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Interview: Navy Lawyer Speaks on Fair Trials, Military Reaction

Friday, December 15, 2006 permalink


Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift first met Salim Ahmed Hamdan at Guantanamo Bay in 2004. Hamdan had worked for Osama Bin Laden as a driver until 2001, when he was picked up by Afghan warlords and turned over to U.S. forces. Swift was the Navy lawyer sent to represent him.

"The guards say there is no law here," Swift says Hamdan told him. Swift responded, "There is nowhere without law. But we will have to fight for it."

Last summer Swift and his co-counsel won their case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, against the Bush administration's plan to try terror suspects in special military courts. Two weeks later, he was passed over for promotion, and he will leave the Navy in 2007. Swift spoke to the ACLU/SC before the Bill of Rights Dinner on Dec. 11, where he won the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award.

Hamdan is still in Guantanamo awaiting trial. But his lawyers will likely be back before the Supreme Court soon. Two days after Swift was honored by the ACLU/SC, a federal judge dismissed Hamdan's right to sue. "We believe the Constitution does not tolerate a legal black hole at Guantanamo Bay," Swift told a reporter.

ACLU/SC: How did your fellow lawyers react to your role in this case?

Swift: "I was walking through a Navy terminal on my way to Guantanamo, and a young military lawyer recognized me. He said, 'I want you to know something. I pray for a simple thing: That if I am ever in your position I will do my job as well as you.'

"Let me tell you another story: At my 20th college reunion, as it was winding down, one of my classmates, who will probably be a general in the Marine Corps someday, started moving me into a corner.

"I thought, 'Uh oh, here it comes.' But he said: 'The rule of law is what I fight for. Men die for this. Don't you dare stop.'

"People say I am a hero. He's a hero. I wasn't asked to risk my life."

ACLU/SC: How has the case changed you?

Swift: "For four years, every time we went to court, you got it from the prosecutors or the judges that you were staring down the barrels of history. There's a great deal of trepidation and honor about that. No matter what happens from here, I'll be happy that if I'm 90 and someone says, 'Were you Salim Hamdan's lawyer?' I can say yes."

ACLU/SC: Are there innocent men at Guantanamo?

Swift: "Yes, if they are all presumed [innocent]. We're going to be so much better off when we have regular courts that actually dispense justice and we end the stigma that is Guantanamo. We should be very concerned about what the military commssions say about the character of our nation."

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