A Day in the Life at Guantanamo....

"Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, a Yemeni national who has been detained at the American prison facility at Guantánamo Bay since 2002, weighs only 98 pounds. Never charged with a crime, al-Alwi, now 35 years old, is one of many detainees at the camp who have gone on a prolonged hunger strike."

...

"Al-Alwi, who has described his strike as “a form of peaceful protest against injustice,” has said that he will not resume eating until there is some sort of legal resolution to his case. Prison officials have responded to his hunger strike by placing him in solitary confinement, denying him access to prescribed medical items and subjecting him to extreme temperatures in his cell."

READ THE REST HERE.

France should investigate the torture claims of their nationals that were held at Guantanamo

On March 5, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) urged a French Appeals Court to fully investigate claims by three French nationals that they were sexually and physically tortured during their detention at the Guantánamo Bay prison in 2002. But a lack of cooperation from U.S. authorities has stymied the French investigation.
So citizens of France, is it really this easy to ignore the claims of torture???
Read the rest here.

In other Guantanamo related medical news....

The summary of the torture report which was released a few months back (I reported on it here) discussed a prisoner at Gitmo who is now subject to a military commission and who was sodomized as part of his torture. In February the attorneys for that man asked the judge for medical help for their client who still suffers from his torture:

In February, the attorney for Saudi captive Mustafa al Hawsawi asked the judge to intervene in the case, referring to a recently released portion of the Senate Intelligence Committee's “Torture Report,” and saying that the 46-year-old man had been rectally abused while in CIA custody — and that he continues to bleed now, at least eight years later.

“Some would call that sodomy,” said attorney Walter Ruiz, adding that “those acts caused longstanding chronic medical conditions that have yet to be resolved.”

Well it seems our great military commissions and their judges cannot (or perhaps more likely, will not) order medical treatment for the defendants in their court rooms...On friday (march 20) the judge released a short order:

Army Col. James L. Pohl wrote in a two-page order released by the Pentagon Friday that the Court's "jurisdiction is limited to try persons subject to the Military Commissions Act Of 2009. lO U.S.C. § 948d. Thereby, this Commission does not have the authority to address issues concerning medical care."  
The order was dated March 10.

Carol Rosenberg has more here.

ADD THIS TO THE VERY LONG LIST OF WAR CRIMES BY MY GOVERNMENT....

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article15621776.html?utm_source=NSHR+Rapid+Response&utm_campaign=5ac33448b8-NSHR_Alerts_News_October_9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a915757be-5ac33448b8-328192709#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article15621776.html?utm_source=NSHR+Rapid+Response&utm_campaign=5ac33448b8-NSHR_Alerts_News_October_9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a915757be-5ac33448b8-328192709#storylink=cpy

Military finally realizing that force feeding might violate medical ethics and international law.....

In January, VICE News obtained a two-page document in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that contained the first known acknowledgement by the US military that force-feeding people who are capable of making informed decisions about their own health is a violation of medical ethics and international law.
This realization has only taken more than 13 years.....
Read the rest here.

An update on the men released to Uruguay

I know from my own clients transition to the country of Georgia-- this is a difficult situation and it takes time.
Read the update here.

Today's WTF Moment....

Apparently Obama now regrets not closing Guantanamo on his first day in office. sigh.
Read the rest here.

Another Detainee Cleared For Release...

Today the periodic review board announced that Saeed Sarem (235) won his Periodic Review case and is now cleared for release.

According to fellow Gitmo attorney Brian Foster the stats are now:

With this clearance, the prison population returns to equipoise, with 56 men cleared, 56 awaiting clearance, and 10 in the military commission system. 

Yemenis: 48 cleared, 25 awaiting clearance, 3 mil-comm

Others: 8 cleared, 31 awaiting clearance, 7 mil-comm

Why the U.S. Continues to Hold Shaker Aamer

Shaker Aamer has been cleared for release by both the Bush administration and the Obama administration. He is the last British resident to be held at Guantanamo. So the question is- why won't we release him?  It seems that the U.S. does not want Shaker to talk about what he witnessed at Guantanamo. More here.

St. Patrick's day-- second musical interlude....

H/T's off to the 1st. District DNC delegate....

St. Patricks Day musical interlude...

SO WHAT IS IT WE ARE HIDING.....?

It seems the U.N. has been trying to do a further investigation into torture at Guantanamo....and take a look at our U.S. prisons where solitary confinement for extremely long periods (years and decades) is a long standing policy. For some reason my government has refused to cooperate! (I guess we all know the reason why my government refuses to cooperate--they don't want to help the world see the torture and inhumane treatement). Read the story behind the request here.

Murder At Camp Delta

 A few weeks ago I posted a link to the talking dog's interview of Joseph Hickman- author of the book Murder at Camp David: A Staff Sergeant's Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay. ( You can purchase the book here.) I had not finished reading the book when I posted the link so I did not say too much about the book itself. I have now finished the book.
For those of you who think you know everything about Guantanamo (like me, for example) pick up the book and be amazed and disgusted. For those of you who would like a primer on the US war crimes at Guantanamo in a nice readable book- this is the book for you.
How can it be both? Joe managed to find, describe and put in readable format not only the facts regarding the three men that died together on June 9, 2006 but also- through meticulous investigative work (with Seton Hall law students and professor Mark Denbeaux) on the cover up and on other war crimes against the men being held at the base-- it is the extent of the cover up that I was unfamiliar with and which could be strong evidence to be utilized in the off-chance there is ever a criminal investigation into the deaths and the other war crimes at Guantanamo.
Read the book.

SNOWDEN PLEASE DO NOT COME HOME.... UPDATED

There are reports that Edward Snowden is trying to work out a deal to come home....IF-- he can have assuranes that he will receive a fair trial.
Ed, you can't get a fair trial. The system is pretty much broken at this point and although we have some good judges and some good proseuctors the system is stacked against you.
Stay where you are-- or find another safe haven but do not come back to the United States at this point in time.

INTERCEPT CLARIFIES THE FAKE STORY FROM THE CORPORATE MEDIA. READ IT HERE.

Talking Dog Interviews Nancy Hollander

Another must read interview. Nancy Hollander is one of the attorneys for Mohamedou Ould Slahr
The current detainee whose diary has been published.
Read Nancy's interview here. And buy the book!

FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER AT JUSTINIAN....

Hicks: the questions that should have been asked

ROGER FITCH ESQ • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

The biggest questions about the Howard government's blunders and crimes against Hicks are unasked.

For starters, why did the Australian government of the day refuse to provide effective consular assistance to one of its citizens, when it does no less for drug smugglers, murderers and rapists in trouble overseas?  

Why did Australia accept, without question, US assurances that Hicks was guilty, and not mistreated?

Can it ever be lawful for another country to seize an Australian citizen, question him on its ship on the high seas and then intern him in a prison camp, without any Article 5 hearing on prisoner of war status as required by the Geneva Conventions (and in Hicks' case, the US Uniform Code of Military Justice)?

Does the US president have the authority to unilaterally suspend the Geneva Conventions (or any other treaty)? Or flout parallel UCMJ provisions that track Geneva, word-for-word?  

After the initial decision in Hicks' favour in DC district court, how could the Howard Government take the side of the US government on subsequent appeals? Why weren't briefs filed on Hicks' behalf in Rasul - his own case that he ultimately won?  

Why wouldn't any government want to support its citizen's right to habeas corpus in a foreign court?

As for the military trials, is it possible that the Howard Government never took advice as to the legality of the prosecution of Hicks under either presidential or statutory military commissions? 

Did George Bush have power to create a system of military commissions outside the UCMJ? When the Supreme Court, in Hamdan, ruled he did not, finding instead that the Bush commissions violated both US law and Geneva Conventions, why didn't the Australian government demand Hicks' repatriation?

Incredibly, the government then supported and encouraged Hicks' re-prosecution under the new Military Commissions Act, an Act which also purported (unsuccessfully) to denyhabeas, and contained the novel Material Support for Terrorism, a "war crime" any first year law student could have assessed invalid.  

Aside from Hicks' own suffering, the worst thing about the Howard government's hostile mishandling of the affair was the terrible precedent it set, not least a presumption of guilt in "terror" cases and a reflexive deferral to the imperial demands of the US. 

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE.