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Patrick M. McCarthy is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Navy.

Guantanamo service, May 2006 - Summer, 2008

McCarthy was appointed Joint Task Force Guantanamo’s Staff Judge Advocate, its lead attorney, from May 2006 to Summer, 2008.

Guantanamo suicides

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On June 10 2006, shortly after McCarthy started his Guantanamo appointment, the Department of Defense acknowledged three Guantanamo Detainees commited suicide in custody. A fourth detainee committed suicide at Guantanamo on May 30 2007.

"We've had four individuals commit suicide -- all of them hanging -- three of the four in a cradlelike noose, said Navy Capt. Patrick McCarthy, the senior lawyer on the prison camps management team. ``I can tell you that we did not perpetrate the deaths.'"

McCarthy's November 2007 affidavit

In April 26 2007 the United States Department of Justice filed a motion arguing for limits on what Guantanamo detainees' lawyers can and cannot divulge to their clients. McCarthy submitted an affidavit in support of the Department of Justice motion. According to the New York Times McCarthy's affidavit stated mail between the detainees and their attorneys, and visits from the attorneys, wherein certain information was divulged caused: "intractable problems and threats to security at Guantánamo".

The detaineess' attorneys must undergo a security clearance, and agree to rules about the publication of information they learned from their clients. According to the New York Times:

An affidavit by a Navy lawyer at Guantánamo, Cmdr. [sic] Patrick M. McCarthy, that accompanied the filing, said lawyers had gathered information from the detainees for news organizations. Commander McCarthy also said the lawyers had provided detainees with accounts of events outside Guantánamo, like a speech at an Amnesty International conference and details of terrorist attacks.

According to the New York Times McCarthy stated in his affidavit: “Such information threatens the security of the camp, as it could incite violence among the detainees.”

Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Boyles's complaints

According to Carol Rosenberg writing in the Miami Herald Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Broyles criticized McCarthy for impeding his ability to visit Mohammed al Qahtani and Ahmed al Darbi to introduce them to Wells Dixon, their civilian lawyer. Commander Rick Haupt released a statement blaming Boyles and Dixon for being unable to meet with their clients, asserting they didn't comply with the camp's rules. He also claimed the dispute between Boyles and McCarthy was "moot" claiming al Qahtani and al Darbi refused to meet with their lawyers.

Defense of practices

In some Islamic traditions, men are not permitted to shave their facial hair - but forced grooming was allegedly used in interrogation, until May 2007. McCarthy described the technique as "beard shortening". He offered a defense based on the security aspects of long beards:

"Some of the beards are long -- you can hide a bazooka in there."

Statement on Evidence

McCarthy would be quoted by ABC in a story concerning the Supreme Court of the United States after it had considered Boumediene v. Bush.

Mr. McCarthy offered a general defense for GIs not acquiring evidence that could secure a conviction in a conventional court of law, when captives were captured:

"We had to grab as much stuff as we could grab in the house and get out the door with it before the house was inundated with cohorts of the individual that we are taking custody over. So what you have is large green trash bags full of computers, full of weapons, full of letters, you have all of that sort of thing. I can assure you that if you attempt to take that sort of evidence into federal district court you will not be able to convict, period."

NPR interview

In an interview with the National Public Radio's Fresh Air McCarthy stated:

“Guantanamo has been painted as a place where detainees are sent and are held incognito, where they lack access to courts, their family members and the media. We are holding those individuals here who should be held based on the fact that they are enemy combatants, and they continue to pose a threat to the United States.”

“We have 300 or so detainees represented by counsel and all of the detainees have been advised of their right to representation by counsel upon request. Per the Detainee Treatment Act, detainees have also been advised that they can challenge their enemy combatant status during a review tribunal.”

In an NPR interview McCarthy responded to allegations by Clive Stafford Smith, the executive Director of the human rights organization Reprieve. He stated captives were not held longer than necessary, and once released, they were repatriated to or released in countries where their safety would not be at risk.

McCarthy stated when asked about abuse of captives:

“We do not have a separate class of Americans that come down here working on behalf of our country. These Americans are coming from the same high schools, neighborhoods, and colleges that other Americans attend. These depictions of ham-fisted attempts to get detainees to speak are simply not a part of any type of contemporary reality.”

References

1. ^ Spc. Shanita Simmons (2007-10-31). "JTF head attorney sets record straight on detainee abuse allegations". JTF-GTMO. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
2. Daniel Jones (Winter 2007). "IA: Life at Guantanamo Bay" (PDF). Jag Mag. Retrieved 2008-02-22. CAPT Patrick McCarthy has been leading our team since May 2006 and will continue to do so until next summer.
3. "Patrick McCarthy after being sworn in as the Guantanamo Bay Bar Association's new president" (PDF). Guantanamo Gazette. 2006-11-17. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
4. Josh White (2006-06-11). "Three Detainees Commit Suicide at Guantanamo". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
5. Carol Rosenberg (2007-10-17). "Captives rigged nooses". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
6. Miami Herald,
7. ^ William Glaberson (2007-04-26). "Court Asked to Limit Lawyers at Guantánamo". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-09. mirror
8. Carol Rosenberg (2008-02-25). "Defense stymied in 9/11 case". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2008-08-20. Broyles blamed the prison camps lawyer, Navy Capt. Patrick McCarthy, for placing obstacles in the path of his bid to meet Qahtani in the company of a civilian lawyer, Wells Dixon, of the Center for Constitutional Rights. mirror
9. "Springtime for Bushies: Torture, torture, torture!". San Francisco Chronicle. 2008-04-23. Retrieved 2008-09-09. mirror
10. "Interrogation Techniques for Guantanamo Detainees". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 2008-09-09. mirror
11. William J Haynes II (2002-11-27). "Counter-Resistance Techniques" (PDF). Department of Defense. Retrieved 2008-09-09. mirror
12. Tom Squitieri (2004-06-22). "Search began with a stubborn detainee". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-09-09. mirror
13. Carol Rosenberg (2007-11-05). "Terror suspects' beards are safe now: In a practice that ended in May, guards at the prison camps cut Muslim captives' beards as a disciplinary measure. Captives said they saw it as an assault on Islam". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
14. Jan Crawford Greenburg Ariane de Vogue (2008-06-12). "Supreme Court: Guantanamo Detainees Have Rights in Court". ABC News. Retrieved 2008-09-13.
15. National Public Radio, A Government Lawyer's Take on Gitmo, November 1 2007

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from September 2008
• Living people
• American federal lawyers
• United States Navy officers