Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror: A Public Defender's Inside Account

By Kelly Lemieux, Special to the Rocky

Thursday, July 3, 2008

* Nonfiction. By Steven T. Wax. Other Press, $25.95. Grade: A

Book in a nutshell: In Kafka Comes to America, lawyer Steven Wax reveals frightening details of the Bush administration's end run around the Constitution in its pursuit of "bad guys" in the War on Terror. A member of the Portland, Ore., Public Defenders Office, he took the case of American citizen Brandon Mayfield, a fellow lawyer.

Mayfield and his family plunged into paranoia when they began to suspect that their home had been searched and their communications tapped. He soon found himself in jail on a charge related to the Madrid terrorist bombings of 2004. Mayfield suffered FBI legal attacks, disinformation, media leaks and false evidence until Wax and his team proved his innocence.

The story of Adel Hamad, a hospital administrator in Pakistan who ended up in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as a victim of psychological torture, also appears. Wax led the team that uncovered his innocence, but he remained incarcerated long after that under the government's Orwellian labyrinth that sets up roadblocks to every maneuver by defense attorneys to represent detainees. (The Supreme Court's recent ruling, allowing detainees access to the American court system, should bring reform to such abuses.)

Best tidbit: The author nails his theme here: "What are the costs if we give our local police, the FBI, the attorney general . . . more power? When we lift the restraints on police and executive power, abuse is inevitable."

Pros: Wax's prose is clear and empathetic, unveiling the roller- coaster ride of police-state tactics his legal team encounters.

Cons: While Wax's work is obviously focused on the clients he represents, it would have been enlightening had he noted the fact that the U.S. government is also holding goat herders and others brought in by bounty hunters (as mentioned in C-SPAN's recent report of the Supreme Court's deliberations).

Final word: In the April 28 edition of The New York Times, Wax revealed that electronic communication between lawyers and their Guantanamo Bay detainee clients are surveilled by the federal government. So much for attorney-client confidentiality. Kafka is a frightening lesson in how easily civil rights can be hijacked, even in America.