Guantánamo Lawyers Lobby Congress

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Seventy-five lawyers for nearly 400 Guantanamo Bay detainees urged Congress on Tuesday to give the prisoners access to U.S. courts.
Fanning out across Capitol Hill for private meetings with senators and House members, the attorneys are seeking legislation to overturn a section of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that stripped the detainees of court access.

Under last year's law, the detainees are entitled to a procedural review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia into whether they were properly designated unlawful enemy combatants.

Congress has supported "executive branch extremism" by enacting legislation that overrides Supreme Court rulings, retired federal appeals court judge John J. Gibbons said at a news conference with some of the lawyers. The court ruled in 2004 and a year ago that detainees do have rights.

"We're not talking about a get-out-of-jail-free card; we're simply talking about having a right to be heard in court," said Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The center, acting largely on its own, filed the first lawsuits on the detainees' behalf in February 2002, a month after the Bush administration brought the first prisoners to Guantanamo Bay.

Since then, more than 500 lawyers from prominent firms and law schools nationwide have donated their time and paid their own expenses to represent the detainees.

Get Ready for Tomrrow's Call-In!

Michaelmoore.com gets the word out!

The Worst of the Worst?

The Bushies say Guantánamo holds the "worst of the worst," but other than a handful of "high value detainees" (brought in for show before the Military Commissions Act was passed) and a recent arrival from a secret CIA dungeon, this is clearly nonesense.

As the Washington Post reports, more than 80 prisoners have been cleared for release by the government's own procedures....and yet they continue to languish in Guantánamo. The U.S. blames diplomatic impasses, but clearly they prefer to release prisoners in a slow trickle, which makes for less embarrassment (and less of a news story) than a mass-release of dozens of wrongfully imprisoned men and boys.

- Adrian Bleifuss Prados

A good resource:

Last Thursday (April 26), the Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony "on legal issues regarding individuals detainedby the Department of Defense as unlawful enemy combatants."

The Seton Hall reports, authored by Mark and Joshua Denbeaux, were submitted to the Committee and are conveniently collected on Committee's website, HERE.

- Adrian Bleifuss Prados

CAUSING UNREST AT GUANTÁNAMO

OK, a show of hands please, how many of you thought about me when you saw the article about how the military wants to keep the lawyers out of Guantánamo? It seems the military thinks that we attorneys are acting as a conduit for the media! (If only it were true…) Anyway, that is bush talk for saying that we are doing a heck of a job exposing our clients’ conditions and our government’s un-American activities. We haven’t exposed any deep dark secrets and you should take note of the fact that the military has not accused any of us of misconduct or illegal activity… What they are accusing us of is being in the way. Too bad for them. I, for one, plan on staying “in the way” until the place closes.
So what is going on now? A brief summary: In October, our republican congress passed the military commissions act (MCA), a law that sent our country back to the Middle Ages by repealing the ancient writ of habeas corpus. (And don’t let these scum bags tell you otherwise, this law does not just apply to detainees at Guantánamo.. .it applies to any non-citizen and in the long run could even be applied to citizens that the prez determines are enemy combatants.) In the old days (before October 2006) habeas corpus allowed people being held by the government to challenge their detention by requiring the government to answer some simple questions: like why they were being held and what they were accused of doing. Anyway our government did away with that little law that had been around for 800 years or so.
At the same time the republican congress abolished habeas corpus it proclaimed that the only thing the Guantánamo detainees could challenge is their designation of having been determined to be an enemy combatant…. but the determination of being an enemy combatant was a rigged deal… and many of the detainees did not even participate in the proceedings because they were (correctly) told (by the military) that they did not have to participate because, get this, they had the right to challenge their detention in our federal courts… (oops on that one, huh?)
Well now the courts are closing their doors to the Guantánamo detainees. The appellate court said that the MCA is a legit law, the Supreme Court said it is too early to decide if the law is legit and the men at Guantánamo… well, they will continue to languish at Guantánamo for who knows how long.
And that brings me back to the lawyers… we are the trouble makers because we bring our client’s stories front and center. We are telling you who the men are and what they were doing (or more importantly what they were not doing) when they were sold to our government in return for bounties.
Bush and our military want to get back to the way things were… cages, water boarding… you know the drill. Meanwhile, we attorneys are fighting like hell to continue to represent these men and to visit and write to our clients… but it would sure be nice to have a little help about now.
Law Day. Tuesday May 1st. Can you help us out and contact your senators and your reps and tell them to restore habeas corpus and close the place? And can you ask everyone you know to do the same? If you do your part, I promise that the other habeas counsel and I will do our part and continue to be in the way…

Statement of Omar Khadr's Lawyers

``We have just learned that our client, Omar Khadr, has been charged by the United States government with several offenses that are not even valid war crimes, for which he will be tried by military commission under The Military Commissions Act of 2006. This is the third set of charges laid against Omar. Yet, no matter how many times the government issues new charges, the military commissions system will continue to be an illegitimate one. Indeed, the system is virtually indistinguishable from the one previously invalidated by the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld just last year.

'The recent plea agreement accepted by David Hicks after less than a day of military commission proceedings and after significant negotiations between Australia and the U.S. demonstrates that the resolution of these cases is political and not the result of a legal process. Clearly, the U.S. is using the case of Omar in an attempt to rehabilitate the military commissions, which Hicks' plea demonstrated is a tainted process. In doing so, the U.S. will be the first country in modern history to try an individual who was a child at the time of the alleged war crimes. Indeed, the charge of conspiracy against Omar is based on alleged acts some of which occurred when Omar was less than 10 years of age.

``Omar Khadr was taken into U.S. custody at the age of 15 and has been detained at Guantánamo since he was 16, in conditions equal to or worse than those given to convicted adult criminals, such as prolonged solitary confinement and repeated instances of torture. After nearly 5 years in such conditions, the government is now demanding his appearance before what can only amount to a kangaroo court. The fact that this Administration has seen fit to designate this youth for trial by military commission is abhorrent.

``Now is the time for Canada and the U.S. to negotiate a political resolution because the commissions system is incapable of justice. Otherwise, Omar, just barely twenty years of age and a minor at the time of the alleged crimes, is guaranteed to be convicted in one of the greatest show trials on earth. This should not be the legacy of America or Canada.''

Signed,

Muneer Ahmad
Kristine Huskey
Richard Wilson
American University
College of Law
Washington D.C.
Lt. Col. Colby Vokey
U.S. Marine Corps.
Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler
U.S. Navy

More Odds & Ends

• "I Hope It's Your Family Members That Die" - U.S. Representative, Dana Rohrabacher on those that question the Bush administration's detention policies in the "war on terror."

• Naomi Wolf offers ten-part instructions on how to close down an open society; step 2: create a gulag:

  Once you have got everyone scared, the next step is to create a prison system outside the rule of law (as Bush put it, he wanted the American detention centre at Guantánamo Bay to be situated in legal "outer space") - where torture takes place. Read More
  

• German-born Murat Kurnaz, has published a memoir, Five Years of My Life about his horrific experiences in Guantánamo.

Moroccan-Born British Resident May be Released

Ahmed Errachidi, a 41-year-old British resident, has been a imprisoned without charge since his capture by bounty hunters in late 2001. (Sound familiar?)

Errachidi has spent three of the last five years in solitary confinement (a psychologically devastating period of isolation). He has been denied due process for years; been beaten and periodically pepper-sprayed ... and now an Administrative Review Board has determined that he is not a threat and should be released.

Unfortunately, because Errachidi is not a British citizen, the U.K. has recused itself of any obligation to bring him home. Emily Thornberry, Mr. Errachidi's local Labour Party MP has this to say:

Guantanamo Bay is an affront to international law. While Ahmed Errachidi has been in Guantanamo he has been subject to appalling abuse and has suffered at least one severe mental breakdown. He should never have been in Guantanamo Bay and he certainly shouldn't be there for a moment longer.

It's completely unacceptable that Ahmed should be left in limbo like this, while the international community wrings its hands about the detainees the US no longer wants.

Surely he has more than sufficient compassionate grounds to be allowed to come back to Britain. Ahmed must be released immediately and I have written to George Bush to tell him so.

READ MORE
- Adrian Bleifuss Prados

Journalists Call for Release of Sami Al-Haj....

Sami Al-Haj, the cameraman held at Guantánamo, has now been on hunger strike for one hundred days.

The International Federation of Journalists, a trade union representing 500,000 of Al-Haj's professional colleagues around the world, has issued a press release calling on the U.S. to release Al-Haj:

IFJ Demands Release of Guantanamo Cameraman after 100 Days of Hunger Strike

17/04/2007

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on the US government to release Al-Jazeera cameraman, Sami al-Haj, who this morning started his 100th day of hunger strike after almost five-years of detention at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre. Al-Haj was first arrested crossing into Afghanistan with a legitimate visa on 15 December 2001. He was held by the US military at the Bagram base before being transferred to Guantanamo on 13th June 2002. Since then he has been interrogated over 150 occasions, tortured, and accused of terrorism offences. He has never been charged or brought to trial. READ MORE

- Adrian Bleifuss Prados

New on Hufington Post:

Candace's latest piece on Huffington Post discusses recent developments in her Libyan client, Al-Ghizzawi's sad story. Al-Ghizzawi has finally been allowed to see a doctor...but apparently the medical authorities at Guantánamo have no interest in treating his liver condition; the good doctor would only examine Al-Ghizzawi's leg. Mr. Al-Ghizzawi is despondent, his latest letter features this heart-breaking plea:

"Finally, I would like to ask from you the following: to request from the American Government to ship my body to Afghanistan, to my wife, so that I will be near her and my daughter and be buried there. If that was not possible, ask them to ship my body to my family in Libya. The important thing is that I won't be buried under any circumstance in Cuba."

Read more on Huff-Po.

Candace in the Chronicle:

The San Francisco Chronicle picked up a recent article from In These Times, featuring a crucial correction; the ghoulies that guard 'Azkaban,' the dreaded prison of the Harry Potter series, are called 'dementors' and not 'tormentors.'

Some Odds & Ends:

Photo: MSNBC

AP (via Miami Herald):

"Democratic hopefuls tutored on Guantánamo." Says John Edwards: 'The scandals of Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and secret prisons have tarnished our moral standing and set a dangerous precedent for repressive regimes around the world ... The true tragedy is that -- as these military leaders make clear -- these steps have made us less safe, not safer."

Radio Australia:

"Former Guantanamo detainee sues Australian government for compensation"

Echo Online:

"Students Protest Guantánamo Bay"

AP (Via Courier Post):

Patti Smith records song about former GTMO-detainee, Murat Kurnaz

Pocono Record:

Letter to the editor: "History Will Shame U.S. on Guantanamo"

Stop Torture Taxis Protest

Here is more footage of demonstrations against Aero Contractors, the North Carolina-based company employed by the CIA to fly "torture taxis" to and from black sites.

MAY DAY- CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE

When the Supreme Court announced it would not hear the latest guantantamo cases.... at least not now... it opened the flood gates for the judges to start throwing our clients cases out of court... I filed documents this past week in a desperate attempt to keep my two cases alive because only by keeping the cases alive can I hope to keep one of my two clients alive. He is dying of hepatitis and not being treated. As the government said in response to one of my court filings...

with the upholding of the military commissions act by the appellate court and the supreme court's failure to take the issue, no court has any right now to question anything that goes on at Guantanamo anymore.....
It should make you shudder.

The attorneys for the guantanamo detainees have decided it is time to pay a visit to our senators and representatives. Join us on May 1st, make appointments to see your own representatives and tell them it is time to restore habeas corpus and close the place.

If you can't join us on May 1st, send emails, make phone calls, send faxes, send telegrams.... and send primroses. Why primroses?

When my clientMr. Al-Ghizzawi was explaining to me his early years at Guantanamo, he told me about a flower that had appeared outside his cage in the spring of 2002. Just one little flower poking its beautiful leaves and petals out of the sand. He was describing the flower to me, but I couldn’t quite figure out what kind of flower it was. He called it a primrose and maybe it was. He said to me “I am like that little flower. It didn’t belong there…. I don’t belong here either.”

NOW THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO.

North Carolina: First in Flight, Not First in>Torture

Watch the video of this group in North Carolina that is targeting a local airline>services company, Aero Contractors, because that company has provided flights for the CIA program of "extraordinary rendition." Extraordinary rendition is a legalistic phrase for kidnapping people off the streets of countries like Italy and Bosnia, without warrants, and shipping them secretly to secret prisons. Often the people are tortured in those prisons.
These Tarheels' slogan: North Carolina: First in Flight, Not First in Torture.
8 were arrested at this protest as they tried to serve the company officials with "arrest warrants".

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7203324508630869946

If you want to know more about the CIA rendition program read Stephen Grey's book "GHOST PLANES".