Al-Ghizzawi on SCOTUSblog

SCOTUSblog, a respected blog devoted to all matters concerning the Supreme Court, has picked up Al-Ghizzawi's original petition for a writ of habeas corpus and has posted a PDF of the petition HERE.

Writing on SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston notes,

[Al-Ghizzawi's] case was one of two that have become highly visible examples of what are called "do-overs" in the Pentagon system for processing Guantanamo detainees. That process is conducted by "Combatant Status Review Tribunals." Detainee lawyers have complained in court that, if such a CSRT panel clears a Guantanamo prisoner, it is routine for the Pentagon to order a new CSRT review, to establish a basis for a combatant designation. Al-Ghizzawi is one of several individuals known to have been involved in "do-overs." Another is Anwar Hassan, who already has an appeal pending in the Supreme Court (In re Ali, 06-1194) seeking an original habeas writ.

The original three-member military panel that examined the case against Al-Ghizzawi, found that "there was no credible evidence supporting the allegation," according to a member of that panel. The member was an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, Stephen E. Abraham. Since Colonel Abraham surfaced in filings in detainee cases in the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit Court as a critic on the inside of the CSRT process, Pentagon and Justice Department officials have undertaken a campaign to challenge his complaints about that process.