Update from detainee Nasser who was released to Morrocco and is now home with family

 

"I was born again on July 19. My birthday is no longer March 4. I was born yesterday on July 19." Nasser added, "I have no words to describe my overwhelming sense of happiness and joy. It is like a miracle after 20 years to be home and celebrate Eid together with my family. I want to thank everyone, all the people who worked very hard and spared no efforts to make this possible."

Abdul Latif Nasser prior to his capture (on the left), and, in the center and on the right, during his 19-year imprisonment without charge or trial at Guantánamo. Image via his lawyers at Reprieve. More on his case is available in the NPR podcast The Other Latif by Radiolab.

h/o to world can't wait for the quote and photos.

Detainee transferred to his homeland- Morrocco

 It has been years many since I have been able to report a detainee being transferred. Congrat's to fellow Chicago attorney Tom Durkin who has worked long and hard on Mr. Nasser's case. And big congrats to Mr. Nasser. I am sorry to report that his sister recently died - she worked so very hard on his release.

Read more here.

But...

 As per the ealier blog post from today the Biden administration is inching towards closure of Guantanamo with its proposed military budget. However, in a filing on friday the government missed its best opportunity to have the place closed forever. The brief failed to even address the main issue- Does the due process clause apply to the men at Guantanamo. This of course is frustrating but not surprising. Several of the attorneys who have been working on Guantanamo from the justice department have been there since the Bush days. This of course is one of my many complaints about Obama -- he left all the Bushies in place. 

Anyway, you can read more here.

inching towards closure...

 tiny steps but steps...

House panel advances $706 billion Pentagon bill: The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted to advance a $706 billion Pentagon spending bill to the House floor. Combined with a separate military construction spending bill, the committee’s bill closely follows President Biden’s request for a $715 billion Defense Department budget in 2022. The bill seeks to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility by prohibiting funds from being used to operate the prison after September 30, 2022, and would block funds from being used to support or facilitate offensive military operations conducted by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen. The Appropriations Committee also rejected an amendment from Representative Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) to add language blocking transfers of detainees from Guantánamo to facilities in the United States, a provision that has been law for years but was dropped from the panel’s bill this year. The panel also approved a pair of amendments from Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) to repeal the 2001 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military force approved following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Hill

h/o to Eric

Take 6 minutes aside and watch this....

                          A ship from Guantanamo.

( sorry -- I don't know how to avoid the commercial...)

FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER AT JUSTINIAN

There is not enough disparaging comments that we can make in regards to the finally dead Donald Rumsfeld.... But Fitch does a good job of filling in the gap from my posts!

*   *   *

Rumsfeld: The Butcher of Baghdad

As Le Monde politely reported, "Donald Rumsfeld, ancien secrétaire à la défense américain et architecte des guerres d'Irak et d'Afghanistan, est mort". 

Or, as less respectful American opinion put it, "War Criminal Found Dead at 88"; "He Played a Leading Role in Mass Murder"; "Rumsfeld represented the very worst of American arrogance and violence toward the rest of the world"; "a tragedy that Rumsfeld died before he could be put on trial for crimes against humanity"; and "worst secretary of defence in American history". 

The Machiavellian Rumsfeld escaped the hangman's noose; under Nuremberg principles, he'd have gone to prison if not the gallows. Instead, the disgraced former secretary of defence outlasted the Abu Ghraib scandal, the ACLU's Ali v Rumsfeld, multiple European criminal proceedings, and dozens of cases involving Pentagon actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo.

He escaped thanks to the protection and stonewalling of successive US governments, including the repeated bad-faith invocation of the "state secrets" privilege. 

It's a sad chapter in American legal history.

READ THE REST OF FITCH HERE.

july 4 2021 musical interlude 4

 And that is it for today...

july 4 2021 musical interlude 3

 

july 4 2021 musical interlude 2

 

July 4 2021 -- musical interlude 1

 

War Criminal - the musical version

 

One war criminal dead.... too many still alive. (updated with yet another link.)

 Rumsfeld is finally dead. He is responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people and he never showed a tinch of remorse. 

I won't waste further words on that monster but I will share some:

start with this one.

and then go here.

and if pictures are more your thing try this.

Oh and this is really on point too.