IN RE: GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEE LITIGATION

Filing 585

NOTICE of Authorization by BILAL LNU re (524 in 1:05-cv-02386-UNA, 210 in 1:08-mc-00442-TFH) Order (Attachments: # 1 Declaration, # 2 Exhibit A, # 3 Exhibit B)(O'Hara, Matthew)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

INRE:
GUANT ANAMO BAY DETAINEE

Misc. No. 08-442 (TFH)
Civil Action No. 05-2386 (RW)

LITIGATION

DECLARTION OF MATTHEW J. O' HAR
Matthew J. O' Hara declares as follows pursuant to 28 U.
C.

1746:

I am an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Ilinois.

I am a parner in

the law firm of Reed Smith LLP.

My client Maasoum Abdah Mouhammad is a prisoner in the prison maintained by

the United States militar at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has been
imprisoned there without charge since early 2002.

I have had ten separate meetings with Mr. Mouhammad at Guantananamo Bay

beginning in April 2007. I have visited Mr. Mouhamad on separate trips to Guantanamo Bay

in: April 2007, July 2007, October 2007, January 2008 , April 2008 , and July 2008. My last
meeting with him was on July 22, 2008.
I have requested the United States Department of Defense to allow me to visit Mr.
Mouhammad again on November 18 , 2008.

During my meetings with him, Mr. Mouhamad has conveyed to me his authority for me and my colleagues at Reed Smith LLP and the Center for Constitutional Rights

to represent him in connection with his imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, including but not
limited to prosecuting the petition for a writ of habeas corpus that was filed on his behalf in Civil
Action No. 05-2386.

Mr. Mouhamad has not signed an authorization because I have not asked him to
do so. I have not asked him to sign such an authorization because I believed that no rule or order

of this Cour required me to do so.
On June 27, 2006, Judge Reggie B. Walton entered the Amended Protective

Order and Procedures for Counsel Access to Detainees at the United States Naval Base in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, first issued on November 8 , 2004 in
344 F. Supp.2d 174 (D.

In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases

C. 2004) and certain subsequent related orders in this case (the
No. 05-2386 ,

Protective Order ). (Civil Action

Docket No. 66.)

The Protective Order did not

require petitioners to sign an authorization stating that a petitioner had authorized counsel to

pursue the action. Rather, the Protective Order provided that " Counsel shall provide evidence of
his or her authority to represent the detainee. . . . "
(Prot. Order,

Revised Procedures for Counsel
It has

Access to Detainees at the U. S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ~ III.C.2.)

been

my understanding during my representation of Mr. Mouhamad that evidence of my authority to
represent a detainee may take the form of a sworn statement. See Adem v.

Bush Civil Action

No. 05- 723

(RWR) (AK), Document 42 , at 14- 15 ("Here, a sworn statement provides evidence

that (petitioner) was actively seeking a lawyer to represent him. ). A copy of this Memorandum

Opinion and Order is attached to this Declaration as Exhibit A. To my knowledge , the

Governent has abided by this order since that time in cases involving other men imprisoned at
Guantanamo Bay.

We have filed a petition under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 in the Cour of

Appeals for the District of Columbia on behalf of Mr. Mouhamad. In that

litigation,

we fied

in that court and served upon the Governent the Declaration signed by me dated November 14
2007 that is attached to this Declaration as Exhibit B.

-2-

The Governent never questioned or expressed any doubt concerning our
authority to represent Mr. Mouhamad until it filed its Status Report in Misc. No. 08-442 on
July 18 ,

2008. The Governent has never denied me or my colleagues access to Mr.

Mouhamad on the purorted basis that we lack the authority to represent him.
I declare under penalty of perjur
foregoing is true and correct.
under the laws of

the United States of America that the

DATED: September 29 2008

d: (t
2206170.

-3-

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
The undersigned states that on September 29 2008 , I electronically filed the foregoing
NOTICE OF AUTHORIZATION BY MAASOUM ABDAH MOUHAMMAD

with the

Clerk of the Cour using the ECF system, which wil send notification of such fiings to all counsel of record.

Isl

Matthew J. 0 ' Hara Matthew J. 0 ' Hara

REED SMITH LLP 10 South Wacker Drive Chicago , Ilinois 60606 (312) 207- 1000 mohara reedsmith. com