Bucks County Herald coverage of MCA talk by Shawn Nolan on January 24

Lawyer urges repeal of Military Commissions Act
Only 10 of 400 Guantanamo prisoners have been charged

By Linda C. Wisniewski, Bucks County Herald, February 1, 2007

Abdul Hakim Bukhari is shackled to the floor in his prison cell at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A Saudi Arabian citizen, Bukhari fought in Afghanistan against the Russian occupation and was thrown in a Kandahar prison by the Taliban. The U.S. military picked him up there after the September 11th terrorist attacks. He arrived in "Gitmo" after a 27-hour plane ride with no food or water, his head in a hood, his hearing blocked by earphones, his hands and feet duct-taped together, and is still waiting to hear the charges against him.

On Jan. 24, his lawyer, Shawn Nolan, told his story to a joint meeting of the Bucks-Montgomery Coalition for Peace Action and Upper Bucks for Democracy at the Doylestown Presbyterian Church. Nolan is an attorney with the Community Federal Defender Office in Philadelphia. He represents five clients at Guantanamo.

Only five percent of the prisoners were picked up on battlefields," Nolan said. "Eighty-six percent were arrested based on bounties. They've been stripped of habeas corpus. There is no due process. "

Nolan, who was raised in the Bucks-Montgomery area and graduated from Lansdale Catholic High School, has spent his entire career as a public defender, including representation of clients on death row. He also serves as adjunct professor of social justice with the Great Lakes College Association.

Nolan told the group that habeas corpus is the right to compel the government to justify in court why it has imprisoned someone. Last fall Congress passed and the President signed the Military Commissions Act, which abolished that right for all held as "unlawful enemy combatants," a term that has never been defined by Congress.

Only 10 of the 400 prisoners being held at Guantanamo are scheduled for trial. The others have not been charged with any crime, have not seen any evidence against them, nor been allowed to call witnesses on their behalf. The Military Commissions Act made the Detainee Treatment Act of 2006, which specifically eliminates the habeas right for Guantanamo detainees, retroactive so habeas petitions from 2005 were thrown out.

Nolan has made three visits to Guantanamo, most recently just before Christmas. One of the other lawyers on his team represents Muhammad Qasim, a 30-year-old Afghani farmer who is shackled in his cell. Someone in his village said he was with the Taliban after the U.S. military passed out leaflets offering up to $5,000 bounty for the names of anyone connected with the terrorists. The government has no physical evidence against Qasim, says the team of attorneys, nor will it identify his accuser.

Muhammad Qasim appeared before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal established after the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that detainees have the right to challenge their detention. He was not allowed to see evidence against him, nor was he able to show he was not connected with the Taliban or call witnesses on his behalf. The tribunal ruled he was an "unlawful enemy combatant." He was not charged and will never have a trial. The U.S. government claims the right to hold him indefinitely.

Abdul Bukhari, 53, is allowed no books in prison but the Quran. "He loves democracy," Nolan said. "He says the United States is a wonderful country." Both of Bukhari's parents have died since his arrest.

Nolan urged the audience to ask Congress to repeal the Military Commissions Act. "It's a national disgrace," he said. "The responsibility is with us; they are doing these things in our name."

The Coalition for Peace Action (Central Bucks Chapter) is working with other groups to get Congress to revise the MCA of 2006 and restore habeas corpus to detainees. For information contact the Rev. Al Krass at 215-547-2656.