Gitmo Attorney Clive Stafford Smith on Seeking Justice at the “Flagship of Secret Prisons”

The Bush administration urged the Supreme Court Tuesday to deny constitutional protections to the 340 prisoners at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The administration"s brief addresses an upcoming Supreme Court case on whether prisoners at Guantanamo Bay should have the right to habeas corpus after all. Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. the United States challenge the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act passed by Congress last year. This is the third time that the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Bush administration”s claim that Guantanamo detainees can be denied all constitutional rights.

But the Bush administration insists that there is no need to grant detainees the right to habeas corpus because Congress gave them “a constitutionally adequate substitute for challenging their detention.” It adds that the detainees “enjoy more procedural protections than any other captured enemy combatants in the history of warfare.”

Clive Stafford Smith is the legal director of the UK charity Reprieve and represents more than 50 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Before advocating for the rights of “enemy combatants,” Smith spent more than 20 years defending people on death row in the United States. He is the author of a new book detailing the inside story of life in what he describes as “the flagship of the secret prisons.” It”s called “Eight O Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice in Guantanamo Bay.”

• Clive Stafford Smith. British born lawyer for over 50 detainees in Guantanamo Bay. He is the legal director of the UK charity Reprieve and has defended prisoners on death row for over 20 years. He is the author of "Eight o’clock ferry to the windward side: Seeking Justice in Guantanamo Bay."

LISTEN ONLINE