OBAMA HELP NEEDED IN NEW MEXICO

If you live anywhere near New Mexico (or can get their relatively cheaply) please do your best to volunteer. This is a state that can go with Obama but it needs volunteer help now. Please contact your nearest OBAMA campaign headquarters....I mean really, what else do you have to do this weekend?

Scott Horton Interview

Sorry if I sounded a little brain dead in this interview (tired I guess) but here it is:

Scott Horton Interviews Candace Gorman

October 30th, 2008

H. Candace Gorman, Chicago civil rights attorney representing two Guantanamo detainees, discusses the difficulty of being a defense attorney for detainees subject to shifting court rulings and legal designations, a paralyzed federal court system that is stalling habeas corpus hearings until after the presidential election is decided, back room repatriation deals between the Bush administration, potential host countries and Guantanamo defense attorneys in order to preempt unfavorable judicial decisions, the ongoing struggle to obtain health care for detainee and Gorman client Abdul Al-Ghizzawi, the latest resignation of a prosecutor – Darrel Vandeveld – in protest of the Guantanamo show trials, the weakening war crimes case against detainee Omar Khadr, the relatively light sentence against “worst of the worst” David Hicks and the possibility that an Obama victory will finally mean the closure of Guantanamo.

MP3 here. (45:49)

Candace Gorman is an attorney for two Guantanamo detainees, runs The Guantanamo Blog and has written many articles for In These Times and the Huffington Post. She is the principal in the law firm of H. Candace Gorman. The firm concentrates in Civil Rights and employment litigation. The firm handles both individual and class action lawsuits for Plaintiffs under the various civil rights statutes, anti-discrimination laws and under ERISA. In 2004, Attorney Gorman argued and won a unanimous decision before the United States Supreme Court in Jones vs. R.R. Donnelley. Attorney Gorman has lectured widely on the subject of civil rights and employment litigation.

Links to gitmo stories (updated)

(Thanks to Charley Gittings. For the link to the Greenwald story and the added information about Salon...It is nice to know I can still read it!)
So much in the news and so little time! Hats off to Kaptain Kanada for the following links on gitmo related issues. A few were covered here on the blog but these new versions add some interesting elements so I am including them anyway.

http://www.antiwar.com/worthington/?articleid=13681

http://washingtonindependent.com/13453/waterboarding

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/10/27/national/w114213D01.DTL

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=433297

The Kaptain also sent me the Glenn Greenwald story from Salon about the establishment for the first time of an active military unit on US soil. I let my subscription to Salon lapse (necessary cost cutting!) so I cannot link to it but it is an important read so try to find it if you can. If you live in the US you should be worried about this development which is not only being under reported but is not being addressed or discussed by our "political leaders."

Imagine if you had to explain this to your client?

There are a few men being held at Guantanamo because of supposed links to the Taliban. At the most these men were foot soldiers but even more likely is that they had no connection to the Taliban at all. So can you imagine if one of those men happened to be your client and you saw this in todays wall street journal?

__________________________________
NEWS ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal


Oct. 28, 2008

The U.S. is actively considering talks with elements of the Taliban, the armed Islamist group that once ruled Afghanistan and sheltered al Qaeda, in a major policy shift that would have been unthinkable a few months ago.

Senior White House and military officials believe that engaging some levels of the Taliban -- while excluding top leaders -- could help reverse a pronounced downward spiral in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Both countries have been destabilized by a recent wave of violence.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122515124350674269.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

Lawyer and Prisoner Boycott Proceedings

The military judge will not allow the lawyer to withdraw and the prisoner refuses to accept that the proceedings are little more than a farce and does not want counsel. So they are both sitting quietly during the proceedings... click on the title for more.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO

I regularly get emails from many of you asking what you can do to help me or my clients. I appreciate all of the requests but there has been little that people can do except protest and write letters... all of which are meaningless gestures in the Bush administration. But now there is something you can do if you live in the States and it is really the only thing that will result in getting my clients out of our gulag.
Vote... and take some days off of work to do volunteer work for the Obama campaign.
If you are a lawyer you can sign up to do election monitoring... you will get training if you step in fast (the training is this week and weekend). Lawyers are needed in many of the swing states. I have shut down my practice to focus on guantanamo... surely you can take a few days off and help make sure the election is fair?
If you are not a lawyer there is still lots of work. Take a few days off and volunteer in your nearest swing state (maybe it is your home state?) If you have a car and money for gas you can volunteer to drive people to the polls. If you have a telephone you can volunteer to make "get out the vote calls". And if you have neither they will still find work for you.
If Obama gets elected we will hold his feet to the fire to close Guantanamo quickly and won't you feel good knowing you had a part in this?
Thanks again... and I still may be calling on some of you to help so please know that I appreciate your efforts.

Just When You Think You Have Heard It All- The continuing saga of the Uighers

I tried to make a link to the Westside Story song "america" because it just seems so appropriate for this posting but my technology skills have failed me again. So I ask you to hum it in your mind as you read this:

The government has now described in court pleadings to the Appellate Court that the Uighers are too dangerous to be settled in the United States because we have held them unfairly for all of these years and this of course must make them hostile to us and therefore dangerous.... but they argue that it is just fine to send them somewhere else because the Uighers will not have that same hostility to other countries.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ MORE AND TO ALSO READ ABOUT THE MOTION THAT THE ATTORNEYS FOR THE UIGHERS HAVE FILED ASKING THAT THE GOVERNMENT BE HELD IN CONTEMPT OF COURT...

Update on Released Algerian and Gossip about other releases...

I reported last week about the release of two men from Guantanamo but I had scant information about Algerian Mammar Ameur. I have now received more information from his counsel. Mammar (ISN 939) was housed in Camp IV and had been cleared for transfer since Nov. 4, 2005. He is now home with his family.
Those paying attention should be shocked that this man has sat in the hell hole we call Guantanamo for three years awaiting our inept State Department to get around to his release.

In other news it seems that the government is trying to get rid of as many men as possible as soon as possible. Notices (under seal) are flying left and right on the court web service. Why are they under seal? Because our courts have allowed this administration to get away with abusing this process.... the notices are advising the court that a transfer is under way. If counsel is lucky and has an order in place to let them know about the transfer they can try to step in and stop the transfer if it is to a country that might treat the client the same or worse than the US... BUT some of the judges have refused such an order...sigh.

SERE Interrogation Procedures now available...

One of the most important documents of the U.S. torture program has just become publicly available for the first time. This is now posted on the website of the new documentary, Torturing Democracy (via Counterpunch). This document clearly specifies that the abusive interrogation techniques to be used at Guantanamo [JTF GTMO] are based upon the military’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape [SERE] program. The document is notable for its documentation of the extent to which abuse was bureaucratically standardized for routine use.

Justice department killing efforts to resettle Uighers

So there you have it: A judge ordered 17 Uighers to be released into the US just over a week ago and to stop that release the Justice department filed an emergency stay with the Appellate Court saying that the men are too dangerous to be settled in the US.... and at the same time the State department is attempting to ask other countries to take the men. So what do you think? Does anyone really think that a country is going to take someone that we are saying is to dangerous to live in the US?

I personally have traveled to several countries to try to find a new home for my client Mr. Al-Ghizzawi. In my attempts to convince countries to take my client I have had to prove to them that my country is engaged in bold faced lies when they talk about how dangerous my client is. For me it is not hard to show the lie since Mr. Al-Ghizzawi was found NOT to be an enemy combatant by the military until the state department stepped in (that would be Matthew Waxman now a professor at Columbia law school) and said it was too embarrassing to have him found innocent because that would mean we have held him wrongly for all of these years.... At Waxman's coaxing they changed Al-Ghizzawi's designation to enemy... but even when I can prove the truth our arrogant state department has refused to back down and help resettle Mr. Al-Ghizzawi...
I actually had a European country willing to take Mr. Al-Ghizzawi just over a year ago. There was only one precondition.... the US had to ask this country to take him. Bush's arrogant man in the state department, Mr. Bellinger, refused to ask.... Bellinger announced they would only turn Al-Ghizzawi over if that country asked the US to turn him over and refused to ask the country to take him. I guess asking showed weakness... like maybe we needed help.
For those interested in such things Bellinger is number 2 on my list of lawyer war criminals... Waxman remains number one.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE NEW YORK TIMES STORY ABOUT HOW THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS MAKING IT VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO RESETTLE THESE MEN

Get it in writing....

As a lawyer I always advise people to get it in writing.... seems a lot of people forget what they said when it gets to be the time when the buck must stop. I guess the lawyers for the CIA thought the same thing so they asked the White House to sign off on the approval to torture. Hats off to the talking dog for passing on the news.

Click on the title to get directed to the story.

FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER

Roger Fitch Esq • October 8, 2008

Our Man in Washington

Not only is the economy unravelling at a rapid rate, but so too the well laid extraordinary legal regime of the Bush administration. All that remains are a few well worn Republican dirty tricks to rort the ballot

In a manoeuvre emblematic of George Bush’s lawless approach to law enforcement, military commission charges have been referred against a Tanzanian, Ahmed Ghailani, for civil offences.

As the Miami Herald noted, there’s a valid indictment against Ghailani in US District Court in New York for his alleged role in the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Tanzania (see my post of June 2), but the Bush administration prefers a military commission.

No doubt, it’s because the Pentagon intends to use evidence tortured from Ghailani or others.

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE REST....

Improper defendants???

A couple of days ago I received the email below from the department of injustice telling me that they intend on seeking dismissal of all defendants other than the secretary of defense.... in other words they don't think I should be able to name Bush, Rumsfeld and others that I have claimed are responsible. Just a little house cleaning before the election??? (by the way as best as I can tell the email went to all of the attorneys representing men at guantanamo.)


Counsel:
Respondents intend to file a motion to dismiss improper respondents in each of your cases. An improper respondent is anyone other than the Secretary of Defense in his official capacity. The basis of the motion is similar to those previously filed before Judges Leon and Sullivan (see e.g., 04-cv-1166-RJL Dkt#128). Please advise if you oppose the motion by noon October 14, 2008, ET. Thanks.

The inconventient existence of Abdul Al-Ghizzawi

Thank you Dan Feges at Pruning Shears for this story about my client Al-Ghizzawi. Click on the title to go directly to the article.

Appeals Court Enters Stay

The appellate court has entered a temporary "stay" on the release of the 17 Uighers which was scheduled for Friday. Both sides have been given a short time to file briefs after which the Court will hear argument.
As it was the Appellate Court that originally ordered these men released it would be a shame if this new panel now took sides with the government.
CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR MORE.