The Pervert's rules are "On Hold" for now......UPDATED

Yes, the pervert has had his hands slapped. We will have to wait and see if that will change anything.

Yesterday Judge Lamberth ruled on a motion by several Gitmo attorneys regarding the never ending problem by those of us representing men at Guantanamo to actually meet with our clients.

Here is the link to the opinion and the actual Order is here. 
This is the CLIF note version:

Lamberth's  Opinion acknowledges that "The government seemingly at every turn has acted to deny or restrict Guantanamo detainees' access to counsel."  And the government's motivation for genital searches is to "deter counsel access".  And "The court, whose duty it is to call the jailer to account, will not countenance the jailer's interference with detainees' access to counsel."

As to the government's excuses----"This justification does not hold water."
The judge also states:
"The government’s attempts to justify the new procedure on the basis of Latif’s suicide have the patina of pretext to them."

“[t]he government is a recidivist when it comes to denying counsel access.”

"The government’s repeated actions substantially increase the likelihood that its justification is mere pretext and that the new searches represent an 'exaggerated response' to its legitimate interest in security of the detention facility."

The judge went on to hold:

1.  Genital searches are banned

2.  Hunger-striking detainees can meet with lawyers in Camp 5 or 6, space permitting.

3.  Detainees being transported shall be permitted to ride in vans that allow them to sit upright.

Charlie Savage has more…..

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/us/judge-halts-groin-searches-at-guantanamo-calling-them-abhorrent-to-muslims.html?hp&_r=0

I will try to explain more over the weekend (when I have a little more time on my hands!) but for now I will just say that Chief Judge Lamberth has pretty much been a weakling in the Guantanamo litigation and he should be ashamed of himself- he has allowed the government to ride roughshod over the constitution and deny the men even the most basic human rights--because of his own incoherent fears- [note my recusal motion started because of Judge Lamberth's public speech declaring his fear to release anyone from Guantanamo because they might be the one to blow up the capitol-but the motion moved on to other issues after the DOJ admitted to an ex-parte conversation with the judge about discovery in my clients case] [as a second side note- the judge has never ruled in favor of a Guantanamo detainee in a habeas hearing] but yesterday- even Judge Lamberth apparently realized that  “enough is enough”….of course this is more than 11 years after most of our clients have been held without charge or anything resembling due process….Judge Lamberth is a johnny-come-lately but I guess that is the most we can hope for right now.

Jim White at emptywheel has more here.

Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) being forced fed the same way as the men at guantanamo

The Hunger Strike is now 6 months old

With the start of Ramadan tomorrow we will have to wait and see if the military will hold back on force feeding the men during daylight hours. 106 men are hunger striking and at least 45 of those men are being force fed.

EDWARD SNOWDEN- AMERICAN PATRIOT

My country has become a frightening place to live. Not just the obvious that all of you see- Guantanamo- the surveillance- the endless wars – but it’s the other things that are not quite as visible to the outside world- the dumbing down of the American people that started with Reagan more than thirty years ago- cutting education funding and social benefits. It was a rare sight when I was a teenager to see anyone on the street begging for food and money- now it is a rare sight to go more than 100 feet in almost every city in this country and not see people begging for food and money. More than two and a half million people are in prisons in this country- far too many of them are not guilty of the crimes that landed them in prison but because our justice system is so corrupt people end up pleading guilty for crimes they did not commit because of the fear of the sentence if they are found guilty. The quest to convict and to maintain those convictions by our police and by our prosecutors has turned the police and prosecutors into criminals- hiding evidence- hiding witnesses- lying to the courts.

This brings me to the person who should be hailed as an American Patriot-Edward Snowden- when I saw that his legal counsel was none other than former Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon I just smiled. As tough a battle as this is and will be-Snowden is in good hands. Snowden unveiled- for the world to see- my government’s illegal activities on a grand scale. My government is not only involved in illegal activity on U.S. soil but around the globe. My government is the traitor against the people of the United States and the world and to hide its own illegal activities it has gone viral over the whistleblower.  So Mr. Snowden, thank you for your sacrifice. I hope it is not in vein.

Talking Dog interviews David Marshall

David Marshall- another solo practitioner attorney- however David has to travel from Seattle Washington to Guantanamo to represent his client!  Thank you David for trying to bring back that other U S of A.

What would Mandela say?

The irony of Obama going on a tour of Mandela's old prison and and viewing Mandela's solitary cell is probably not lost on most of the world - although I feel quite confident in suggesting it is probably lost on most Americans. Not only because of the 166 men in solitary at Guantanamo but also the 80,000- mostly black men- being held in solitary confinement across America.  I feel quite certain that if Mandela could speak to the president he would tell him to go and take a look at Guantanamo- go and take a look at your super max prisons- and take a peek at the cells those men are currently living in.... instead of doing photo-ops in a long closed prison in South Africa.

But I guess that wouldn't be a good photo-op for his audience here in the US of A.

Force Feeding and Ramadan

With Ramadan starting next week and at least 44 men on a hunger strike and being force fed by the military things are about to get a lot more tense.... The problem is that the military does not have enough torture equipment to force feed the men only at night- and the question becomes what will the military do? Will the military decide that the right to torture the men by force feeding them is a higher calling than the men's religion? Will the military force feed the men during the day? Attorneys from Reprieve raised this issue in a new filing in federal court. Two of the judges have told the government that it must respond by tomorrow. Read the pleading and more about what Reprieve is doing here.

a glimpse at the force feeding apparatus....

Not a pretty sight but since it is a look into the suffering of the men at Guantanamo who are being force fed I think it is worth viewing. One detainee, Shaker Amer, speaks out about this inhumane practice of force feeding here.

One detainee has a job....

There is not much for the men being held at Guantanamo to do over the course of the day---and there hasn't been much for the men to do over the course of their now 11 years of being held without charge. Before the hunger strike the men could mingle with each other during the day....watch some news on the TV... and those physically able could play a little soccer in the field outside their prison walls. All that stopped when the powers to be decided that the men should be held in solitary cells while on their hunger strike. But one detainee actually has a job- Mohamedou Ould Slahi has a book contract for his memoirs. You can read excerpts of his memoirs here and you can read about his book deal here. It is not a pretty story but I feel confident it will be well written while it exposes life at the gulag.

Latif---the continuing tragedy

My last update on the tragic death of Latif at the hands of our military included Latif's own words. Those letters were released after the military declared Latif's death an apparent suicide. The bottom line is that Latif is dead for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being held by a country that has put fear ahead of justice.
And so now I share the latest in this outrage. The military faults its own guards in Latif's death for their collective failure to even follow the basic rules set up at the camp. Unfortunately they are still calling this a suicide but there are too many unanswered questions for that label to stick.

A word to/about Snowden....

Actually two:

THANK YOU!

Oh and there is this....

Seems Senator Feinstein woke up briefly yesterday and issued a statement to the Pentagon asking them to stop the torture regime of force feeding the Guantanamo prisoners. I suspect she is back to sleep as I type but in her statement she made the following observations:

The Practice is inconsistent with international norms; I urge the Defense Department to put in place ‘the most humane policies possible’ ....noting that 60 percent of detainees are on a hunger strike and more than 40 being forcibly fed.

Col. Bogdan should be relieved of his command......

I think I said something similar a few weeks back but read this commentary by fellow Gitmo attorney David Remes in the Guardian which says pretty much the same thing I said.... but perhaps a little more eloquently.....

updated---crap from the obama administration----

The talking dog brings us up to date on a new Gitmo information release from Obama's people and some worthy commentary on the surveillance issues. He updated it last night to provide the other lists released by the pentagon- it was one of those lists that showed my client being referred to the military commission. check out the very bottom of the talking dogs post....... I want to just discuss briefly that new release of information that the administration provided pursuant to a freedom of information act request (FOIA). I have represented my remaining client for over seven years now. I represented him in what is generously referred to as a habeas "hearing"- although even the judge remarked during that circus that it was not really a hearing----more on that after the appeal is completed--my client was not allowed to attend the event, he could only listen to part of my opening argument (the part that was open to the public) and even then the military cutoff the call just over half way through the public opening because the call was over his allotted time (45 minutes- and no my public opening was not even close to 45 minutes but there were technical difficulties with the phone connection), he was not allowed to see the so-called evidence that the government said justified his continued detention and I was not allowed to discuss it with him---I could go on and on about the failures of this process which one day I will, but not today....anyway this brings me back to the FOIA release yesterday which lists the men who are being held indefinitely and those who will be subject to commission trials. As an attorney for my client you would expect that I would know his status? Well here is what I knew- I knew my client was not cleared for transfer or release. I knew that because my transparent government released the list last year- pursuant to a FOIA request- of the men who were cleared. My client's name was not on it therefore I could deduce he was not cleared. Was he going to a military trial or was he just going to rot away at Guantanamo without charge or trial? The government would not tell me that little fact (nor would they tell the other attorneys that same information about their clients) For that information I had to contact a military defense attorney who had the list of the men who were going to be subject to the military commission- I contacted him and I was told that my client was not on the list of men to be tried by military commission. So I could deduce that my client was on the forever to be detained list....until yesterday when my transparent government finally released -pursuant to a FOIA request- the status of the men who are not cleared for transfer or release. My clients name of course is in there- Razak Ali, ISN 685- and he is listed as subject to a military commission. WTF? Are they going to try him for being in a guesthouse in Pakistan where another man had stayed for a few days---a man who the government thought was an al-Qaeda hot shot -but then after waterboarding him 175 times (or thereabouts) realized that he was a nothing but a travel agent with serious head injuries? Well, to quote the previous white house asshole, "bring it on....".

My American Life.....sigh

Thank you Ira Glass for telling part of our story (the story of the surveillance of  attorney's representing Gitmo prisoners) ....you can listen here.
However, I want to reiterate that I do not believe that my government only listens to the attorneys representing men at Guantanamo.  I believe the U.S. Government has a back-up of every single conversation of every single person in this country - no matter how boring that conversation may be. If you are comfortable with  this- if this makes you feel safer- well, I feel sorry for you (and me- Because I happen to live here too and I kind of liked that constitution of ours....). As for me- I am not comfortable with what is happening in this country. I am not happy with Obama or with our corporate electives... I am not comfortable with any of this. Let me also tell you that we all have personal things that we talk about- and that if you take even a moment to think about it- you will realize that even if you do not have business issues that should be kept confidential you do have personal matters that would not think the government has any right to hear if you thought about it....but the government is listening to it.
This country of mine has become a democratically elected dictatorship. Unfortunately not very many here in the Old U. S of A---seems to care.
If you want to read more about the surveillance program go to emptywheel. The good folks there have been doing an amazing job of putting the pieces together and the picture is not pretty.