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Professor Barbara Olshansky is interviewed by Christine Lagorio of the Village Voice about her work involving Guantanamo and its prisoners following the recent Supreme Court decision on Rasul vs. Bush.
Professor Olshansky is asked what had changed since President Bush declared that the Geneva Convention didn't apply, Professor Olshansky says:
Once we had a Supreme Court case on our hands, people—retired military officers, former diplomats, assistant secretaries of state, and even Fred Korematsu, who challenged Japanese internment during World War II—came out as being appalled at the government's treatment of detainees.
The day after winning Rasul v. Bush in the Supreme Court "I met with the judge of the district court, where the case had been before, and the judge asked the justice department when I'd get to go down to Guantánamo Bay. The justice department said, 'I don't think she gets to go, I don't think the decision means they get lawyers.' I was shocked."
When Christine Lagorio states that "that's not exactly the case today," Professor Olshansky responds: "No, they've loosened up a bit. The government treats it as if it wasn't a ruling, but that they're letting lawyers in only on their grace. We can't see anything, our client doesn't see anything, we're perpetually in the dark, and they consistently make it difficult to get down there.
There's been a disinformation campaign where the government tells the detainees that their lawyers are all Jews, all Zionists, and hate Arabs. In addition, they hood and shackle your client, and put them in solitary in Camp Echo before and after you meet with them. It makes it so difficult."
Asked what Guantanamo is like Professor Olshansky responds: "I still have not been permitted to go. We're still in a battle because, according to the government, I represent so many people that I don't have a "singular" case. So I'm filing a "singular" case just so I can fit their standard (laughs). Obviously I don't make the government happy. "
What do they have against lawyers at Guantanamo? Professor Olshansky answers: "These law firms are very aggressive for their clients. I've watched a visit to Guantánamo change even the most staunchly conservative person to, well, somewhere even to the left of me. Maybe that's tipping off the edge of the earth. But over the span of a past few years, I've really watched it change people. I'd say 30 or so have gone down there, but that's out of about 70 law firms and more than 400 lawyers involved. It's an amazing powerhouse group."
Asked about why she chose "this professional, and life, path," she says:
This sounds cheesy, but I saw the movie To Kill a Mockingbird. I wanted to be Atticus Finch and see that people are treated justly. But I never thought I could tell a bunch of lawyers to, say, simultaneously file for injunctions to stop transportation of detainees abroad for questioning and torture, and that they would, and we'd win a dozen cases at once. It's great to be able to poke Uncle Sam in the eye once in a while. What a horrifying time we live in.