A Canadian perspective

Since Khadr is a Canadian and every other western country that had a man at Guantanamo eventually got around to asking for their man back what is up with Canada? For those Americans reading this who do not even know who the prime minister of Canada is let me give you this cliff note version: his name is Stephen Harper and he is a GW wannabe....and is doing a pretty good job of it at that.

A lot has happened across the boarder (including at least two trips to their Supreme Court) but none of it has resulted in Khadr being returned to his home. Click on the title to read one of the two Canadian blogs I regularly follow..the other is the galloping beaver (which has just the right element of humor and irony...)

IT REALLY IS NOT FUNNY............

Reporting from Guantanamo, Spencer Ackerman captures a chaotic scene at what was supposed to be a pre-trial hearing for Omar Khadr:

Omar Khadr’s pre-trial hearing this morning experienced an unexplained hour-long delay. Court officers filtered in at 10 a.m., without a certain important individual: Omar Khadr.

Prosecution promptly called a marine corps captain, Laura Bruzzese, to testify that she informed Khadr at 5:15 a.m. that there was a hearing scheduled for this morning. Khadr had a blanket over his head and complained of pain in his left eye, which has been sightless after an injury sustained during his 2002 capture in Afghanistan. She had him escorted to the infirmary, where he received an eyedrop for the pain, and in Camp Delta security officers attempted to load Khadr into a van to transport him to court. Part of that transfer involved putting what Bruzzese called “Eyes and Ears” on Khadr: blackout ski goggles and earmuffs to block out his senses while in transit.

Only Khadr refused. When Brezzese asked him why he wouldn’t wear the Eyes and Ears — standard operating procedure for transiting a detainee, she testified — Khadr responded, “The only purpose is to humiliate me.” [...]

Defense counsel Barry Coburn and his partner, Kobie Flowers, are now racing to Camp Echo, where detainees meet with their lawyers, to talk to Khadr. Neither would tell me in the confusion of the courtroom which option they’d choose. But they brought along Steve Xemakis, a mental health expert, to evaluate Khadr — most likely so that if Khadr declines to attend, they could proffer an expert statement about how voluntary he considers his absence.

“How quick can we get on the road, guys?” was the last thing I heard Coburn say before his team raced out the door.

Read the full account here: http://washingtonindependent.com/83509/confusion-reigns-at-gitmo-after-khadr-is-a-courtroom-no-show

This would be funny if it wasn't so serious

Seems that Secretary Gates finally got around to signing the new military commission handbook (with little things like the rules and procedures) just a few hours before the first pretrial proceedings were starting this week....and of course no one down there even had a copy until late yesterday...

It is now available on line and you can click on this now if you want to see what the attorneys were faced with heading into court just as the rules were being unveiled.....

click on the title for more from Spencer Akcerman.

More on todays hearing here

and more on the new commission handbook here.......

The Military Commissions Resume....

How ironic that they start up the latest version of the illegal commissions with the Canadian child Khadr.

Click on the title for commentary and pictures from Spencer Ackerman at the Washington Independent.

The Story...on NPR

Once again Dick Gordon has followed the story of my client Mr. Al-Ghizzawi. Click on the title and hear the latest....

MORE TRUTHS COME DRIPPING IN.....

It was as early as the summer of 2002 when the first studies of who was being held at Guantanamo were being conducted by the military....and the findings were rather startling as the military determined that they were not holding the "worst of the worst" but instead had a bunch of guys who were wrongly picked up...those reports were not leaked out until 2004 long after the American public was convinced that the inmates at Guantanamo could and would gnaw threw electric power lines or some BS like that....anyway, adding to the evidence that the Bush administration knew from the early days that most of the guys it was holding were innocent is this affidavit from Col. Lawrence Wilkerson who was Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002-2005.

Perhaps the best summary of the Bush administrations "philosophy" in regards to the men at Guantanamo is this quote from Wilkerson's affidavit: "If hundreds of innocent individuals had to suffer in order to detain a handful of hardcore terrorists, so be it."

Right in line with the 1 percent doctrine....

Al-Ghizzawi is a free man....

I am just back from the beautiful country of Georgia where Al-Ghizzawi, after 8 years of wrongful imprisonment at Guantanamo, is now a free man. On behalf of Mr. Al-Ghizzawi I want to thank the people of Georgia for their kindness and compassion in allowing him to settle in their country. The talking dog has more here and Andy Worthington has this to say.

Allah speed Mr. Al-Ghizzawi...........

A little musical interlude.........

"Outside the law: stories from Guantanamo"

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is a new documentary film, directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, telling the story of Guantánamo (and including sections on extraordinary rendition and secret prisons) with a particular focus on how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, how prisoners were rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan without adequate screening (and often for bounty payments), and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism (as missionaries or humanitarian aid workers, for example).

I’m pleased to announce that, via YouTube, a short trailer (1:16) is available for the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” co-directed by filmmaker Polly Nash and journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files, for a showing near you check Andy's website:

and just a reminder....

If you are not following the emptywheel's investigation of torture you should...because at least for now this is the only real investigation going on.

for an update click on the title.

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian

Justinian

Salim Hamdan’s successful Supreme Court advocate, Neal Katyal, now appears in the Supreme Court to oppose detainees’ rights, apparently willingly, in his new capacity of Deputy Solicitor General.

Nevertheless, some of the dimmer opposition senators are making much of the fact that DoJ dares employ lawyers who once represented Gitmo prisoners. Can they be trusted?

For the right wing it’s proof that Obama’s lawyers are soft on terrorism and frightfully unpatriotic.

In a lurid McCarthyesque video put out by Dick Cheney’s daughter Liz (pic), these nine lawyers are called the Al-Qaida Seven.

But as National Institute of Military Justice director Eugene Fidell reminds us, the military lawyer who fiercely represented Roosevelt’s despised “Nazi Saboteurs” became Truman’s Secretary of War.

In fact, at least 34 of the 50 largest American law firms have represented Gitmo prisoners or filed amicus appeal briefs in their support.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE ENTIRE JUSTINIAN...

Who's Afraid of Lawyers?

Click on the title to read Gitmo Attorney Len Goodman's op-ed in the Chicago Tribune on the latest attacks against those of us representing men at Guantanamo.

And always looking on the bright side read David Coles op-ed in the Washington Post on this same subject.....

Talking Dog interviews Gitmo attorney Ellen Lubell

Yes, I am pissed off....