Next Friends" of the petitioners. Sutherland lawyers have since submitted security clearance forms that, once approved, will allow them to visit the detainees."

I wonder if these firms will do pro-bono work for Marines or school children who pray at graduation?

**The CCR is the group that has written a book on how to impeach President Bush.

Guantanamo Bay