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H. Candace Gorman is an American attorney. She is the sole practioner at what she describes as a "boutique firm" in Chicago. Her father, Robert J. Gorman, was also an attorney with a practice in Chicago.

Gorman has been part of an effort organized by the Center for Constitutional Rights to provide pro bono lawyers for the captives the United States took in the "war on terror", and has held in it Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.

Guantanamo clients

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Gorman described learning that one of her clients, Abdel Hamid Ibn Abdussalem Ibn Mifta Al Ghazzawi, had a second Combatant Status Review Tribunal, that determined he was an "enemy combatant", after his first Tribunal unanimously concluded he had never been an enemy combatant, and should be released. Gorman described requesting a court order for a copy of her client's file. Her judge gave the Department of Defense 60 days to make a photocopy of her client's file.

When Gorman received the unclassified copy of his file she learned that there had been no evidence that he was an enemy combatant at his first Tribunal, but that a second Tribunal had been convened, five weeks later, with different officers, without her client, or his Personal Representative present, that concluded he was an enemy combatant, after all, based on new, secret evidence.

Gorman describes traveling to the secure facility, the only place where the Guantanamo captive's attorneys are allowed to review classified evidence. Gorman describes that, when she reviewed the classified portion of his file she found nothing new. She found nothing that hadn't previously been made public, except that some names that had previously been redacted were in the clear.

Gorman reports that Al Ghazzawi has liver disease which the Guantanamo authoriities are not treating.

"I was allowed to visit my client for the first time in July after representing him for almost a year. It was readily apparent when I met Mr. Al-Ghizzawi that he was ill. He was jaundiced and gaunt looking, he was clearly in pain when he was talking with me and was suffering from other symptoms, which we discussed. When I returned to my office, I started to call doctors to help me determine what was wrong with Mr. Al-Ghizzawi. I was eventually referred to the renowned Dr. Donald Jensen of the University of Chicago. Of course, without seeing medical records and having appropriate tests performed a diagnosis is difficult, but Dr. Jensen is concerned that Mr. Al-Ghizzawi is suffering from liver cancer. Liver cancer can be successfully treated if caught early enough, but our government hasn't been concerned with figuring out what is wrong with Mr. Al-Ghizzawi much less treating him."

Gorman reports that Al Ghazzawi was turned over to US forces by bounty hunters.

References

1. The Law Office of H. Candace Gorman
2. H. Candace Gorman, Reporter Envy (Or Why a Guantánamo Attorney Dreams of Being a Reporter), Huffington Post, December 12 2006
3. ^ Secrets of the War Criminals, Huffington Post, December 12 2006 Cite error: The named reference "HuffingtonPost061120" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
4. ^ "Gitmo - Lifting the Veil of Secrecy". American Public Media: The Story. 2007-02-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
5. Why I am Representing a "Detainee" at Guantanamo, Huffington Post, September 19 2006

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