A Gitmo Prosecutor's Act of Conscience

Source: CBS News

One of the youngest detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison is expected to be returned this weekend to Afghanistan where he was arrested seven years ago for allegedly throwing a grenade at American soldiers.

Mohammed Jawad's break came when a U.S. military lawyer made a choice - to follow his conscience, as CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports.

Reserve Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld could not keep silent. As he put it, "Silence in the face of evil is collaboration with evil."

Vandeveld was a military prosecutor at Guantanamo - until he decided to speak against the corruption of justice he found there.

"Our fighting men and women who've been putting themselves in harms - They're not fighting for rigged, kangaroo trials," Vandeveld said.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/22/eveningnews/main5259681.shtml?tag=stack

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:patriot: to Lt. Col Vandeveld for being willing to open your eyes to see the truth and act on it.

Moral courage is the highest form of courage, and the most difficult. It is people like him--people within our "military-industrial complex" system, often with a lot to lose--who impress me the most when they have done the right thing during the Bush Junta. The pressure must have been very, very great to lie and cover things up. It is not at all unthinkable that people have died for what they know about this criminal regime and those who toadied to them. At the very least, demotion, ostracism and fear--of loss of career and loss of friends, and impacts on family--would arise, be used against you and would haunt you. In the case of Lt. James Yee--the chaplain at Guantanamo--they threw every charge they could at him, from treason to pornography--just for doing his job, for caring for the prisoners. They held him in prison in shackles for months. They tried to destroy him. Adhering to principles of truth and justice, in those circumstances, would be very difficult. And those who do it are very great heroes to me. They are the ones most deserving of our highest medals of honor.

:patriot:

I think his actions are even more courageous than KO's very early and very public criticisms of the * administration....which I think was very courageous indeed.

Soooo... a big Terrorist Fistbump to Lt. Col. Vandeveld :fistbump:

big salute to the Col.

In doing what was the only right thing possible, he put himself on his government's enemy list.

How could a system get so perverted?

He deserves so much respect, but you can be sure for the rest of his life he will meet wingers who will turn on him with venom, with snarls, with lies, and gossip, just because he put justice, honor, humanity above institutionalized evil.

right thing, you will be forever grateful that you did it no matter what happens to you,'" Vandeveld said."

"'Silence in the face of evil is collaboration with evil." <snip> "'You do the right thing, you will be forever grateful that you did it no matter what happens to you,' Vandeveld said."

"'Silence in the face of evil is collaboration with evil." <snip> "'You do the right thing, you will be forever grateful that you did it no matter what happens to you,' Vandeveld said."

"'Silence in the face of evil is collaboration with evil." <snip> "'You do the right thing, you will be forever grateful that you did it no matter what happens to you,' Vandeveld said."

"'Silence in the face of evil is collaboration with evil." <snip> "'You do the right thing, you will be forever grateful that you did it no matter what happens to you,' Vandeveld said."

"'Silence in the face of evil is collaboration with evil." <snip> "'You do the right thing, you will be forever grateful that you did it no matter what happens to you,' Vandeveld said."

"'Silence in the face of evil is collaboration with evil." <snip> "'You do the right thing, you will be forever grateful that you did it no matter what happens to you,' Vandeveld said."





He lost his military career but he's a military hero.

"'Silence in the face of evil is collaboration with evil." <snip> "'You do the right thing, you will be forever grateful that you did it no matter what happens to you,' Vandeveld said."