IN THE COMPANY OF COWARDS

Bush, Howard and injustice at Guantanamo

A BOOK REVIEW

So part of the problem I had when searching for this book is that I know the author as "Dan Mori" not Michael Mori. Ah well--- as a fellow middle name user I won't say anything more about that but I am going to refer to the author as Dan in this review.

The book was sent to me by a friend in Australia and Dan wrote a nice inscription to me (thank you Dan). When I started reading the book it quickly became one of those books that was difficult to put down. I finished the book over three evening reads. Dan managed to put into words the frustration, anger and heartache of representing someone at Guantanamo without sounding angry or maudlin.
Dan represented David Hicks-- an australian man who was turned over to US forces in Afghanistan for a bounty and who was one of the first to arrive at Guantanamo. Dan's account is not just about the fight to get Hicks out of Guantanamo and the constant shifting of the rules in the military commission -- but also the other side of the fight- the political fight in Australia and Dan's brilliant use of the media to inform the Australian people of the plight of his client and the complicity of the Australian government in Hicks's long detention at Guantanamo.
Dan doesn't spend much time on the personal toll- he was a military lawyer in the marines and was assigned the Hicks case. But there was a personal toll-- like all of the military defense lawyers who represented Guantanamo detainees Dan was denied his next promotion and faced cowadly complaints about his activism in representing his client. So it was not just that walls went up at every corner and resources for the defense side were lacking-- but the military made it personal because Dan was fighting hard for his client.
Read the book- Dan describes the feel of the base during this time period (2005-8) better than any other account I have read and he also describes quite eloquently what it is like for a lawyer committed to the rule of law to watch his country's legal system disintegrate before his eyes.
Dan now lives in Australia. I mention this because it underscores the toll on the attorneys in representing Guantanamo detainees. Dan is not the first Guantanamo attorney to leave this country and I do not think he will be the last.
It seems the only place in the US to get this book is on-line via australia. Click here.

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Please join me in urging Senator Udall to read the torture report into the congressional record before he leaves the senate. You can contact the senator here. I couldn't quite figure out which of the pull down topics to use so I settled on "defense" and for the subtopic I put "torture report."

U.N. Committee on Torture is NOT a Rubber Stamp

Yes, it seems that the U.N. Committee is asking the right questions and demanding answers. Marcy at emptywheel discusses the questions here and Jim White at Emptywheel has more here.

The U.N. Torture Inquiry

 This past week the U.N. has been looking at the torture by the United States government. I am attaching links to the various stories about this hearing starting with the testimony of former detainee Murat Kurnaz:

The Nation: Former Gitmo Detainee: ‘It Is Time to Prosecute Those Responsible for My Torture’

The Intercept: An Innocent Man, Tortured by the U.S., Asks the U.N.: Where’s the Accountability?

Just Security: Malinowski and McLeod statements before UN Committee Against Torture

Just Security: U.S. Changes Position on Torture Convention–Accepts Ban on Cruelty Applies Abroad

RT: ‘We crossed the line’: US mea culpa at UN panel on use of torture

Guardian: Doubt cast over US torture investigation as more CIA detainees come forward

NY Times: U.S. Tells U.N. Panel of Steps to Revise Interrogation Policy

Washington Post: Obama administration endorses treaty banning torture

VICE: >From Guantanamo to Ferguson: America's Torture Record Comes Under Scrutiny

Behind the bars: Guantanamo Bay

I was just reminded of this series which includes work by Guantanamo Bay prisoners Emad Hasson, Shaker Aamer and others. There are 18 stories to date. You can click here for the full list. 

The individual links are below:

VICE: An Obituary for My Friend, Adnan Abdul Latif

VICE: The Banned Books of Guantánamo

VICE: Carol Rosenberg On Covering Guantánamo

VICE: Colonel John Bogdan Has No Nose

VICE: Cooking Ahmed Rabbani’s Biryani at Tayyab's East London Curry House

VICE: Growing Up, Guantánamo

VICE: The Declaration of No Human Rights

VICE: Life After Guantanamo: The Rehabilitation Program for Kuwait's Released Inmate

VICE: My Time as a Guard at Guantánamo Bay

VICE: Obama and Bush: How Do the Presidents Compare on Guantánamo Bay?

VICE: Pakistan Since Guantánamo

VICE: The Prosecutor

VICE: The Trials of Being the Only Imam at Guantánamo Bay

VICE: What Happens When I Try to Give My Guantánamo Guards Presents

VICE: Why Are Prisoners Who Have Been Cleared for Release Still in ​Guantánamo?

VICE: Why Hasn't Obama Closed Guantánamo?

VICE: Yemen’s Proposed GTMO Rehab Centre Isn’t Making Much Progress

VICE: Younous Chekkouri: My Road to Guantánamo

Former Gitmo guard speaks out on the torture of Force feeding....

Former Guard: 

Guantanamo's 'Safe, Humane, Legal, 

Transparent' Motto 

Is Simply Not True

By Joseph Hickman

November 8, 2014 

READ THE STORY HERE.

Detainee released to Kuwait--Updated

 Read more here.

“Administration officials said that an end-of-year flurry might be coming: The Pentagon has notified Congress that nine other detainees, including six bound for Uruguay, may soon be transferred.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/us/guantanamo-kuwait-fawzi-al-odah-released.html?_r=1

REPORT TO U.N. CALLS BULLSHIT ON OBAMA’S ‘LOOK FORWARD, NOT BACKWARDS’ APPROACH TO TORTURE...

Months after President Obama frankly admitted that the United States had “tortured some folks” as part of the War on Terror, a new report submitted to the United Nations Committee Against Torture has been released that excoriates his administration for shielding the officials responsible from prosecution.

READ THE REST OF THIS INTERCEPT ARTICLE HERE

Talking Dog interviews Todd Pierce

Major Todd Pierce (U.S. Army, Retired) is an attorney who served as a Judge 
Advocate General (J.A.G.) officer in the United States Army. In that capacity, 
he has served on the defense teams for two Guantanamo military commissions 
defendants. On October 13, 2014 The Talking Dog had the privilege of interviewing Maj. Pierce 
by telephone. 

Read the interview here.

REUNITED AT LAST....

After a 13 year separation my client Mr. Al-Ghizzawi has finally been reunited with his wife and daughter. When he had last seen his daughter she was only a few months old. The talking dog shares in the good wishes to Mr. Al-Ghizzawi and his family.

PEACE PRIZE WINNERS SPEAK OUT ABOUT THE TORTURE REPORT AND GUANTANAMO

Twelve nobel peace prize winners have signed an open letter to Obama urging him to release the torture report and finalize plans for closing guantanamo. Read the letter and sign onto their petition here.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE.....

UN REPORT FINDS MASS SURVEILLANCE VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND PRIVACY RIGHTS

A link to the report is here and the links below are attached for those interested in the news story as published by Mr. Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept (previously with The Guardian).

..

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/15/un-investigator-report-condemns-mass-surveillance/

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/10/15/un-report-human-rights-terrorism/

Cert Denied

A disappointing end to the latest saga in Razak Ali's fight for freedom. The Supreme Court last week denied the cert petition. As I mentioned earlier the chances were pretty slim to start with but I hung my hope on the Court feeling the need to address the issue of "indefinite detention" "guilt by guesthouse" and/or the legality of detaining Razak in Pakistan under the AUMF. I have had alot on my plate these last few months and I wish I could have put more time on the petition but it is what it is. I will now have to figure out my next moves for my unfortunate client.
Stay tuned......

From Our Friends Down Under at Justinian

From Roger Fitch and our Friends at Justinian

Click here to read the whole article..

Alien Tort law gives a leg-up to Abu Ghraib victims ... Preview of new Supreme Court term ... DoJ's misuse of state secrets privilege ... US ranking of billionaires according to their political influence ... Latest report on judicial corruption ... Roger Fitch, Our Man in Washington, reports 

Alien Tort cases reinstated by 4th Circuit

HURRAH, the Alien Tort Statute lives again!  

This 1789 Act of the young American republic was used to hold US-based corporations to account for their foreign depredations, until the Supreme Court in its 2012 Kiobel decision ruled that overseas conduct must "touch and concern" the US with "sufficient force" to overcome a presumption against extraterritorial application of the statute.

As recently as July, the reliably-conservative 11^th Circuit ruled, in the Chiquita case, that there was no ATS jurisdiction over a US corporation for its admitted misdeeds in Columbia.

Now, following Mr Obama's judicial appointments, the formerly conservative 4^th Circuit has reinstated, en banc, ATS cases brought by former Abu Ghraib prisoners against the mercenary torturers, sorry, contract interrogators, hired by the US to provide "services" at the infamous Iraqi jail.  

Here's the latest twist in Al Shimari v CACI.  

It's hoped that the 4th Circuit's change of heart will spread across the Potomac to the DC Circuit, where there's been a request for en banc reconsideration of the civil case of Allaithi v Rumsfeld.

That case notoriously found that military wrongdoers acted within the scope of their employment, and anyway, Guantánamo internees weren't "persons" under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Another DC case where en banc will be sought - now that Obama's four appointments have broken a right-wing Republican stranglehold on the circuit - is the Guantánamo counsel access case, Hatim.  

Yet there's a problem: the panel decision being appealed included a Democrat, Chief Judge Merrick Garland. 

Steve Vladeck has more.  

After his en banc partial win, the Guantanamero Ali Hamza Al-Bahlul is making another attempt before a DC Circuit panel to have his "conspiracy" conviction(s) thrown out.  

Here's the supporting amicus brief of the National Institute of Military Justice. Steve Vladeck comments.  

David Glazier also has a brief. Others are here, and none of them support the government. 

Click here to read the rest.....

FORCE FEEDING HEARING OPEN TO PUBLIC

The force-feeding hearing is before Judge Kessler at the DC District Court this Monday and Tuesday (October 6 and 7) at 10 AM. If you are in the DC area please find some time to go and watch for a few minutes and show your support for the men illegally detained at Guantanamo.