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Lawyer Who Won Detainee Case Ousted

Carol Rosenberg
The Miami Herald
October 9, 2006
 
The Navy lawyer who took the Guantanamo case of Osama bin Laden's driver to the U.S. Supreme Court -- and won -- has been passed over for promotion by the Pentagon and must soon leave the military.
 
Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, 44, said last week he received word that he had been denied a promotion to full-blown Navy commander this summer -- "about two weeks after" the Supreme Court sided against the White House and with his client, a Yemeni captive at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.
 
Under the military's "up or out" promotion system, Cmdr. Swift will retire in March or April, closing out a 20-year career of military service.
 
A Pentagon appointee, Cmdr. Swift embraced the alleged al- Qaida's sympathizer's defense with a classic defense lawyer's zeal - - casting his captive client as an innocent victim in the dungeon of King George, a startling analogy for the attorney whose commander- in-chief is President George Bush.
 
"It was a pleasure to serve," said Cmdr. Swift, who added that he would defend Salim Hamdan all over again, even if he knew he would have to leave the Navy earlier than he wanted.
 
Cmdr. Swift, a University of Seattle Law School graduate, also said he will continue to defend Mr. Hamdan as a civilian. The Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie, which provided pro bono legal work in Mr. Hamdan's habeas corpus petition, has agreed to support the defense of Mr. Hamdan in civilian life, he said.
 
Mr. Hamdan, 36, who has only a fourth-grade education, was captured along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan while fleeing the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, launched in reprisal for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He admits to working as bin Laden's $200-a-month driver on a Kandahar farm, but said he never joined al-Qaida and never fought anyone.
 
Still at Guantanamo as an "enemy combatant," Mr. Hamdan halted his war-crimes trial by challenging the format's constitutionality through civilian courts.
 
The justices ruled in June that President Bush overstepped his constitutional authority by creating ad hoc military tribunals for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, sending the Pentagon back to the drawing board for the trials.
 
In the end, it developed a system very similar to those struck down, setting the stage for a likely new challenge this session.
 
Perhaps ironically, one of Cmdr. Swift's first challenges on behalf of Mr. Hamdan as a civilian will be over whether he has the right to represent him in federal court. Under legislation approved by the House and Senate last month, Guantanamo detainees lose their right to file traditional habeas corpus petitions.
 
In the opinion of Washington, D.C., attorney Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, Cmdr. Swift was "a no-brainer for promotion," given his devotion to the Navy, the law and his client.
 
But, he said, Cmdr. Swift is part of a long line of Navy defense lawyers "of tremendous distinction" who were not made full commander and "had their careers terminated prematurely."
 
In June, the prestigious National Law Journal listed Cmdr. Swift among the nation's top 100 lawyers.

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