Barry Wingard Wants Better Justice for Those Still at Gitmo, Wins Wings of Justice Award

By GottaLaff

I am so proud to be associated with this man:

For many, Guantanamo Bay is a symbol of the excess in the lack of justice offered up by the Bush Administration. Unfortunately, for people such as Fayiz al-Kandari, Guantanamo Bay isn't a symbol of anything; it's the harsh reality of years of their lives. For Fayiz al-Kandari, that figure is 7½ years, and climbing.

Guantanamo is still in business, and things have become worse under Barack Obama, according to one person who has stood up for those who aren't getting justice -- Lt. Col. Barry Wingard.

Wingard is an attorney at Guantanamo and Fayiz al-Kandari is his client. For those who shouted loudly while George W. Bush was in charge, not as many have shouted in the last six months. Wingard has been the exception.

Wingard noted earlier that as bad as things were under the Bush Administration, it has only been in the last few months that al-Kandari's mail has been open, and the information used against his client. Attorney/client privilege? Gone. [...]

Guantanamo has fallen off the radar of the MSM in the last six months: "What? Guantanamo? Isn't that closed already." Wingard will tell you differently. [...]

The baton of command has changed, but not much else for al-Kandari and Wingard. As Wingard pointed out to us, the story of Fayiz al-Kandari is "7½ years without a court date, doing charity, sold to American forces, beaten/brutalize, interrogated over 400 times, and still the answers have never changed."

For standing up for people such as Fayiz al-Kandari and crying out for a justice system worthy of the United States of America, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is our Wings of Justice award winner this week.

Please go read the rest here. And congratulations, Barry. I am so honored to know and work with you and Fayiz.

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.