Advocate for Guantanamo prisoners' rights dies

[sabra]

Source: Kansas City Star

Charles Benjamin Gittings Jr., who for nearly nine years ran a website dedicated to stopping prisoner abuse in the war on terror from his home in Northern California, died Wednesday, prompting an outpouring of tributes from civil liberties attorneys from across the nation who worked with him to try to close the prison at the U.S. Naval Base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Though not a lawyer, he had a lifelong interest in military tactics and law that led him to become an invaluable resource to some of the nation's greatest experts in the field.

Just a week short of turning 58, Gittings died at his home in Fort Bragg, Calif., after a long battle with cancer.

"How very wrong it seems that Charlie is gone and that Guantanamo continues," said Thomas Wilner, a Washington lawyer who represented groups of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and often sought Gittings' advice on their legal rights. "When we finally close that horrible place down, we must put a plaque there commemorating Charlie's contributions."

Eugene Fidell, a professor of military law at Yale Law School, added that "when the history of this era is written, Charlie's contribution and tenacity will be remembered."




Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/15/2085921/advocate-for-guantanamo-prisoners.html

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

RIP

[Jefferson23]

2. Courageous man, RIP always. n/t

[virgogal]

3. Too young to die. May he RIP.

[EFerrari]

4. K&R

[Soylent Brice]

5. damn.

K&R

[Ignis]

6. K&R. Sucks how bad news comes in threes.

:(

[mopinko]

7. knr

[sabrina 1]

8. I wish he had seen the closing of that awful, haunted place

before he died. The U.S. should be ashamed that that place which will go down in history as a symbol of a truly evil time, is still open and that there are victims who are still being denied justice. Obama needs to move to get rid of it or be associated with it forever, also.

Charles Gittings was one of a few very brave people who tried to stop the crimes that were perpetrated against innocent people there, and against the very foundations of this country's democratic system.

There were so few heroes when the country most needed them. Charles Gittings was one of them. It is sad to lose him, as we don't have too many willing to stand up and fight evil.

:cry:

[defendandprotect]

9. K&R --

[midnight]

10. K&R for this thoughtful man.

[No Elephants]

11. Really deserves a K & R.