Wednesday, February 5, 2014

KEEPING WITH HIS TRANSPARENCY.....

The Obama administration refuses to release information about the costs for Camp 7 (where the so-called High Value detainees are quartered). Read about the refusal here.

One thing I will note from this article- at least the government seems to understand the stigma that comes with being involved in Guantanamo related matters on the government side....but people choose their work and they could have followed Nancy Reagan's advice and just said no....

And of course using every opportunity they can to talk in private with judges they filed an ex-parte (a filing between the government and the judge) filing explaining why it would be so detrimental to the government to disclose this one page document. Something to do with the stigma that would surround the employee(s) working on these matters. haha they should have thought about that a long time ago--. Unfortunately the judge will probably just go along with whatever the government wants, that is what the judges do in the Guantanamo cases- when they bother to do anything.

Gitmo Updates...

I have had alot going on of late and haven't been able to keep up with all things Gitmo. On February 14th the government will file a response to the en banc petition that I filed on behalf of my client Razak Ali. I wish I had a way to link to the government's motion for more time as it is quite farcical...but you will just have to take my word for it. Anyway I opposed the government's request for more time but due to time constraints I couldn't file a response so they got the extra time... 
 In other news the government is now allowing the media and certain advocay groups to watch the PRB proceedings--these are proceedings that allow those detainees on the "forever detainable" list to try to show that they should be taken off that list. That would be my client Razak Ali--one day I should get notice that a date has been set for his hearing...one day.

Anyway a week ago the first PRB that was semi public took place-Abdul Malik Wahab al Rahabi.

I don't know much about al Rahabi but I will say that I laughed when I saw him described as a body guard of Bin Laden--- almost every man at Guantanamo has been accused of being a body guard--most of the accusations came from one man- a mentally challenged individual. My client who was released- al -Ghizzawi was also accused of being a body guard and at the time I did a count of the number of men that this one individual had accused and although i can't remember the actual number it was in excess of 50. Anyway here is one look at the hearing....

Meanwhile the hunger strike continues....

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Snowden--American Hero- UPDATED

For some reason this video is not getting much attention in this country so I want to do my part.
also this from Juan Cole...people who should be jailed instead of Snowden.