TRANSCRIPT FROM TODAY'S ARGUMENT

If you don't want to listen to the 1 1/2 hour taped argument you can click on the title and go straight to the transcript.

THE ARGUMENT

I just finished listening to the argument before the Supreme Court... and it was pretty amazing. The primary question before the court is whether or not the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA) is an adequate substitution for the writ of habeas corpus...(is the DTA the same as being able to go before a judge and make the government tell you why you are being held and charge you with something or let you go...)
The rebuttal by Seth Waxman said it all.... one of the many inadequacies under the DTA is that the prisoner is not allowed to know who the witnesses are . In one case however the name of the main witness/evidence against the prisoner was disclosed... a man the government claimed was a close friend of the prisoner and who was part of al-Queda and who supposedly blew himself up as part of a terrorist plot. The prisoner stated when he heard that persons name that he never knew that the man was part of al-queda. After the prisoner became represented by an attorney the attorney did research on the supposed al-queda friend... turns out he wasn't a terrorist, wasn't self detonated... and was alive, well, and working in Dresden Germany... Under the DTA the prisoner never would have been allowed to discover or challenge the governments story tying him to al-Queda....

supreme court argument

Click on the title to hear this mornings oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act.... the outrageous law passed by our Republican Congress in October 2006.... just before they were thrown out of office.
This is the law that abolished the writ of habeas corpus for the Guantanamo detainees and all non-citizens.... and perhaps even citizens....

Washington Post Story Illustrates Injustice at Guantánamo

According to a recently released and well timed report in light of todays supreme court hearings, Murat Kurnaz, a combatant that was among the first to be brought to Gitmo, was considered innocent almost from the time he was picked up by the U.S.

A German intelligence officer said at the time (back in 2002) that the, "USA considers Murat Kurnaz's innocence to be proven," and "He is to be released in approximately six to eight weeks." Years later Kurnaz was still at Gitmo.

The process is "fundamentally corrupted," said Baher Azmy, a professor at Seton Hall Law School who represents Kurnaz. "All of this just reveals that they had the wrong person and they knew it."

He added: "His entire file reveals he has no connection with terrorism. None. Confronted with this uncomfortable fact, the military panel makes up evidence" to justify its claim that only real terrorists are incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay.

German and American intelligence officers interviewed Kurnaz in September 2002, records show. They jointly concluded that nothing was linking the man from Bremen to terrorist cells or enemy fighters and that he should be freed. In a memo dated May 19, 2003, the commanding general of the Criminal Investigation Task Force, a Pentagon intelligence unit that interrogates detainees and collects evidence about them, wrote that "CITF is not aware of evidence that Kurnaz was or is a member of al-Qaeda. CITF is not aware of any evidence that Kurnaz may have aided or abetted, or conspired to commit acts of terrorism."

In spite of this the government made up charges to claim that Kurnaz should be detained. They wrongly claimed that he knew someone involved with a suicide bombing and decided to keep him. Is it legal in our country to hold someone indefinitely because they know someone involved in a crime? Is this the American justice system that we want?

After the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that Guantanamo Bay prisoners could not be held indefinitely without fact-finding by an objective tribunal, the Pentagon hastily assembled panels of field-grade officers to serve as Combatant Status Review Tribunals. Since they began, the panels have overwhelmingly supported continued detention of those at Guantanamo Bay, ruling that 534 detainees were "enemy combatants," while only 38 were not.

Clearly the review process at Guantanámo is flawed and biased. If these detainees are ever going to get a fair trial the supreme court will have to act today and make it clear that the executive branch is not above the laws of our constitution and our country.

To read the entire article click on the title.

Guantánamo Book Club II

From our friend Steve Sady, Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender, Portland, Oregon here is some suggested reading to better understand the argument that will take place before the Supreme Court later this morning...

For the current list you can click on the title.

For the previous list you can click here.

From Talking Points Memo- 2004 Gitmo manual leaked

Today's Must Read (click on title to go to site)
By Spencer Ackerman - December 4, 2007, 8:55AM
Score another one for Wikileaks. This morning -- thanks to a source known only as "Peryton" -- the open-source website for whistleblower documents published the 2004 manual for U.S. military detention operations at Guantanamo Bay. You can read it, with commentary, here.
Last month, Wikileaks published the 2003 edition of the manual. Among other controversial provisions, the manual instructed officials to hide certain detainees from the International Committee of the Red Cross, a practice that the military repeatedly denied was in existence at Guantanamo. Spokespeople for the U.S. military's Southern Command, which oversees Guantanamo Bay, said the manual was outdated and assured that some instructions that violated the Geneva Conventions were no longer in effect.
It's unclear so far what portions of the 2004 manual remain in place. (Maybe Peryton will enlighten us in the future.) The Washington Post's Josh White quotes Guantanamo Bay spokesman as saying that "things have changed dramatically" at the camp since 2004. But Wikileaks finds that, in key areas, the 2004 manual didn't change so much from 2003:
Systematic denial of Red Cross access to prisoners remains. The use of dogs remains. Segregation and isolation are still used routinely and systematically – including an initial period of at least 4 weeks "to enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee", only terminated at the behest of interrogators. Both manuals assert that detainees will be treated in accordance with the "spirit" of the Geneva conventions "to the degree consistent with military needs", but never assert that the conventions are actually being followed at Guantanamo. Put into practice, neither manual complies with the Geneva conventions.
So is the past prologue? We'll find out. For now, though, dig into the 2004 manual and let us know in comments what you think is most significant.

Denmark Declines to take Detainees

According to the Associated Press, Denmark has decided to pass on accepting Guantánamo detainees that the U.S. has cleared for release, citing security concerns. It is hard to be too upset with Denmark when we are unwilling to take these same detainees ourselves....but on the other hand the Danes are part of the "coalition of the willing"... I guess the willingness only goes so far.

So the men continue to sit... indefinitely... in the cruelest of conditions... and once again their only hope seems to be our Supreme Court. Chances are the Court will champion their cause once more...only to be ignored by the administration again.

I don't blame Denmark for saying no... but sooner or later some country... somewhere... must help these men...the world cannot sit back and let these men continue to be punished because of the arrogance of the US government.

From Roger Fitch and our Friends at Justinian

Roger Fitch Esq • December 2, 2007
Our Man in Washington
It seems the Bush administration has scoured the country for useful idiots and found jobs for every one of them, especially those with law degrees.
Some of the appointees requiring Senate confirmation are so fragrant that, like the Federal Election Commission’s chipmunk-cheeked Hans von Spakovsky , they have to be placed through recess appointments.
A leading source for Bush-appointed lawyers and judges has been the Federalist Society, a right-wing alternative to the American Bar Association that grew out of sleeper cells of “conservative” law students disenchanted with their “liberal” professors.
These days, the once-scorned “Federalists” are represented at all 196 accredited US law schools, and in November the group celebrated 25-years of growing government influence (and regressive judicial activism) with a large convention. It was attended by four Supreme Court justices and the putative president of the US.
Law.com has more on the phenomenal success of the Federalist Society, which more recently has inspired the creation of a counter-organisation for “liberal” lawyers, the American Constitution Society.
The Federalist organisation has certainly helped produce loyal Bushies in record numbers, though not all of its recruits have been competent, or honest.
In any case, the Republicans have enjoyed a ready supply of corner-cutting and highly partisan lawyers since the Reagan years, according to the Nation’s Charlie Savage.
Whether lawyers or policy wonks, the same faces tend to resurface in Republican administrations with depressing regularity.
It used to be the case that compromised or discredited officials in the government, e.g. those who had been investigated for malfeasance or charged with crimes, would defer their comebacks till the next time the party was in office, by which time they would have been pardoned or forgotten.
No longer; under the Bush administration, malefactors are recycled in real time.
When Iraqi lawyers came to Washington in an effort to get Republicans to follow the rule of law in Iraq who better was there to show them around Congress than Manuel Miranda?
In a further proof that no crime or misconduct goes unrewarded in the Bush administration, Miranda, the Republican staffer who was sent off in disgrace in 2004 after he hacked the computers of Senate Democrats, has been given a job “promoting democracy” in the comically-named Office of Legislative Statecraft in Iraq.
Meanwhile, during the Thanksgiving holiday, Democrat majority leader Harry Reid had to keep the Senate in session – pro forma, anyway – just to prevent George Bush appointing unsavoury people through his famous misuse of “recess” appointments .
Law prof Marty Lederman of the Balkin Blog has more on this arcane practice.
* * *
Things seem to be happening at the Department of Justice since Michael Mukasey took over as Attorney General.
For starters, a US grand jury has been convened to examine the sins of the Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq.
Lapsed investigations have been reopened, e.g. the Inspector General’s inquiry into warrantless surveillance, and new people nominated, though loyal Bushies all for key positions.
Harper’s blogger Scott Horton has more.
Happily, Mr Mukasey seems to have acted to remove the hated US attorney in Minneapolis, Rachel Paulose .
Now that Ms Paulose is gone, there are calls for Leura Canary, the extremely partisan US Attorney in Alabama, to be replaced, as Scott Horton reports.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Former US Attorneys has met and shared horror stories about recent events at the DoJ.
* * *
In my last post I reported that former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had been hounded out of France by the process servers for human rights organisations, who laid a torture complaint against him while he was in Paris for a speech.
Unfortunately, the French foreign ministry has instructed the procureur to roll over and dismiss the charges on grounds of governmental immunity, ignoring the now-established Pinochet precedent.
But forget about Paris. Even when Bush administration officials are overseas, the US remains the leading haven for the world’s war criminals.
That’s the drift of the Department of Homeland Security’s own figures.
Curiously, these are not the people being pursued in the US courts for war crimes or terrorism. Former US Attorney Elizabeth de la Vega (pic) has described the official position taken by the Department of Justice (in a Florida case) on war crimes.
As for “successful” terrorism prosecutions in the US, the scorecard prepared by law professors David Cole and Jules Lobel makes depressing reading.

Child Soldier to be Tried Without Knowing Who His Accusers Are

According to the New York Times, Omar Ahmed Khadr, who was 15 when he was brought to Guantánamo, will not have the benefit of knowing who his accusers are. Military Prosecutors claim that there may be retaliations against the witnesses if their names are released. In an e-mail message on Oct. 9, Major Groharing, the prosecutor, described Mr. Khadr as a “trained Al Qaeda operative” who is “certainly capable of exacting revenge” on witnesses should he ever be free.

The government has been holding the detainee for almost a quarter of his life without a trial. Now when he is finally about to get his day in kangaroo court he is told that he will not be able to know who his accusers are or what methods the court has made to ensure the validity of the evidence being used against him. Where is justice? How long will this administration continue to try to destroy the basic tenets of our legal system?

Sabin Willett's op-ed in Boston Globe

The cruelty of our government is underscored by the personal stories coming from the innocent men at Guantanamo. On Wednesday the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act. May the Court move swiftly and forcefully to put this criminal administration under control ...and shut down...once and for all... the legal black hole called Guantanamo. Click on the title to read about another innocent man wrongly held without charges and without recourse....

Europeans allowed secret flights across their air space to Guantánamo

Stephen Grey, author of Ghost Planes, recently released flight logs showing that at least five European countries (Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal) allowed secret rendition flights through their airspace.

Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, said: "What happened at Guantanamo was torture and it is illegal to provide facilities or anything to make this torture possible. Under the law, European governments should have intervened and should not have given permission to let these flights happen."

So when will these countries come foreward and help the men that have been illegally prisoned these six years because of their complicity?



To read the full account from the Sunday Times (London) click on the title.

Sami al-Hajj told that he may be suffering from cancer

Sami al-Hajj, the Al-Jazeera cameraman being held at Guantánamo who has been engaged in a hunger strike for one year now is reportedly suffering from serious health problems. Doctors reportedly told him that he may be suffering from cancer. Although the military claims that nine men are currently engaged in hunger strikes, word from the prison suggests many more than nine. Hunger strikes have been utilized over the century's to protest inhumane and unconscienable conditions...in response to the guantanamo hunger strikes our government has tortured the strikers by restraining the men and force feeding them with oversized feeding tubes.

Click on the title to go directly to the article.

HELPFUL CHRONOLOGY FOR NEXT WEEKS SUPREME COURT CASE

Habeas counsel David H. Remes put together this helpful chronology for those of you wanting a better understanding of the history of the Guantanamo litigation. If you copy the pages and keep the glossary on one side for easy referencing while reviewing the chronology it will definitely help in understanding what has happened over these almost six years. (Click on the title and it will take you to ScotUSBlog where the chronology was posted..)
Thank You David....

Guantanamo Manual

For those of you who did not have the time and or energy to plow through the entire Guantanamo Manual that was leaked last month our good friends at the Guantanamo Testimonials Project have the "highlights" for us. Click on the title to go directly to the site.

50 DETAINEES REPORTEDLY SUFFERING FROM TB

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights has released a claim that 50 Gitmo detainees suffer from TB... the military claims that the men do not want to be treated...
funny thing that military... they can claim anything they want because no one is allowed to question what they say.
The military told Mr. Al-Ghizzawi's judge that he did not want to be treated too... unfortunately that particular judge chose to believe the military rather than the dying Mr. Al-Ghizzawi.
(click on the title for more)