Tim Jon Semmerling takes you on his myth-breaking, irony-twisting, behind-the-scenes memoir of defending an enemy’s life at the 9/11 War Court. If you think you know the good guys from the bad, you’re in for a shocking revelation.
In his meteoric rise to legal expert, the DoD and CIA clear Semmerling into Guantanamo Bay. He is appointed to defend al-Qaeda’s Walid bin ‘Atash—whom President George W. Bush called “a killer.”
Semmerling works to convince this enemy that he is there to help save his life. He learns to feel secure when sitting across from this chained man, but he cannot foresee that the defense team’s attorneys, freely sitting next to him and smiling all along, are the real danger. He calls out their misconduct, corruption, and insatiable hunger to gaslight and bully the weak. Feeling threatened, they ruthlessly conspire to remove him from his position. To bring Walid to their side, they appeal to his religious convictions and deep-seated homophobia. They reveal to Walid that Semmerling is gay and concoct lies that Semmerling has lustful designs on him.
But Walid sees through their chicanery. He focuses on Semmerling’s deeds and character. He defends his expert and provides truthful testimony of the attorneys’ bullying and betrayal, demonstrating an important facet of his own morals and humanity.
The War Court silences Walid to protect the $6 billion Guantanamo enterprise. But the attorneys have brought upon themselves, and future attorneys, an astonishing death-penalty conflict —exposed by My Enemy, My Defender for the world to hear.