The Court Martial of Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz

Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, an ex Navy lawyer in Guantanamo Bay, who was on court martial trial on Monday, 14th May, for mailing the names of 550 Guantanamo Bay detainees to human rights lawyer, Barbara Olshansky with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), faces six months imprisonment and dismissal from service according to the BBC.

Diaz apologised during his sentencing for having acted “irrationally” though he earlier defended his action as necessary because he felt the prisoners’ rights under the Geneva Convention had been violated. According to an AP report, Diaz had printed detainees names, their nationalities, the interrogators assigned to them, “intelligence sources and methods”, from a classified computer by logging onto the classified network before cutting the printed information into 39 sheets. He then mailed the letter, disguised as a Valentine’s day Card on Jan. 15, 2005, his last day of duty at the base.

An commentary by Scott Horton in Harper’s Magazine on this case opined that, “

The persecution of Commander Diaz is of a piece with the cashiering of Commander Swift and Major Mori, the absurd accusations brought against Gitmo defense counsel… … .

All of this conduct is disgraceful and embarrassing. It reflects the values of a totalitarian state and not a democracy that values justice. It brings shame on the military and the nation. And it reminds us how our current crisis in the administration of justice does not stop with Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department. “

US & Britain Need to Change their Strategy in Iraq

Chatham House, officially known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, based in London, recently issued a paper entitled, “Accepting Realities in Iraq - A Briefing Paper” urging the US and British government to recognise the ground reality in Iraq.

Written by Gareth Stansfield, an Associate Fellow of the Middle East Programme at Chatham House, and Associate Professor in Middle East Politics at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, the paper says that it “would be a mistake to believe that the political forces in Iraq are weak and can be reorganised, perhaps by the US, perhaps by the international community”.

Stansfield opined that there is not one but “several civil wars and insurgencies” in Iraq which has caused the former country to further fragment and likely to collapse with the result that “the polarization of sectarian and ethnic identities reaches ever deeper into Iraqi society and causes the breakdown of social cohesion.”

He also wrote that an increase in military force will not be able to “deliver the critical political accomodation”. Instead, stabilization of Iraq can only be achieved by “engaging with leaders and organizations that possess some degree of credibility and legitimacy among local populations.”.

The writer stated in his conclusion that the Iraqi situation can only be resolved by:

1. finding Sunni Arab representatives to become part of the government

2. recognising Muqtada al-Sadr as a legitimate political partner. Muqtada al-Sadr is the Shia nationalist cleric leader who owns the military wing, Jaish al-Mahdi. The man and his organization are often perceived by the West as on the same league with Al-Qaeda groups though Muqtada al-Sadr “has substantial popular support and therefore political legitimacy”.

3. being more responsive to Kurdish concerns.

Advance Australia Fair

This year there will be an Australian Federal Election. This will be one of the most important elections for some time in Australia.

I think that as a country we need to remind ourselves of the line from our national anthem.

Advance Australia Fair

A fair go for workers
A fair go for the climate
A fair go for indigenous people
A fair go for democracy
A fair go for refugees
A fair go for same-sex couples

A fair go ALL Australians