IN RE: GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEE LITIGATION

Filing 587

NOTICE of Authorization by MOHAMMED AL PALESTINI 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
IN RE:
GUANT ANAMO BAY DETAINEE

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

LITIGATION
DECLARATION OF MATTHEW J. O' HARA
Matthew J. O' Hara declares as follows pursuant to 28 US.C.
1746:

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

I am a partner in

the law firm of Reed Smith LLP.

My client Walid Ibrahim Mustafa Abu Hijazi is a prisoner in the prison

maintained by the United States miltar

at the U. S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He
2002.

has been imprisoned there without charge since Februar

It is my understanding that Gitanjali Gutierrez, an attorney with our co-counsel
the Center for Constitutional Rights, visited Mr. Abu Hijazi at Guantanamo Bay in January 2007.

I have had nine separate meetings with Mr. Abu Hijazi at Guantananamo Bay

beginning in April 2007. I have visited Mr. Abu Hijazi 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.
Abu Hijazi again on November 18, 2008.

During my meetings with him, Mr. Abu Hijazi 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. Abu Hijazi 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 Court 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, Docket No. 66. )
The Protective Order did not

Protective Order

). (Civil Action

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. Abu Hijazi 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), Docket No. 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 of2005 in the Cour of

Appeals for the District of Columbia on behalf of Mr. Abu Hijazi. In

that litigation,

we fied in

-2-

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.
10.

The Governent never questioned or expressed any doubt concerning our

authority to represent Mr. Abu Hijazi until it filed its Status Report in Misc. No. 08- 442 on July
, 2008. The Governent has never denied me or my colleagues access to Mr. Abu Hijazi on

the purported basis that we lack the authority to represent him.

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the
foregoing is true and correct.

DATED: September 29, 2008

2205502.

-3-

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
The undersigned states that on September 29 2008 , I electronically fied
NOTICE OF AUTHORIZATION BY WALID IBRAHIM MUSTAFA ABU HIJAZI

the foregoing

the Clerk of the Cour using the ECF system , which wil counsel of record.

send

with notification of such filings to all

f sf

Matthew J. 0' Hara

Matthew J. 0 ' Hara

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