Wednesday, August 24, 2016

THEY HAVE NO SHAME..... UPDATED.

I am talking about the military (but I could just as well be talking about the Court as the judge in Abu Zubaydah's case has refused to give the man his habeas hearing). This week Mr. Abu Zubaydah was seen in public for the first time since he was "arrested" in 2002. In the intervening (almost 15 years) he was tortured repeatedly and kept in isolation. His torture resulted in his losing an eye and of course he was water boarded almost 100 times, beaten, confined in a coffin like box and a multitude of other torture techniques. Why? Because someone thought he was a bad guy--- but they were wrong. However the military does not say "I'm sorry." The military digs in....

So. Getting back to Mr. Abu Zubaydah. He has been held all of these years without charges. Why? Because there is nothing they can charge him with. Unfortunately his judge has been a coward and has refused to allow his Habeas case to be heard and so now Mr. Abu Zubaydah has been allowed to seek relief in a hearing that allows the release of men no longer consider a "threat." So what does the military say about the long tortured Mr. Abu Zubaydah? He should not be released because even though he has shown a "high level of cooperation" while being held at Guantanamo. Part of the military's statement read as follows:

Abu Zubaydah “possibly” had some advanced knowledge of the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the USS Cole bombing in 2000, the profile continued. He was also “generally aware” of the impending 9/11 attacks and “possibly coordinated” the training at Khaldan camp of two of the hijackers.


And so this is how it goes---  we made a mistake. A mistake that has caused damage to this man that can never be repaird. So will my country try to hold him forever? Well apparently that is the game plan for now.

You can read more here.
and here.

INTERCEPT HAS MORE HERE.

Monday, August 15, 2016

15 Detainees transferred to UAE

12 Yemens and 3 afghans.
Prison population is now 61.
I will update as I get more info.
Read more here.
More information here- including the names.

Torturing with Impunity....

Once again the courts have thrown out a lawsuit by one of the men that we tortured.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday threw out [opinion, PDF] a lawsuit by former Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad claiming he was tortured. The appeals court affirmed the district court in refusing to hear the merits of the case because of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) [text, PDF], which removes the court's jurisdiction over cases arising from the detention of someone who was given enemy combatant status. Similar cases to Jawad's have also been thrown out based on the MCA.
Read the rest of the article here.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

A look at the detainees slated to go and already transferred....from the military perspective

Note that the details regarding these men comes from the military and from detainees who were tortured into making stuff up about the men-- in other words not from credible sources.

Read a summary here.
Read the so called "transparency" report here. (Giving new definition to the word transparency.)

h/o to Michigan Don for sending to me......

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Seems the psychologists want to get back to torture.....

At the annual convention of the American (sorry canada and mexico!) Psychological Association last week a vote was up to end the ban on the psychologists colluding with the military. The ban was put in place last year after years of complaints about the role of psychologists in the torture of detainees. The vote was tabled until february- maybe they are hoping no one will notice and they can quietly get back to the business of torture.
Read more here.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Talking Dog Interviews Naomi Paik


Naomi Paik is the author of "Rightlessness: Testimony and Redress in US Prison Camps since World War II" which looks at the internment of Japanese citizens and non citizens in the US during WWII, Haitians trying to flea political violence in Haiti and the Muslim men being held at Guantanamo.

You can read the interview here.