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``We could only do so much without the U.S. government working with us,'' says CCR attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez. ``They're a partner at the table now, and I think that's a good thing.''
Lawyers from the London-based human rights group Reprieve took two trips to N'Djamena, Chad, in 2007 and 2008, to interest the government there in the case of Mohammed Gharani. His lawyers say he was 14 at capture, and grew his first beard behind the razor wire in Cuba.
Born in Saudi Arabia to guest worker parents, he went to Pakistan as a citizen of Chad to study the Koran. The kingdom didn't want him back even after he was cleared of terror suspicions at Guantánamo.
So Reprieve lawyers traveled to Africa. ``The pitch was, `This is a national of yours. He's never been charged with a crime,'' recalls attorney Zachary Katznelson. ``He's been abused . . . racially abused, psychologically abused, physically abused, cut off from his family. He's the only Chadian national there and he needs your help.''
Chad eventually contacted the State Department and asked for his return, says Katznelson.
But it didn't go quietly. The young man made headlines when a prison-approved family phone call to an uncle turned into a recorded chat with an al Jazeera reporter -- the only broadcast interview with a detainee in the prison camp's history. The military says captives can't talk to journalists, citing the Geneva Conventions.
The tactic made some lawyers wince. But Guantánamo attorneys have long argued their clients cases in the media, especially during the years when the Bush administration blocked them from the courts.
A father-and-son team from Boston, Michael Mone and Michael Mone Jr., worked with Irish-American contacts, Amnesty International and lobbied parliament members and media in Ireland to get their client's dossier before the Foreign Office in 2007.
The son traveled to Dublin in June 2008 and told government representatives from the foreign and justice departments that Uzbek Oybek Jabbarov, 31, wanted to leave Guantánamo to become a sheep herder in Ireland.
``We knew Ireland would be a good place for Oybek. We worked very hard to lay the groundwork with the Irish government. They have a strong commitment to human rights. We knew he'd be treated fairly,'' Mone Jr. said.
``Plus, he speaks English. There's no language barrier.''
Irish diplomats interviewed detainees at Guantánamo and announced last week that it had agreed to take in two men, reported to be from Uzbekistan. Now it's up to the State Department's Fried to seal the deal.
``He's The Closer,'' Mone said. ``And God love him.''
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