Barry Wingard Wants Better Justice for Those Still at Guantanamo, Wins Wings of Justice Award

WINGS OF JUSTICE

Barry Wingard

For many, Guantanamo Bay is a symbol of the excess in the lack of justice offered up by the Bush Administration. Unfortunately, for people such as Fayiz al-Kandari, Guantanamo Bay isn't a symbol of anything; it's the harsh reality of years of their lives. For Fayiz al-Kandari, that figure is 7½ years, and climbing.

Guantanamo is still in business, and things have become worse under Barack Obama, according to one person who has stood up for those who aren't getting justice -- Lt. Col. Barry Wingard.

Wingard is an attorney at Guantanamo and Fayiz al-Kandari is his client. For those who shouted loudly while George W. Bush was in charge, not as many have shouted in the last six months. Wingard has been the exception.

Wingard noted earlier that as bad as things were under the Bush Administration, it has only been in the last few months that al-Kandari's mail has been open, and the information used against his client. Attorney/client privilege? Gone.

Now Wingard isn't some snotty nose kid who is trying to make a name for himself. In his career, Wingard has seen a lot of examples of justice, so he can back up his concern over the lack of justice for al-Kandari.

From The Political Carnival's coverage:

Major Barry D. Wingard, Jr.: Judge Advocate General (JAG), Public Defender (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Office of General Counsel, Guantanamo Bay, Defense Attorney, and so much more. His stellar resume gleams with awards and decorations as a result of 25 years of service in the U.S. military. He has prosecuted more than 100 cases in Baghdad, and has also investigated crimes in Bosnia.

And because he had all that experience, Wingard thought he would be prepared for what was coming. But Guantanamo was filled with chaos -- cases with questionable interrogation techniques along with missing and questionable evidence.

Guantanamo has fallen off the radar of the MSM in the last six months: "What? Guantanamo? Isn't that closed already." Wingard will tell you differently.

Lt. Col. Wingard stands up for a better way, even if he has had difficulty getting the message through. As Wingard noted in an interview earlier this year, "I've given up on American media."

But thanks to alternative media sources such as The Political Carnival and BuzzFlash, Wingard is being heard somewhere. But that hasn't changed much in Fayiz al-Kandari's life.

The baton of command has changed, but not much else for al-Kandari and Wingard. As Wingard pointed out to us, the story of Fayiz al-Kandari is "7½ years without a court date, doing charity, sold to American forces, beaten/brutalize, interrogated over 400 times, and still the answers have never changed."

For standing up for people such as Fayiz al-Kandari and crying out for a justice system worthy of the United States of America, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is our Wings of Justice award winner this week.

A special thanks to the Political Carnival for its fine and extensive coverage of Wingard.

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Nominated by BuzzFlash staff. To see a full list of past Wings of Justice honorees, click here.

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