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.

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).

READ THE WHOLE THING HERE.

musical interlude

 

FROM ROGER FITCH and our friends down under at Justinian.

Goths at the gate

Roger Fitch Esq • Friday, November 29, 2024

Trump's narrow victory ... Gangsters, plunderers and incompetents ready to sack Washington ... Trump's narrow victory ... Dross on top ... Roger Fitch on America's kakistocracy 

"Trump's reckless venality is a reason for hope. Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child. He will likely be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people. All of them can be beaten: in court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena ... the states ... have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president" - Tom Nichols, the Atlantic 

"[C]ompetence is the last in the list of traits [Trump] seeks in nominees. That is usually a bad thing, but when the job they’re being tasked with is destroying all that is good and true, it's a reason for hope. Trump lost a lot of momentum early in his presidency because of his contempt for competence. Let’s hope that happens a second time around" - Amanda Marcotte, Salon 

≈   ≈   ≈

A convicted felon, he's been judged the worst president in American history. Yet, boosted by the invincible ignorance of some, a plurality of voters re-elected Donald Trump president of a country he nearly destroyed.

He plans to finish the job, endowed by the supreme court with newly-invented criminal immunity. We may be certain he will use it early and often. 

After the most expensive election in history, Republicans scored a trifeca with the presidency and both houses, but the 435-seat house is very close: 220 Republicans/215 Democrats, but three Republicans are new Trump nominees. Republican gerrymanders produce at least 16 seats, now 19, after a 3-seat North Carolina pickup: NC's 2022-elected supreme court re-allowed gerrymanders the previous court found unconstitutional.

After obstructing Biden for two years, a Republican-majority congress can't wait to undo his reforms, dismantle agencies, overturn regulations, stack courts and cut taxes for the rich. 

Corruption on an unimaginable scale will return. With Trump v US giving presidents immunity, and the court's watered-down bribery jurisprudence, Trump has little to fear in legal consequences. 

Kleptocracy rules, and the usual villains and lobbyists are queuing for pillaging permits. It's pay-to-play, especially if you're rich: cabinet-designees Linda McMahon and Elon Musk donated $15 million and $118 million, respectively, as "campaign contributions". 

≈  ≈   ≈

Like Silvio Berluscone and Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump escaped prison by getting elected. Now he wants revenge.

He plans to start by prosecuting all the people who prosecuted him, beginning with Special Counsel Jack Smith. Smith was previously head of a War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, where he succeeded in trying and convicting criminal leaders in other countries. 

Berluscone - election saved him from the clink 

While in office, Donald Trump won't have to worry about any of the outstanding federal crimes he's been charged with committing during and after his first term in office, and thanks to a timely ruling from the party's Revolutionary Tribunal - the Supreme Court Six - he doesn't have to worry about being charged for crimes he plans to commit or may inadvertently commit during his next term in office, self-dealing included.  

He's demanding alarming additional powers, e.g, skipping senate confirmations, by recess appointments, and power for Treasury to selectively label as terrorist organisations, any non-profits that get in his way. Trump truculently stalled, then agreed, the transition's uncongenial ethics requirements.

≈   ≈   ≈

READ THE REST HERE.

Proud to be a "leftie"

 This is what the nominee to head the department of defense had to say about Guantanamo:

 “It got mucked up very early when left-wing lawyers and other protections came in,” he said. “It could have been a great place to expeditiously interrogate, try and, you know, execute, because we are in a war.”

Note: the other "protections" were from the Courts. He won't have to worry about that part for a long time, if ever.

meanwhile

 

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian.

 

It's Hitlerish

Roger Fitch Esq • Friday, November 8, 2024

Reelection of a charlatan ... Republicans take popular vote for the first time in 20 years ... Amnesia ... Trashing a democracy ... Trump and his team of troubled men ... Mainstream media wilts in the eye of the storm ... Depravity, greed and revenge are the new normal ... Roger Fitch files from Washington 

"Some Trump voters may believe his lies. But plenty more want Trump to be terrifying and stomach-turning so that re-electing him will be a fully realized act of social revenge. Harris cannot propose any policy, offer any benefit, or adopt any position that competes with that feeling" - Atlantic

"What luck for the rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler

≈   ≈   ≈

Before the election, the NYRB and Atlantic warned that the 60th presidential election could mark the end of democracy in America. The Washington Monthly noted a Nazi analogy to the complicity of America's traditional conservatives in Trump's takeover of the Republican Party. The NYRB published reviews of new books on Hitler's 1933 ascent to power in Germany.

In one of the two dominant political parties there was no shame; no law, custom or standard of common decency that party operatives wouldn't transgress. Their presidential candidate, Donald Trump, was the worst, embracing racism and misogyny, or misogynoir, in the case of his opponent Kamala Harris.

Close to the election, the Republican candidate's behaviour became more erratic: at a charitable function, the white-tie Al Smith dinner, he descended into insults and obscenities in a room filled with Catholic priests, presided over by the Archbishop of New York. 

At campaign stops he called Harris a "shit vice-president" and extolled the genital endowments of a dead  golfer. His rallies became freak shows offering "extra buffoonery with a side of fascism", entertainment for his supporters and a continuation of the TV series that made him a household name, The Apprentice.

The ex-president himself saw it as a TV show. In explaining his loss in their "debate", he suggested Harris was given the answers in advance, like the 1950s quiz show scandals.

The Republican meanwhile hawked the same tat one might see in late-night TV ads: gold sneakers, trading cards (of himself), watches, the perfume "Trump" (Musk-scented?), even a "Trump bible" (printed in China) unsuccessfully foisted on Oklahoma school children.  

This was the classy candidate that the once-venerable Republican Party offered for president in 2024.

≈   ≈   ≈

READ THE REST HERE.

Military Plea Deal Upheld UPDATED

 You might remember that a few months ago a plea deal was struck (hit on the links for two earlier posts of mine on the subject) with the handful of men at Guantanamo who were actually charged with something. The deal was that the death penalty was taken off the table in return for their guilty pleas. A few days after the deal was accepted by the judge the secretary of defense (Austin) tried to renig on the deal. Yesterday a senior military judge said "no" you cannot pull out of a deal that was bargained for and accepted. Read more here. I will see if I can find an actual copy of the order but in essence the military Col. judge said that Austin vested authority in the judge to accept a plea deal and just because he didn't like the deal did not give him authority to overrule the deal. 

Not sure how much the rule of law will continue to be followed in this country but this was good news.

The secretary of defense has appealed the decision. sigh.

and I wonder what's gone wrong....