Wednesday, June 19, 2013

updated---crap from the obama administration----

The talking dog brings us up to date on a new Gitmo information release from Obama's people and some worthy commentary on the surveillance issues. He updated it last night to provide the other lists released by the pentagon- it was one of those lists that showed my client being referred to the military commission. check out the very bottom of the talking dogs post....... I want to just discuss briefly that new release of information that the administration provided pursuant to a freedom of information act request (FOIA). I have represented my remaining client for over seven years now. I represented him in what is generously referred to as a habeas "hearing"- although even the judge remarked during that circus that it was not really a hearing----more on that after the appeal is completed--my client was not allowed to attend the event, he could only listen to part of my opening argument (the part that was open to the public) and even then the military cutoff the call just over half way through the public opening because the call was over his allotted time (45 minutes- and no my public opening was not even close to 45 minutes but there were technical difficulties with the phone connection), he was not allowed to see the so-called evidence that the government said justified his continued detention and I was not allowed to discuss it with him---I could go on and on about the failures of this process which one day I will, but not today....anyway this brings me back to the FOIA release yesterday which lists the men who are being held indefinitely and those who will be subject to commission trials. As an attorney for my client you would expect that I would know his status? Well here is what I knew- I knew my client was not cleared for transfer or release. I knew that because my transparent government released the list last year- pursuant to a FOIA request- of the men who were cleared. My client's name was not on it therefore I could deduce he was not cleared. Was he going to a military trial or was he just going to rot away at Guantanamo without charge or trial? The government would not tell me that little fact (nor would they tell the other attorneys that same information about their clients) For that information I had to contact a military defense attorney who had the list of the men who were going to be subject to the military commission- I contacted him and I was told that my client was not on the list of men to be tried by military commission. So I could deduce that my client was on the forever to be detained list....until yesterday when my transparent government finally released -pursuant to a FOIA request- the status of the men who are not cleared for transfer or release. My clients name of course is in there- Razak Ali, ISN 685- and he is listed as subject to a military commission. WTF? Are they going to try him for being in a guesthouse in Pakistan where another man had stayed for a few days---a man who the government thought was an al-Qaeda hot shot -but then after waterboarding him 175 times (or thereabouts) realized that he was a nothing but a travel agent with serious head injuries? Well, to quote the previous white house asshole, "bring it on....".