UALR Law Grad Lectures on Role of Gitmo Lawyers

Former military defense lawyer Tom Fleener, a UALR law grad who worked for the Department of Defense at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, lectured at the Bowen school this week on his role as defense lawyer for al-Qaeda propagandist Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul of Yemen. Fleener was forced to represent his client despite the detainee’s rejection because of a Military Commisssion’s Act requirement. Forcing al-Bahlul to accept him as an attorney violated Fleener’s professional ethics as a lawyer, he said, as did many of the practices at Guantanamo Bay – specifically, the interrogation of suspected terrorists. “I spent two years … trying to not work,” Fleener said. During that time, Fleener worked to get the Military Commissions Act changed so that detainees at the prison could represent themselves during trial if they so choose. Al-Bahlul was believed to have made propaganda videos and set up a satellite network for Osama bin Laden to watch television coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to past news accounts.