by Xochitl Campos
Daily Lobo
Follow the "golden rule of government lawyers" was the message for law students at a lecture given by criminal defense attorney Joshua Dratel on Thursday.
Dratel was the defense attorney in four high-profile U.S. terrorism cases.
"Formulate a policy as you would have it implemented on you," Dratel said, referring to government lawyers who are responsible for creating standards in government. He said this is the golden rule.
The Geneva Conventions were the primary focus of his talk, particularly whether the United States appears to have discarded the treaty by its treatment of prisoners following Sept. 11, 2001.
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Dratel is defending an Australian man, David Hicks, who was accused of fighting against the United States alongside the Taliban shortly after Sept. 11. Hicks is charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism and is being held at Guantanamo Bay, where he is set to stand trial in March.
The Hicks defense team is concerned that its client was mistreated, and that the allegations against him came from confessions made in the aftermath of possible abuse, Dratel said.
He also expressed concern for the American soldiers fighting abroad in light of accusations that the country has abandoned the Geneva Conventions.
"As a moral issue, I find it repelling," Dratel said. "It is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, and it puts our soldiers at risk."
According to the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war must be treated humanely at all times.
"You have to ask yourself, what would you be willing to do to another person?" he said, referring to high-ranking U.S. officials who allegedly allow the abuse of prisoners in places such as Guantanamo Bay.
He cited examples such as the capture of Jessica Lynch and how American citizens demanded that captured U.S. soldiers be treated well.
"There was an extraordinary outcry from the U.S. that they treat our prisoners in no other way other than according to the Geneva Conventions," he said.
He also noted an incident in Somalia in 1993 when several U.S. pilots were held prisoner and later freed unharmed.
Dratel said he believes it was the result of their captors fearing American retaliation if they abandoned the Geneva Conventions agreement.
Dratel talked about the difficulty of defending someone the media portrays negatively.
Dratel said the way United States portrays prisoners as potential terrorists has taken away any opportunity for them to be recognized as people.
"Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld and President Bush claim that, of the 545 detainees left on Guantanamo Bay, all of them are killers," Dratel said.
Dratel said very few of them are killers.
Americans need to see the prisoners as human beings and not as terrorists, he said.
"I think what we have to do is get American people to recognize the danger our soldiers are exposed to and to humanize the prisoners being held in places like Guantanamo," Dratel said.
Eric Norvell, a law student attending the lecture, said Dratel gave a good presentation.
"I think that with a topic like this, there are more questions raised that could not be addressed in the time allowed," he said. "He had a very grounded position."
Kiwi Camara and Ben Vetter, both law clerks with the U.S. Court of Appeals, disagreed. They said Dratel did not respond as well as he could have to questions from the crowd.
"His responses were not entirely convincing, but he was a good advocate," Camara said.
