http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/106243.htmlNavy lawyer on trial for leaking names
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
NORFOLK, Va. --
A Navy lawyer facing up to 24 years in military prison goes on trial Monday for allegedly leaking the once-secret names of Guantánamo detainees to a New York City law firm.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz, in his late 30s, faces five charges ranging from mishandling classified material to conduct unbecoming an officer when his court-martial opens at Naval Station Norfolk.
He's facing the most serious charges against a U.S. military officer since the prison camps opened at Guantánamo in January 2002 with an air-bridge of suspected terrorists from Bagram, Afghanistan.
A jury of seven Navy officers was chosen last week; the court-martial was slated to open with statements from both defense and prosecution lawyers Monday morning.
According to pretrial documents filed in the case, a Valentine's card arrived by U.S. mail at the New York Center for Constitutional Rights in January 2005 containing a detainee list that had been cut into pieces to fit inside.
At the time, the civil liberties group was leading the charge in federal court to file unlawful detention suits called habeas corpus petitions on behalf of hundreds of war-on-terror captives at the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.
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