Andy Worthington interviews Stephen Abraham

As you may have noticed I am busy playing catch-up on all the things that are happening and that happened during this past week. Andy Worthington's website should already be on your list to check every day. I am directing you to this particular article of his because he is interviewing Stephen Abraham, one of the members of Al-Ghizzawi's first CSRT when Al-Ghizzawi was determined not to be an enemy combatant back in 2004. CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR MORE.

Binyam Goes Home (updated)

During the night a plane left Guantanamo headed for London and on it was Binyam Mohamed, a British resident who has been held for almost seven years and subjected to horrific torture. Click on the title to read more....and if that is not enough read the book by Clive Stafford Smith (depending on which side of the ocean you are on called "bad men" or "8 o'clock ferry from the windward side").
Congrats to Binyam's hard working military attorney Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley(Yes another of those heroes on the military side)and the Reprieve attorneys, for their long and difficult work getting Binyam out of Guantanamo.

Col. Darrel Vandeveld speaks...

Col. Vandeveld is another of our heros on the military side. He was the seventh prosecutor in the Military Commissions at Guantanamo to Just Say No. Vandeveld refused to move ahead with the prosecution of Mohammed Jawad for the noble and courageous reasons he discusses in his interview with the Talking Dog....instead he resigned. Like the others before him Vandeveld has been attacked by the right wingers but in my view the attack against Vandeveld is the most personal and vicious... perhaps the attack against him is directly related to how powerful his refusal to prosecute really is. Please click on the title to read the interview.

Window Dressing

In light of the report this week that Guantanamo conforms with the Geneva conventions (and therefore it is quite ok for other countries to keep our civilians and military personnel in similar conditions) I would like to mention two things... well actually more than two things but right now I will restrict myself to these two. First, there have been many changes at Guantanamo during the last approximately six weeks. Not the kind of changes that would make you say "hey, this really is not a bad place." but the kind of changes that show just how horrendous things were in camp 6 (I can't speak to 5) and how the military really needed to do a few things pretty quickly when the Obama administration was coming in: in camp 6, they have now started "movie night". Imagine my surprise when Mr. Al-Ghizzawi mentioned a movie he was watching the week before my arrival (I saw him the 4th of February). I actually stopped him in mid-thought and said "excuse me, movie night? When did that start?" He then explained that they have had movie nights once a week for a couple of weeks. I of course asked if there was anything else that was new and he told me that the four cages that were the outdoor rec area for camp 6 were torn down and now there was one big cage and one little cage.... now 8 men can go out together in the big cage and the small cage is for prisoners on punishment. How sad it is that this is a major improvement but it is... it gives the men a chance to socialize.... a chance to be a part of humanity, instead of being stuck in total isolation. The last change he told me about was the opening of a new rec area... completely outside of camp 6, a rec area where they can actually see the mountains in the distance, the trees, the sky, the sun (for four hours once every four or five days). The camp 6 rec area is confined to the courtyard of camp 6, so it is surrounded by the concrete facility that is several stories tall, all they could see in that outdoor area was the sand floor and the concrete building.
The second thing I want to mention is just how dishonest this is... (what a surprise, huh?) and I wonder if the Obama people will continue with this charade? I understand that Gates is still secretary of defense so it does not paint a pretty picture to announce that your secretary of defense is guilty of violating the Geneva conventions but hey, do we really want to say that the way these men have been held and treated is just fine?
Unfortunately when it comes to the litigation there is no window dressing.... same old, same old.
More on that later...

Will Canada rescue it's young son?

I watch Canadian politics almost as much as I watch US politics. Perhaps it is because I always want to have one ear to the ground in case of emergency... but perhaps it is also because of my Canadian roots. Both of my grandfathers were Canadian and the log cabin that was the Gorman homestead in Quebec since the early 1800's is still inhabited by a Gorman, a distant cousin that I also claim as a friend. For me, watching the Harper years unfold has been almost as disheartening as watching the Bush years... fortunately for the world Harper can only wreak havoc on the Canadians, if only I could say the same about Bush. There is one particular Canadian that the Harper years have been particularly insensitive about and this should be a national tragedy for Canada. Canadians, at least to me, had never been as complacent about politics as the people in the United States have been, but they have shown the same disinterest in human rights as Americans when it came to their own young Mr. Khadr, one of the too many children that have been held at Guantanamo. Young Khadr has been tortured and beaten by my country and Canada, up at least until the last few days, has closed its eyes to this child victim. Shame on us and shame on them. Yesterday a tiny light of hope emerged from Canada when the leaders from the three opposition parties in Canada together wrote a letter to President Obama asking Obama to send their child home (I don't want to digress but those three opposition parties could stop their bickering and become the majority party... but yes that would be a digression). Thanks to my new Canadian friend Douglas for sending the letter and thanks to Charly at the PEGC for posting the letter for me and providing the link: read a copy of the letter here.

Abe Lincoln on Gitmo

Well I am from the "land of lincoln" so this seems to me to be more than appropriate. Lincoln was a complicated guy (kind of like our current president) .... anyway, this is from my friend and fellow habeas attorney Steve Sady in honor of Abe's birthday this week.
Click on the title to read it.

Rendition

When I read the article about Obama keeping "ordinary" rendition but disavowing "extraordinary" rendition I was disturbed.... but I couldn't quite get around to putting my thoughts in writing. Well now I don't have to: click on the title and read what Dan has to say.

BACK FROM GITMO

I got back from my latest trip to Guantanamo yesterday. Until my notes are "cleared" I cannot tell you what my clients said to me but I can tell you what I saw. I did see both of my clients. Mr. Razak Ali is doing ok, he is the one in camp 4 and therefore his living arrangement is not too difficult. But it has been 7 years since he was taken captive by us and even the good natured Razak has grown weary. Mr. Al-Ghizzawi looks awful. He can no longer read and he had a difficult time understanding my words. Not because of the language problem, he does speak english, but because his brain is not quite working the way it should. Two plus years of solitary confinement has been too much for this man. I will provide more of an update when my notes are cleared.

An Open Letter To Jeh Johnson

Jeh Johnson is the new General Counsel to the Department of Defense. Click on the title to read my letter to him.

Captive Flower

All those many years ago, in my last semester at the University of Wisconsin, I finally took that science class that I needed to graduate. I opted for Plants and Man. In addition to learning such fine things as how to make wine and beer we learned about the importance of our connection with nature for our psychological wellbeing, something I have never lost sight of. Although the class was fun and interesting, it was a real college class and we had to write a paper at the end of the semester. I decided to write about Flower Power. I did an historic look at the use of the flower as a symbol of peace….sigh.
I ultimately became a lawyer and later still took on the representation of a man at Guantanamo. My client, Mr. Al-Ghizzawi, told me during one of our first visits about a flower that was outside his cage at Guantanamo, just sticking out of the desert terrain, by itself. Al-Ghizzawi watched the flower over several days and I could tell from his voice that it brought him pleasure just to think about that flower. He called it a primrose and ended by saying, “it didn’t belong there, and I don’t belong here.” He was right on both accounts....
CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST ON HUFFINGTONPOST

From Roger Fitch and our Friends down under.

Roger Fitch Esq • January 21, 2009
Our Man in Washington
Departing Bush Gang leaves a trail of wreckage … Obama’s legal team pronounced “excellent” ... War crimes cases against torturers still a possibility … Once secret “legal” advice being flushed into the open … Roger Fitch, exhausted after a night of Inaugural Balls, reports
“If it does not do justice, what is the government but a great criminal enterprise?” – St Augustine.
After eight years of carefully planned (if crudely executed) crime, the Republicans are just about out of town.
An era of legalised lawbreaking and calculated injustices is (hopefully) ending.
It’s well known that the Gold Standard formed the basis for the US financial system until 1971, when Richard Nixon announced its suspension.
Less well known is a similar decision in 2001 to abandon the Rule of Law, our legal Gold Standard.
Lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) diligently engineered this change.
CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ MORE...

WHAT ABOUT THE KUWAITIS?

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ the article discussing the fate of the remaining Kuwaiti detainees at Guantanamo and whether they will be released now that President Obama has signed an executive order to close the prison.

The detainees’ lawyer, David Cynamon, spoke with the paper and explained, "With Obama's presidency, we see a light at the end of the tunnel. They've been detained without trial for almost eight years; it's about time that these prisoners were released.” Cynamon also noted that he is continuing to pursue fair hearings for the detainees. The Obama administration claims “Their cases will be studied for one year; but we don't want to wait for that time frame, we shall continue our case in the Federal Court."

A sentiment that most of us feel.

FIRE JOHN YOO UPDATE: SOUTHERN CALIF. EVENT

SORRY ABOUT THE LINKS PROBLEM
NEWS FLASH:

John Yoo, the architect of the infamous Torture Memos, will speak at Chapman University - Fri., Jan. 30
at a Law Review Symposium called:

"Lincoln’s Constitutionalism in Time of War: Lessons for the War on Terror?"

Greet him in orange jumpsuits and black hoods to declare that we will not be silent as people continue to be tortured in our name. Contact WCW for more info at worldcantwait_la@yahoo.com ; 213.924.8571.

This symposium will be held from 9-5:00 p.m. at Kennedy Hall, Rm. 237 at

Chapman University School of Law, One University Drive, Orange, CA

Download flyer http://tinyurl.com/brmovh


The "Torture Professor"* can run, but he has no intention of hiding (he will also be visiting UCBerkeley on March 12... see the FireJohnYoo website calendar for details).

Say NO TO TORTURE - JOHN YOO MUST GO! And not just from UC, where he continues to enjoy tenure. Follow developments on holding this and other War Criminals accountable at http://www.FireJohnYoo.org .

THE $1000 LETTER

It was actually more than that but the rest of the costs were my own fault. I was multi tasking and clearly had too many tasks on the plate and screwed up. More on that another time. One of the joys of being a Guantanamo attorney is that the mail your client sends to you is read by the “privilege” team before it makes its way to you. Usually they just read it and fax it on to you and leave the original in your secret drawer. But sometimes they “classify” the letter and you cannot read it without going to the secret office near DC.

Maybe you can imagine my surprise when I received an email this past week stating that Mr. Al-Ghizzawi’s latest letter to me was “classified.” Al-Ghizzawi has been wrongly held prisoner for seven years in total isolation. What in the world could he have to say to me, or anyone, that should be classified? I sent an email back to the privilege team and asked them if they could please give me an indication of the reason for the classification. Shortly thereafter, I received an email back that stated that the letter was classified because Al-Ghizzawi’s letter was “too specific on the detainee's exact location within the detention facility.” I literally did a double take. I mean WTF. Did they think I (or someone) was going to try to bust him out or something? They refused to say anything more and told me I could read it next time I was at the Secret Pace.
CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THE REST..

Guantanamo files in disarray?

What a surprise... the Washington Post reports that the Bush administration never even compiled files for the men it has been holding at Guantanamo Bay? Why? Because they have no evidence to justify the seven years of detention for the vast majority of these men (hence more than 500 released and most of the rest waiting for the release that is coming..) and the whole operation has been run by morons.
Click on the title for more on this from the talking dog... and while you are out and about check out this piece from Dahlia Lithwick at Slate
and this from CCR's Shayana Kadidal.