美国国家公共电台 NPR--Richard Kammen was a defense attorney at Guantanamo Bay. Now he's written a novel

Richard Kammen was a defense¹ attorney at Guantanamo Bay. Now he's written a novel

Transcript²

Attorney Richard Kammen's new novel — Tortured Justice Guantánamo Bay — is partly based on his experience. He describes the justice system there as broken. Why didn't he go the nonfiction route?

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

Over the past two decades, hundreds of lawyers have represented prisoners at the U.S. military court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Now one of them has written a novel about the experience. Rick Kammen was the lead defense attorney for an inmate⁴ accused in the USS Cole warship⁵ bombing. His book is called "Tortured Justice, Guantanamo Bay." And although it's labeled fiction, it can seem autobiographical to people like me who've reported on Guantanamo. So I asked Kammen why he didn't go the nonfiction route.

RICHARD KAMMEN: I want readers to see this as true fiction in the sense that much of what I tried to describe is what really occurs in Guantanamo. I've just set this with fictional⁶ characters.

PFEIFFER: Well, but even some of your fictional characters I can recognize from real life. So why not write a memoir⁷? Why did you write a novel?

KAMMEN: Quite honestly, because trying to deal with issues - direct issues of classification, attorney-client privilege, confidentiality⁸ within the defense - all of that made it virtually impossible to write a memoir. It was my judgment⁹, after experimenting with nonfiction, to fictionalize¹⁰ Guantanamo, trying to take the truth of the place and add fictional characters to it.

PFEIFFER: Rick, the main character, whose name is Connor Mendelson, I think is clearly you. So as we talk right now, am I allowed to think of Connor Mendelson as you, as channeling your own experiences?

KAMMEN: Well, certainly I drew on my experiences, but Connor Mendelson is thinner, younger, shrewder than I could ever hope to be. And he's also smarter than I could ever hope to be.

PFEIFFER: So this novel has some drama, some mystery, some humor. It's got some legal lessons, some philosophizing. It's kind of a morality tale. What was your goal writing it?

KAMMEN: Well, I had three goals. First, what I wanted to describe was what it's like to litigate in that milieu¹¹ and in this dysfunctional court system. The second was to describe how the relationship between Mendelson and his client morphed from I don't like you, I don't want to see you, why are you here? - to, over time, thank you very much for helping¹² me, I love you. And I think that's an important part of Guantanamo representation, is how these relationships morph over time. The third thing I wanted to try and do was describe what a trial in Guantanamo might actually look like if there happens to be trials.

PFEIFFER: Although - and I don't want to give any spoilers here - in this fictional trial, you depict¹³ a system that you basically believe fails your client, and I'm wondering what that says about your overall view of Guantanamo and what might happen to your client, your former client, if he ever does go to trial.

KAMMEN: My view of Guantanamo is that it is a failed court system, and if there are trials, they will look nothing like what Americans think of as a trial.

PFEIFFER: In real life, there are people who despise you for defending a Guantanamo prisoner. And in the novel, you show this character, your character, being raged at by a victim family member. Why did you want to include that?

KAMMEN: Well, certainly I wanted the world to understand that the lawyers who represent people in Guantanamo are very committed to the American ideals of justice. And also the victims' grief is a very real part of this process. Their pain and their anger is a very real consideration in this process. Both legally and as a practical matter, it's there in the courtroom, and it would not have been realistic to write about a death penalty trial without writing about victims' grief.

PFEIFFER: There's a part in the book where defense attorneys find listening devices in the room where they meet with their clients, so they suspect prosecutors¹⁴ had been listening to their private conversations. That actually happened in real life. It's why you eventually left the case, although it sounds so almost farcically fictional that it's hard to believe it was real. But it was. What does that tell us about Guantanamo?

KAMMEN: Well, on so many levels, it is a system that operates in a way that Americans simply wouldn't recognize it. And the listening devices that we found were just the tip of the iceberg¹⁵. There were countless¹⁶ other intrusions over the time I was there, from monitoring computers, probably listening to phone - some phone calls. There were defense teams where the government tried to infiltrate¹⁷ with informants. To talk about Guantanamo as it really exists is really to talk about governmental intrusions into the defense function.

PFEIFFER: Did writing this novel help you feel like you had a sense of closure for a case you had to leave?

KAMMEN: It helped me put in words some of the things that I felt that if Rick Kammen says them, they sound pretentious¹⁸, but when they're coming from, in this case, the protagonist's wife, who says, you know, sometimes I think you guys are fighting for the soul of the country - I think there's some truth to that. I think what the lawyers who are involved are doing is really what lawyers - what we're taught in law school lawyers should do, is we're - you know, is we're standing¹⁹ up for the people who can't stand and speaking for the people who can't be heard. And writing that, it made me feel quite good.

PFEIFFER: Rick Kammen is a former Guantanamo defense attorney who's written a novel about that experience. It's called "Tortured Justice, Guantanamo Bay." Rick, thank you.

KAMMEN: Thank you, Sacha.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PFEIFFER: Tomorrow on MORNING EDITION, I speak with former U.S. Solicitor²⁰ General Ted³ Olson about his change of heart on Guantanamo's military court, which he now calls, quote, "doomed²¹ from the start." Olson is also calling for the September 11 case, which has still not gone to trial, to be settled with plea deals.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

4 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

5 warship   

n.军舰，战舰

参考例句：

• He is serving on a warship in the Pacific.他在太平洋海域的一艘军舰上服役。
• The warship was making towards the pier.军舰正驶向码头。

6 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

7 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

8 confidentiality   

n.秘而不宣，保密

参考例句：

• They signed a confidentiality agreement. 他们签署了一份保守机密的协议。
• Cryptography is the foundation of supporting authentication, integrality and confidentiality. 而密码学是支持认证、完整性和机密性机制的基础。

9 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

10 fictionalize   

把（历史事件等）编成小说，使小说化

参考例句：

• We had to fictionalize names. 我们得化用假名。 来自柯林斯例句

11 milieu   

n.环境；出身背景；(个人所处的)社会环境

参考例句：

• Foods usually provide a good milieu for the persistence of viruses.食品通常为病毒存续提供了一个良好的栖身所。
• He was born in a social milieu where further education was a luxury.他生在一个受较高教育就被认为是奢侈的社会环境里。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 depict   

vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述

参考例句：

• I don't care to see plays or films that depict murders or violence.我不喜欢看描写谋杀或暴力的戏剧或电影。
• Children's books often depict farmyard animals as gentle,lovable creatures.儿童图书常常把农场的动物描写得温和而可爱。

14 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

15 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

16 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

17 infiltrate   

vt./vi.渗入，透过；浸润

参考例句：

• The teacher tried to infiltrate her ideas into the children's minds.老师设法把她的思想渗透到孩子们的心中。
• It can infiltrate as much as 100 kilometers into enemy territory at night.可以在夜间深入敌领土100千米。

18 pretentious   

adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的

参考例句：

• He is a talented but pretentious writer.他是一个有才华但自命不凡的作家。
• Speaking well of yourself would only make you appear conceited and pretentious.自夸只会使你显得自负和虚伪。

19 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

20 solicitor   

n.初级律师，事务律师

参考例句：

• The solicitor's advice gave me food for thought.律师的指点值得我深思。
• The solicitor moved for an adjournment of the case.律师请求将这个案件的诉讼延期。

21 doomed   

命定的

参考例句：

• The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
• A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。