Matthew Diaz

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For the Major League baseball player, see Matt Diaz.

Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Matthew M. Diaz is a former staff judge advocate in the U.S. Navy, Judge Advocate General's Corps. [1] [2] In mid-to-late 2004, Diaz served a six month tour of duty in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as deputy director of the detention center's legal office. [3] Early in 2005 as LCDR Diaz was concluding his tour, he sent an anonymous note to a New York civil liberties group containing the names of the detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. [4] In July 2006, the United States government formally charged Diaz in a military court with five criminal counts related to the improper disclosure of classified information to an individual unauthorized to receive it. In May of 2007, he was convicted by a seven member jury of military officers on 4 of 5 counts. He served a 6 month prison sentence and was discharged from the military.

In April 2008, he was awarded the Ridenhour Prize for Truth Telling.

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[edit] Family Background

Diaz is the son of convicted serial killer Robert Diaz. Robert Diaz's conviction was controversial, and he maintains his innocence. Some people believe that Matthew Diaz's early exposure to a possible miscarriage of justice made him particularly sensitive to the plight of the detainees at Guantánamo. Some people dispute the relevance of including this background in the Wikipedia, and believe that this is inserted by the Bush Administration to continue to harass Matthew Diaz who revealed the names of those who were being held and tortured while Matthew Diaz served his country as a staff judge advocate at Guantánamo. .[5][6].

[edit] Military career

Diaz, 41, is reported to have spent most of his adult life in military service. [7] The Virginian-Pilot reports that Diaz served eight years as an enlisted man in the United States Army, prior to being commissioned in the USN's Judge Advocate General Corps. Matthew Diaz served his country as a staff judge advocate at Guantánamo.

[edit] Charges

On July 28, 2006, Diaz was formally charged with improperly mailing suspected classified information about detainees in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba to an individual unauthorized to receive it (the Center for Constitutional Rights).[7] Diaz was convicted. On May 18, 2007, he was sentenced to six months in prison and will face dismissal from the Navy. [8].

On the other hand "Matthew Diaz watched a shameless assault on America’s Constitution and commitment to the rule of law carried out by the Bush Administration. He watched the introduction of a system of cruel torture and abuse. He watched the shaming of the nation’s uniformed services, with their proud traditions that formed the very basis of the standards of humanitarian law, now torn asunder through the lawless acts of the Executive. Matthew Diaz found himself in a precarious position—as a uniformed officer, he was bound to follow his command. As a licensed and qualified attorney, he was bound to uphold the law. And these things were indubitably at odds." as written by Scott Horton in Harper's Magazine, April, 8, 2008. Source found here: "A Tale of Three Lawyers". http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002819 .--70.137.132.12 (talk) 01:39, 17 April 2008 (UTC)K. Lind.

[edit] The suspect document

Barbara Olshansky, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, was the recipient of the document, placed alongside an unmarked Valentines Day card.[9][10] While Olshansky had requested a list of all detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, the military had failed to provide one. The list provided by Diaz contained the names of 550 captives. The list had seven fields per entry.[11] The 558 names in the official list of captives whose enemy combatant status was confirmed by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal had just three fields. According to the background page to the charges against Diaz, the other six fields of the entries describing captives were:

Internment Serial Number
  • The two official lists both contain an ISN, which seems to be some kind of identification number, but they don't say what it is.
  • The ISN numbers of the 759 captives on the two official lists ran from 2 through 1457, with the exception of six captives who were captured in Bosnia, and Martin Mubanga who was captured in Africa. Their ISNs were in the range 10001 through 10007. The 14 high value captives transferred from CIA custody to military custody in Guantanamo are had ISN's in the range 10011 through 10024.
Source Identification number (if present) ?
GTMO Identification number ?
nationality

country of citizenship

 Both of the official lists name just one country associated with each captive.
Collection Management & Dissemination team number ?

The captives' names had not, at that time, been officially confirmed.[10] Olshansky suspected the list might have been classified, so she contacted Federal authorities.

Diaz was not directly involved in either the defense or prosecution of the ten detainees who faced charges before the Guantanamo military commissions.[7] He served as a legal advisor to the JTF-GTMO, the command responsible for detention operations.

[edit] References

  1. ^ U.S. Navy says officer passed secret Guantanamo data, Washington Post, August 30, 2006
  2. ^ Sung, Michael. "Former Guantanamo military lawyer sentenced to 6 months for leaking names", Jurist Legal News and Research, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, May 19, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-19. 
  3. ^ Rosenburg, Carol. "Naval lawyer guilty of spilling captives' names", MiamiHerald.com, Miami Herald, May 17, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-19. 
  4. ^ Egerton, Brooks. "'Moral decision' jeopardizes Navy lawyer's career", DallasMorningNews.com, The Dallas Morning News, May 18, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-19. 
  5. ^ Tim Golden. Naming Names at Gitmo. Retrieved on 2007-10-26.
  6. ^ Joe Conason. A truth teller who deserves justice. Retrieved on 2008-04-04.
  7. ^ a b c Navy lawyer once posted at Cuba base is charged, Virginian Pilot, August 29, 2006
  8. ^ Jury Recommends 6 Months for Topeka Lawyer, WIBW, May 18, 2007
  9. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/05/18/navy.lawyer.ap/index.html
  10. ^ a b Jeannie Shawl. "Jury selection begins in Guantanamo names court-martial", The Jurist, Wednesday, May 9, 2007. Retrieved on May 9. 
  11. ^ Response to Government motion requesting an Article 39a session and Defense motion to suppress evidence (.doc). Department of the Navy General Court-Martial Navy and Marine Corps Trial Judiciary Central Judicial Circuit (March 12, 2007). Retrieved on May 9, 2007.

[edit] External links