Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, American Hero

This is a short Diary with the purpose of calling to your attention an article in today's New York Times about a Military Lawyer at Guantanamo who is fighting for the Rule of Law.

Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler in an American Hero.

When the Military Commissions Trials were envisioned in 2001, there is no doubt that the program's author's believed that military defense lawyers would not fight on behalf of men labeled terrorists.  

They thought perhaps that these lawyers, often of junior rank compared to prosecutors, would bow to pressures and let their clients be convicted without vigorous defense.

Well, this assumption has turned out to be a big mistake.

Today's New York Times features an article about Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, the Navy Attorney assigned to defend Omar Kahdr, a Guantanamo detainee captured in Afghanistan at age 15, who is accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American Soldier.

In aggressively defending his client, Kuebler has pointed out the injustice of the kangaroo court system at Guantanamo.  He has shown that the evidence against Kahdr is contradictory and weak, and has also disclosed that standard operating procedures required Guantanamo Interrogators to destroy their handwritten notes from interrogations.  In April of this year Kuebler testified in front of Canadian Parliament:  "Lies have been told about Omar," He said.

According to the Times, Kuebler is not what we would normally think of as a civil libertarian, and certainly not a "progressive":

He is no natural agitator. At 37, he is in some ways deeply conventional. Married to the first girl he ever dated in high school, he is a self-described born-again Christian and conservative who has "never voted for a Democrat." Tom Fleener, a former Guantanamo military defense lawyer, described Commander Kuebler, saying, "Take the average conservative guy in the street and multiply that by a million."

But regardless his politics, Kuebler is committed to Justice and upholding the principles of the US Constitution.  Sadly, this makes him a rare bird in comparison to most of today's Republicans and Democrats both.