Posted on 05/18/2007 5:05:44 PM PDT by csvset
NORFOLK -- Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz was sentenced today to six months in prison and dismissal from the Navy for releasing information about foreign terror suspects in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay.
The sentence by the court martial jury must be approved by Rear Admiral Rick Ruehe before it becomes effective.
In an emotional testimony earlier today, Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz apologized for releasing information about foreign terror suspects in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay.
"I just want the members to know I'm sincerely sorry for what I did -- a stupid act," Diaz said. "I'm better than that.
"The prosecutors were right: I'm a meticulous man. I should have done better. It was extremely irrational for me to do what I did.
"I should be punished," he said. "I deserve to be punished. I just ask that you consider the impact to my wife and daughter."
Prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence Diaz to seven years in prison and dismissal from the Navy.
Diaz's attorney, Patrick McLain, asked the jury to improse no more than a letter of reprimand. He emphasized Diaz's difficult childhood and family tragedy.
Diaz explained in his unsworn statement that he dropped out of high school in the 11th grade and enlisted in the Army. There he earned his GED and most of a bachelor's degree. When he was discharged from the Army in 1991, he enrolled to law school.
Diaz said he sent the information about the Guantanamo detainees to a human rights lawyer anonymously to protect his career.
"I could have gone to Col. Keys. I could have gone to Gen. Hood. I could have gone to the chief of staff. I could have gone to the I.G. (inspecdtor general)," he said. "There wree a lot of better ways to do this, and I didn't take those better ways."
Diaz testified on Thursday that he knew his bosses didn't want to release information about foreign terror suspects in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, and he knew the risks of revealing it anyway.
The Navy lawyer was found guilty Thursday in a court-martial of violating orders by passing classified information that could be used to harm the United States to someone outside the government. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison.
"He made a tough call, and in so doing he's going to stand tall and accept the consequences of his action," Diaz's attorney, Patrick McLain, said after the verdict.
Conviction on three lesser charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and violating a general order could stretch his sentence to 14 years.
The seven-member jury cleared Diaz of what arguably was the most serious charge - printing out secret information he had reason to believe would be used to injure the United States. That charge also carried a 10-year penalty.
After the verdict at Norfolk Naval Station, Diaz put his arms around three sobbing women: his 15-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and his wife. He kissed his daughter on the forehead.
For six months ending in January 2005, Diaz was a lawyer for the joint military task force at Guantanamo in charge of holding and interrogating "enemy combatants" on the remote base.
Testimony during the four-day court-martial showed that Diaz was aware of Barbara Olshansky's request for a list of all detainees at Guantanamo and had seen draft copies of the government's response denying her request.
McLain said Diaz supported the 2004 Supreme Court decision granting detainees the right of habeas corpus and thought they should be allowed lawyers to represent them.
On Jan. 15, he mailed - anonymously, inside a valentine card - a list containing the names of detainees, their nationalities and interrogation teams to Olshansky, who was then a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.
She turned the list over to authorities, starting an investigation that led to Diaz.
"We'll be frank till the cows come up that this was imprudent, dumb, sneaky, if you want, in the way he sent it off," McLain said in his closing arguments Thursday, but he said the information did not compromise national security and Diaz intended no harm to the United States.
"It was really Matt's patriotism, more than anything else, that drove this. He believes in the law," McLain said after the verdict. "It's not that he thinks the detainees, to a man, are deserving of release."
He also argued before the jury that the information Diaz sent was not classified, something prosecutors disputed.
In closing arguments, Cmdr. Rex Guinn, the lead prosecutor, painted Diaz's action as deliberate and calculated.
"As a naval officer, he had a duty to protect classified information," Guinn said. "He had a duty to protect his client's information. He failed to do so. It wasn't by accident. It was deliberate, on purpose. It brings dishonor and disgrace on him."
McLain said he would argue to day in the sentencing hearing that Diaz should serve no time, that his felony conviction is punishment enough. The jury will recommend a sentence to the military judge, Navy Capt. Daniel O'Toole.
"I don't think he should go to jail, and I don't think he should be dismissed" from the Navy, McLain said.
McLain expects Diaz to testify in his own defense at the hearing. The defense attorney said Diaz may talk about how he first became interested in the law as a teenager, when his father was charged with murdering patients he cared for as a nurse.
Robert Rubane Diaz was convicted in 1984 of 12 counts of murder and is on death row in California.
• Reach Kate Wiltrout at (757) 446-2629 or kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com.
The scumbag got off easy if you ask me.
...his father was charged with murdering patients he cared for as a nurse.
Robert Rubane Diaz was convicted in 1984 of 12 counts of murder and is on death row in California.
Ah, so betrayal is a family thing.
I do hope that the scumbag loses his law license.
Ouch! Ouch! My wrist hurts so bad!
He should be hanged.
This is at least a career death sentence. He won’t be able to practice law anywhere.
I suppose the silver lining in all of this is that he did not choose a career in nursing.
ACLU would hire him in a NY second.
(Sarcasm)
Even though the sentence, at this point, is only six months confinement and dismissal from the service (officer equivalent of a BCD), it still is a felony conviction. Hard to see him being admitted to the bar (except maybe in leftist states like California, Massachusetts, and New York).
You are right; he got off light. Very light.
Reading the article it sounds like he can still face up to 14 years on the three other convictions, is that correct? Also, it does not state that directly but I am sure his dismissal from the military is a bad conduct discharge / dishonorable and he will lose all military retirement and benefits.
So, he dropped out of high school and had a tough unbringing. blah. blah. blah.
The guy is a freaking lawyer and Lt Commander!!! He isn’t some victim! He isn’t somebody to feel sorry for!
He intentionally broke the law by turning over information to our enemies (socialist anti-american lawyers who work for al qaeda). He didn’t just violation procedural rules. He arguably committed treason considering who he was colluding with and what they would obviously do with the information to harm our national security. There are plenty of traitor in Congress he could have gone to like Baghdad Jim McDermott or John Murtha which would have been more defensible than going to terrorist lawyers.
Massachusetts would take him. He could still run for Congress successfully in most blue states.
I see that apple didn't fall far from the tree.
skin his azz alive... then set him on FIRE!!!
She turned the list over to authorities, starting an investigation that led to Diaz.
Does this mean the lawyer for the Commies didn't release the names to the four winds, but actually obeyed national security rules and gave the info back to the government?
I'm almost impressed. (Maybe she was afraid of going to jail herself.)
>>On Jan. 15, he mailed - anonymously, inside a valentine card - a list containing the names of detainees, their nationalities and interrogation teams to Olshansky, who was then a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.<<
This man is part of the mindset that is prosecuting the Camp Pendleton cases. This man should be imprisoned for life for betraying his country.
I’m not a JAG lawyer, but even I know that sending an anti-war lawyer an anonymous Valentine card with secret information in it is treason. Those fools need to be investigated themselves. Maybe Olshansky can take them on as clients.
He should have faced a firing squad.
I’m almost impressed. (Maybe she was afraid of going to jail herself.)
She might have thought it was a setup for a sting.
A real piece of work aint he? More like piece of excrement.
I, too, had a difficult childhood what with divorce of my parents. Say that my mother were an axe murderer, to top it off. So, if I were to get drunk and get in a car and kill 10 people on the Interstate, then I should be spared a jail sentence?
Maybe these lawyers who plead, "Oh he/she/it had a difficult childhood" may have an impact on civilian juries but as it appears here, not on military juries.
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