So what is going on at the Solicitor General's office?

Last week we learned that Paul Clement, the solicitor general, unexpectedly announced his resignation effective June 2nd (which he no doubt hopes will be before the supreme court announces its decision in the Gitmo cases)... now we have learned that the deputy solicitor general Thomas Hungar actually announced his resignation first but that announcement was not released until today.... all we know about Hungar's departure is that it will be "soon."
Is it just me or do others think there is more to this than just wanting to spend time with their families?

No torture, No exceptions

“No Torture. No Exceptions” means:

• Reaffirming America’s commitment to existing federal laws and international treaties that ban torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under all circumstances.

• Renouncing all legal interpretations and executive orders that redefine torture and permit such acts as sensory or sleep deprivation, stress positions, sexual humiliation, mock executions.

• Enforcing full transparency of information about how America treats any and all detainees held by our personnel and those in our employ anywhere in the world.

• Rejecting and abolishing the practice of rendering detainees abroad.

• Establishing a single standard of interrogation procedures to apply to all persons held in U.S. custody or by those under U.S. control, whether C.I.A., military, or civilian.

• Treating our detainees as we would have others treat detained Americans.

So... hats off to Scott Horton for bringing this to my attention (and now yours) and click on the title and do your part to try to put an end to this ugly chapter in US history.

Released Detainee testifies to Congressional Committee via satellite link

Turkish born German Citizen, Murat Kurnaz told his story of five years of abuse and torture at the hands of the US at Guantanamo to a congressional committee today. He has also told his story in a book that I have heard is well worth the read (I bought it but haven't had the time to read it yet) . Click on the title to read the AP story.

"Looking alive but actually dead"

That is what one prisoner said about his long term isolation.... For Mr. Al-Ghizzawi this isolation has helped fuel his physical and mental decline. Two new reports out from the center for constitutional rights in a report to congress outline the effects of the long term solitary confinement on the prisoners at guantanamo (including Mr. Al-Ghizzawi) and the outrageous practice of our government in allowing interrogators from foreign countries into Guantanamo to threaten and coerce the prisoners.
Links are below thanks to Charles Gittings at the Project to enforce the Geneva Conventions (www.pegc.us) who posted the articles so that I could link to them..


http://www.pegc.us/archive/Organizations/CCR_Foreign_Int_200805.pdf

http://www.pegc.us/archive/Organizations/CCR_Solitary_Conf_200805.pdf

Hamdan trial delayed

The DC circuit court of appeals just couldn't bring themselves to stop the government from going ahead with the military commission trail of Mr. Hamdan despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court will be ruling before the end of June on whether or not the military commissions are constitutional...
Fortunately the military saw the folly in going forward at this juncture and late in the day on Friday (after the DC Circuit Court refused to act) an order was entered to delay the trial to avoid "the potential embarrassment, waste of resources and prejudice to the accused that would result were the Bush administration to lose the Supreme Court case." How clever of the military to think of that.
Click on the title to read the story from the Miami Herald.

A NEW LOW (Updated)

Yesterday I (and other gitmo counsel) learned that the security clearance for one of our regular arabic translators was revoked without prior notice to counsel. The military is not accusing the translator of any wrong doing ...they apparently just randomly pulled his security clearance in the middle of a visit to the base that had been scheduled for months. Particularly disturbing to me on a personal level is that the attorney who was visiting the base with this translator was performing a favor for me in that he agreed to visit with Mr. Al-Ghizzawi. As many of you know I try to visit with Mr. Al-Ghizzawi every other month to monitor his health but for personal reasons I cannot go back to the base until July. The translator is one of the 3 or 4 that regularly go to guantanamo to translate for gitmo counsel... he, like the other translators is a top notch interpretor who has always displayed the highest level of professionalism and integrity. This is clearly just the governments latest ploy to interfere with our relationships with our clients.

Update: The court decided it doesn't have jurisdiction over this... screwing the attorneys once again.

New Documents Released to ACLU

Click on the title to go directly to the latest documents released to the ACLU in one of the FOIA actions they filed.
According to the ACLU press release " Uncensored documents released ... shed light on the deaths of detainees in Iraq and internal disagreement within the military over harsh interrogation practices used at Guantánamo Bay....

The documents contains new information about the deaths of some of these prisoners, including details about Farhad Mohamed, who had contusions under his eyes and the bottom of his chin, a swollen nose, cuts and large bumps on his forehead when he died in Mosul in 2004. The document also includes details about Naem Sadoon Hatab, a 52-year-old Iraqi man who was strangled to death at the Whitehorse detainment facility in Nasiriyah in June 2003; the shooting death of Hemdan El Gashame in Nasiriyah in March 2003; and the death of Manadel Jamadi during an interrogation after his head was beaten with a stove at Abu Ghraib in November 2003.

INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS

All allegations against Mohammed al Qahtani (063) in the April 15, 2008 re-sworn charge sheet were dismissed without prejudice on Friday May 9, 2008. For those of you who don't know or recall Mr. Qahtan his interrogation memos were leaked last year showing the torture to which he was subjected. Although it is possible that the thugs might charge him again at some future date, with non capitol charges, Al Qahtani is at the moment uncharged and will not face the death penalty if there are ever any future charges. We will not ever know if Mr. Qahtani was a so called "terrorist" because of the criminal policies of the US government in subjecting him to torture.
The other interesting development is that on the heels of this dismissal the government buried the dismissal with the announcement (again) of charges against five defendants who all seem to be charged as the 20th hijacker...
a most crowded spot... as I believe Al Qahtani was also suspected as holding that same ticket.

Fridays military decision ousting Hartman for now

Click on the title to read the actual order entered last week by the Military commission.

And Back to the Kangaroo Court

Well the talking dog put it together better than I could even try, so click on the title and read what the TD has to say about the latest fiasco at the military commissions.... just a hint.. now the chief "legal advisor" has been pulled off the first prosecution because it was determined that his legal advice was just a tad too politically tainted.......sigh...
Supreme Court... If you are out there please rule soon and put them out of their misery.

Return to the battlefield?? Updated

I am updating this story after reading the Washington Post version. It appears the story may be true and if so we are stuck with the uncomfortable fact that a man released from Guantanamo may be responsible for a suicide bombing in Iraq. There are lots of things to ponder in relation to this matter and much of that was discussed in the article that you can read by clicking on the title. The answer of course is not to lock up forever people who showed no signs of being an enemy when picked up. This man apparently went on with his life for several years before he decided to do what he did. I also will remind you that our government lies so much that we cannot believe anything they claim but if this man did in fact become a suicide bomber he would be the only verifiable detainee that was released who has been shown to engage in any illegal activities after being released. I find that pretty amazing given how these men were treated. Anyway, last time the government/military claimed 30+ were on "back" on the battlefield and my law clerk did the research... seemed at the same time they were saying 9+ and 5+ and a handful and 14.... were back on the battlefield (as though these random and contradictory numbers justified keeping everyone else). And when someone finally demanded names (I believe it was congress that asked not the media...) they hemmed and hawed and came up with a few names... a few... like 3 or 4... and 1 of those "back"on the battlefield was still sitting in gitmo (probably in his dreams he was in the battlefiedl but I don't think that counts) 1 or 2 were never on a list as having been at Guantanamo, 1 guy had not only returned to the battlefield but was killed (according to the media reports dictated by the military) but they forgot to tell him and he was quietly rebuilding his life.
I am sure there are those of you who think we should try to ascertain everyone who has harbored ill thoughts about our government and lock them up... but that is not the american way... at least not the america I knew. We have trials. We determine guilt or innocence and then we punish the guilty. Perhaps if a system had been put in place when this man was held the outcome would have been different. Lastly I would just point out that this man was released because of a political deal between the US and Kuwait... the same way every man has been released so far... political deals, not court processes.

Update on Transfers last week...

Thank You Sami for remaining a reporter til the end...--Thank You Kent Spriggs for this nice little chart.... the three men with less information did not have counsel. unfortunately I am having formatting trouble... I will get back to this...

2008 MAY

WAKIL, HAJI SAHIB ROHULLAH

798

Afghanistan

TRANS 5/2

Jalalabad, AF

1/1/1962

05-cv-01124

Dechert LLP

Peter Ryan

ABDULLA MOHAMMED KAHN

556

Uzbek

TRANS 5/2

Yes

FD, NJ

Candace Hom

SANGARYAR, RAHMATULLAH

890

Afghanistan

TRANS 5/2

Oruzgan, AF

1/1/1968

05-cv-00878

Yes, long journey

FD, ND Ga

Matthew Dodge

NASRULLAH, FNU

886

Afghanistan

TRANS 5/2

Oruzgan, AF

1/1/1979

FD

ESMATULLA, FNU

888

Afghanistan

TRANS 5/2

Dekundie, AF

1/1/1977

SURVEILLANCE??

May 7, 2008

Lawyers for Guantánamo Inmates Accuse U.S. of Eavesdropping

By WILLIAM GLABERSON <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/william_glaberson/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

One lawyer for Guantánamo <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/guantanamobaynavalbasecuba/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> detainees said he replaced his office telephone in Washington because of sounds that convinced him it had been bugged. Another lawyer who represents detainees said he sometimes had other lawyers call his corporate clients to foil any government eavesdroppers.

In interviews and a court filing Tuesday, lawyers for detainees at Guantánamo said they believed government agents had monitored their conversations. The assertions are the most specific to date by Guantánamo lawyers that officials may be violating legal principles that have generally kept government agents from eavesdropping on lawyers.

“I think they are listening to my telephone calls all the time,” said John A. Chandler, a prominent lawyer in Atlanta and Army veteran who represents six Guantánamo detainees.

Several of the lawyers, including partners at large corporate law firms, said the concerns had changed the way they went about their work apart from Guantánamo cases. A lawyer in Chicago, H. Candace Gorman, said in an affidavit that she was no longer accepting new clients of any type because she could not assure them of confidentiality.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO FINISH THE STORY

Guantantamo our 51st State?

The world slaps us with Guantanamo as though it's a sack of wet nickels. Guantanamo is an albatross, wrapped in a scarlet letter, inside an Alcatraz. What to do with Guantanamo?

The Supreme Court is mulling the question. The president and the secretary of defense say they want to close Guantanamo. All three presidential candidates and five former U.S. secretaries of state want to close Guantanamo.

Fortunately, the answer is obvious. Congress should pass, and the president sign, legislation making Guantanamo the 51st state.

(click on the title to read the rest of this great op-ed... from Gitmo attorney Peter Ryan...)

WILL THE MEDIA SHOW ONCE AGAIN THEIR COLLECTIVE AMNESIA??

Today Reuters reported that the bush administrative could close Guantanamo...."The Bush administration could announce plans by the end of its term in January to close Guantanamo prison and an upcoming Supreme Court ruling might be the impetus for this, senior U.S. officials and experts say." (Click on the title if you really want to read it... but I warn you they also quote from Matthew Waxman.... the man responsible for Al-Ghizzawi still being at guantanamo... as though he is some sort of voice of reason....)

LEST WE FORGET.... they said the same thing last time the supreme court was getting ready to rule... I fell for it in 2006 before the Supreme Court released the Hamdan decision... Bush announced "I want to close Guantanamo... I am just waiting for the Supreme court to rule..." I of course knew he didn't have to wait for the supreme court's ruling to close the place but I figured he would use it as an excuse...
He didn't.... he never intended to close the place but many people believed him and still ask me, "Aren't we closing the place? I thought Bush said he was closing the place?"

I will not fall for that crock again... but the big question is, will the media fall for it again??