Commander Matthew Diaz is being prosecuted by the government for trying to secure legal representation for some of the many detainees locked up for ever in Gitmo. We know what Mitt Romney believes: no suspect detained by the military should have a right to lawyers, even military ones. But Diaz was a military lawyer of 18 years' experience. And he knows the law - and the Geneva Conventions. That's why he's been targeted by the Bush administration. The Dallas Morning News has an exclusive interview with Diaz. Money quote from an explanatory piece:
In an hourlong interview after the opening day of trial on Monday, Cmdr. Diaz laid out his reasoning.
What is illegal, he said, is the Bush administration's prosecution of the war on terror. He accused officials of violating international law, such as the Geneva Conventions on the humane treatment of war prisoners, and the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of due process. "I made a stupid decision, I know, but I felt it was the right decision, the moral decision, the decision that was required by international law," Cmdr. Diaz said. "No matter how the conflict was identified, we were to treat them in accordance with Geneva, and it just wasn't being done." ...
In his interview with the News, he recalled two prosecutors, in particular, who "objected to the way the system was set up to guarantee a conviction. I don't believe they lasted long ... they didn't make it to the first hearings."
Of course they didn't. Video of the Diaz interview here.