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U.S.
Attempts To Deny American Muslim Right To Meet With Lawyer
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Human
rights organizations have protested the treatment of those
captured in Afghanistan |
WASHINGTON
D.C., June 1, (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – In the latest
violation of the civil rights of American Muslims/Arabs, U.S.
prosecutors Friday asked a federal appeals court to overturn an order
allowing Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S.-born man in military custody since
his capture in Afghanistan, to meet with an attorney.
In
issuing the order Wednesday, a U.S. district court judge in Norfolk,
Virginia, "took the extraordinary step of ordering the military
to permit unmonitored access by the Public Defender to an enemy
combatant during wartime," U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said in an
emergency motion submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth
Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, news agencies reported.
The
motion argued that a meeting with an attorney would allegedly hamper
the military's ability to gather intelligence from Hamdi, "and
critical, life-saving intelligence may be lost.
"In
addition, members of the Al-Qaeda network and its supporters are
trained to pass concealed messages through unwitting intermediaries
such as attorneys," the motion said.
If
the appeals court does not block the order it will go into effect at 1
p.m. (1700 GMT) Saturday. Public Defender Frank Dunham, who has also
defended terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, has requested to meet with
Hamdi, news agencies reported.
"Hamdi
must be allowed to meet with his attorney because of fundamental
justice provided under the Constitution of the United States,"
the judge's order said.
"This
meeting is to be private between Hamdi, the attorney, and the
interpreter, without military personnel present and without any
listening devices of any kind being employed in any way."
But
President George W. Bush has determined that all forces associated
with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have the status of “unlawful
combatants”, McNulty pointed out. "The free-floating right of
immediate access to counsel ... has no footing in the laws of
war," he argued.
Human
rights organizations, including Amnesty International have asserted
that those captured in Afghanistan must be granted the status of
“prisoners of war”, and therefore must be treated according to the
guidelines of the Geneva Conventions on wartime activities.
Another
American Muslim captured in Afghanistan, John Walker Lindh, has not
been denied the right to meet with his lawyers in what civil rights
activists state is a double-standard on the part of the U.S. when
dealing with those of Arab descent.
Over
400 Muslim/Arab men in the United States have been detained since
September 11. The majority of their families have complained that the
detainees have not been denied access to lawyers and have been treated
inhumanely.
Hamdi,
21, was captured with Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters after a prison
uprising in November in Afghanistan and taken to the U.S. military
prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In
April, he was transferred to the brig at the U.S. Naval Station in
Norfolk, after authorities discovered that he was born to Saudi
parents in the U.S. state of Louisiana. 
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