Gitmo Defense Lawyers See Case as a 'Privilege'

Defending a Guantanamo Bay detainee isn't a normal pro bono case for Seattle corporate lawyers used to making $575 an hour, the Post-Intelligencer reports: But Harry Schneider and Joe McMillan say the "effort to rein in" what they see as President Bush's legal abuse is motivation enough. "Even a king can't do that," Schneider says of indignities forced upon Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's alleged driver.

“I count it as a privilege to work on a case that in my view will redeem the United States as a country,” said McMillan. But the lawyers aren’t as optimistic about their chances. “We are doing the best we can,” McMillan adds, “but it's a system designed to be less fair than what he would get in state or federal court.” (More Guantanamo Bay stories.)