Appealing the Stays

A little reported fact is that most of the men that have been cleared for release by the Obama Administration have had their habeas cases "stayed".... in other words, the Judges are refusing to hear their petitions for habeas corpus. Apparently when the "king" says..."don't worry I am taking care of things" the constitutional right to a habeas hearing (upheld by the Supreme Court in Boumediene) disappears. Many of the men have been cleared since the spring and with the threat of their habeas petitions dissolved the Obama Administration has dragged their collective feet in releasing the men.

Shame on the Judges and on the Obama Administration, although I would not expect the Administration to care about such things, I do expect the judges to do their duty

Click on the title for more.

Will they meet the NOV. 16 deadline?

On Monday the Obama administration is supposed to announce its plan for the 215 men still at Guantanamo. According to the administration they will have reviewed all of the files at least once by that date and they will know which men should be set free, which will be tried and which they just don't know what the heck to do with. The last public accounting was that about 50 were to be tried, 80 had been cleared for release and approximately 90 they just couldn't figure out. It will be interesting to see if they make the Monday deadline and if so where those numbers are at... Click on the title for more.

More on what is going on in the Supreme Court

Kiyemba II has now been filed in the Supreme Court. This is an issue that is of vital importance to both of my clients (and many other men at Gitmo) as it asks the Court to rule on whether or not my clients (and I) are entitled to 30 days notice before they are moved out of Guantanamo. The 30 days notice gives us time to petition the lower Court if in fact the Government/military intends on transferring the men to a place where they could face torture....I guess I mean, another place where they could face torture....sigh. Click on the title for more from scotusblog.

Obama's Guantanamo

Although the conditions of confinement for Mr. Al-Ghizzawi have improved over the course of this year there are many men at Guantanamo for whom things have not improved. Those are, for the most part, the men in Camp 5. Click on the title to read about their conditions.

Arrogance Rewarded

A few months back the Government decided it could disobey a judges order and that no one would take them to task. The order was actually entered in all of the pending cases and I volunteered to be the one to take them to task. In October I reported on the first judge that ruled on this here.... now Judge Lamberth, the second judge I filed in front of has ruled. Judge Lamberth went even further than Judge Bates by allowing me to file with him what I think the Government should have filed back in July....(instead of waiting six weeks for the Government to pretend that this is hard work!) Judge Lamberth has also sent the question of whether or not I should get costs and fees to Judge Hogan, the coordinating judge. Here is a link to the decision. It is nice when every once in a while the Government gets what it deserves.

The Guantanamo Lawyers

Hot off the presses is this new book which provides stories from approximately 100 of us who are representing detainees at Guantanamo. The stories are amazing...and sad.

If you click on the title it will take you directly to NYU press....and you can order your own copy.

In Their Own Words....

Click on the title to see and hear a depressing account of what we did to men at Guantanamo and how they are trying to rebuild their lives.

Obama's Military Commissions....

Some of you have asked about the "new" military commissions that Obama signed into law last week. Click on the title for a summary by Daphne Eviatar.

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian

From Justinian......

The ACLU, for example, has a dedicated Torture Report web site, and the National Security Archive has an online Torture Archive.

The Public Record, by contrast, has a handy list of 50 people suitable for war crimes prosecutions, including a number of torture abettors.

Torture is in the courts, too. Important rulings were issued on both sides of the Atlantic on the same October day.

In Washington, Judge Royce Lamberth (snap) accepted the CIA’s claims that no torture was being concealed in FOI documents sought by the ACLU.

Lamberth refused to even look at the documents in question.

CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR TH FULL FITCH REPORT.....

6 Uighers to Palau

Friday night six of the thirteen remaining Uighers flew off to Palau to try to rebuild their lives. Congrats to attorney George Clark and attorneys at CCR for their hard work. I guess that leaves about 215 to go....(including my two clients).

click here and on the title for more.

Supreme Court's friday conference meeting

Yesterdays conference was full of interesting Guantanamo questions. You can read more about another issue that was brought before the court this week here. We will have to wait for the release of orders on monday morning to see what, if anything, the court is going to do with all of this.

NPR's Worldview

Hey I will be back on NPR's Worldview today at noon central time. you can listen here or listen to the podcast afterward....

More Supreme Court Activity

On the heels of the Supreme Court's granting of Cert in Kiyemba comes the next issue "Kiyemba II." In Kiyemba the Supreme Court will decide if the Courts in granting habeas cases can order the men released in the US. In Kiyemba II the Court will be asked to decide if the Courts can bar the transfer of men to countries where the men fear torture or abuse. Both of these cases are important for men like my client Al-Ghizzawi because he cannot go back to his home country of Libya without fear of prosecution, imprisonment and torture and if no third country will take him the US might become his only option.

Click on the title to read more from scotus.

MAY WE HAVE MORE HAPPY ENDINGS....

AN UPDATE ON THE UIGHERS IN BERMUDA..........

MUSICIANS AGAINST TORTURE....

AGAIN FROM FIREDOGLAKE:

"On Tuesday, I reported a new campaign to close Gitmo (the campaign website is now live). Today, a bunch of musicians are the joining the National Campaign against Torture to FOIA information on how music was used in the government’s torture program."