John Walker Lindh

I am providing a link to this article by the father of John Walker Lindh. I have read the story about John several times and I have often thought that this could be the child of so many of us....a young man pulled to Islam and its teachings who then finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. My country has grown so intolerant and the need for "bad guys" never greater....and so we tortured this young man and made him our homemade scapegoat for the crimes of people we either could not catch or couldn't be bothered catching.

The article ends with John's father saying "My hope and prayer is that at some point rational, fair-minded officials in the American government will see the wisdom in releasing John from prison, rather than making him serve the entire 20-year sentence."

I wish the same for John. Unfortunately there are no rational, fair-minded officials in our government .....only wimps.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/10/john-walker-lindh-american-taliban-father

Guantanamo-torture-crimes

Click on the title to read an article by an intern at the World Can't Wait. Marie is a student from France who has been spending most of the year trying to figure out what makes Americans tick. As Marie describes it-

The purpose of this article is not to find an answer for each question I had or wondered. Neither is it to explain all the issues of Guantánamo, but rather to show what People really think and to speak up for what I believe is faIr and that which represents my values.

To learn what people think about Guantanamo Marie headed to DC last week to participate and observe at the demonstration described here. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone would take the time to reflect on these issues....?

As for me-I begin my latest journey to Guantanamo tomorrow....In my worst nightmares I never thought my clients would be in that hell hole for so long....and as we know from Marie's wonderful article there are too many Americans who could care less.

Thank you Marie.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

From Roger Fitch and our Friends Down Under

The post-legal society

Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Justinian in Guantanamo, Habeas, Roger Fitch Esq, War crimes, material support

Reinventing the Constitution ... New war crime propped up by discredited 1818 case ... Pentagon stacks military commission review court ... Rogue circuit court circumvents habeasfor Guantanameros ... CIA homicides investigated by grand jury ... Our Man in Washington reports

George Bush's quest for a stripped-down, bare-bones constitution is progressing nicely under his nimble successor, Barack Obama.

Evidently, the powers-that-be decided a smooth Democrat - a "constitutional law professor" - was best-equipped to carry out a project begun by clumsy Republicans and stalled by cautious courts.

The results so far have been impressive.

The 1^st Amendment's guarantee of speech has been ingeniously reinterpreted, loosing rivers of corporate cash in public elections.

The 2^nd (guns) has been turned 180 degrees and the 4^th (search and seizure) is on the way out. The 8^th(excessive bail, cruel and inhuman punishment) is pretty much a dead letter.

Demolition of the 5th (due process) and 6^th (speedy trials, impartial juries, right to confront witnesses) will be difficult and take longer, but hope springs eternal in America's governing class.

In fact, we already live in a post-legal society, according to a well-known internet scribe.

CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR THE FULL STORY.........

Thank you Witness against Torture and World Can't Wait

Thanks to the men and women in DC this week reminding our senators and representatives that Guantanamo must be closed and torture must stop.

http://www.witnesstorture.org/pr-06-23-2011

Witness Against Torture demands:

• Close the prison at Guantánamo Bay;
• Free all prisoners who have been cleared for release, ensuring their safe resettlement and providing asylum in the U.S. for those unable to go elsewhere;
• Produce charges against all other prisoners and prosecute them in U.S. courts;
• Open all detention centers to outside scrutiny. That includes accepting the oversight of the International Committee of the Red Cross of all facilities; and
• Conduct a comprehensive criminal inquiry against all those who designed and carried out torture policies under the Bush administration.

A plea to the Algerian People

A few weeks ago I wrote an op-ed that I hoped to get published in an Agerian newspaper-to explain the horrific plight of my Algerian client at Guantanamo. Although my letter did not get published a very helpful individual living in Algeria was able to get a story published about my client and the op-ed that I wrote. The article appeared yesterday in the Oran Daily, the best and biggest circulation french-language paper inAlgeria.
If you read French you can read the article here:
http://www.lequotidien-oran.com/index.php?news=5154524

If you do not read French- I have posted a translation here. Thanks to Jack B. for the translation.
When my laptop is back in a working state I will post the original letter.

Catching up....

It has been a busy time and I haven't had the time to put up links to some interesting articles out there. First two by retired Col. Moe Davis. You might recall that once upon a time he was the chief prosecutor of the military commissions at Guantanamo. He eventually retired in disgust and now speaks out openly against the mess we call Guantanamo. The following two articles pretty well sums up his latest positions:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,760142,00.html

http://www.moonhowlings.net/index.php/2011/06/03/torture-finding-our-moral-compass/

My friend Almerindo Ojeda at the the UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas released a new study further exposing the number and treatment of children at Guantanamo:

Guantánamo's Chlldren: The Wikileaked Testimonies

I just want to point out that until yesterday I could not blog about Almerindo's study or refer to it because of my security clearance in the Guantanamo cases but new guidelines made available to habeas counsel yesterday makes clear that we have no restrictions on secondary reporting.

Jeff Kaye wrote about the ongoing attack by rightwing nuts to Scott Horton's award winning investigative story on the deaths at Guantanamo five years ago:

http://www.truthout.org/deconstructing-campaign-malign-award-winning-article-guantanamo-suicides/1306933865

And Andy Worthington has been updating his amazing research on the men held at Guantanamo. He has now finished the fourth part of a five part series on the unknown men held at guantanamo. This link will take you to part four and from Andy's webpage you can get to the other three parts of the series.

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/06/09/wikileaks-the-unknown-prisoners-of-guantanamo-part-four-of-five/

I will be adding to this list in the coming days as I find other articles I was saving to put up when I had the time.

Update on latest deceased detainee.......

Andy Worthington has this update on the man that the military claims committed suicide at Guantanamo last week. Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald has this interview with the man's attorney. Not only did the military have the incorrect name for this man-his real name is Hajji Nassim- but also the shocking information that the man suffered from serious mental health issues- since he was a very young man. His mental health issues were so serious that his attorney had arranged to bring a psychiatrist to the base to evaluate his condition.

Hajji's remains have now been "repatriated" to Afghanistan.

Seems that is the only way anyone gets repatriated from Guantanamo these days.

RIP Hajji.

ANOTHER FORM OF TORTURE, REMOVING THE EYE?

Jason Leopold at truthout has a very disturbing story today about Abu Zubaydah- as though being waterboarded 83 + times, placed in coffin like boxes, threatened with execution and other forms of torture -was not enough..... Seems we also removed one of his eyes. Was it gouged out? Damaged so badly during his torture that it was surgically removed? Or perhaps just removed for the heck of it? Who knows if we will ever learn the truth about that one.

Because I-as a habeas attorney with a security clearance- am not allowed to comment on wikileaks, I took out the link in Jason's article to the picture that led him to uncover this story. I did that because I am trying to be as cautious as possible about the wikileaks but I will say that the government did allow me to utilize a picture that the government claims is of my own client- in a public document that originated from wikileaks...

but anyway, that is a whole other story....for another day.

Click on the title to read Jason's investigation of Abu Zubaydah's missing eye.

Another Death....another lie

The military announced the death of a 37 year old Afghani man by the name of Inayatullah who was found dead in an outdoor area at the gulag. The military claims he committed suicide. Like most events at Guantanamo we will probably never learn the truth but I will tell you this- it is impossible to fathom how someone could commit suicide in the outdoor area- a place where the men are under constant watch. Perhaps that is why they are now trying to change the story to say that he died in his cell.

The Guardian has more here.

Rest in peace Inayatullah.

Scott Horton wins award for investigative piece on Gitmo "suicides"

In keeping with Scott's own style Foreign Policy asks six questions of Scott:

Last night, Harper's Magazine writer Scott Horton (pictured above left) won a National Magazine Award in the reporting category, beating out the favorite, Michael Hastings's Rolling Stoneprofile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who lost his job as commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. Horton's winning entry was "The Guantanamo 'Suicides': A Camp Delta Sergeant Blows the Whistle." The piece is an investigation of the suspicious deaths of three inmates at Guantánamo. I have known Horton since the mid-1990s, when we met in Central Asia. He was an unusual hybrid of corporate lawyer and human rights defender. His writing career began a bit later -- in the early years of the Bush administration with an email blast called "No Comment," a compilation of links and short commentary on national politics that he distributed to friends and interested colleagues. Its searing approach attracted much attention, led to the blog being absorbed by Harper's, and now recognition for this breakthrough article. Horton conducts his own email interviews in a "Six Questions" format, so I asked him to submit to the same. His replies follow.

O&G: In your main piece, you tell the story of Col. Michael Bumgarner. Can you catch us up as to what has happened in the meantime with the Justice Department's treatment of the three men's deaths, and in addition with Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman, the main whistle-blower in your story?

Sergeant Hickman continues to serve with his unit, as do several other guards that night whose observations supported the article. In fact, after the story appeared a source in the office of Secretary of Defense told me that an effort would be made to "reach out" to these "disgruntled soldiers," but I'm sure the Pentagon discovered the same thing I did: These soldiers were not remotely "disgruntled." They were and are all proud to serve and proud of their service at Guantánamo, which won them commendations. They were concerned about telling the truth, however. There is no sign of any further examination of the facts by the Justice Department -- though it did use dubious national security claims to block a congressional investigation when a House Judiciary subcommittee attempted to look into it.

What more do we know now about Camp No, the black site at Guantanamo where the men appear to have been taken? Is this a CIA-run section of the camp?

I am still investigating Camp No. In the meantime I have developed more evidence that Camp No was used by the intelligence community in connection with interrogations -- including by the CIA from 2003 through 2006. But it's not clear that the CIA was the only agency authorized to use Camp No.

Click here to continue reading the interview.

For those of you in the San Francisco Area....

PROTEST ACTION AGAINST JOHN YOO...

Friday, May 13
Protest University of California complicity in torture
Fire, Disbar and Prosecute war criminal John Yoo
Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall) Graduation
9:00 am
The Greek Theater (UC Berkeley campus)

http://tinyurl.com/3owv25p

And this from Juan Cole

Listen to Lawrence Wilkerson (former aid to Colon Powell) discuss the delusional Donald Rumsfeld and suggest that Rumsfeld should in fact be waterboarded to determine for himself whether or not waterboarding is torture.

http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/wilkerson-wants-to-waterboard-rumsfeld.html

Wax vs. Yoo

Federal Public Defender Steven Wax debated John Yoo at an Alaska bar event last week. Read a summary of it here....but I can tell you without your even looking at the summary that this was no even battle....Yoo never had a chance in debating Steven......

Good job Steven.

AND SO HE IS DEAD

Doesn't really matter for my clients....they had nothing to do with him anyway. I don't suppose this means we can move on????

AND WHILE WE WAIT...

Joe Margulies is one of the habeas counsel who has been around since the beginning. As he contemplates the fact that we, the very men and women representing the men at Guantanamo, cannot look at the newly disclosed documents he also sheds a reflective view on what all of this means.

And Clive Stafford Smith, another of the habeas counsel who has been around since the beginning of the Guantanamo litigation reminds us that so many of the claims now released against our clients (that I have not been allowed to even view) are based on nothing more than ignorant gossip...something there is no shortage of here in my country.

Meanwhile we wait. Will the attorneys for the Guantanamo men be the only ones that cannot participate (meaningfully) in the dialog surrounding the wikileaks disclosures?