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

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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!