SEND A BOOK TO GITMO (deadline 3/20/09)

Sorry, I just am not that good at posting these things so you will have to do without the pictures.... but if you send a book to el Gharani many of the other men will get a chance to read it too.

Send a book to Mohammed el Gharani

We would be delighted if you could send one of your favourite books to our client Mohammed el Gharani, in Guantánamo Bay.

Mohammed el Gharani was just 14 years old when he was wrongfully imprisoned in Guantánamo.

Despite being ordered to be released by a federal judge, he is still there seven years later - the youngest remaining prisoner taken as a juvenile.

Although Mohammed has spent his school years in a notoriously brutal prison, he loves books - particularly history. He recently told Reprieve attorneys that he is keen to read as much as possible to prepare for his release.

Show your support for Mohammed by sending him your favourite book. We hope that sending many books all at once will:

- support Mohammed at this very difficult time
- remind the officials at Guantánamo of his youth, his innocence and their legal obligation to release him.

How to send a book

1) Choose a book - one of your own, second-hand or new is fine (Mohammed has learned to speak and read English in Guantánamo; he also speaks Arabic)
2) Write one sentence on why you have chosen it
3) Call or email Reprieve to let us know – we will deliver it to Mohammed in Guantánamo Bay.

4) Post your book to us at:

‘A Book for Mohammed el Gharani’

ATTN: Samuel Rowley
Bingham McCutchen LLP
One Federal Street
Boston, MA 02110-1726

We need all books to arrive by Friday March 20, in time for our next Guantánamo visit.

If you can help or need further information, please email laura@reprieve.org.uk or give us a call at +44 20 7353 4640. We will be publishing a list of the books that we take over, as well as who has sent them in and the reasons the specific books have been chosen.

Many thanks, as ever, for your support.

The Convoy

I do not like to go off message (Guantanamo) but sometimes events in the world force you to. This important event really did not get covered in the corporate media so if you are not aware of the convoy to Gaza led by British MP George Galloway then please make yourself aware. Over 200 vehicles traveled from Great Britian, through 9 countries and over 10000 kilometers to bring supplies to the people of Gaza. They arrived yesterday. Click on the title for more.

A HAPPY THOUGHT

Our Nation Unhinged

I have discussed the mechanics of getting to Guantanamo but what I have not mentioned is the many and varied fellow travelers on that small plane from Ft. Lauderdale to the Guantanamo naval base. Usually I can pick out the other habeas counsel and reporters and often we will sit and chat as we wait the two hours before the plane leaves. On one of those flights back in 2007 I met a professor from San Francisco Law School, Peter Jan Honigsberg. We exchanged email addresses and we have kept in contact over the years. Now his book is coming out. I will be writing more about his book after the book is actaully out but click on the title to read more and to order your own copy from Amazon (34% discount!).

WHEN WILL THEY STOP?

Yesterday I (and every other habeas counsel) received an email for the DOJ telling us that they are going to ask Judge Hogan (the coordinating judge for the Guantanamo litigation) to amend the Protective Order (the rules that guide the litigation) and they were just wondering if we would oppose the change.... sigh.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE ACTUAL EMAIL

The latest attempt to interfere with the attorney client relationship that the DOJ is proposing would forbid us from talking with our clients about information that our clients supposedly provided to the government, if we learned about that information from reviewing a classified document... unless of course our clients happened to have mentioned that same information to us in a letter or in a client meeting (of course if our client never mentioned the supposed "information" to us it could very well be that they never uttered those words!) And if we want to discuss with our client something that our client supposedly told the government, but which is in a classified document, the Government would like the procedure to be that we would have to make a written request to the "privilege team" explaining exactly why we need to talk with our client about whatever it is that our client supposedly said, and the "team" will check things out with the "appropriate government agencies" and get back to us....sometime this century. You should also take note that our client's interrogation reports (that is really what they are trying to stop us from using) are ostensibly classified because of other information in the reports that should not see the light of day...names of interrogators etc, that the government just has not gotten around to redacting. We of course cannot mention that type of information with our clients... but now the Government is trying to classify our clients own words so that we cannot verify what the government claims our clients have said.... unless of course the Government gives us permission.

There is more to this, but in a nutshell this tells it all: the DOJ wants everything our clients (supposedly) told the military/government to be considered classified and bar us from talking with our clients about it unless our clients happened to have told us the same thing... the DOJ continues to try to put a strangle hold not only on our communications with our clients but our communications with other habeas counsel.... and the end result of this new proposal is that it would make it even more difficult to prove our client's innocence.

NEW DOJ POLICY OR 'bad apple' DOJ ATTORNEYS ON A LARK

I have been watching this issue unfold over the months, although it is not one that concerns either of my two clients. I guess it starts with the fact that the whole concept of our legal system is foreign to most of the men at Guantanamo (and to some of us who have worked in our legal system for say 25 years or so...) and some are not sure that they want attorneys (hmmm, I guess I cannot blame them on that score either). In addition, some of the men have severe mental health problems after years of being held in the cruelest of conditions without any charges against them or any end in sight....The bottom line is that some men at Guantanamo refuse to sign any piece of paper (I wonder why that would be???) and so they have not authorized their attorneys to represent them in writing and some men refuse to see their attorneys or only see their attorneys sporadically. The attorneys for these men keep plugging away and continue to file all the necessary papers and continue to work to get their clients out of Guantanamo.
So who cares?
Apparently some in the Department of Justice think that this is the perfect group to go after and a convenient way of getting rid of some of the habeas lawsuits...and now the DOJ is threatening to step up their efforts to dismiss the habeas cases for those men who have not signed or otherwise authorized their attorneys to represent them.
So my question is this, is this really the policy of the new DOJ? (I have now heard this from three separate attorneys with three different DOJ attorneys and all in the last week)... Or do we have a subgroup of hanger-ons who are continuing with the agenda from the last administration? Is anyone higher up paying attention? Does the justice department really want some of these men at Guantanamo to be unrepresented?

The DOD's New General Counsel (and his two guiding principles)

And a welcome sight he is:

Within hours of being sworn in as the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense on Feb. 10, Jeh C. Johnson circulated a rare, if not unprecedented, e-mail to all 10,000 civilian and military lawyers working for the agency. "I wanted to send a message, and thought it would be significant if I sent it on my first day in office," said Mr. Johnson, 51, who, left a lucrative partner position at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to take the third public service job of his 27-year career. A witness to the 9/11 terror attacks, Mr. Johnson said he left his law practice because he was concerned about the safety of the country and his own family. But he said that an uncle's experience with racial prejudice during World War II also has taught him that a concern for safety must be leavened with a respect for the law.

As general counsel, Mr. Johnson supervises an office of 100 attorneys, which functions as the principal legal adviser to Defense Secretary Robert M.

Gates. In the e-mail<http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/adgifs/decisions/030309johnsonemail.pdf>bearing

his general introductory remarks to his new colleagues he vowed that he would be guided by two basic principles. First, he said that "our advice concerning the rule of law must remain consistent throughout changing and challenging times. Adherence to the rule of law permits us to occupy the moral high ground, and display the very best of American values." In that regard, he quoted Justice Sandra O'Connor's opinion in *Hamdi v.

Rumsfeld*<http://supreme.justia.com/us/542/507/case.html>,

542 U.S. 507 (2004), which reversed the denial of a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of a U.S. citizen being detained indefinitely as an "illegal enemy combatant" under procedures Mr. Johnson's predecessor as general counsel helped develop. In *Hamdi*, Justice O'Connor wrote: "It is during our most challenging and uncertain moments that our nation's commitment to due process is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must preserve commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad."

Second, Johnson pledged to foster "a collegial and collaborative working relationship between civilian and military lawyers," which would go "a long way toward timely, effective and quality legal services and legal advice."

Imagine (if you can) how many lives could have been saved over these past eight years if someone with principles like these had been in the position that Johnson is in now....

Best of luck to you Jeh.

FIRE JOHN YOO ... NEW UPDATE

I feel quite certain that Berkeley has not given him his walking papers... but read Scott Horton's latest blog and you can wonder yourself.
As I see it, going after his law license is our first job...then we go for the criminal indictment.
Thanks to the Fire John Yoo group for continuing this Battle and
Click on the title to read Scott's latest.

Unraveling the mystery surrounding documents filed with the Court Security Office (CSO)

Last weekend it hit me that none of the documents that I have filed with the CSO have been cleared for public filing since November 2008 (except for my Supreme Court Cert petition). With new players at the DOJ and many new Habeas counsel entering the cases (to help with the discovery and hearings) most probably do not know how unusual this is and/or have not given this much thought. I however believe that it is detrimental to have this historic litigation unfolding with a big piece of the paper trail missing from the public record.

(CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE REST...)

Guantanamo: The Definitive Prisoner List

Andy Worthington, London-based journalist and author of "The Guantánamo Files" (Pluto Press), today releases the first definitive list of the 779 prisoners held in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Links to the list:

Part 1 (ISNs 002 to 200):


Part 2 (ISNs 201 to 496):


Part 3 (ISNs 497 to 732):



Part 4 (ISNs 743 to 10030):



The list, which is the result of three years’ research and writing about Guantánamo, provides details of the 533 prisoners who have been released, and includes, for the first time ever, accurate dates for their release. It also provides details of the 241 prisoners who are still held, including the 59 prisoners who have been cleared for release. Although some stories are still unknown, the stories of nearly 700 prisoners are referenced either by links to Andy’s extensive archive of articles about Guantánamo, or to the chapters in "The Guantánamo Files" where they can be found.

MORE

More Torture documents:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/documents/olc-memos.htm

More Tapes of Torture Destroyed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/washington/03web-intel.html?_r=1&hp

More Laws being broken:
http://washingtonindependent.com/31944/obama-doj-defies-federal-judge?ref=fp8

From Roger FItch and our Friends down under.

Justinian...
Roger Fitch Esq • February 24, 2009

Our Man in Washington

Prez Obama adopts Bush legal strategies … Boeing subsidiary sued for flying rendition planes … Bagram prison likely to replace Guantánamo as dumping ground for the indefinitely detained … Uighurs trapped in partisan appeals cour image. The American nightmare may not be over.

While President Barack Obama’s first fortnight finished well enough, by the end of the third week his lawyers were adopting the most shameful “legal” positions of the old regime.

It looks like Mr Obama intends to (1) block investigation of Bush administration crimes and (2) maintain for his own use the extravagant court rulings Bush obtained.

The most disappointing development was Obama’s invocation of the dreaded state secrets doctrine.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO FINISH READING...

musical interlude

Happy belated to George...

The Road Ahead

It is really easy to complain about what is going on... and I am embarrassed to say that I too have been caught up in this. I am stopping, for now.
My clients have been held in hell for seven years because of Bush and his criminal gang. Obama has been president for five weeks, it will take time not only to undo all of the mess but to figure out who is part of the problem. We can complain or we can help. I believe helping is the most productive thing I can do at this time.
For the next few weeks I will try to use this Blog to focus on not only what can be done to clear out the criminals (from the Bush regime) as quickly as possible so that we can all move forward but also to point out the positive changes, so that we all understand this is not a continuation of Bush.
I am starting with something I discussed a few blogs back "window dressing". I admit, I was pissed: changes were going into effect at Guantanamo quickly and without acknowledging not only the horrors of the past, but that the changes were only now being implemented. However, upon further reflection these are really two different subjects and they need to be dealt with separately. The horrors of Guantanamo and the treatment of these men needs to be examined and the people responsible need to be held accountable... but the fact remains that change is taking place... and it is a welcome change.
For the first time in more than two years my client Al-Ghizzawi is allowed to sit around and just shoot the shit with the other men in camp 6. For the first time in seven years he can actually sit and watch a movie and read a real newspaper (well except for the fact that he can't see anymore ...but lets not go there). For the first time in more than two years he can spend time totally outside camp 6, where he can see the trees, mountains, sun. And that is because Obama announced that a team was coming in to inspect.... and the military knew that it better get its collective ass in gear... Obama has begun the process of fixing things and we must encourage and demand the continuation of that process.
Yeah, I want to see the people responsible for this criminal enterprise prosecuted. But right now what I really want to see is Mr. Al-Ghizzawi and the other men start to heal. Socialization, nature, a semblance of normality will start the healing process...... and for that I am grateful.
I for one will focus my energy on encouraging the change that must happen to help the men at Guantanamo... later I will go after the criminals with a vengeance.

Khadr's Attorneys (updated)

Khadr, the Canadian that we have been holding since he was 15 years old, should be sent back to Canada... and a few weeks ago it looked like that was ready to happen. Now there seems to be a new twist: at least some of Khadr's attorneys (the military attorneys) have been barred from seeing him... . This is very distressing news, it is difficult enough for anyone held at Guantanamo to have confidence in anything that is going on... and having some of your attorneys taken away without an explanation can be the last straw to the already frail mental health of the prisoner(s). Seems the controversy stems from criticism by Khadr's military attorneys about the cozy relationship that the prosecution attorneys are attempting with the new Obama people.
The military has long been out of control at Guantanamo and with this development we know that will not end soon.
Click on the title for more.
and for another take on this click here...