George Brent Mickum IV is an American lawyer and currently the General Counsel of ERP Compliant Fuels, LLC.
[
][
] Mickum represented three British residents,
Bisher Al Rawi,
Jamil El Banna
Jamil Abdul Latif el-Banna (, Ǧamīl ʿAbdu 'l-Laṭīf al-Bannāʾ), born , is a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, with refugee status in the United Kingdom, who had been living in north-west London. He was abducted in November 2002 by the CI ...
, and
Martin Mubanga
Martin Mubanga is a joint citizen of both the United Kingdom and Zambia. He was held, without charge, and interrogated at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay for 33 months.
In 1995, he spent six months in Bosnia working for a charity.
In Jan ...
in ''
El Banna v. Bush
''El Banna v. Bush'', No. 1:04-cv-01144, is a writ of habeas corpus that was submitted on behalf of the Guantanamo captives Jamil al-Banna, Bisher Al Rawi and Martin Mubanga. They were United Kingdom citizens or residents.
George Brent Mic ...
.''
[
]
The three were captured in Africa, held first in CIA custody, then transported to the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
s, in
Cuba.
[
]
Before entering private practice, Mickum worked as a trial attorney for the
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...
.
[
] He also worked as a special assistant U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice and as the senior investigative counsel for the Senate Special Committee on Investigations.[
]
When the United States Supreme Court forced the Department of Defense to provide an opportunity for captives to learn why they were being held, they designed administrative procedures called " Combatant Status Review Tribunals".
'' The Guardian'' quoted Mickum's advice to his clients that they decline to participate:[
]
On January 12, 2005, ''The Guardian'' published an article by Mickum, where he described one of his clients, Bisher Al Rawi, being punished for trying to forward the names of other Guantanamo captives who wanted habeas corpus petitions submitted on their behalf.[
] The lawyers who were prepared to submit '' habeas corpus'' petitions could only do so when they were approached by a detainee's " next friend".
In February 2008 Mickum was one of the first two lawyers to see Abu Zubaydah, one of the three captives the CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
acknowledges waterboarding, when he was in one of their black sites."[
][
][
]
All the attorneys who are allowed to meet with the Guantanamo captives had to agree not to disclose " secret" information they learn from their clients.[
][
] However the CIA argued this agreement wasn't sufficient for those attorneys who wanted to meet with their former clients, because the clients could reveal information that was " top secret". Mickum said: "The hypocrisy that we cannot discuss Zubaydah's treatment, but the government can admit to waterboarding him and claim that it is legal is rather astounding."
On March 30, 2009 '' The Guardian'' published an article by Mickum, entitled "The truth about Abu Zubaydah: The Bush administration's false claim that my client was a top al-Qaida official has led to his imprisonment and torture."[
] Mickum's text was submitted to the CIA, who required multiple redactions. Mickum wrote:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mickum, George Brent, Iv
Guantanamo Bay attorneys
Living people
Lawyers from Washington, D.C.
Year of birth missing (living people)