ACLU-

As Congress considers the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the 2012 fiscal year, a handful of senators have turned the bill into a vehicle for dangerous provisions that would authorize the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and imprison people, including U.S. citizens, without charging them or putting them on trial.

Earlier this year, the House passed its own version of the bill, with an even smaller group of members pushing for inclusion of a provision that would authorize worldwide war, and worldwide imprisonment, in virtually any country where a terrorism suspect lives, even here in America itself.

Now, both houses of Congress are now rushing to come up with a joint version and rush it through Congress within the next week or two. The "Big Four" leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committee are huddling behind closed doors and may very well spring a new bill on Congress, once again without so much as a hearing.

The president isn't the one asking for this legislation – in fact, the White House has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill over its concern for indefinite detention provisions. And, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the FBI and the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division have all said that the indefinite detention provisions in the NDAA are harmful and counterproductive.

The provisions – which were negotiated by a small group of members of Congress, in secret, and without proper congressional review – are inconsistent with fundamental American values embodied in the Constitution. Fundamental American values and fundamental freedoms are on the line.

** What is Obama going to do?*

By Steve Warbasse
November 30, 2011

My friend Ahmet was of pure Turkish descent-so pure in fact that a family member in Turkey did him the favor, when he was a younger man, of successfully fronting up the paperwork with the Turkish bureaucracy so that Ahmet could enjoy Turkish citizenship. Upon Ahmet's next pilgrimage to Turkey, he found that his new Turkish citizenship entitled him to serve in the Turkish army. "Don't worry," the Turkish government official told him. "It will only be for two years, and anyway, you will be an officer."

Ahmet caught the next plane out of Turkey. Thus ended forever his visits to the country of his ancestors. The arena in which Ahmet chose to fight was the criminal court system, specifically as a state Public Defender in my old state judicial district comprised of six counties that included the cities of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. And fight he did. Gallantly and with a flair.

I broke a lot of bread with Ahmet through the years ... and tipped a lot of glasses with him, too. That little revelation gives away the fact that Ahmet was not one who could have been characterized by others of his faith as a devout Muslim. The fatalistic aspect of that faith on the part of some was not comfortable for him. It is written? The only things written, as far as Ahmet was concerned, were the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America and the appellate court decisions interpreting those amendments. But his faith was his faith, and he reconciled everything in some way. Many of Ahmet's clients were some of the most detested people in the state at the time he worked for them. They had only one person on their side in the face of the overwhelming machinery of that state's government. Ahmet. He was on their side in a particularly implacable way. This was not because Ahmet loved them, although he did have a soft spot for some. Rather, it was because Ahmet did sincerely love their rights.

He would brake no violation of those rights. If he could not make a deal turning life into twenty-five or ten into five, his clients got a trial by jury, as was their right. Never did he plead somebody guilty when there was nothing to lose with a trial. As a consequence, he lost often--no disgrace when the table is tilted that much. He carried on relentlessly nonetheless. Every once in a while, he would get a "Not Guilty" that was a real stunner.

This is a recent newspaper photo of Ahmet advising one of his clients in open court, one of many such photos. The intensity. Always that intensity. I loved to needle him about his newspaper stardom and how many among the citizenry hated him more than they hated some of the people he represented. The young man in the center, Ahmet's client, had just been sentenced to fifty years for allegedly killing a three-month old baby. Rotational head trauma. Inflicted. Fifty years instead of life was a victory for Ahmet.

However, Ahmet was not a one-dimensional character. He had read more than a book or two on subjects other than the law. A Muslim Renaissance man. But in his area of expertise, I never met his equal. If I ran one of my problems past him that involved one of my own criminal cases, he never failed to provide me with the name of a helpful appellate court decision and many times a citation to the book and page number, too. His head was crowded with knowledge.

There was also wisdom in that head, too. Ahmet knew from long, hard experience that everyone lies. The prosecutors lie. The police lie. Judges lie. His clients lie. Witnesses swear up and down to tell the truth, and then proceed to lie with impunity. We all lie. He once startled me by observing that we are all most adept at lying to ourselves. We all could pass lie detector tests while telling lies to ourselves. I now believe that Ahmet lied to himself in his belief that he could continue doing what he did in the way that he did it forever. That is one lie that I told myself and ultimately came to recognize for what it was. Ahmet never did. Even had he, I do not think he would have been capable of abandoning the Bill of Rights to the care of somebody else in that office and heading south to put his feet up.

Sometime during the night of Saturday, 26 November, Ahmet died in his sleep. Ahmet Gonlubol, a Muslim in America. I am profoundly proud to have known him. I do so hope that he is a warrior at rest now in the bosom of Allah.

Come celebrate the life of Ahmet Gonlubol Click here for details

By B John Burns
November 30, 2011

So our good friend Ahmet has decided to sleep in.

That’s Ahmet.  We all know Ahmet.  He works hard.  He plays hard.  From time to time, Ahmet has been known to sleep in.  But this came out of nowhere.

I’ve known Ahmet pretty much from the start.  When he joined the Appellate Defender, 22 years ago, Ahmet was the guy who had worked for Legal Services for some time, so he had the trial courtroom experience.  Several of us, myself included, had started out in the Appellate Defender, and had never seen the inside of a trial courtroom.

So when the rare situation arose where one of us had to do something in the district court, Ahmet was drafted.  Ahmet knew how to question witnesses, and how to deal with judges.

You knew Ahmet.  Ninety-five percent of the time he was soft-spoken and calm.  We used to call him Floyd the Barber, because of his quiet delivery and a very remote resemblance to the Andy Griffith Show character.  But when Ahmet went into battle mode, he was the attack dog.  You could wear a uniform, a black robe, or the shiny black boots of a career prosecutor, and Ahmet was never afraid to go after you (but also have a beer with you afterwards, if you were up to it).  He’d tell you exactly what was on his mind.  When Ahmet was in battle mode, he didn’t pull any punches.

When he wasn’t, he’d give you the shirt off his back.

I’ve got quite a few Ahmet stories from the five years we worked together, but I’m sure your’s are better.  It’s a big loss for all of us.

Sleep well, Ahmet.  We’ll miss you.