Gitmo by the numbers---

While we await final word on transfers that are rumored to be in the works let me bring you up to date with the numbers as of December 23, 2016:

New chart attached, reflecting that after a second hearing, the PRB has approved for transfer Mohammed Al-Ansi (ISN 29), a Yemeni whom the 2009 Task Force had slated for indefinite detention.

The prison population remains at 59:

·         23 are cleared, 26 are awaiting clearance, and 10 are in the military commission system (of those, 7 are in “active” “trial” proceedings while 3 have been “convicted”).

·         Of the 23 cleared, 14 (60.9%) are Yemenis and 9 are non-Yemenis. 

·         Of the 26 awaiting clearance, 10 (38.5%) are Yemenis and 16 are non-Yemenis.

PRB Data

The PRB has approved for transfer 38 of the 64 detainees for whom it has issued decisions (59.4%).

·         38 detainees were cleared.  22 of these men have been released; 16 remain.  (See “Cleared Detainee Data” below for details.)

o   31 detainees were cleared after a first hearing.

§  19 have been released; 12 remain.

o     7 detainees were denied after a first hearing, granted a second hearing via file review, and cleared after the second hearing.

§  3 have been released; 4 remain.

·         26 detainees were denied clearance and are in the file review/second hearing process.

o     2 detainees were denied after a first hearing, were granted a second hearing via file review, and are awaiting decision from the second hearing (ISNs 27, 28).

o     1 detainee was denied after a first hearing, was apparently fast-tracked for a second hearing without file review, and is awaiting decision from the second hearing (ISN 841).

o     3 detainees were denied after a first hearing, were granted a second hearing via file review, and are awaiting the second hearing (ISNs 1017, 1094, 1457).

o     2 detainees were denied after a first hearing, have received initial file review, and are awaiting decision (ISNs 1463, 10025).

o     1 detainee was denied after a first hearing, was denied after a third file review, and is awaiting a fourth file review (ISN 242).

o     2 detainee were denied after a first hearing, were denied after a first file review, and are awaiting a second file review (ISNs 569, 1453).

o     6 detainees were denied after a first hearing and are awaiting initial file reviews, which have been scheduled (ISNs 63, 682, 685, 708, 1460, 3148).

o     9 detainees were denied after a first hearing and are awaiting initial file reviews (ISNs 1456, 1461, 10016, 10017, 10019, 10021, 10022, 10023, 10029).

For more details, see the PRB web pages tracking detainees’ initial hearings, file reviews, and second hearings.

Cleared Detainee Data

7 of the 23 remaining cleared detainees currently at the base were cleared by the Obama Task Force.  The other 16 were cleared by the PRB, which means 22 PRB-cleared detainees have been released.

Specifically, of the 23 cleared:

·          5 are Yemenis approved for “conditional detention” by the Obama Task Force (ISNs 240, 440, 498, 550, 893)

·          2 are non-Yemenis approved for transfer by the Obama Task Force (ISNs 38 (Tunisia), 309 (unknown/UAE))

·          4 are Yemenis approved for transfer after a second PRB hearing (ISNs 29, 131, 508, 522)

·          5 are Yemenis approved for transfer after a first PRB hearing (ISNs 44, 128, 434, 839, 840)

·          7 are non-Yemenis approved for transfer after a first PRB hearing (ISNs 244 (Morocco), 560 (Afghanistan), 694 (Algeria), 696 (Saudi Arabia), 702 (Russia), 753 (Afghanistan), 975 (Afghanistan))

h/o to Brian Foster for keeping track of all of this.

catching up....

Going through all the news of the last month and I will try to get a post up this week. Meanwhile, on the edge of the cliff with Trump about to take over, but pleased and proud that our justice system is still alive and well.

Yes, Hell is even hotter....

 As I was heading down to the base Mr. Slahi- the author of the Guantanamo diary was heading out. He has alot of healing to do and I wish him well. Read more here.

After I left the base I learned that Abu Zubaydah was denied clearance. Not a big surprise but definitely disappointing.  Of course the military does not admit mistakes and releasing Abu Zubaydah would require a major admission. Read more here.

More torture stories....

And then there is Saudi detainee Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi. My government sodomized him as part of his torture. As his attorney has described- they used the largest objects they could find to insert into his rectum as part of his torture.  We have heard for years now about the fact that he has come to court hearings with a pillow to sit on became of the ongoing pain. Now, after all of these years, my government is finally going to allow surgery for this man.
You can read about the debilitating effects of this torture over the many years and the utter lack of regard by my country for this torture...  here, here and here .

The fact that we have allowed this to happen and then continued the torture all these years is unconscienable.

The after effects of torture... depression and much more.

I am sorry that I am on a string of stories about those that we have tortured. In a way it seems only fitting as I head back to our little Gulag in the sunny south. Let me just say that I report all of these accounts that I discover because I think it is important to have these in one place and it is with sorrow that I lay all of this out on these pages.

First this---

More to come.

The Heartbreaking Saga of Abu Zubaydah is Even More Heartbreaking....

I have talked about Abu Zubaydah many times on this blog. He is the man that my government wrongly thought was a member of al-qaeda so we used all of the torture techniques on him... and then a few more just because we could. But it turned out he was a nobody but since we did all of those horrible things to him we do not want to release him.
As part of the dog and pony show the government conducted a "periodic review" to see if he could be cleared for release.

Read more about it here.

U.S. Torture left long lasting damage

The New York Times has an article up today about the long lasting damage to the men who were tortured by my government.

Beatings, sleep deprivation, menacing and other brutal tactics have led to persistent mental health problems among detainees held in secret C.I.A. prisons and at Guantánamo.

Read the article hear.

Hurricane Matthew

With Hurricane Matthew eyeing Gitmo many of us are wondering if mother nature will do what Obama has been unable to do.....close Gitmo.

More here.

Radar here.

More Forms of Torture Exposed- UPDATED

The Guardian reports that the techniques used by the CIA in torturing detainees also included a "modified" electric chair. These revelations came out in interviews of two Tunisian men who were released in 2015.
Read more here.

And still more here.

Andy Worthington Takes a Look back at Gitmo as the Obama Years End

I remember how excited one of my clients was when I went to visit him in the weeks after Obama was inaugerated. Obama announced that one of the first items on his to-do list was to close Guantanamo and he promised to close the place in one year. As the year went by it was clear to many of us that Gitmo was not going to be closed by January 2010. Obama was not heeding the advice of those who had practical ideas as to how to close the place- he was listening to the military. And the military has never wanted to close Guantanamo.
Obama's promise was more than 7 1/2 years ago and although more of the men have been released the place is from from closed and one of my clients still remains with no prospect of going anywhere- you see he is "too dangerous to release" but there is nothing to charge him with. He has sat in prison for 15 years and he has never been charged with a god damn thing. And he never will be charged- he has done nothing wrong.

Andy Worthington looks back over the years and looks forward to what is to come in this blog post.

Gitmo's Periodic Review Board....

The Miami Harold has put together a nifty "guide" to the periodic review board decisions.The "guide" is broken down into sections- who is cleared, who is not. Who is still there, who is not. Etc.
Click here to read the guide.

From Roger Fitch and Our Friends At Justinian

*   *   *

Cellular world at Guantánamo (photo Matt Sprake)

As Mr Obama continues his (feeble) efforts to close Guantánamo, the military jail for proxy prisoners taken - or purchased - in the "war on terror", the New Yorker has reviewed the earlier use of America's Devil's Island by Bush Snr and Bill Clinton. 

Many of those presently detained are symbolic hostages in a rhetorical war, held by mistake or in violation of the laws of war; indeed, many Pentagon "profiles" presented to Periodic Review Boards artlessly admit these "law of war" prisoners have no connection to 9/11 or the Afghan war that ostensibly authorises their confinement. Not one of them has been provided appropriate Geneva Convention rights.

Only five percent of the Guantanameros were actually captured by Americans on a battlefield, a fact that goes unremarked by the media, as well as politicians who read the Pentagon's "transparency reports."  

The 779 men and boys have been gradually released - some through death - and after the latest mass  expatriation, the count stands at 61, leaving a staff-to-prisoner ratio of 33-1 and an annual per capita cost of $6 million. 

With the initial PRB hearings now complete, Marty Lederman has a report on all the prisoners not subject to military commissions; the Intercept has more.  

Read the rest of Fitch's report here.

Who is left at Guantanamo?

Intercept has an article that looks at the men that remain at Guantanamo.
You can read more here.
One of those men is my client.

Lest we forget.....

Stephen Biko was an anti-aparthied activist in South Africa. He was murdered in police custody on September 12, 1977. You can read more about Biko here.
You can blow out a candle but you can't blow out a flame.....

and on this day.... UPDATED

As I do every year I turn to my friend the talking dog- who was actually there- for his words of wisdom.
As for me. I have nothing to say.
Read his post here.

Andy Worthington has more here.

Gitmo by the numbers... UPDATED.

Five years ago Obama ordered the military to begin a review process of all of the men at Guantanamo who had not been cleared for release by his initial task force. He ordered that the process begin immediately and quickly. It took almost 3 years for the first of those men to be reviewed and yesterday the last man received his initial review. Ironically the name of the process is the "periodic review board" (PRB). The process was so periodic as to almost be non existent for most of the men until this year- when someone finally lit a fire and got the process moving.

These are the numbers- reflecting the fact that as of yesterday, all PRB-eligible detainees still in the prison have received their first PRB hearing.

I just want to add this short article that describes the man who was the last to have a PRB. This young man is the youngest man at the camp and although we do not know for certain his age at capture was somewhere around 15. 
Shame on my country for holding him all of these years and concocting the wild story about him to justify his continued detention.

The prison population remains at 61: 20 are cleared, 31 are awaiting clearance, and 10 are in the military commission system (of those, 7 are in “active” “trial” proceedings while 3 have been “convicted”).

Of the 20 cleared, 12 (60.0%) are Yemenis and 8 are non-Yemenis. 

Of the 31 awaiting clearance, 13 (41.9%) are Yemenis and 18 are non-Yemenis.

PRB Data

The PRB has approved for transfer 33 of the 52 detainees for whom it has issued decisions (63.5%).

A total of 64 detainees received PRB hearings.  Their outcomes and current status are as follows:

·         33 detainees were cleared.  20 of these men have been released; 13 remain.  (See “Cleared Detainee Data” below for details.)

o   29 detainees were cleared after a first hearing.

§  17 of these men have been released; 12 remain.

o     4 detainees were denied after a first hearing, granted a second hearing via file review, and cleared after the second hearing.

§  3 of these men have been released; 1 remains.

·         19 detainees were denied clearance.

o     1 detainee was denied after a first hearing, was granted a second hearing via file review, and is awaiting the second hearing, which is scheduled for October 18 (ISN 28).

o     1 detainee was denied after a first hearing, has received two file reviews, and is scheduled to receive a third file review on October 18 (ISN 242).

o     2 detainees were denied after a first hearing and have received their initial file reviews (ISNs 508, 522).

o     4 detainees were denied after a first hearing and are awaiting their initial file reviews, which have been scheduled (ISNs 29, 569, 1094, 1457).

o   11 detainees were denied after a first hearing and are awaiting their initial file reviews (ISNs 27, 63, 682, 685, 708, 1017, 1453, 1460, 1463, 3148, 10025).

·         12 detainees are awaiting the results of their first hearings (ISNs 560, 696, 841, 1456, 1461, 10016, 10017, 10019, 10021, 10022, 10023, 10029).

For more details, see the PRB web pages tracking detainees’ initial hearings, file reviews, and second hearings.

Cleared Detainee Data

7 of the 20 remaining cleared detainees currently at the base were cleared by the Obama Task Force.  The other 13 were cleared by the PRB, which means 20 PRB-cleared detainees have been released.

Specifically, of the 20 cleared:

·          5 are Yemenis approved for “conditional detention” by the Obama Task Force (ISNs 240, 440, 498, 550, 893)

·          2 are non-Yemenis approved for transfer by the Obama Task Force (ISNs 38 (Tunisia), 309 (unknown/UAE))

·          7 are Yemenis approved for transfer by the PRB (ISNs 44, 128, 131, 434, 838, 839, 840)

·          6 are non-Yemenis approved for transfer by the PRB (ISNs 244 (Morocco), 694 (Algeria), 702 (Russia), 753 (Afghanistan), 760 (Mauritania), 975 (Afghanistan))

H/O to fellow Gitmo attorney Brian Foster for keeping track of all of this. 

The Closing of Camp 5- Updated....

Carol Rosenberg had a piece out over the weekend (Miami Herald) about some changes at Gitmo- the downsizing of the base. Seems they have closed the notorious camp 5 (not quite as notorious as Camp 7 but that is a different story). Camp 5 was most recently used as the prison for those on extra punishment. It opened a few months before Camp 6 back in 2005. You can catch a few glimpses of the place in Carol's article here. I will see if I can find some other photos and link to them.
It really added insult to injury to house the men at Camp 5- men who were never charged with anything (nevertheless a crime) were stuck in Camp 5 because they were troublemakers for the most part- they refused to just accept their unjust "detention."

Here is a photo montage of Camp 5.


Good riddance Camp 5!

THEY HAVE NO SHAME..... UPDATED.

I am talking about the military (but I could just as well be talking about the Court as the judge in Abu Zubaydah's case has refused to give the man his habeas hearing). This week Mr. Abu Zubaydah was seen in public for the first time since he was "arrested" in 2002. In the intervening (almost 15 years) he was tortured repeatedly and kept in isolation. His torture resulted in his losing an eye and of course he was water boarded almost 100 times, beaten, confined in a coffin like box and a multitude of other torture techniques. Why? Because someone thought he was a bad guy--- but they were wrong. However the military does not say "I'm sorry." The military digs in....

So. Getting back to Mr. Abu Zubaydah. He has been held all of these years without charges. Why? Because there is nothing they can charge him with. Unfortunately his judge has been a coward and has refused to allow his Habeas case to be heard and so now Mr. Abu Zubaydah has been allowed to seek relief in a hearing that allows the release of men no longer consider a "threat." So what does the military say about the long tortured Mr. Abu Zubaydah? He should not be released because even though he has shown a "high level of cooperation" while being held at Guantanamo. Part of the military's statement read as follows:

Abu Zubaydah “possibly” had some advanced knowledge of the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the USS Cole bombing in 2000, the profile continued. He was also “generally aware” of the impending 9/11 attacks and “possibly coordinated” the training at Khaldan camp of two of the hijackers.


And so this is how it goes---  we made a mistake. A mistake that has caused damage to this man that can never be repaird. So will my country try to hold him forever? Well apparently that is the game plan for now.

You can read more here.
and here.

INTERCEPT HAS MORE HERE.

15 Detainees transferred to UAE

12 Yemens and 3 afghans.
Prison population is now 61.
I will update as I get more info.
Read more here.
More information here- including the names.

Torturing with Impunity....

Once again the courts have thrown out a lawsuit by one of the men that we tortured.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday threw out [opinion, PDF] a lawsuit by former Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad claiming he was tortured. The appeals court affirmed the district court in refusing to hear the merits of the case because of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [text, PDF], which removes the court's jurisdiction over cases arising from the detention of someone who was given enemy combatant status. Similar cases to Jawad's have also been thrown out based on the MCA.
Read the rest of the article here.

A look at the detainees slated to go and already transferred....from the military perspective

Note that the details regarding these men comes from the military and from detainees who were tortured into making stuff up about the men-- in other words not from credible sources.

Read a summary here.
Read the so called "transparency" report here. (Giving new definition to the word transparency.)

h/o to Michigan Don for sending to me......

Seems the psychologists want to get back to torture.....

At the annual convention of the American (sorry canada and mexico!) Psychological Association last week a vote was up to end the ban on the psychologists colluding with the military. The ban was put in place last year after years of complaints about the role of psychologists in the torture of detainees. The vote was tabled until february- maybe they are hoping no one will notice and they can quietly get back to the business of torture.
Read more here.

Talking Dog Interviews Naomi Paik

Naomi Paik is the author of "Rightlessness: Testimony and Redress in US Prison Camps since World War II" which looks at the internment of Japanese citizens and non citizens in the US during WWII, Haitians trying to flea political violence in Haiti and the Muslim men being held at Guantanamo.

You can read the interview here.

Talking Dog Interviews Pardiss Kebriaei

Pardiss is a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Read her interview here.

From Roger Fitch and our Friends Down Under at Justinian

As the Guantánamo prison approaches its 16^th year, there's renewed media interest in miscarriages of justice, and individual Dreyfuses held at America's Devil's Island.  

The Boston Review has an article on the long-suffering Mohammedou Slahi, author of a bestselling Gitmo narrative, and Politico has a piece on the CIA-tortured Abu Zubaydah, a man who's been waiting seven years for his habeas hearing. Pleadings recently unsealed in the DC habeas include Zubaydah's own accounts of his torture.  

CIA torture has been further illuminated by the disclosure of shocking advice by the agency's nameless medical staff, here and here, and the release of the agency's chilling "applied research" contracts with the "enhanced interrogation" psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen.

It's damning evidence against health professionals who would fit neatly in a Nuremberg dock - alongside the Bush Gang's torture lawyers.

The Pentagon's drumhead Court of Military Commission Review has allowed the Limberg MV charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri to go forward in Nashiri's military commission trial. The offence, which resulted in the death of a Bulgarian crewman on a Malaysian-chartered, French-flagged tanker in international waters, had no connection with any war, or indeed, with the United States.

Abu Zubaydah and al-Nashiri meanwhile have cases pending in the European Court of Human Rights against Lithuania and Romania for hosting their CIA torture camps, more here. 

Read the rest here.....

Fair Trials Not Needed..... UPDATED

The continuing saga of the circus at the military commission at Guantanamo has this accusation from the defense- the government in Khalid Shaikh Mohammad's case conspired with the chief judge to destroy crucial evidence of the torture that Mohammad was subjected to. They have asked the judge to recuse himself from ruling on the motion- since he is the one accused of conspiring with the military but the judge has refused. Read more here...

MORE INFORMATION ON THE EVIDENCE THAT WAS DESTROYED CAN BE FOUND HERE....

Slahi- author of the "Guantanamo Diary" has been cleared for release

I have written about Mr. Slahi on several occasion and his heavily redacted "diary" was a best seller. I am now happy to report that Mr. Slahi has been cleared for release.
This press release from his attorneys explains more about the efforts made by his attorneys and others to obtain his release.
Let us hope he will actually be released soon.

The prison population remains at 76: 31 are cleared, 35 are awaiting clearance, and 10 are in the military commission system (of those, 7 are in “active” “trial” proceedings while 3 have been “convicted”).

Of the 31 cleared, 22 (70.97%) are Yemenis and 9 are non-Yemenis. 

Of the 35 awaiting clearance, 15 are Yemenis and 20 are non-Yemenis.

The connection between Saudi Arabia and 9-11-UPDATED

Finally the 28 pages that have been withheld for years has been released- showing the connection between the Saudi government and the 9-11 attacks. It is hard to know who my government was trying to protect.....
read about those 28 pages here.
MORE HERE FROM EMPTYWHEEL.

Mon coeur est avec le peuple de Nice

3 detainnees released....

One to Italy. More here.

Two to Serbia. More here.

76 detainees remain.

Happy 5th of July.....

My Country Paid Millions to Countries Willing To Torture

The European Court of Human Rights is hearing testimony right now against the country of Romania for its roll in allowing the CIA to set up shop and torture with the Romanian governments knowledge and consent. Read more here and here.

Talking Dog interviews Rebecca Gordon

In another important interview the Talking Dog interviews Rebecca Gordon author of  American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who  Should Stand Trial for Post 9-11 War Crimes.

Read the interview here.

More Details on Abu Zubayah's Torture

Last week the CIA released more documents surrounding the torture of Abu Zubaydah- the man my government wrongly thought was a major Al-Qaeda leader.... so they waterboarded him almost 100 times- kept him in a coffin like box and other forms of torture that have long been considered illegal, immoral and war crimes. This article supposedly links to the documents but I will just warn you that the documents would not load for me- either the CIA has thought twice about making the documents available or they have changed the link just to cause trouble. It looks like this is the latest link to the documents.

Talking Dog interviews Wesley Kendall.....part 1

Wesley Kendall is a Law Lecturer at the University of the South Pacific. Dr. Kendall holds a J.D. from Texas Southern University, an M.A. in Political Science and Government from the University of Missouri Kansas City and a Ph.D. in Political Science and Government from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He is author of The U.S. Death Penalty and Diplomacy and Language of Terror, and most recently, From Gulag to Guantanamo: Political, Social and Economic Evolutions of Mass Incarceration. On June 9, 2016, I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Kendall by email exchange.

Read part one of the interview here.

Catching up....

A few things have been going on over the past few weeks while I have been tied up with other things.....

First let me congratulate Col. Morris Davis on settling his case with the Library of Congress. Moe and I have had our differences over the years but when push came to shove he stuck with the constitution and against the politics of the "double legal standard" of using the courts for some "terrorist prosecutions" and military tribunals for others. After speaking out Moe was fired from the job he took after retiring from the military (if you do not know that part of his background here is a nice little article to read to get you started.)
More about Moe's settlement here.

And then there is this.... "The judge overseeing the premiere military tribunal at Guantánamo Bayeffectively conspired with the prosecution to destroy evidence relevant to defending the accused architect of the 9/11 attacks, according to a scathing court document." 
Read the rest here.

The coward- former attorney general Eric Holder now admits (now that he has stepped down from the position he held where he could actually have done something) that American Hero Edward Snowden performed a public service by releasing the documents that triggered the debate about our surveillance state. Of course even after admitting the important role played by Snowden the asshole still thinks Snowden should be punished. 

Of course when the CIA destroys critical documents showing it's role in torture no one in government would dare think of holding anyone responsible nevertheless punish someone. Read more on Snowden's tweet about the CIA's destruction of documents here.

Concerns about carcinogens continues at Guantanamo.....

The military continues to contend that the site where the military and civilian lawyers live and work at Guantanamo are safe- but concerns about the number of individuals who have been stricken with cancer continue. It seems that the site whether the attorneys and support staff are housed in on an abandoned airfield and is rife with chemical contamination. The military says not to worry.... however many are worried.
Read more here.

TOO SOON TO SAY WHETHER IT WILL HAPPEN

But The Guardian reports that maybe-- just maybe-- the UN Special Rapporteur on torture may be allowed to visit Guantanamo and visit the "secret" camp where the detainees who are subject to the military commissions are held. Of course he will not be allowed to interview the men.....
sigh.

Read more here.

Michael Ratner's Army- UPDATED

David Cole writes a nice tribute to Michael Ratner in this piece in the NY Review of Books. Although I disagree with David's conclusion that the men who remain at Guantanamo are no longer subject to torture- and I disagree that Obama has issued an extensive plan to close Guantanamo, I whole heartedly agree that Michael Ratner has had a powerful impact on a number of attorneys- and I am one of those attorneys. Like those attorneys that are mentioned in David's article the work I have done for my Guantanamo clients has been the most rewarding and the most frustrating and it has changed my life and my career.
I am proud to be a member of Michael Ratner's army and if I and the other attorneys touched by Michael can instill that same quest for justice that Michael instilled in me with the Guantanamo litigation his army will continue to grow.

Michael Ratner's memorial page can be found here.

Talking Dog at The Left Forum

The Left Forum starts this week (May 20-22). This year it's in New York City and my friend The Talking Dog will be participating in a panel on Guantanamo on Saturday May 21st at noon: Close Guantanamo Now or Move Guantanamo North?
War Criminals Watch has more on that and other panels of interest.
If you have never gone to the Left Forum and you are in the NYC area (or can get there) this is a must event. Past conferences have included talks by: Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Angela Davis, Harry Belafonte, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Cornel West, Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera, Amy Goodman, Slavoj Zizek, Grace Lee Boggs, RoseAnn DeMoro, Marina Sitrin, Nnimmo Bassey, Immortal Technique and Oliver Stone.

From Roger Fitch and our Friends Down Under at Justinian....

Ah, the law's delay.

The Libyan Salem Gherebi, one of the first Guantánamo prisoners to file a habeas petition in the United States, has been freed and sent to Senegal.  

Gherebi's case had its roots in the "West Coast" habeasfiled in January 2002 (reported here), and in December 2003, he became the first Guantanamero to triumph in a US appeals court.  

In June 2004, in Rasul v Bush (David Hicks' case), the supreme court confirmed the right of Guantánamo prisoners to habeas hearings, with venue in DC.

The 9^th circuit's decision was vacated, and Gherebi'shabeas was transferred to Washington, where it languished.

Fitch earlier noted the reaction of the 9^th circuit court that heard Mr Gherebi's case: 

"Under the government's theory, it is free to imprison Gherebi indefinitely along with hundreds of other citizens of foreign countries, friendly nations among them, and to do with Gherebi and those detainees as it will, when it pleases, without any compliance with any rule of law of any kind, without permitting him to consult counsel, and without acknowledging any judicial forum in which its actions may be challenged.

Indeed, at oral argument, the government advised us that its position would be the same even if the claims were that it was engaging in acts of torture and that it was summarily executing the detainees (emphasis added).

To our knowledge, prior to the current detention of prisoners at Guantanamo, the US government has never asserted such a ... startling proposition ... a position so extreme that it raises the gravest concerns under both American and international law." 

READ THE REST HERE

RIP Michael Ratner

It is with great sadness that I share the following news from the Center for Constitutional Rights:

May 11, 2016, New York – The Center for Constitutional Rights is sad to release the following statement on the occasion of the passing of the Center’s president emeritus Michael Ratner:

From Attica to Assange, Michael Ratner has defended, investigated, and spoken up for victims of human rights abuses all over the world. For 45 years, Michael brought cases with the Center for Constitutional Rights in U.S. courts related to war, torture, and other atrocities, sometimes committed by the U.S., sometimes by other regimes or corporations, in places ranging from El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Guatemala, to Yugoslavia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Iraq, and Israel. Seeking to hold Bush administration officials accountable for torture, he turned to filing cases under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction in international courts—in Germany, Spain, Canada, Switzerland, and France. Michael dedicated his life to the most important fights for justice of the last half century.

When Michael decided to take on U.S. policies of indefinite detention at Guantanamo in January 2002, it was not a popular position. With Michael, the Center for Constitutional Rights was the first human rights organization to stand up for the rights of Guantanamo detainees, and Michael was a founding member of the Guantanamo Bay Bar Association, a group that grew to over 500 attorneys from all over the country working pro bono to provide representation to the men at Guantanamo that has been called the largest mass defense effort in U.S. history. Michael acted as counsel in the landmark case Rasul v. Bush, and after two and a half years of litigation, CCR and co-counsel won the first Guantanamo case in the United States Supreme Court.

As an attorney, writer, speaker, educator, activist, and as the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights for so many years, Michael Ratner’s passion was not just for the law but for the struggle for justice and peace. Michael’s work on Central America, Haiti, surveillance, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, whistleblowers, war powers, and Palestine will not soon be matched.

Michael’s leadership and generous spirit have shown the way for new generations of social justice lawyers. He helped found the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, bringing CCR’s style of lawyering, which he helped shape, to Europe, where the legal culture was less familiar with public interest lawyering and filing suits to press for social change. He worked with CCR and the Bertha Justice Institute on programs to educate junior lawyers, working in partnership with front-line organizations around the world and fostering artistic partnerships that bring the issues he championed his entire life to a wider audience. Michael’s legacy is the sea of people he has touched—his family, his clients, his allies, his colleagues, and all of the young lawyers he has inspired. Today we mourn. Tomorrow we carry on his work.
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My friend, the Talking Dog interviewed Michael many years ago: read that interview here........ 

The Talking Dog will be at the Left Forum-Corrected

The Left Forum starts in a couple of weeks (May 20-22). This year it's in New York City and my friend The Talking Dog will be participating in a panel on Guantanamo on Saturday May 21st at noon: Close Guantanamo Now or Move Guantanamo North?
War Criminals Watch has more on that and other panels of interest.
If you have never gone to the Left Forum and you are in the NYC area (or can get there) this is a must event. Past conferences have included talks by: Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Angela Davis, Harry Belafonte, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Cornel West, Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera, Amy Goodman, Slavoj Zizek, Grace Lee Boggs, RoseAnn DeMoro, Marina Sitrin, Nnimmo Bassey, Immortal Technique and Oliver Stone.

The passing of Daniel Berrigan...

There was probably no other activist more influencial in opposing the Vietnam War and inspiring others (including myself) into a life of activism and a dedication to human rights. RIP Daniel.

To the Mothers of the Disappeared.....

Abu Zubaydah.... the Al-Qaeda "leader" who wasn't....

Rebecaa Gordon has written alot about U.S. war crimes and of course one of the worst was our treatment of Abu Z- a man who was said to be the number 2 in Al- Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden's right hand man. We water boarded him almot 100 times- we confined him in a coffin- and we have kept him in solitary confinement for years and years.... and of course he will never be charged with a crime because my country was wrong about who he is (and was). Read more about the war crimes against this man here. And pick up a copy of Gordon's book "American Nuremberg: the U.S. officials who should stand trial for post 9-11 war crimes."

And speaking of war crimes and Osama Bin Laden. Seymour Hersh has a new book out about the hit on Osama Bin Laden. Yes, that too was a war crime- "he was a prisoner of war" and we executed him. Read more about Hersh's book here.

RIP PRINCE

A brief interlude to acknowledge the passing of an artist.
http://mashable.com/2016/04/22/prince-purple-monuments/#EYHGAay5V5q6

JAILED WITHOUT TRIAL FOR LIFE

This article comes from Juan Cole's blog and asks the question "With nine months left until a new president is inaugurated, the question is: Can this country’s signature War on Terror prison ever be closed?"

Detailed breakdown of the Gitmo Stats.....

Reflecting the recent announcement that the PRB has declined to approve for transfer Sharqawi Abdu Ali al Hajj (ISN 1457), a Yemeni whom the government has also referred to as “Riyadh the Facilitator” the following is the latest breakdown of the population.

The prison population remains at 80: 26 are cleared, 44 are awaiting clearance, and 10 are in the military commission system (of those, 7 are in “active” “trial” proceedings while 3 have been “convicted”).

Of the 26 cleared, 21 (80.8%) are Yemenis and 5 are non-Yemenis. 

Of the 44 awaiting clearance, 19 are Yemenis and 25 are non-Yemenis.

PRB Data

The PRB has approved for transfer 20 of the 28 detainees for whom it has issued decisions (71.4%).

Of the 44 detainees who are PRB-eligible and still awaiting clearance:

·         Eight were denied clearance in their initial appearance before the PRB and are in various stages of file review (ISNs 28, 29, 242, 522, 569, 1094, 1457) or have received a subsequent full review (ISN 131);

·         Three have had their initial hearings and are awaiting decision (ISNs 508, 762, 841);

·         18 are officially in the PRB process with (at least tentatively) scheduled hearing dates (ISNs 27, 44, 63, 685, 694, 696, 702, 753, 760, 837, 838, 839, 840, 975, 1453, 1461, 1463, 10025);

·         15 are not yet officially in the PRB process.

For these purposes, a detainee is “officially in the PRB process” when he has received formal notification of the process and has been assigned a PRB hearing date, based on either (a) the detainee appearing (even if only temporarily) on the PRB web page tracking individual detainees’ proceedings, (b) my personal knowledge regarding our PRB-eligible clients, or (c) information provided to me by counsel for other PRB-eligible detainees.

Cleared Detainee Data

15 of the 26 cleared detainees currently at the base were cleared by the Obama Task Force.  The other 11 were cleared by the PRB, which means 9 PRB-cleared detainees have been released.

Specifically, of the 26 cleared:

11 are Yemenis approved for “conditional detention” by the Obama Task Force (ISNs 33, 40, 91, 223, 240, 440, 498, 509, 550, 728, 893)

1 is a Yemeni approved for transfer by the Obama Task Force (ISN 153)

3 are non-Yemenis approved for transfer by the Obama Task Force (ISNs 38 (Tunisia), 257 (Tajikistan), 309 (unknown/UAE))

2 are Yemenis approved for “conditional detention” by the PRB (ISNs 31, 37)

7 are Yemenis approved for transfer by the PRB (ISNs 41, 128, 235, 434, 441, 576, 836)

2 are non-Yemenis approved for transfer by the PRB (ISNs 1045 (Afghanistan), 1119 (Afghanistan))

H/O TO FELLOW GITMO ATTORNEY BRIAN FOSTER FOR KEEPING TRACK OF THIS.

Maybe 9?

I have not seen an official announcement but the general concensus is that nine Yemeni were transferred to Saudi Arabia. One of the nine is the long term hunger striker Tariq Ba Odah. I understand that his health is pretty dire.

With those nine gone here are the latest stats:

The prison population now stands at 80: 26 are cleared, 44 are awaiting clearance, and 10 are in the military commission system (of those, 7 are in “active” “trial” proceedings while 3 have been “convicted”).

Of the 26 cleared, 21 (80.8%) are Yemenis and 5 are non-Yemenis. 

Of the 44 awaiting clearance, 19 are Yemenis and 25 are non-Yemenis.

H/O to fellow gitmo attorney Brian Foster for keeping track of all of this.

More Detainees released?

Unconfirmed reports have 12 detainees transferred to Saudi Arabia. More news to follow.

Health concerns at Gitmo- UPDATED

Last year I wrote about the cancer cluster at Gitmo. After a military defense attorney died from a very aggressive form of cancer concerns were raised about the site where the attorneys and staff stay while at the base as well as their working space. It seems that the attorney was not the only one to be diagnosed with cancer. The staff demanded an investigation and it was learned that hazard waste had been dumped at the site.... of course the military is never wrong and they declined to move anyone and said "everthing is fine...."
Yesterday the marine general for the defense team banned them from living at "camp justice" until further notice, citing health concerns. I will have a link to my earlier post and to an article from yesterday that raises the continued concerns later today.
Stay tuned....

Could it be that one CIA torturer will stand trial??

If so, it will be in Italy not in these United States where torturers are allowed their freedom... Actually even if this particular CIA operative is extradicted from Portugal to Italy she might not stand trial as she never showed up for the original trial and was found guilty in abstentia...
Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Read more here.

oh man, shades of Cully!

Most of you probably don't remember Cully Simpson. I wrote aobut him many years ago here. The short version is that he thought that the attorneys who were representing men at Guantanamo should be attacked and the clients of the big law firms (phew, I escaped that one....) should be put on notice that their attorneys are representing "those people." Poor Cully went down in flames and was forced to resign. He has even reinvented himself of late as some sort of voice of reason regarding the detainees.

Now comes his predecessor..... Douglas Fahl. A county judge from Indiana and a reservist who has been called up for duty. So where is he being sent? To Guantanamo of course--- because the military needs a big strong man to set the record straight and keep these dangerous people at Guantanamo forever--- to keep us American's safe. SIGH.

According to Fahl " “I’ve seen what these guys are capable of doing on the battlefield. It’s always difficult to leave my family for a deployment, but I am honored to be chosen to use my legal skills to make sure these dangerous men don’t return to the battlefield to kill American soldiers or innocent civilians.”

I for one feel alot safer now. LOL. I wonder what poor Fahl will do when he discovers that more than 90% of the men were never near a battlefield. Well the good news is he has already figured out his game plan. According to Fahl,  “GITMO has been described to me as the tip of the spear for legal warfare.” 

Oh man, "legal warfare." 

As I said at the top of this piece--- shades of Cully Simpson--- may Fahl go down in flames as quickly as Cully so that we can all get back to the business of shutting the place down.

READ THE REST HERE