In reply to a question about the status of the legal battle to win the freedom of the Ibrahim and Suleiman families, Dallas attorney John Wheat Gibson sent the following email on Dec. 29:
I cannot “set aside” these cases, because I am too disgusted by the U.S. government’s brutality and cynicism, but I am at an impasse. First we filed and followed up with telephone calls for administrative
remedies. The filing fees were substantial. Now the administrative agencies have told us to go hang.
It is clear what the next step has to be, but I cannot take it because it is such a large one. The next step is a suit for habeas corpus and other relief invoking constitutional and international law protections for
children, and for the diabetic father. You do not file federal suits unless you are ready for a long and nasty battle.
If I file suit in the Oklahoma and Texas district courts, I will have to concentrate more time and money on them than I have or can make available. There is no point in my filing the suits–taking the next step–if I will be
unable to complete them. I doubt anyone else can litigate them as competently as I can, but that does not mean somebody else could not do a good job.
I already have put a huge amount of free work into these cases because what the government is doing is unconscionable, and I am willing to continue at half my usual fee or less, but I am at the end of my financial
string. It will do nobody any good, except the DHS, if I go bust and have to abandon the suit anyway.
The gist of it is, the next step is a big one and requires somebody with resources to take it. If the resources come my way, I am eager to fight. If somebody else who already has the resources wants to pick up the
fight, sign and file the pleadings, research the domestic and international case law, glean the evidence, conduct discovery, and travel to the hearings, I am ready to help that lawyer however I can. But nothing would be worse than doing a half-assed job or being unable to finish the litigation once it is begun, regardless of who the lawyer is.
John Wheat Gibson, P.C.
Texas Civil Rights Review 