This is the third in a series of interviews conducted via e-mail with Scott Fenstermaker. He has represented Mr. al-Baluchi, and several other detainees in various legal matters at Guantanamo bay. His client and four other detainees are being brought to New York to stand trial for their part in the September 11th attacks.
Although Mr. Fenstermaker will not be representing Mr. al-Baluchi during this trial, he has plenty more to say about the upcoming legal proceedings.
TP: You said that you "have never been involved in the substance of the allegations" against these men. Can you tell us what evidence the government has against these detainees? And if you have not seen any evidence the government plans to present, do you think the charges against these detainees are justified?
SF: I have never been involved in the substance of any of these cases because I have been tied up for years now simply trying to secure the government's authorization to represent my clients, to be able to write to them, and to be able to meet with them. The government has aggressively attempted to interfere with my efforts to represent all four of my clients. I have litigated this issue at Guantanamo Bay, in Washington, DC, and in New York. The time I have spent on this litigation could have been better used to help represent the clients in their commissions' matters, but the government will not allow that, for whatever reason.
It is possible that I may now have in my possession the discovery materials for the 9/11 case (at least the military commission case). I have not, however, had the time to review it as of yet. It is approximately 23 gigabytes of information, which I am informed is somewhere between 60,000 and 80,000 pages of materials, and I have a day job while all of this is going on.
Let me know if you have any questions about this.
TP: Yes, I certainly have more questions regarding the evidence the government has, or will present regarding the 9/11 trials. Is this information in the public domain? Can you discuss this material?
SF: The information is not in the public domain, although I do not believe that it is classified. I don't know if I can discuss it, but would not even if I could. The information is likely to be controversial and was entrusted to me because of concerns held by the person that provided it to me that it would be destroyed.
TP: I can understand your refusal to disclose pending legal matters in accordance with your attorney-client obligations. But why tell us that you have discovery materials for the 9/11 case, then refuse to discuss the matter? And why haven't you reviewed this material when your client is accused taking part in the most heinous crime in U.S. History?
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