Judge Denies Habeas Petitions for Two (updated)

Unfortunately J. Leon (the same judge that exonerated the 6 Algerian/Bosnians) denied habeas petitions for two men yesterday. The Judge refused to take into account evidence that certain statements made by the men were made after being tortured. Tough day for those men.
The ruling against the Yemeni captive, Moath Hamza Ahmed Al Alwi, can be found here. The ruling against the Tunisian prisoner, Hisham Sliti, can be found here. (thanks to Scotus for the cites)

Petition for Special Prosecutor for War Crimes

Click on the title and sign the petition to Obama's new Attorney General asking for a special prosecutor to look into our war crimes... also read the entire article and see what else you can do to help.

No Shame

Just when you think you have heard it all... there is this.
(Click on the title)

Part 2 of the Stephen Abraham Interview

Hats off to Kaptain Kanada for sending this on. In this part of the interview by Andy Worthington Abraham talks about the only Tribunal Panel he sat on... that was for my client Mr. Al-Ghizzawi. The Panel found him not to be an enemy combatant but yet he still sits at Guantanamo.
Click on the title to read the interview.

Is Gates guilty of perjury?

Andy Worthington discusses the affidavit that was provided to habeas counsel from Gates (click on the title). Maybe this comes down to the word "encountered"? One thing that is sure is that we have not received exculpatory information for our clients (information that would tend to show they are not guilty). So far we have been left to our own investigations for proving our clients innocence but it is a legal obligation that the government give us the exculpatory information. Will the "justice departments" tactics change on January 20th? One can only hope.

Harold Pinter RIP

In his lecture after receiving the Noble Prize in Literature in 2005 he spoke these words:

"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law."

"How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand?".

Happy Holidays?

Andy Worthington Interviews Stephen Abraham

This is an amazing interview and when you read part two (next week) you will find that Col. Abraham sat on my clients panel (Al-Ghizzawi) when Al-Ghizzawi was found NOT to be an enemy combatant. Click on the title for more.

Less than one month

click on the title....

THE CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

As many of you know the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has been the umbrella organization for all of the volunteer attorneys (like me) in the Guantanamo litigation. They have helped us stay organized and working as a group. Unfortunately among many of Madoff's indirect victims is CCR. -- among CCR's significant donors are several foundations who were Madoff investors. Loss of their contributions is going to be material.
Please consider donating to CCR

medical records and independent medical exams

Well unfortunately the headline does not indicate any changes in Mr. Al-Ghizzawi's case but if you click on the title you can read how some of the Judges are starting to allow lawyers to obtain medical records and in one case the Judge is even allowing an independent medical review.

dream team

The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece earlier this week suggesting that the Guantanamo habeas attorneys are in it for the glory and how nice it would be if big firm lawyers would volunteer to help out the poor department of justice lawyers. Well the Wall Street Journal did not see fit to print my letter in response so here it is (FYI, DOJ is the department of Justice... in name only of course) :

As one of the “dream teams” (my team is particularly small however because I am a sole practitioner) referenced in your opinion piece on December 16^th “Gitmo Lawyers are the latest in Radical Chic” I want to commend you for the excellent idea that the DOJ gets some assistance from competent lawyers from the outside. If the DOJ had competent lawyers on it’s side that would treat the courts as an independent branch of government rather than an irritant to be ignored… or worse yet to be lied to, perhaps we could get these cases resolved. Competent lawyers could start by giving refresher courses to the DOJ attorneys on both the court rules and the ethical rules for attorney conduct…. Including the most important rules “obey court orders” and “tell the truth.” A little friendly advice about the harm that comes to the judicial process when they deliberately insulate its lawyers from unfavorable facts would go a long way too.

I have been in private practice for more than twenty-five years and I can tell you that if I conducted litigation in the same manner that these attorneys from the DOJ have I would have been sanctioned by the Judges long ago. You are absolutely right that competent representation promotes justice and any involvement to raise the quality of the government's representation in these cases would be a welcome improvement.

The Worst Place in the World

Click on the title to read Andy Worthington's discussion about the men released to their homes in Bosnia two days ago.
I was particularly angered to hear that these men who were cleared by a federal judge of any wrongdoing were still treated like the "worst of the worst" on their trip home. They were diapered and chained for the ride home... not allowed to even use the god damned toilet on the plane. Shame on us.
So now we have three men who have been released pursuant to a court order. As my friend the talking dog pointed out one fewer than the number known to have died at Guantanamo. Oops...As my other friend Almerindo (from the Guantanamo testimonial project) pointed out, five men are known to have died at Guantanamo so the number released by court order is two fewer than the number known to have died at Gitmo.

Cert Petition

I finally got my copy of the cert petition I filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of Mr. Al-Ghizzawi. Thanks to Charly at the Project to enforce the geneva conventions for posting it on his website and providing the link. Click on the title to view the petition.

Judge Leon Rules....

Two important rulings from Judge Leon today (Judge Leon was the Judge in the case of the Algerian prisoners, five of the six were found not to be enemy combatants after their habeas trial...)
He ruled that the president (and others) are proper parties..
and that the government does not get a rebuttable presumption of accuracy and authenticity...etc.
click on the title to view the actual orders.

Three on their way back to Bosnia? UPDATED

The Washington Post is reporting that three of the five prisoners who were found not to be enemy combatants by Judge Leon are on their way back home to Bosnia. These were men who had settled in Bosnia from Algeria. Click on the title for the story.
Messrs. Nechla, Ait Idir and Boudells arrived in Sarajevo this morning.These are the first men to actually be freed because of a court order but in keeping with our general nastiness they were shackled for the plane trip home. Word just in that they are home with their families now.

FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER

As always our friend from down under alerts us to the crimes of the Bush Administration....
I am not exactly sure why... (ok I do know why...) we in the US have to get the news about the US from places like Australia, Canada, Germany, Peru, etc.... but I guess until we have a real media in the US once again... or even what passes for one... I am forever grateful for the assistance of so many of you.
CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR MORE....

War Crimes- correction

I always thought it was Moazamm who was videoconferenced in but I stand corrected. It was one of the tipton three: Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal or Rhuhal Ahmed. Their detailed accounts are in the public domain which you can access on the CCR website: http://ccrjustice.org/tipton-three.
For me, one of the most distressing accounts of our war crimes came in a training session I attended in the fall of 2005. One of the tipton three had just been released from Guantanamo a few months earlier and he was video conferenced into our training session. He spoke about how he and hundreds of men were rounded up and placed in metal shipping containers on an airport runway in Afghanistan. The men who were crammed into these containers and left to boil under the hot sun were screaming for air... they were screaming for their lives. What they got in return were bullets fired into the metal containers and the military personnel yelled "here we will give you some air holes." The man was a British citizen, he saw both American and Afghan forces at the base and knew from the voices that that Americans forces were involved in the massacre. When he was finally released from the metal container that he had been held in most of the almost 100 men were dead. The conditions were the same for the men held in the other containers, most were dead. Now the evidence of those war crimes is being destroyed.


Click on the title for more.

new website

100 days to close guantanamo and end torture.
Click on the title and learn what you can do.

Senate Committee Inquiry into the treatment of Detainees in US custody

Bottom line:
Chairman Levin said: "The abuses at Abu Ghraib, GTMO and elsewhere cannot be chalked up to the actions of a few bad apples. Attempts by senior officials to pass the buck to low ranking soldiers while avoiding any responsibility for abuses are unconscionable. The message from top officials was clear; it was acceptable to use degrading and abusive techniques against detainees. Our investigation is an effort to set the record straight on this chapter in our history that has so damaged both America's standing and our security. America needs to own up to its mistakes so that we can rebuild some of the good will that we have lost."

Click on the title for more... or on the links below.
Executive Summary and Conclusions [PDF]
Statement of Senator Levin
Part I of the Committee's Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody - June 17, 2008
Part II of the Committee's Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody - September 25, 2008

THANK YOU PORTUGAL

I hope this is just the beginning! Click on the title for more.

Today's hearing before the Coordination judge

Click on the title for a summary From Scotusblog. Suffice it to say I was there and I have no clue how the court will rule... but a big applause goes to David Cynamon who presented the side of the Guantanamo attorneys. And now we wait to see how much longer we wait.

The Plea agreements

Contrary to earlier reports in the media yesterday, and based upon information I received later yesterday evening all of the defendants accused of crimes related to 9/11 have withdrawn any attempt to plead guilty. As far as I know, as of now, any effort to plead guilty has been delayed until at least after the competency hearings of two of the defendants. Motions concerning challenges to the Military Commission proceedings are also still proceeding. What most of you probably recognize is that these men have been tortured and abused for several years and even under the kangaroo military commissions plea agreements under these circumstances must proceed carefully.

John Lennon

No I didn't forget yesterdays anniversary (28 years ago) but I was on the road. Click on the title.

FIRE JOHN YOO

This week the Berkeley City council (thanks talking dog) will take up the issue of whether or not to ask the Justice Department to file charges against John Yoo. Maybe it is just me but the timing seems off a bit.... Maybe January 21st might be a better day.... (just thinking out loud).
John Yoo deserves to be tried and (hopefully) convicted of his war crimes and crimes against humanity and if you want to learn how you can do more to get the man behind the torture policies out of a job click on the title.

Supreme Court Grants Cert in Al-Marri case

Click on the title to go to Scotusblog and read more. The question presented to the Court:

Whether Congress, in passing the Authorization for Use of Military Force after September 11, authorized the indefinite military detention of a legal immigrant seized on domestic soil whom the government alleged to have conspired with al Qaeda to carry out attacks against the United States.

Al-Marri came to the US on a student visa with his wife and children. He was picked up and first held as a material witness then moved to solitary confinement in one of our military prisons where he has never been charged with anything. He has been held in Guantanamo like surroundings for more than six years. It is almost like the government is testing how far they could go: first with Padilla, a US citizen held without charge and then Al-Marri who was in the US on a valid visa.... next question is whether they will try to move him out of military detention and into state charges like they did with Padilla when the judicial heat was on.

The talking dog has more....

Makes you want to visit the US doesn't it?

A Nod to our Friends up North...

For those of you who have not been paying attention there has been a bit of real political life going on up in Canada. Harper, the Bush clone of the northland, thought he and Canada could sleep through the current economic crisis... seems the other political parties thought that was just a tad stupid so they formed a new coalition government to oust Harper and start taking care of the country.... in a desperate move Harper had parliament put to sleep for seven weeks and as I was reading a Canadian website peace, order and good government, eh? I was envious that we can't do the same ...but a piece of advice in one of the blog/comments... basically telling parliament to meet and prepare all the bills and have them ready to shove through when the door swings open... just seemed abit poignant...and I thought hmmmm, good advice for a certain incoming president too.
Good luck to our progressive friends up north.

Signing on to the International Criminal Court (ICC)

Click on the title to read an op-ed by Richard Cohen on why Obama should "re sign" the US as a member of the ICC.
A while back a commenter here asked why we couldn't send our Guantanamo prisoners to that court and it raises an interesting issue that I have been thinking about. If we signed on to the Court could we ask them to take the few (and yes very few) men at guantanamo who may actually be war criminals?

Obama should prosecute Bush officials who designed torture policy

Michael Ratner is the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights... the umbrella organization for all of the guantanamo habeas counsel... Click on the title to read his very insightful opinion piece on why we need to prosecute war criminals not just learn "the truth".

I have to say there is a certain joy in thinking that Bush may pardon all of these war criminals... that would leave the prosecution to the rest of the world... and there are some countries that just might do it.

goodbye to Odetta

Sec. Gates and Guantanamo

Gates is saying that we need legislation to close Guantanamo (bullshit) and to keep the men from being released to the US (bigger bullshit). We don't need any legislation. Men that are found innocent by the courts should be allowed into the US... the fact that they were kidnapped by us and have no where else to go is not their fault. And how can we look any country in the eye and suggest that they take some of the men when we refuse to take any?
Is this a trial balloon from the Obama Camp or a last gasp from the Bush camp? I sure do not know but it worries me.

Are Torture Commissions The Way To Go? (UPDATED)

There has been alot of discussion amongst those of us involved in the Guantanamo litigation about what the best policy is for unearthing and making public all that has happened with our secret prisons, torture, and other violations of human rights. Many have suggested something styled after the truth and reconciliation commissions and now the International Center for Transitional Justice has completed its year long inquiry and concluded that is the way to go...And the London times jumps in with this piece by Andrew Sullivan.
I am not convinced but perhaps it is a good starting point.
Hats off to Harpers Scott Horton for bringing these to my attention.
Click on the title to read more.

Several people have emailed me to ask why I am not convinced that truth commissions are the way to go. To put it bluntly: why bother if we are not going to use the truth to prosecute our criminals? When someone murders your neighbor you do not ask for a truth commission to look into the murder, you gather the facts and prosecute the individual. We are talking not just about murder but also human rights violations on a massive scale and the shredding of our constitution. If the truth commissions are proposed as a way to gather all of the facts for a future prosecution then I am all for it.... if however, as I suspect, the commissions are the endgame ...then screw it.

Chinese Uighers and the power struggle with the Executive

Click on the title for a good run down on the controversy between the Bush Administration and the Judiciary over the plight of the Uighers... the Uighers are men that have been held at Guantanamo for almost seven years, the government has admitted they are not enemy combatants,the federal court ordered them released to the US but the Bushies have tied up their release claiming they are a threat to us... even if not to the rest of the world....sigh.

An Interrogator speaks out...

A US military interrogator speaks about the "guantanamo method" of interrogation used in Iraq and why it will not and cannot work.
Click on the title to read more.

MORE LINKS FROM OUR CANADIAN FRIEND (updated)

HATS OFF TO KAPTAIN KANADA FOR THE FOLLOWING LINKS:

http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/913662.html

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/early-ruling-on-detainee-process/

http://www.startribune.com/nation/35210944.html

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11063128

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202426254333&rss=newswire

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/30/international/i080519S03.DTL&feed=rss.news

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7757225.stm

(just copy and paste the ones that you can't click on....)
THERE ARE SO MANY MORE THAT HE SENT BUT THIS SHOULD KEEP YOU BUSY FOR NOW.

Op-Ed from Sabin Willett (one of the Uigher attorneys)

Now here is an idea for you... judge the Guantanamo cases by the facts as they are .... not the facts as Mukasey and his idea of a justice department would like them to be.
Click on the title to read the op-ed

Bin Laden's "driver" to be released to Yemen?

Bin Laden driver to be moved from Guantanamo

(CNN) -- The former driver and bodyguard of Osama bin Laden will be moved from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Monday, several U.S. sources told CNN.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who has been held at Guantanamo Bay for years, will be moved to his native Yemen to serve the final weeks of his sentence, the sources said.

Hamdan was convicted by a military commission in August of a war crime -- providing material support to al Qaeda -- but was cleared of more serious terrorism conspiracy charges.

He was found guilty of being the terror leader's bodyguard and driver, and of receiving weapons training and transporting and delivering arms. However, the commission rejected charges that Hamdan conspired with others in carrying out al Qaeda attacks, including those of September 11, 2001.

Hamdan received a 66-month prison sentence, which was due to be completed by the end of the year, because he had received credit for time served before being found guilty.

November 23, 2004

It was four years ago today that my client Mr. Al-Ghizzawi was found by the Military's Combat Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) to NOT be an enemy combatant.... Seemed like an appropriate anniversary to file his petition for certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court. I filed it with the Court Security Office today. When it is cleared for public consumption I will post it here.

NPR's "The Story"

Well it is not everyday I can tell people I was on a radio program with both Obama and Bush but listen yourself.

5 of the 6 Bosnians Ordered to be Released

Judge Leon who has been conducting Habeas hearings in DC just ordered that five of the six Bosnians held at Guantanamo these past 61/2 years must be released. For those not familiar with Judge Leon he is a very conservative Bush appointee and the "justice" department thought it had a friend in him that would just do what they asked. Fortunately he is a Judge first and foremost.
click on the title to read more...

Talking Dog interview with Buz Eisenberg

Habeas counsel Buz Eisenberg has been representing Gitmo clients for more than 4 years.
Click on the title to read another amazing Talking Dog interview and read to the letter at the end and ask yourself this.

Tomorrow on NPR's The Story

On Thursday I will be on NPR's The Story to give the latest on my Guantanamo cases. Click on the title to go to the website and see what time it will be on in your location. In Chicago it will be on WBEZ at 2:00 pm.
I will have a link to the show later this week.

I lOVE GITMO

So what should be done with Guantanamo when Obama closes it, as he promised to do? I am sure there will be many novel ideas but this one is great fun! (be sure to click on the illustrations.)

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ MORE

Chief Military Judge Retires Immediately

Judge Ralph Kohlmann had been scheduled to retire in April but I guess he just could not wait... he is out as of yesterday.

Kids at Gitmo

As I reported here last week the Guantanamo Testimonials Project at the Center for the Study of Human rights in America at UC Davis did a study of the governments own records and determined that we were holding more kids at Gitmo then previously admitted. The military has now revised its figures to the number the testimonials project determined to be the correct number.
Click on the title for the AP story (I know I don't like to post AP stories but I am making this exception!).

My letter to the editor to a paper today....

I am surprised to learn that President-elect Obama is seriously considering legislation to create special courts for the men at Guantanamo. I hope Obama, a lawyer himself, will take the time to carefully review the “evidence” against many of the men still being held at that base. At first blush, some of the so called “evidence” might strike the untrained as serious but if Obama reviews the underlying support for that “evidence” he will see that the reason behind many of these detentions is (to quote one of the military tribunal panel members) “garbage.” I represent two of the men at Guantanamo and I have looked at what is supposed to be the secret evidence against my clients. I can tell you that there is a reason they keep this information secret and it is not about “national security”, this is about national embarrassment. In fact, calling this “garbage” is, in my view, a gross understatement. Couple this with the resignations of six of the prosecutors in the Military Commission system and it should be clear that there are serious problems underlying the cases. It is appalling that these men have sat at Guantanamo for almost seven years with no charges against them and no judicial review of the evidence. If Obama follows through with his trial balloon and sets up yet another system to try these men my clients will look at another year or more before they get the fair hearing that they so desperately need. The US Supreme Court said in June that these men have waited long enough for their hearings. I pray that Obama will heed the call of the Supreme Court and let our justice system, which has worked just fine for over two centuries, do its job.

H. Candace Gorman

Attorney at Law

close gitmo

I hope Obama does not disappoint us on this one. But if he does I will do everything I can do, legally, to make him keep his word.

Close Gitmo.

AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY LEAVE?

Former Guantanamo prisoners still strugglin

By Jane Sutton – Wed Nov 12, 5:57 pm ET

MIAMI (Reuters) – Former Guantanamo prisoners released after years of
detention without charge went home to find themselves stigmatized and
shunned, viewed either as terrorists or U.S. spies, according to a
report released on Wednesday.
The report by human rights advocates urged U.S. President-elect
Barack Obama to form an independent, nonpartisan commission with
subpoena powers to investigate the treatment of U.S. detainees in
Afghanistan, Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY...

So many links.... so little time

Hats off again to Kaptain Kanada for sending me all these links. I am busy responding to the new court deadlines which I hope will finally result in my clients getting released... although I fear it is just a tad to late for poor Mr. Al-Ghizzawi... but take a look at the following links to see the latest that is going on... and for those links that are not active you can copy and paste them in your browser.

http://www.antiwar.com/worthington/?articleid=13744

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/10/national/
w010237S64.DTL&feed=rss.news

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10475063.htm


http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/09/kerr/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/l09gitmo.html

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=15203a37-9ec7-4333-a348-b67ece676a86

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=234350&Sn=WORL&IssueID=31234

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/washington/07gitmo.html?ref=us

Obama ideas floating around the media

I really hate it when smart people have bone-headed ideas. The very thought of setting up yet another structure to deal with something that our courts were designed to deal with makes my skin crawl. If that idea makes its way up the chain we will be looking at least at another year before our innocent clients get the hell out of our gulag.

2 more on their way to Algeria (updated)

The DOD just announced two more men were sent back to Algeria:
Labed Ahmed, ISN 703. Camp 5 not cleared for release.
Abbar Sufian Al Hawary (ISN 1016). He was cleared for release.

So much happening in such a short time

Last week while I was visiting my clients at Guantanamo (after my election work for Obama) Judge Hogan entered the long awaited order sending the procedures etc for getting the Habeas hearings underway. He set very tight schedules and I will be leaving for DC later today to start doing my end on those schedules. Rumor has it that J. Hogan had this order ready quite awhile ago but that certain judges were sitting on their final approval until the results of the election were in. I don't know if that is true or not but it would explain alot. To catch up on everything that has been going on I turn to my friend Charly Gittings who did a great posting collecting all the sources. Unfortunately in my usual style I can't seem to get the links working on Charly's email so if you click on the title it will take you right to his site (Project to enforce the Geneva Conventions).

2) THE DETAINEE CASES

There's quite a bit going on these days; for the details, see the outstanding reports by Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog linked below.

But now the election has created a very interesting situation. In two months, the government's view of the law in these cases is going to change, and change a lot. The question is how much and how soon, and it's clear that DOJ is a mess that will require major house cleaning of both personnel and legal policy. It will be very interesting to see how the new administration deals with it.

Then there's DoD, and all I'm going to say about that is that I think it would be a VERY bad idea to keep Gates as Secretary of Defense -- DoD is almost as rotten as DOJ is.

MORE HERE BUT LINKS AREN'T WORKING... CLICK ON TITLE FOR THE REAL THING

Guantanamo's Children

The UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas -- (CSHRA) has just posted the analysis of publicly available government documents that show that the Department of State underreported to the United Nations, by 50%, the number of children seized and sent to Guantanamo.

The analysis is Guantánamo's Children: Military and Diplomatic Testimonies, and can be found here.

Also you can click on the title to go directly to the Guantanamo Testimonials Project which has an amazing collection of information related to our Gulag.

HOPE IS DYING...

Al-Ghizzawi is in very bad shape and I am thinking it is time for people to send him letters to try to give him some hope. It takes a long time for mail to get to him. It will be read by the "authorities" and it will be censored....but if you have the time please send him a nice little letter letting him know that he is not forgotten. Who knows, he might even receive it.
Thanks,
Candace

ABDUL HAMID AL-GHIZZAWI, ISN #654
Camp Delta
U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
Washington, DC 20355

THE GAMES THEY PLAY

I just got off the phone with Al-Ghizzawi's brother in Libya. Our government is preparing for Al-Ghizzawi to be released to Libya and I guess the US wants to be able to argue that it is turning over men not to countries that will torture and detain indefinitely for no reason (like us and Libya) but instead to "family members"... so we can say "hey, we didn't turn him over to the government we insisted that he be turned over to his family." So the Libyan government made Al-Ghizzawi's brother sign a statement which forces him to turn over Al-Ghizzawi to authorities when (or if) he is turned over to his brother. This way the Libyan government can say "hey, his family turned him over to us."
This is really ugly.
The government has to give me notice before they can turn Al-Ghizzawi over to another country.
I will continue to fight to get Al-Ghizzawi out of Guantanamo and not sent to Libya.

I will marvel....

at today's election results... when my innocent clients are freed from Guantanamo.
I head there tomorrow.

ELECTION REPORT FROM NORTHERN MICHIGAN

Well here I am in a small town in Northern Michigan working as a legal monitor for Obama. The polls opened promptly at 7am and there was a long line of people waiting to vote. Everything is going smoothly up here. An interesting fact for all of you: 98% of the eligible voters in Michigan are registered to vote.

N.Y. Times gitmo database

I was just reminded of this comprehensive database put together by the NY Times on the men held at gitmo. Click on the title for more.

Another Transfer (updated)

Mohammed Hussein Abdullah, ISN 704, was returned to Somaliland on Friday. For some reason the government/military did not think it was worth mentioning publicly.... something about Somaliland not being a real country so they really did not have to make any announcement. Abdullah had been cleared since 2005 (not a typo). He was in Camp 4.

What is Goin on?

I was interviewed by an attorney in Georgia who has a local radio show. Click on the title to go to his website and listen if you care to.

TWO MORE TRANSFERED...(updated)

Yesterday the military announced that two men have been transfered: One to Tajikistan
and one to Kazakhstan (Abdulrahim Kerimbakiev- Camp 6 (ISN #521). When I have more details I will provide an update.

NO MORE BOURBON

Yesterday I got back from my latest trip overseas to try to find a home for Al-Ghizzawi. Another unsuccessful trip. Europe has absolutely no interest in helping the Bush administration and it is clear this must wait until Obama takes office (Please).
In my pile of mail at home there a letter from IN THESE TIMES which included a letter from my personal hero Studs Terkel. In the letter Studs announced that he was now 96 years old and did not expect to live long "No more books or articles. No more cubs games. No more bourbon.... but that doesn't mean I haven't got any fight left in me..."
and he asked me... and now I am asking you... to donate to In These Times.
As I was driving home from my office I was tired and distressed... the government filed new papers in Al-Ghizzawi's case and this nightmare that my client is caught up in never seems to end.
Then I heard the news........ Studs died this morning. For a few moments it just seemed like more bad news.... but he was 96 and had a great life and
And we should all remember his wise words... Hope Dies Last....
I will donate to IN THESE TIMES in Stud's memory and I hope you will too....
And I will keep fighting for Al-Ghizzawi and the other men at Guantanamo because "hope dies last."
RIP Studs.

HELP NEEDED (updated)

Thanks to everyone who sent me emails and suggestions and to Linda who responded below. I am providing the whole name given by the Government to Al-Ghizzawi in case this might help in piecing together what went on here:"Abdel Hamid Ibn Abdussalem Ibn Miftah al Ghazzawi." Of course his real name is Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi.

I might be entering a black out zone as far as what I can talk about in relation to my client Al-Ghizzawi. The government will be filing new documents soon and once I view those documents in the secure facility I cannot discuss them.
I have this little hunch that if they try to add some new BS about why they are holding Al-Ghizzawi that the information might really relate to a person that neither Al-Ghizzawi nor I know anything about: A man who has, as part of his name, the name "Abdul Salam". It seems this name was added to Al-Ghizzawi's name sometime after Al-Ghizzawi was held at Guantanamo. Al-Ghizzawi told me that the man was in the cell next to him early on and then he was gone. Is he alive or dead? I don't know. But if any of you have time to try to figure who the men are/were with similar names that have been held at Gimo and what the facts are related to these man it could be very helpful. Some of the info can be found on government websites.