Reflections From Roger Fitch

 Another Bonaparte takes the throne 

Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Justinian in Donald Trump, Roger Fitch Esq, US Presidential election, US politics

The Second Coming of Trump ... A circus of corruption and revenge ... Rewards for the "losers" ... Assembling the infrastruction of authoritarianism ... DoJ cases up for "negotiation" ... The knavery of Louis Napoleon ... Parallels aplenty ... Roger Fitch files from Washington 

"Trumpism is seeking to advance a revolutionary transvaluation of values by inverting the morality that undergirds both traditional conservatism and liberal institutionalism. In this inversion, norms and rules that counsel and enforce propriety, restraint, and deference to institutional authority become vices, while flouting them become virtues. The result is a radical form of political action that gives a central governing role to 'bad' men who enjoy provoking the outraged indignation of those incapable of their own similarly bold acts of defiance" - Damon Linker, Notes from the Middleground

"[A]s Trump mounts his next assault on good government and decency, there will be too many misdeeds to follow. There won't be enough journalists to cover all his villainy and its consequences - neither at the local nor national levels. The media industry has been decimated in the past two decades, with a sharp decline in news reporters on the beat. Having fewer watchdogs allows grifters, miscreants, and outright crooks to get away with wrongdoing" - David Corn, Mother Jones

"This nation ... has no right to expect that it will always have wise and humane rulers, sincerely attached to the principles of the Constitution. Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln…" - Ex parte Milligan (1866).

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On This 23rd anniversay of the opening of Guantanamo ( technical problems-please be patient!)

 On this 23rd anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo I want to share a few observations. I think it is appropriate that I write this from The Hague, the home of the international criminal court.

It was almost 20 years ago that I volunteered to represent a Libyan man being held at Guantanamo. A man I knew nothing about except that my country was holding this man without any due process in violation of U S law and international law. Shortly thereafter I volunteered to represent a second man, a man from Algeria.

 I, a solo practitioner, took on the second client because in my country of hundreds of thousands of attorneys few were willing to represent these men.

I wrongly thought that my country would right this injustice and the men would quickly be returned to their homes after our Supreme Court held that the men were entitled to attorneys and entitled to some process. My first client was held until 2010 before being dumped in a country that did not want him and with little support to get his life back on track. My second client was held until 2023 before he was sent back to his home country with no protections from further prosecution, despite assurances that he would be properly treated and cared for. Neither man was charged with any crime and there was no evidence that either man engaged in any wrongdoing.

Today there are only a few men left at Guantanamo that have never been charged with any wrong doing. I remain hopeful that Biden will release those men before our latest criminal president takes office. We will know soon enough.

My country not only failed to learn anything from this deviation from the rule of law but we have dug in even deeper in our illegal activities. And with our new criminal president about to take office I have little confidence that we will right this ship of ours.

And so what do we do? I, for one, intend to try to uphold the rule of law in whatever small measures a solo practitioner lawyer can do.  I find some solace being in The Hague at this time, even if only for a few days. I came here in 2008 as a visiting professional at the international Court (ICC) partly to run away from my corrupt country, but also to try to help in my own small measure this then new institution, get on its feet. It has been a bumpy road for the ICC but I believe this is really the only way forward if our world is to see any real justice.

And so, tomorrow is another working day.

The talking dog on the eleven

 We are near the end of Gitmo. At least this generation of Guantanamo prisoners. I hesitate to say this is the real end given the assholes who are taking over my country. But I do remain hopeful that the remaining three will also leave in the coming days... leaving only those actually charged or those who pathetically (without representation and without the ability to fully comprehend what they were admitting to) took a plea deal.

So, what does the dog say? Read it here.

11 Yemeni released to Oman

 Yay Joe Biden!

this was a big one. The men from Yemen have been cleared for so long but there was nowhere to send them as they couldn't go back home because of the war.

If the count that I am hearing is correct there are 3 men left who have not been charged or convicted. I sure hope Joe gets those three out before the clown takes office.

As we ponder what is to come.

 

Plea deals upheld updated

 The military court of appeals has upheld the plea deals reached in relation to the men being being tried by the military. The three men reached a deal of life sentences in return for not being executed. A sound deal until defense secretary Austin tried to stop it. I don't think there is enough time left for Biden to actually close the place but rumors abound.

stay tuned.

for the detail oriented here is the docket entry:

(26) 24-001 Moh., KSM - CMCR court denying the petition for a writ of mandamus and prohibition, finding the government (i) satisfied the first Cheney test, 542 U.S. at 380-81, because the military judge's vacatur of the Secretary of Defense's memorandum pertaining to future pretrial agreements was a clear abuse of discretion, but (ii) did not satisfy the second Cheney test because it had an adequate means to obtain desired relief through direct appeal, and therefore finding it (iii) unnecessary to consider the third Cheney test about appropriateness of writ under the circumstances.

Unfortunately the government decided to turn this over to the trump idiots and filed a motion with the Military Commission judge asking that the entry of pleas for Mr. Mohammad, Mr. bin 'Atash and Mr. al Hawsawi be postponed until Jan. 27th,  to allow time for the government to decide whether to pursue further action in the D.C. Circuit, and file pleadings there if they decide to do so. 

Tunisian released -more to come?

 This man has been held at Gitmo since day 1 and never charged. More details to follow but there are rumors more will be released by Biden. 

RIP Jimmy

 

THE LAND OF FREEDUMB

So, my friend The Talking Dog is back with a reflection on Guantanamo and our fucked up country.  

So here we are. What is really going on? I submit to you that Guantanamo ain’t just a ̶r̶i̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶E̶g̶y̶p̶t̶ bay in Cuba. The aftermath of September 11th was an extremely useful excuse to change paradigms, and once and for all, alter even the perception that the United States was some kind of “free country.” In conjunction with a suite of technologies made available as a result of the internet age, the same security and intelligence agencies that were widely [and rightly] blamed for the failures that led directly to the September 11th events were revitalized and reconstituted in various ways (“innovations” included the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence). There were, of course, massive increases in budgets of the Defense Department and the “intelligence community” agencies to “fight the global war on terror,” and of course, to spy on every aspect of our lives (often with the help of such useful technological developments as “social media” and the “smart phone,” serving as rocket fuel for Silicon Valley and Wall Street, and resulting in tech behemoths that, by market capitalization, are the largest business enterprises in the history of the universe.) As September 11th fades from memory over the years (and the rationale for GTMO with it), the surveillance state just gets more robust with each passing year, as do the technical means of maintaining control over us (as if employment at will and permanently precarious “health insurance” aren’t already doing the heavy lifting of suppression).

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