Today's WTF moment....

So last week Tom Durkin- an attorney that also represents Gitmo men- had an argument in the 7^th circuit regarding classified materials(not a Gitmo case). I reported on what happened at that argument here. The hearing was public—and without prior warning to Tom the Panel decided to go into secret session and they kicked Tom and everyone else out---except government attorneys. The Panel had a nice little private conversation with the government that none of us will ever know about.....Now it turns out that the public session was inadvertently not recorded and so the Panel has decided to reargue the public part again tomorrow --- really, you can’t make this stuff up.

Use this link ...

or

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/06/07/fear-in-terrorism-case-in-chicago-leads-to-court-not-recording-oral-argument-court-orders-do-over/

Musical Interlude...

From Gitmo attorney Frank Goldsmith---Fixed

Well I certainly screwed that up! So I am fixing this by just leaving the link...

Find Franks op-ed in Time magazine....

Thank you Frank!

Find the original here:....and below

http://time.com/2838946/i-helped-free-the-taliban-from-guantanamo-bay/

Oh Man....it's like the plague

Its spreading fast.... now the 7th circuit has held a secret argument and the defense counsel- Tom Durkin- was not allowed to stay for that session. Even when the DC Circuit insisted on a secret argument in my client's case I was allowed to stay and argue....it was just the "audience" that was forced out....well not the entire audience---government attorneys with security clearances were allowed to stay for my clients argument!
I happen to know that Tom has a security clearance and the concept that the court is hearing an argument without the attorney for the defendant is beyond the pale....even in this so-called day and age.

read the story here.

Andy Worthington puts the hysteria in the proper perspective

Thanks Andy.

The Hysteria Over the Five Men Released....

As the world falls apart around us because five members of the Taliban were traded for an American Soldier I would just like to point out two things- The narrative regarding the 5 men comes from the military's initial assessment of those men when they were taken into custody. As anyone who has been paying any attention (inotherwords not the majority of the American people or the majority of the media.....) those initial assessments were categorically wrong for just about every man being held at Guantanamo---the men were taken in exchange for bounties and the military did no independent background checks. It was only after lawyers got involved and started doing the background checks that the falsity of the accusations (for almost every man at Guantanamo) started to become known.

As to the American soldier-- really? I mean WTF--because a couple of the guys in his platoon are claiming the guy said some things that makes them think he deserted we should have just left him there forever? My my.

Marcy over at emptywheel has an interesting look at the situation.

Some other looks at this issue are here, here, here and here.
I am not including links to the hysterical and inaccurate.....