Hunger Strike Song

A little light reading while we await Obama's "big speech" on how he wants to do the right thing....

Major study sheds new light on CIA secret prisons
 
Today sees the launch of the “Global Rendition System” database and interactive map – the most comprehensive resource so far created illustrating the CIA’s programme of renditions and secret prisons as part of the ‘war on terror’.
 
On the eve of President Obama’s major speech on counter-terrorism policy, the database illuminates the transportation network used to implement the US Government’s programme of “rendition, detention and interrogation”, which traversed Asia and Europe in a string of secret prison sites, ultimately sending over 800 men to Guantanamo Bay – where 166 remain.
 
The database – a collaboration between Reprieve and the Rendition Project based at Kingston and Kent Universities – uses data from freedom of information requests, legal cases, published first-hand accounts, investigations by NGOs and authoritative news reporting to detail dozens of prisoner transfers between secret “black sites”. Through analysis of more than 11,000 flights by over 120 aircraft, linked to more than 50 private companies, the site reveals the roles of different countries and shows how companies tried to cover their routes by filing false flight plans or by switching aircraft halfway.
 
Reprieve and the Rendition Project compiled documents from Reprieve’s Renditions Inc. investigation with previous work by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw, the Human Rights Monitoring Institute in Vilnius, Access Info Europe and other NGOs and investigators worldwide. All of the site’s source material is made publicly available and search results can be downloaded for further research and analysis. The data is plotted on an interactive map – users can zoom in on countries, flight routes and known or possible prisoner transfers, and move through the network via studies of individual cases and summaries of corporate complicity.
 
A recent report by The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment – chaired by former Bush-era officials – heavily criticised the US’ programme of rendition and torture, pointing out the key role of European countries noting that the “CIA created its own…‘black sites’ in…Poland, Romania and Lithuania.”

What a shock...not

So a month into the hunger strike and they changed the protocals for the forced feeding at our little gulag....

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Hunger striking Guantanamo prisoners who are force-fed a liquid nutritional supplement undergo a brutal and dehumanising medical procedure that requires them to wear masks over their mouths while they sit shackled in a restraint chair for as long as two hours, according to documentation obtained by Al Jazeera. The prisoners remain this way, with a 61cm - or longer - tube snaked through their nostril until a chest X-ray, or a test dose of water, confirms it has reached their stomach.

At the end of the feeding, the prisoner is removed from the restraint chair and placed into a "dry cell" with no running water. A guard then observes the detainee for 45-60 minutes "for any indications of vomiting or attempts to induce vomiting". If the prisoner vomits he is returned to the restraint chair.

That's just a partial description of the "chair restraint system clinical protocol" which medical personnel are instructed to follow when administering a nutritional supplement to prisoners who have been selected for force-feeding by Guantanamo Commander Rear Admiral John Smith.

Read the rest of Jason Leopold's article here....which includes the new "handbook."

Holder

Listen to what I say.....not what I do......

A stupid little lying pervert of a man....

No, I am not talking about Obama--I don't have any evidence that Obama is a pervert- no, I am talking about Col. Bogdan the current commander of the Guantanamo task force. Bogdan is the tough guy wannabe who oversaw the men's Qorans searched back in February---I guess things were just a tad too quiet and the little man was hoping for a bit more excitement in his current assignment. The search resulted in a hunger strike- now at least 130 of the 166 men are on a hunger strike- many of the men have been on that strike since February. The little man and his friends tried as hard as he could to play down the number of hunger strikers but as it sometimes happens- the truth- this time about the size of the hunger strike, found its way out of our gulag.

The search of the Qorans which led to the hunger strike took place right around the same time microphones were discovered in the Camp Echo meeting rooms- these are the rooms we attorneys are forced to use to meet with our clients. It apparently irritated the little man that word got out about the microphones and about the real size of the hunger strike. So, the little man decided to add to his credibility by claiming that he only just learned about the microphones-coincidently- right about the same time the microphones were discovered.... and oh yeah, the little man also claimed that no one was listening to the attorney conversations that were taking place in the rooms with the microphones. 

The little man is apparently also a lying sack of shit.

With word out about the new horrors at the camp the International Red Cross made a visit to see first-hand. The lying little man, apparently enraged that the international red cross delegates came on the scene to see just WTF he was doing to the detainees at the base, oversaw the camp raid hours after the delegates left the base. The lying little man even approved the unarmed hunger strikers being shot at- with rubber bullets. All of our clients were placed in solitary confinement- where they remain to this day. They are allowed two hours outside- but they are back to the caged outdoor time- with only two men outside at a time. I remember those days when my other client, the one who is now a free man, was housed like that under Bush- he deteriorated quickly (mentally and physically) under those conditions.

But the strike continues. The men though weakened physically are strong in their resolve. 

The lying little man apparently next decided that it was the attorneys that are the problem (not his treatment of the men, his violation of the constitution, court orders, various treaties or military laws) and therefore it became the lying little man's new job to find ways to keep the attorneys out of Guantanamo-- so he approved the pulling of the contract for the small commuter plane that we use to get to the base from Fort Lauderdale.  Fortunately the lying little man is stupid too- it is not just the attorneys who use those planes. The stupid lying little man was forced to reinstate the contract.

Stuck with us attorneys still being allowed onto the base it was next announced that the attorneys could no longer use the military flights into and out of the base. (Some attorneys would fly one way on the military flights and one way on the commuter plane-so as not to spend an entire week at the base.) With this new rule we can only fly on the commuter plane-which runs on Mondays and Fridays. What this of course means is that for many of us who only have one client at the base we have to spend an entire week at the base for a one day visit (showing again how stupid the lying little man is---why would he want all of us attorneys hanging out at the base for an entire week at a time?)  Fortunately we are a tough bunch and those of us that can take the week off have been down at the base regularly.

This of course has apparently pissed off the stupid lying little man even more. So the stupid lying little man gave some thought about what else he might do to keep the attorneys away- and word has it that the new- really perverted idea- came from him:

"About two weeks ago, the military made a shocking threat: A detainee who wants to leave his camp for any reason is subject to a body search that includes searches of his genitals."

So the stupid lying little man is a pervert too. Big surprise, huh? And as perverts are want to do the stupid little lying pervert of a man found what he hopes is the perfect threat to the Muslim men at Guantanamo- having their testicles subject to a physical exam if they want to visit with their attorneys---because, oh yeah, I forgot to add the fact that attorney visits are no longer allowed to take place at the camps where the men are housed- we can now only meet at Camp Echo---the place with the microphones. 

And so I wonder- will this outrage be enough to get even one of those judges in DC to stop acting as a doormat for the Department of Defense and Department of "justice?" 

Stay tuned---but don't hold your breath.

For Razak's mother and the mothers of all the men at Guantanamo

From Roger Fitch and our Friends Down Under at Justinian

US soldiers are special: they can shoot, but they can't be shot

ROGER FITCH ESQ • WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013

US government has its very own radical Islam website ... Judge overrules some of the FBI's denial of rights to Boston bombing suspect ... Canadian to appeal Guantánamo conviction ... Guilty plea to invalid charges ... Pentagon citing Civil War precedents in Bradley Manning stitch-up ... 
....

Relying on the Al Bahlul precedent, Canadian Omar Khadr plans to appeal his Guantánamo convictions in the US, testing whether a guilty plea can prevent a subsequent legal challenge where the underlying charges are found invalid. 

Since his release from Gitmo pursuant to a plea deal, Khadr has been confined in a maximum security Canadian prison. In addition to his meritless MST and conspiracy convictions, he has the distinction of being perhaps the first "combatant" ever convicted of a "war crime" of "murder" for killing a uniformed soldier in lawful combat.  

To be fair, the dead soldier was an American; and that, of course, changes everything. US soldiers are special:  they can shoot, but they can't be shot.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.

Talking Dog Interviews Jan Kitchel

Today's interview is with Gitmo attorney Jan Kitchel. The one question I have for him ---and I will get the answer--is just how long the district court judge has been sitting on his client's habeas case--- it sounds to me from reading this interview that he had the hearing quite a while ago....

Sen. Levin asks Obama to appoint someone to oversee process for transfer of detainees...

WASHINGTON – Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., this week urged the White House to appoint an official to spearhead an interagency effort to oversee the process of relocating detainees at Guantanamo Bay who have been cleared for transfer. Levin fought for a national security waiver that provides for the transfer of detainees in appropriate cases. More than 80 detainees who have been cleared for transfer are still awaiting departure from Guantanamo. Expediting this process is critical to advancing the goal of closing GITMO, as the president has called for.

The text of Levin’s letter to the White House follows:

May 6, 2013

Ms. Kathryn Ruemmler

Assistant to the President and

  Counsel to the President

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC  20500

Dear Ms. Ruemmler: 

                At a press conference last week, President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to close the detention facility at Guantanamo (GITMO) because, as he pointed out, it is expensive, inefficient, damaging to the United States’ international standing, reduces the cooperation of our allies in countering terrorism, and serves as a recruiting tool for extremists.  The President said he had asked his staff to review all options for addressing the GITMO issue and expressed the desire to re-engage with Congress on this.

                I recognize that Congress has made the process of relocating GITMO detainees to third countries more difficult by imposing certification requirements on such transfers.  However, more than a year ago, I successfully fought for a national security waiver that provides a clear route for the transfer of detainees to third countries in appropriate cases, i.e., to make sure the certification requirements do not constitute an effective prohibition. 

I urge the President to appoint an official inside the White House to spearhead an interagency effort to determine which of the more than eighty detainees who have already been cleared for transfer by the Guantanamo Detainee Review Task Force meet the certification (and waiver) requirements, and to actively work for their transfer.  High level leadership on detainee transfers is critical to advancing the goal of closing GITMO.  

                Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

Carl Levin

Chairman

Abu Zubaydah v Poland

Another extraordinary rendition case has been launched in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that will be relevant to those following Guantanamo detainees:  Abu Zubaydah v Poland involves the CIA’s black sites. The filings are available here.  A press release by Interrights, co-counsel (with Joseph Margulies and the Polish firm Jankowski & Co.) describes the significance of the case as follows:

The case is of interest because the complaint alleges that, through both its acts as well as omissions – including by agreeing to house the secret detention centre, turning a blind eye to normal protections and oversight, and otherwise participating in and facilitating the extraordinary rendition of Abu Zubaydah into and out of Poland – the Polish authorities are responsible for multiple violations of Abu Zubaydah’s rights.  

This case is also important because it is the most significant (and potentially only) European investigation into black sites underway.   The decision may help to shape the investigation, particularly because it focuses on the benchmarks for effective review. It follows El-Masri (decided by the ECHR in December 2012).  Related cases, Abu Zubaydah v Lithuania, al Nashiri v Poland, and al Nashiri v Romania, are still pending before the ECHR.    

Abu Zubaydah is a stateless Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia who was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006 and remains in indefinite detention.   He has not been charged with a crime by a military commission or court.

Donate for full page ad at New York Times

WORLD CAN'T WAIT is helping to organize a campaign to raise funds to run a full time ad on the 99th day of the Guantanamo detainees hunger strike. Please donate what you can.

Text content of the ad is here, posted as a sign-on message.  World can't wait expects to have a beautiful, arresting ad design for the print-one that will make people think about Guantanamo and the men who continue to suffer there.  You can donate online here,   Online or check donations to Alliance for Global Justice, the fiscal sponsor of World Can't Wait, makes your donation tax-deductible.

THE WORLD REALLY CAN'T WAIT.

SOMEONE SHOULD LET HIM KNOW HE IS PRESIDENT.....UPDATED

(updated to add link to Judge Lamberth's opinion from yesterday...)

So what happened to the buck stops here Barrack?....

Does he really think this is the fault of congress?

At least the pressure is stepping up....even Ralph Nader found time to write a letter to Obama!

And the Yemen human rights minister is in DC to talk....

I mean- even the Chicago Tribune has an editorial today asking Obama to close the place...(although in typical fashion they managed to get most of the facts wrong....)

When I saw this headline I thought a solution was at hand....but then I read the article and realized no one was suggesting sending the DC judges to Gitmo in a trade....


Of course the American people still don't get it....if only someone could do a reality tv show about Gitmo maybe people would understand why this place is unacceptable...

Meanwhile- if I want to go check in on my client I have to take an entire week off because of the plane schedules...Judge Lamberth entered an Order YESTERDAY- expressing his concern about attorney access....sigh. Concern of course does not equate with change but at least he is checking into the mail situation as many of us have had the letters we write to our clients withheld for unknown reasons....just another awful day in the life.

the whimp...I mean the president, speaks

I was going to try to do a summary of that part of the press conference when Obama talked about Guantanamo but I was too pissed off to spend the time.
Thanks you Marcy for pulling it together here.

And if that isn't enough read this.

another petition.....

SORRY ABOUT THE FORMATTING ISSUES....sigh.

Dear H.Candace ,  Thanks for signing my petition, "President Obama:  Close Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay ."  Can you help this petition win by asking your friends  to sign too? It's easy to share with  your friends on Facebook - just click here to share the petition  on Facebook. There's also a sample email below that you can forward  to your friends.  Thanks again -- together we're making change happen,  Morris Davis  --------- Note to forward to your friends: Hi! I just signed the petition "President Obama: Close Detention  Facility at Guantanamo Bay " on Change.org. It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link: http://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-close- detention-facility-at-guantanamo-bay?share_id=aUzRMOtRYz &utm_campaign=signature_ receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition Thanks! H.Candace

Red Cross is Back....

The International Red Cross arrived back at the base on Saturday. I think it is time for the ICRC to publicly disclose exactly what is going on with the men....read about the ad hoc visit here....