... who was a JAG at Gitmo who, on his last day there, sent a Valentine's Day card- containing the names of all detainees- to one of the plaintiffs in a suit seeking the names under FOIA. The names were eventually released anyway, but Diaz was prosecuted, court martialed and sentenced to six months in the brig. Soon he found himself nearly broke, with a family to support, so he took a teaching job in New York. Just before he was set to begin, after he'd moved his family to New York, the job offer was rescinded. I notified one of my former teachers, David Feige, about Matt's predicament and David, during the debut week of the show he inspired, Raising the Bar, stepped forward and arranged an interview for Matt at the Bronx Defenders, where Matt works today as a parent advocate for the indigent, having come close to this himself.

If David Feige wouldn't have stepped up, what would have happened to Matt and his kids? Who knows, just like who knows what things he witnessed at Gitmo. Unlike "Fredo" Gonzales, Matt is a "casualty of the war on terror" who almost ended up jobless despite risking his career in taking this moral stand. Just as there is disparate treatment for the elite and the commoners when it comes to prosecution, there is a huge difference between those who break the law for the Bush Administration and those who either break it or uphold the oaths they take as attorneys.

Just ask Lt. Charles Swift, the JAG who refused to follow an order to plead Hamdan guilty leading to Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Though Hamdan, through Swift and Kaytal, eventually prevailed, Swift paid a steep career price and any would be whistleblowers saw the likely fallout.

A link to Matt's story is at the signature if you're interested.