"Reasonable Suspicion" Strikes Again, Now in Gitmo
New York Times: Bill Puts Scrutiny on Detainees’ Lawyers
The provision would require the Pentagon inspector general to investigate instances in which there was “reasonable suspicion” that lawyers for [Guantanamo] detainees violated a Pentagon policy, generated “any material risk” to a member of the armed forces, violated a law under the inspector general’s exclusive jurisdiction, or otherwise “interfered with the operations” of the military prison at Guantánamo.
That this can pass for a law is pretty troubling to me. The problem is not that the law is trying to prohibit the actions listed above. The problem is, I would hope obviously, the fact that the provision as currently written is completely unclear as to what the actions actually are or what constitutes reasonable suspicion that one might be engaged in them.
Here we have a law that opens defense attorneys to investigation when they are suspected of violating regulations that are apparently subjectively defined by the investigating agency. Undefined, reasonable suspicion that a Gitmo detainee’s defense attorney “interfered with the operations of the Department of Defense” or “generated any material risk to a member of the Armed Forces of the United States” could include almost anything.
Hopefully Congress will take a critical look at this small part of the mammoth defense spending bill and recognize the danger of finishing the job the that Arizona immigration bill started, allowing “reasonable suspicion,” once a legitimate legal concept, to devolve into an empty euphemism for baseless, pseudo-legal accusations and McCarthyist fingerpointing. Failing to do so would set a troubling precedent and have far-reaching negative consequences for national security legislation going forward.
