Darkness at Noon

On seven seas we learn

Navy’s stern call

Faith, Courage, Service True

With Honor Over, Honor Over All

--from Anchors Aweigh, U.S. Navy Song

Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz is being charged with ''deliberate, intentional, conscious release of classified information,'' when he served as counsel at Gitmo, said prosecutor Lt. James Hoffman during opening statements at Diaz's court-martial at Norfolk Naval Station (''Ex-Navy Lawyer On Trial in Gitmo Case.'')

Well, at least someone is acting consciously, and conscientiously, in this whole sordid affair. Diaz is accused of sending the names and nationalities of Gitmo inmates to human rights attorney Barbara Olshansky, who was at the time working for the Center for Constitution Rights.

''She said the nonprofit legal group was suing the federal government to obtain the names of detainees because the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that the detainees had the right to challenge their detention.'' In the perfect Catch-22, while the detainees may have had that right, attorneys were not allowed access to the detainees' names

Olshansky tried to give the document to the judge in that case, but the judge sent a security officer to pick it up, and eventually the Justice Department and FBI investigated. Hence Diaz's court martial.

We say that all men are created equal, but that doesn't apply to men in Gitmo. We are abandoning the basic human tenets that laid the foundation of this country.

On the one hand, we have our three POW's, like the British detainees of Iran before them, on center stage. Meanwhile, hundreds languish in Gitmo, their wives or families not having the slightest idea of their status. Surely this is a violation of humanity, if not law.

Lt. Cmdr. Diaz is a hero. If our government will not do what is right, then it is incumbent upon the individual to do so. As an officer, Diaz had the right to disobey an illegal order.

Denying the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups the names of your prisoners is a serious breach of international law.