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Enemy Combatants and the Cuban Iguana Behind the Wire
Conspiracy theorists could make much of the false alarm that delayed the start of Professor Peter Jan Honigsberg's October 17th presentation detailing his recent visit to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His fiery indignation at the abuses of due process and the administration's use of what he called the "illegitimate term enemy combatant" did set off sparks of agreement among the audience.
 Aerial shot of one of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camps.
Along with two Swedish journalists, Honigsberg made a three-day "media tour" of the base in May 2007. His presence as a member of the media, not as an attorney, gave him access to more of the base, although always with a guide. On the second day of the tour, an Army colonel questioned Honigsberg about his credentials, and admitted that "we shouldn't have let you in." Honigsberg suspects that the authorities reached this conclusion after eavesdropping on a conversation he and the Swedes had in their on-base accommodations the night before.
The tour included Camp Delta, Camps V and VI (where the least compliant detainees are held), and Camp X-Ray, the first camp established on the base in 2002, now unused and overgrown with weeds.
Among the censored photos Honigsberg was permitted to keep (Their guides reviewed and deleted images on his digital camera each evening), were arrays of the items - clothing, footwear, books - provided to the prisoners, depending on their level of compliance. A photo of a typical interrogation room contained a blue velor La-Z-Boy chair, where the detainee would sit, a leg shackle visible nearby. After a "successful" interrogation, the detainee is allowed to watch Arabic TV on a set in the small room, according to Honigsberg.  The endangered Cuban Iguana is provided more legal protection than detainees, according to Thomas Wilner, who successfully litigated the first U.S. Supreme Court case to establish that denying detainees habeas corpus rights is unconstitutional.
"Attorneys are allowed only pen and paper to take notes during client meetings," he explained. "Afterwards, the government collects these notes and sends them to Washington, D.C. to be photocopied and classified information redacted. The lawyers eventually receive them with 'secret' material blacked out. So much for the sanctity of the attorney/client privilege."
Honigsberg has been following the "war on terror" since September 12, 2001 and teaches the seminar, Legal Issues of the War on Terror. "It there is one lesson I hope students learn," he said in response to an audience question," it is that it is your job to stand up to protect society, the Constitution, and the rule of law."
Honigsberg's book, tentatively entitled, Abandoning Human Rights and Human Dignity, on the due process issues raised by the detention of enemy combatants will be published in 2008 by the University of California Press.
This Justice Forum presentation was co-sponsored by the law school and the SBA Building Bridges committee.
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