NOTE TO READERS: This was run over the holiday weekend. Some emails suggested we should run this today as well, when readership is higher. Keep scrolling since newer posts are under this.
The Talking Dog has another one of his truly unique original blog interviews in his series of Q&As with lawyers of people accused of being involved in terrorism. And this interview has MANY tidbits that are thought-provoking and potentially controversial so it is a MUST-READ.
The setup:
Thomas Wilner is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. Mr. Wilner represents twelve Kuwaiti nationals who are, or have been, detained by the United States military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On May 15, 2006, I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Wilner, by telephone. My interview notes, as corrected where appropriate by Mr. Wilner, are below.
Here’s one passage that may raise some eyebrows:
The Talking Dog: I understand that in some cases, it has been alleged that detainees have been encouraged not to cooperate with their own attorneys, in particular when their attorneys are Jewish. Can you comment on this?
Thomas Wilner: That issue came up with me. Interestingly, it didn’t get that much play. But my clients were told by interrogators not to trust their lawyer “because he’s a Jew” â€?. An interrogator told him “why would you trust him– he’s a Jew from a large Jewish law firm– that represents the State of Israel–“
The Talking Dog: Hey, you just picked up another client!
Thomas Wilner: Anyway, this was printed by Nick Lewis in the Times… “Don’t trust him, he’s a Jew,â€? but it didn’t seem to get that much traction. But one of my clients, Fayez al Kandari, told a female interrogator, code named “Megan” “I don’t care who or what he is– there are good people in every religion.” That was his answer, from the depths of Guantanamo.
Read the rest: it’s a very candid interview. As always, what makes it especially worth reading is TTD himself who is an attorney asking very specific questions so in the end you get a solid chunk of new information.
Make SURE you read TTD asking him about Guantanamo in general and Wilner’s response.
We won’t excerpt more because we’d take it too much out of context. And it deserves to be read in full because of the info and also beause it’s original reporting presented on a weblog (most weblogs including this one resemble extended op-ed pages versus news sections).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.