Canadian Court coming through for Khadr?

I will try to have a link to this decision later today but the Federal Court of Canada issued an Order yesterday which suggests that they may be getting close to restoring an earlier order requiring the Government of Canada to request Omar Khadr's repatriation from gtmo....stay tuned.

Thanks to PEGC we now have a link to the decision. CLICK ON THE TITLE

Happy 4th continued....

Happy 4th........

On the eve of the 4th ....

I would like to share a few items out there in the news that you might not have seen from some of the websites that I look at regularly.

First, from Pruning Shears: Why looking back matters

Next, from emptywheel: Keep your Declaration of independence right next to your assassination cards

From Scotusblog: an interesting piece on the DC Circuit trying to stop a DC District Court judge from doing her job: Major fight brews on munaf

From Informed Comment (where you can find out more in depth analysis of all things mideast):

Steele blames Obama for Afghanistan

From the Talking Dog: More from the department of "Duh"

And finally from No Comment: a little piece about the country that we broke ties some 234 years ago....Britain moves forward on torture probe...

Seems even the Brits understand that looking back matters.

Finally a DC Circuit opinion helpful to detainees (Updated)

Today the DC Circuit released a declassified version of an opinion from last week in which they reversed a decision by Judge Leon denying the Great Writ. In trying to explain the decision I made a leap that was not correct...... Bensayah was one of several Algerians being held and the Government's case was primarily one suggesting that he was suspicious and that should be enough to hold him: The Government claimed Bensayah had ties to an al-Qaeda operative (but now the Government has given up on the theory that the accused operative was actually connected to al-Qaeda) and Bensayah used fake id's to travel (on occasion) because his Algerian passport had expired and he couldn't go back to Algeria. The Government apparently rested much of his case on the ties to the al-Qaeda operative but more recently the government has backed off substantially on its allegations regarding that other individual....so the bottom line was that Bensayah was being held because he allegedly had ties to someone no longer considered to be connected to al-Qaeda and that he didn't have a current passport so he used fake id's ...on occasion. Of course when Judge Leon ruled the Government had not yet acknowledged that the other individual had no connection to al-Qaeda. Anyway it is nice that the DC Circuit has decided not to rubber stamp every Government win in the district court (fortunately there are not many Government wins.....)

Thanks to Mark Fleming and the Wilmer Hale team for this great victory.

CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR THE LINK.......

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian

Roger Fitch Esq • June 21, 2010

Supreme Court wonderland

In a decision the NY Times called disgraceful,
the Supreme Court denied certiorari to the Canadian Maher Arar in his civil damages case against US officials who rendered him to Syria as he transited JFK airport in 2002.

Arar was tortured there for 10 months.

The Canadians exonerated Arar, paid him millions in damages and apologised for their role in his rendition. The US, however, refused to take any action.

The Mounties are now investigating the US

Arar’s lawyer, David Cole (pic), has more to say.

CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR MORE........

You Can Run But You Cannot Hide

Since our president thinks that holding certain criminals responsible for their crimes distracts us from the future it is important that we the people do everything we can to hold those men and women responsible for their actions....In that vein is the attached complaint to the TEXAS STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS OF PSYCHOLOGISTS regarding the conduct of one Dr. James Elmer Mitchell.

Click on the title for the complaint.

Thank you Charles Gittings at PEGS for this posting.

The "sideshow"

Last week the judge in my remaining clients case reluctantly recused himself in a most injudicious order. For some reason the judge, who sat on my recusal motion for months, decided that my motion...as opposed to the conduct of the DOJ was the real problem.

The talking dog has more here:

http://www.thetalkingdog.com/archives2/001460.html

NEW ACLU DOCUMENTS FROM FOIA REQUEST

Yesterday the ACLU received documents from the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice in response to a FOIA request on Bagram, particularly those that pertain to early Bush era global detention and release policy/including criteria for Gitmo transfers (2002-2004). This chilling phrase in the 2004 “Global Screening Criteria for Detainees” policy is actually similar to ones that I have seen being used in unclassified documents related to my own clients: commanders could “only transfer to Guantanamo those [enemy combatants] whose exploitation require[d] the specialized capabilities available at Guantánamo.”

You can find the documents here: http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/2010_06_08_DOJ_Release.pdf. There is an index at the beginning of the PDF.

CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR SOME of the interesting points highlighted by others....

Experiments in Torture

Experiments in Torture by Physicians For Human Rights is the first report to reveal evidence indicating that CIA medical personnel allegedly engaged in the crime of illegal experimentation after 9/11, in addition to the previously disclosed crime of torture. In their attempt to justify the war crime of torture, the CIA appears to have committed another alleged war crime—illegal experimentation on prisoners.

Click on the title to read the report......

And click here to read Scott Horton's take ....

Guantanamo censors....

When I was down at Guantanamo a few weeks ago I had a little time on my hands and now that they actually have wireless at the luxurious accommodations that we lawyers are forced to stay at I did a little web browsing to my favorite websites. Only problem was that one of those websites was blocked by the thugs that run the place: A Canadian website called Galloping Beaver. Last week I sent a short email to the Beaver congratulating them for being controversial enough to be banned from the base and they followed with this post.

For those of you who have been thinking in the back of your mind that you can always flee to Canada when things get (more) unbearable here you might want to check out the Beaver for a reality check....things are not all that great up north when it comes to democracy either.

LOOKING FORWARD.....

Former President Bush bragged this past week about his policy of waterboarding those suspected of terrorism (key word being "suspected")....but of course even though waterboarding is torture and torture is against the law (or was against the law) in this here country of mine the current powers to be have decided to turn their collective cheeks....which of curse is easy for them since it was not their cheeks that were smacked....

Of course Bush only spoke about his joy in waterboarding KSM.....I wonder how he will respond to questions about waterboarding Abu Zubaydah (some 100 times) as the government has now been forced to admit Abu Z was not al-Qaeda or taliban....just some smuck who had the misfortune to be captured by my criminal Government.......

anyway Scott Horton has more here.

Task Force Report

Obama set up the Task Force shortly after taking office to review the gitmo detainees and to make recommendations as to whether they should be released, prosecuted or detained forever without charge. The task force completed its job in January and they just got around to releasing the report....click on the title to review.

As for my two clients- Mr. Al-Ghizzawi was cleared for release and ultimately released in March of this year to the country of Georgia. Razak Ali was not cleared for release and is apparently on the list to be detained forever, although the reason for his being in this category boggles the mind.

emptywheel has more on the report here.

Take Action and Support the military lawyer who refused to prosectute a man who was tortured into confessing......

A former prosecutor who blew the whistle on the abuse of our Constitution in the Guantanamo Bay military commissions is now in danger of losing his 19-year military career. Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld was retaliated against for having the courage to follow orders and speak the truth about the mockery of due process afforded to detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

On June 1, a military promotions board will meet, ironically, not to honor or promote Lt. Col. Vandeveld, a highly decorated member of the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps who served in Bosnia, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, as both a solder in combat and a prosecutor. More than likely, they will smear his name, preventing him from an honorable retirement just 4 months away from 20 years of outstanding service to our nation.

Lt. Col. Vandeveld needs your help to defend his honor, as he has stood up to defend the Constitution.

TAKE ACTION NOW! Demand that the Secretary of Defense protect Lt. Col Vandeveld, and grant him the honor he has earned.

Lt. Col. Vandeveld resigned from his position at Guantanamo, because he could not ethically or legally prosecute Mohammed Jawad. The Jawad case brought to light many of the problems occurring at Guantanamo, including abusive interrogations, evidence withheld from the defense, judicial incompetence, and confessions coerced through torture. Lt. Col. Vandeveld gave judge-ordered testimony in the Jawad case, and in return for his honesty under oath and the public outrage that followed, the military issued him his first negative performance evaluation.

My Country should be so embarrassed....and so should Canada

Click on the title to read the latest statement from UNICEF regarding the Canadian held at Guantanamo since he was 15 years old........