You Can't Make This Shit Up! Leading the Fight for the Rule of Law in the Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions

Name: You Can't Make This Shit Up! Leading the Fight for the Rule of Law in the Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions
Brand: Mike Berrigan
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By Michael Berrigan

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Description

I was an active-duty Army JAG for 20 years. When I retired in 2006, I was approachedto work as Principal Deputy Chief Defense Counsel for the Military Commissions DefenseOrganization (MCDO): the team defending people held at Guantánamo Bay in the Bushadministration's "War on Terror". In many senses, the military commissions, created in theaftermath of 9/11, were the antithesis of good national and international law, designed to allow theuse of evidence obtained from torture to prosecute and convict "detainees".
At MCDO, truth was (and is) stranger than fiction; we would often invoke the mantra "Youcan't make this shit up!" There is another meaning to this phrase: when the Bush administrationdecided to create ("make up") the GTMO military commissions and not to use established systemsof justice, they were asking for trouble. It is impossible to create a new system of "justice" on thefly, particularly one created to hide illegal practices (redactions on 20 pages of the memoir wererequired by CIA and DOD censors.) Innumerable problems and obstacles were bound to occur.
This insider account of the work of MCDO through the Hicks, Hamdan, Khadr, al Bahlul, andJawad trials, among others, and the al Nashiri and "9/11" death penalty cases, offers uniqueinsights into the often dark world MCDO attorneys were forced to navigate-including beinginvestigated by the FBI (led by Special Counsel Pat Fitzgerald) for alleged misuse of classifiedmaterials. There was so much at stake: nothing less than the rule of law. Dark humor helped us notonly survive, but thrive-while scarred. Think a legal M*A*S*H. You really can't make this shit up!

Product details

Binding:: Paperback
Number of Pages:: 374
Release Date:: 2025-11-07
Publication Date:: 2025-11-07
Publisher:: Mike Berrigan
Languages:: Original: English
ISBN13:: 9798993815329
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:: [email protected]
Weight:: 541 g
Height:: 15.2 cm
Width:: 22.9 cm
Thickness:: 2 cm

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