Al Baluchi Defense Counsel Statement on Visiting JTF-GTMO's High-Value Detention Facility
Over the weekend, James Connell III, defense counsel to 9/11 co-defendant Ammar Al Baluchi, issued the following statement, regarding his apparently unprecedented August 15th visit to GTMO's high-value detention facility. His statement opens:
On Thursday, August 15, James Connell became the first attorney to visit a client at the Guantanamo Bay high-value detention facility. Mr.
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Over the weekend, James Connell III, defense counsel to 9/11 co-defendant Ammar Al Baluchi, issued the following statement, regarding his apparently unprecedented August 15th visit to GTMO's high-value detention facility. His statement opens:
On Thursday, August 15, James Connell became the first attorney to visit a client at the Guantanamo Bay high-value detention facility. Mr. Connell, attorney for Ammar al Baluchi, visited the United States’ most secret detention facility, at an undisclosed location at Guantanamo Bay. Under a military commission order, prison authorities drove Mr. Connell to the facility in a vehicle which did not permit observation of the landscape, then permitted him twelve hours to photograph and diagram the areas to which Mr. al Baluchi has access, including his cell. “This was an unprecedented opportunity to see firsthand the conditions these men live under,” said Mr. Connell. “It was also the first time that Mr. al Baluchi and I have met outside the courtroom.”
Raffaela Wakeman is a Senior Director at In-Q-Tel. She started her career at the Brookings Institution, where she spent five years conducting research on national security, election reform, and Congress. During this time she was also the Associate Editor of Lawfare. From there, Raffaela practiced law at the U.S. Department of Defense for four years, advising her clients on privacy and surveillance law, cybersecurity, and foreign liaison relationships. She departed DoD in 2019 to join the Majority Staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she oversaw the Intelligence Community’s science and technology portfolios, cybersecurity, and surveillance activities. She left HPSCI in May 2021 to join IQT.
Raffaela received her BS and MS in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2015, where she was recognized for her commitment to public service with the Joyce Chiang Memorial Award. While at the Department of Defense, she was the inaugural recipient of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s General Counsel Award for exhibiting the highest standards of leadership, professional conduct, and integrity.
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