On Monday, he spoke at the Marquette Law School in a talk entitled "Guantanamo and the Rule of Law." Coleman has spent more than 600 hours on his clients' representation through traveling to Guantanamo, preparing legal briefings and lobbying Congress about the recent Military Commissions Act of 2006, which addresses the legal procedures for handling detainees.,”

Over the past year, Chicago-based lawyer Jeff Coleman has traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba four times and met personally with two detainees.

On Monday, he spoke at the Marquette Law School in a talk entitled "Guantanamo and the Rule of Law." Coleman has spent more than 600 hours on his clients' representation through traveling to Guantanamo, preparing legal briefings and lobbying Congress about the recent Military Commissions Act of 2006, which addresses the legal procedures for handling detainees.

"I got involved because I read there were men held more than three years that needed lawyers," Coleman said. "It is my view as a lawyer that we're all about representing people that need representation."

With that in mind but no expertise in human rights law, Coleman became involved in representing detainees through a process that included a four-month wait for FBI clearance to view top-secret documents.

"I am subject to felony prosecution for disclosing anything (my) clients say at Guantanamo Bay," he said. "I am under significant restraints."

Before discussing his dealings with clients, Coleman offered a few disclaimers and laid down the facts.

"There are so many complicated legal, public policy and fact issues dealing with Guantanamo Bay," he said. "Nothing is so clear-cut that there aren't arguments for the other side."

Since late 2001, approximately 800 men that President George W. Bush has regarded, without qualifications, as "the worst of the worst," have been held at Guantanamo, Coleman said.

Currently, there are 465 detainees which the government has labeled as "enemy combatants" being held at Guantanamo. Of those, only 10 have been charged before military commissions, leaving over 400 people not being charged with anything.

For them, "Guantanamo Bay is not a prison," Coleman said. "No one there has been charged with a crime, gone to trial and (been) sentenced."

Guantanamo differs from a prison because of its lack of diversity. Its population consists of some 460 Muslim men from the Middle East. Based on Webster's Dictionary's definition, Coleman said this is a concentration camp.

Men at Guantanamo are also kept completely isolated from each other and the outside world, meaning no communication with family, no mail and no phone calls.

"Other than their belief in God, they have no hope," Coleman said. "The legal system has given them no cause for hope."

One of Coleman's clients, Anwar, a 38-year-old teacher and father of six, was brought to Guantanamo after working at a humanitarian relief effort in an Afghanistan orphanage a month after Sept. 11. A sect of Al-Qaida supported the orphanage.

"Our government does not allege that this man went to camp to be trained or that he owned weapons or fought," Coleman said.

Fad, another client, was 19 years old when he left Saudi Arabia for Afghanistan. Arriving in Afghanistan shortly before Sept. 11, he was trained in a camp to use a pistol, machine gun and rifle. He was given over to U.S. officials when he and others dispersed from camp and went to Pakistani police in hopes of getting home to Saudi Arabia.

After meeting with Fad, Coleman was able to file a letter of reasons why Fad should be released to Saudi officials to the administrative review board. Earlier this year, Fad was released to Saudi officials and Coleman believes he will soon be freed from Saudi control.

Answering a question from the audience, Coleman expressed his relationship with his two clients as "extremely personal."

"Apart from everything else, when I see these guys shackled to the floor, there is an immediate emotional response," Coleman said.

Students said they were moved by Coleman's personal reflection.

"It's very difficult to read stuff in magazines and newspapers about what is going on at Guantanamo," said attendee Alex Kaftan, a College of Arts & Sciences freshman. "It seems so impersonal. Firsthand accounts like Coleman's are more powerful, moving and illuminating."

Jonathan Stepp, a College of Arts & Sciences freshman, agreed.

"I liked how he presented the facts of the situation without claiming to be an expert," he said. "He based all facts on personal experience."

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