Will the Yemeni men ever go home...

Reminding us once again as to why we hated the Bush administration-and as to the similarities between Obama and Bush-- the Obama administration is trying to distract us from its illegal surveillance behavior by talking about "the terrorist threat".....

The talking dog has more here.

Redactions--U.S. Government style....

I have long said that the saving grace with all of this surveillance and secrecy here in the U.S. of A is the incompetence of my government. Jason Leopold highlights this incompetence in a piece at Al Jazeera....

"In a 13-page brief filed on Friday in federal court in Washington, DC, government lawyers assert that a June 3 declaration signed by Guantanamo prison warden Colonel John Bogdan, which sought to justify the rationale behind the genital search policy, contains details about "operational-security and force-protection procedures" that, if made public, "would better enable our enemies to attack the detention facilities at Guantanamo."....[SNIP]

"the government on Friday released a partially redacted version of Bogdan's declaration, and argued that the blacked-out passages in the document should remain secret - because they contained sensitive "operational-security information" about Guantanamo.

But it appears government lawyers were unaware that another version of Bogdan's declaration - one that contained a different set of redactions - was publicly released last month, in documents filed with the federal appeals court when the government asked [Judge] Lamberth's decision to be put on hold.

Redacted passages that the government says needs to remain secret are unredacted in the earlier version filed on the public record as part of the government's appeal. At the same time, some unredacted passages in the declaration submitted on Friday are redacted in the public version of Bogdan's declaration filed with the appeals court last month....

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE.

tory -

Framer of Guantanamo now says it should never have been opened...

In today's WTF category:

Why we should shut down Guantanamo: Prison camp's jailer-in-chief makes jaw-dropping U-turn and says it should never have been built

• *William Lietzau had key role in creating Guantanamo under George Bush
• *He has now argued the detention camp should never have been built
• *He said detainees should have been PoW's and held in Afghanistan
• *If charged, they should have been taken to American prisons, he said

This of course would be the same Mr. Lietzau who resigned from his post last week as per my blog earlier in the week.
READ THE REST whole article here.

In other news....

Shaker has been held at Guantanamo for more than 11 years- he has been cleared by both the Bush administration and the Obama administration. He is a British resident and he has never met his youngest child. Why is he still being held? The Brits refuse to demand his release- probably because of everything Amer has seen (and heard) over his years in captivity- including the complicity of the Brits....perhaps because he is a witness to the murder of some men at Guantanamo a few years ago?
The threat now is that this transparent government of mine might send him to Saudi Arabia- where he can continue to be silenced.
Shaker Amer subjected to assaults on a daily basis...some sexual.

The Talking Dog on Snowden -et al....

Funny thing having to seek sanctuary in Russia- The supposed arch enemy of all freedoms...until of course the U.S. surpassed Russia on that front a few years ago. So I wish Mr. Snowden the best of luck, I am glad he is safe from my rogue country- at least for now. And most of all I hope that if he has more to share with the people of this country (and the world) on the illegal actions of this here government, that he has a safe place to set that information free.
The dog has more here.....

Coincidence??

At the same time that the administration was announcing the anticipated release of two Algerians back to Algeria the top pentagon official currently responsible for the mess we call Guantanamo announced his resignation--William Lietzau.
We could ask why in the world would Obama kept this guy on for so long while at the same time promising to close the place but I guess it is just another example of Obama's spinelessness.

From Charlie Savage at the NY Times : 

Mr. Lietzau has played a major role in shaping detention policies across two administrations. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he was a uniformed lawyer for the Marine Corps, he served as an adviser in the creation of the first version of President George W. Bush’s system of military commissions trials.

In the Obama administration, he has been the primary official shaping policies for “law of war” detention at the prison at Guantánamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Read the rest here.

Two being released to Algeria....

Keeping with our government's transparency they have apparently not told the counsel for the men so we do not know which two of the seven Algerian men are going home. My client is one of the seven and as I am so fond of quoting Studs Terkel's favorite line "hope dies last".... I will hope- but I am not optimistic.

Statement by the Press Secretary on Guantanamo Bay

As the President has said, the United States remains determined to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.  In support of those efforts, today the Department of Defense certified to Congress its intent to repatriate an additional two detainees to Algeria.  We are taking this step in consultation with the Congress, and in a responsible manner that protects our national security.

We continue to call on Congress to join us in supporting these efforts by lifting the current restrictions that significantly limit our ability to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo, even those who have been approved for transfer.

"I am fallen into darkness..."

This new amnesty report on the guantanamo prisoners is available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/051/2013/en and a short (and powerful) summary accompanying the report is available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/053/2013/en

WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?

On March 7, 2011 President Obama signed an executive order to establish additional review procedures for Guantanamo detainess to determine if continued detention is warranted. The review procedures, consisting of an initial hearing with an interagency Periodic Review Board (PRB), were to have begun some time that year.  It was a flawed plan because it did not allow for the attorneys to participate in any meaningful manner but it didn’t matter because like so much of Obama’s promises—it never happened. Flash forward two years and four+ months later---

Tonight Friday July 19^th, 2013 at 9:12 pm (central time) I received the following email from a certain military official:

Habeas Counsel:
As required by Executive Order 13567 and the National Defense Authorization Act FY2012, a new Periodic Review Board (PRB) process will review the continued detention of certain detainees to assess whether continued law of war detention is necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.  The process does not address the legality of any detainee's law of war detention, but rather makes discretionary determinations about the individual's threat and the necessity of continued law of war detention.  The review process will include a hearing before a PRB composed of senior level officials from various U.S. Government agencies.  Detainees receiving hearings will be notified by a Personal Representative assigned to assist them in the process.  Counsel who have a prior relationship with detainees who will receive a hearing will be contacted in advance of the notification to the detainees.

Any questions about this process should be directed to…..( I am really being nice by not including that information….)

My client is one of the men who will perhaps be reviewed by this board--- he is on the list by the Obama administration of men at Guantanamo who are too dangerous to be released but whom the government has absolutely no evidence to try in any court of law…. And the Obama administration’s idea of review includes shutting out the very people who know the most about the client- the attorneys for the client. In fact, because of the rules set up for these men we attorneys know even more than our clients because we are allowed to review evidence that we are not allowed to discuss with our clients.

And I guess I should add that the U.S. government has yet to implement the determinations of the last interagency entity--the Guantanamo Review Task Force, which approved for release over half of the current prison population at Guantanamo back in 2010. The overwhelming majority of those men still languish at the prison today.

For the Periodic Review Boards to be taken seriously, the U.S. government should begin releasing the men that were cleared for release by the previous interagency entity years ago.

For those interested here are the guidelines that were issued in 2012 but never utilized.

This concludes today’s WTF moment. 

Who provides the "contraband?"

This question comes from an article in the Atlantic Wire. It does miss the point though--- interrogators are the biggest source of gifts to the men---and yes, even after 11 years the men are still interrogated and if they cooperate they get gifts that they can showcase to the other men.  Everything we (the attorneys) bring to a visit is searched- although so far we have not been subject to genital searches---(hate to give the pervert any ideas, but just sayin....)

The Drone killing of an American teenager....correction and updated YET AGAIN

I have commented on this in the past (and again here) but today there is an op-ed in the new york times by the boys father. OOPS- don't know how I made that mistake- the father, also a US citizen was assassinated by drone shortly before his teenage son was killed by drone- the op-ed is from the grandfather.... It should be mandatory reading in this here country of mine and it should provoke questions if not outrage.....unfortunately the american people are asleep at the wheel and our president is worse than asleep at the wheel- I would say he lost his steering wheel but I am not sure he ever had one....
Jim White over at emptywheel has a good discussion on this here.

This morning there was a hearing on the government's motion to dismiss the case-Lyle Denniston at SCOTUS has more here.

military refuses to stop genital searches...-correction and update

Last week a judge ordered that genital searches be stopped. So now the Obama administration is going back to the judge to ask him to reconsider his Order stopping the genital searches....the little pervert claims that stopping genital searches will cause irreparable harm. Jason Leopold has more here. Politico has more here.

The issue is now out of the judges hands---the irreparable harm of not being allowed to search the men's genitals before and after telephone calls- lawyers visits etc- has been appealed by the government and the department of justice sought and received an immediate stay from the DC circus court...- so the military can continue with its abusive conduct....

The Obama administration should be ashamed of itself---but this is business as usual for Obama....

In Memory of Trayvon Martin

KIDS WHO DIE ....... by Langston Hughes
This is for the kids who die,
Black and white,
For kids will die certainly.
The old and rich will live on awhile,
As always,
Eating blood and gold,
Letting kids die.
Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi
Organizing sharecroppers
Kids will die in the streets of Chicago
Organizing workers
Kids will die in the orange groves of California
Telling others to get together
Whites and Filipinos,
Negroes and Mexicans,
All kinds of kids will die
Who don’t believe in lies, and bribes, and contentment
And a lousy peace.
Of course, the wise and the learned
Who pen editorials in the papers,
And the gentlemen with Dr. in front of their names
White and black,
Who make surveys and write books
Will live on weaving words to smother the kids who die,
And the sleazy courts,
And the bribe-reaching police,
And the blood-loving generals,
And the money-loving preachers
Will all raise their hands against the kids who die,
Beating them with laws and clubs and bayonets and bullets
To frighten the people—
For the kids who die are like iron in the blood of the people—
And the old and rich don’t want the people
To taste the iron of the kids who die,
Don’t want the people to get wise to their own power,
To believe an Angelo Herndon, or even get together
Listen, kids who die—
Maybe, now, there will be no monument for you
Except in our hearts
Maybe your bodies’ll be lost in a swamp
Or a prison grave, or the potter’s field,
Or the rivers where you’re drowned like Leibknecht
But the day will come—
You are sure yourselves that it is coming—
When the marching feet of the masses
Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky—
The song of the life triumphant

Through the kids who die.

While we are on the subject of Snowden.....UPDATED

A few articles about our secret courts here in the good ole U.S. of A."...sweet land of liberty....
this will be a continuing thread as I find more.....feel free to send ----
*http://harpers.org/blog/2013/07/spotlighting-the-surveillance-court/
*http://www.thetalkingdog.com/archives2/001694.html
*http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/07/11/spying-on-americans-a-team-sport-since-2004/
*http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/07/11/the-evil-empire/
*http://my.firedoglake.com/danps/2013/07/13/u-s-spying-on-americans-unpopular-and-unlikely-to-end/

*http://my.firedoglake.com/otherjones/2013/07/13/snowden-and-malala/
*http://my.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20130714/db39a96a-d8c6-405a-bbd3-aa2f9fb0f1dc
*http://www.juancole.com/2013/07/century-americas-imperial.html

*http://www.juancole.com/2013/07/dissidents-security-engelhardt.html
*http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/17/nsa-surveillance-house-hearing
*http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/07/17/the-3-hop-scotch-of-civil-liberties-and-privacy/
*http://www.juancole.com/2013/07/greenwald-backlash-silence.html

Edward Snowden speaks....and again I say thank you to Mr. Snowden.....

Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone's communications at any time. That is the power to change people's fates.

It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.

I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."

Accordingly, I did what I believed right and began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing. I did not seek to enrich myself. I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety. Instead, I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice.

That moral decision to tell the public about spying that affects all of us has been costly, but it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets.

Since that time, the government and intelligence services of the United States of America have attempted to make an example of me, a warning to all others who might speak out as I have. I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression. The United States Government has placed me on no-fly lists. It demanded Hong Kong return me outside of the framework of its laws, in direct violation of the principle of non-refoulement – the Law of Nations. It has threatened with sanctions countries who would stand up for my human rights and the UN asylum system. It has even taken the unprecedented step of ordering military allies to ground a Latin American president's plane in search for a political refugee. These dangerous escalations represent a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America, but to the basic rights shared by every person, every nation, to live free from persecution, and to seek and enjoy asylum.

Yet even in the face of this historically disproportionate aggression, countries around the world have offered support and asylum. These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless. By refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation, they have earned the respect of the world. It is my intention to travel to each of these countries to extend my personal thanks to their people and leaders.

I announce today my formal acceptance of all offers of support or asylum I have been extended and all others that may be offered in the future. With, for example, the grant of asylum provided by Venezuela's President Maduro, my asylee status is now formal, and no state has a basis by which to limit or interfere with my right to enjoy that asylum. As we have seen, however, some governments in Western European and North American states have demonstrated a willingness to act outside the law, and this behavior persists today. This unlawful threat makes it impossible for me to travel to Latin America and enjoy the asylum granted there in accordance with our shared rights.

This willingness by powerful states to act extra-legally represents a threat to all of us, and must not be allowed to succeed. Accordingly, I ask for your assistance in requesting guarantees of safe passage from the relevant nations in securing my travel to Latin America, as well as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as these states accede to law and my legal travel is permitted. I will be submitting my request to Russia today, and hope it will be accepted favorably.

If you have any questions, I will answer what I can.

Thank you.