Jason Wright
Jason Wright is an American lawyer who publicly stated he had a moral obligation to his client, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, rather than allow the United States Army to reassign him, after he spent years building a rapport with him.[1][2][3]
Wright joined the Army as a military lawyer and officer in 2005, and his first assignment was to US forces in Iraq. Later, when Wright held the rank of Captain, he was assigned to serve under the Office of Military Commissions as a defense counsel. His clients included a young Afghan Obaidullah, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, probably the most notorious Guantanamo captive, generally characterized as the "9-11 mastermind".
Defence of Obaidullah
Obaidullah was a youth when the USA invaded Afghanistan. He admitted he was drafted by the Taliban, and, because he could read and write, and his beard had not come in, he was sent to a mine warfare school. He claimed to have run away after just a few days of training, during the chaos triggered by the US invasion. He claimed he took the notebook he had been issued at the mine warefare school, because paper was so valuable in Afghanistan. He also told his interrogators of a stockpile of old mines that dated back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
His father had fought against Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers, and was considered a hero, after his death. So his mother had been issued a house confiscated from a warlord who had fought on the Soviet side. He described how his mother had turned to him when he was approximately ten years old, to help her decided what to do when they found that hidden in the house they had been issued was a stockpile of land mines. He said they feared leaving them in the home, but also feared turning them in, so they had buried them on their property.
US officials did not believe his account. He stood accused of being a mine warfare facilitator, and US officials captured the co-owner of a food stall he ran in his local bazaar, and several of the co-owner's friends and relatives. They had found traces of blood in the car he shared with his co-owner, and accused him using his car to drive wounded fighters. Obaidullah, on the other hand, explained that his wife had given birth to their first child shortly before his capture, and asserted that, if tested, the blood traces would turn out to be blood from when he tried to drive her for medical care, when she was giving birth.
In 2013 and 2014 Wright spoke out, on Obaidullah's behalf, against the brutality introduced by Colonel John Bogdan, when he was appointed the commander of the camp's Joint Detention Group -- the camp's warden.
Wright would later describe the extreme difficulty of trying to build the rapport necessary to attempt to properly defend Mohammed
The resignation of Major Jason Wright
In 2011 Jason Wright was appointed serve as Mohammed's military counsel.[1][2] In April 2014 Wright went on record that he felt the United States Army was making him choose between his military career, and his responsibilities to his client. Wright described how he had spent the previous three years building a rapport with Mohammed, and that the military would undermine his right to a fair trial by reassigning him. Wright said he felt he had no choice but to resign his Army commission and continue to represent Mohammed as a civilian.
Wright had been arguing that he needed access to classified records of Mohammed's three years of interrogations in CIA custody -- interrogations the CIA has acknowledged included waterboarding and other forms of torture.[3] Wright was promoted from Captain to Major in 2013. Army lawyers normally attend a year of graduate school, when they are promoted to Major. While most officers take that year of schooling immediately, Wright followed the procedure to apply for a deferral of his training. He received a one year deferal, but when that expired he faced a
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ryan C. Reilly (2014-04-21). "Army Drives 9/11 Mastermind's Lawyer To Sacrifice His Military Career". Washington DC: Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2014-04-24. https://web.archive.org/web/20140424075433/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/21/jason-wright-guantanamo-ksm_n_5175707.html. Retrieved 2014-09-08. "As it stands, Maj. Jason Wright will become Mr. Jason Wright and stop receiving a military paycheck on Aug. 26. At that point, he will likely also be removed from KSM's defense team, but his decision to resign from the Army will have delayed his departure by roughly a month."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Noelle Price. "Defense Attorney for Accused 9/11 Terror Attack Leader Resigns". JD Journal. Archived from the original on 2014-09-08. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jdjournal.com%2F2014%2F09%2F01%2Fguantanamo-bay-defense-attorney-quits-accuses-u-s-government-of-abhorrent-leadership%2F%3Fhvid%3D3a68CB&date=2014-09-08. "Last week, Wright resigned. According to NPR.org, Wright has accused the United States of “abhorrent leadership,” specifically on human rights and due process guarantees. Wright also claims that the government is creating a “show trial.”"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Adam Kredo (2014-04-17). "KSM Lawyer Sacrifices Military Career to Stay on Case: 9/11 defense wants access to CIA black sites, personnel identities". Guantanamo Bay Naval Base: Washington Free Beacon. Archived from the original on 2014-07-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20140722123309/http://freebeacon.com/national-security/ksm-lawyer-sacrifices-military-career-to-stay-on-case/. Retrieved 2014-09-08. "Army Maj. Jason Wright, a member of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s defense team, informed the court Thursday morning that he will be retiring from the military in order to continue defending his client, who stands accused of orchestrating the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans."
