NOT WITH A BANG....BUT A WHIMPER

Yesterday came and went and no one was indicted for destroying the videotapes that graphically showed the torture that we subjected at least three men. The statute of limitations is now up for that particular crime.

Emptywheel has more here.

Meanwhile Bush continues to brag about his role in the torture program.

what a sick country.

ARE YOU FEELING SAFER NOW?

Well the "show sentencing" is over. By making his plea deal, the kid we locked up and tortured since age 15 agreed not to contest the made up accusations against him and the "jury" gave him 40 make believe years. Of course if he contested who knows what would have happened so it was probably the safest move for him. Soooo, this unfortunate young man will spend the next year in solitary confinement (unless his attorneys were able to get that changed in the plea deal) because those are the rules of my pathetic country.....once found guilty they are locked in solitary. Then he moves on to his homeland for the rest of his seven year sentence and that becomes an issue for the Canadians. No great hope there as the Canadians wouldn't lift a finger to help their young son all these years. The best that can be hoped for is that the Canadians dump Stephen Harper and go back to being the Canadians that we all knew and loved... as the country to find sanctuary..... so far, things look as glum as ever on that score.

Meanwhile, it seems that some on my side of the boarder are thinking that sentencing based on a plea deal that requires not only an admission but an agreement not to contest really shouldn't stand......

Finally, I hope the rest of the world takes note, killing US soldiers is a war crime..

The galloping beaver has more here.

Daphne Eviatar has more here.

And Andy Worthington gives us a glimpse of the human side.

All of this leaves me wondering when my country will hit rock bottom....seems the bottom is further away than I thought.

LIES LIES LIES and more to come........

As I examine the lies in my own clients habeas case....I am reminded of

the history of lies that resulted in my clients almost 10 years of unlawful

detention....

Yes. The wrong fucking people are locked up.

Paying for his father's sins....

Another in a string of black days in this here country of mine. Today we (sorta) sentenced a young man for supposed war crimes committed while he was a child. Shame on us and shame on Canada for not coming to the rescue of its young son long ago. (every other Western nation took their citizens out of Guantanamo years ago....even the Australian Bush clone Howard....but Harper refused, even after the Canadian Supreme Court held that the country had a constitutional obligation.)

Of course there is still a chance that the jury in his case will give him a lesser sentence....the sentencing hearing continues before the military jury.

Andy Worthington has more here.

Emptywheel has more here.

The Toronto star has more here.

And let's not forget our friends at P,O and GG,E

From David Hicks' autobiography

David Hicks, aka "the Australian Taliban" has written an account of his treatment in US hands. The book is due out in another month or so ....but click on the title for a glimpse.

EXPERIMENTING ON THE DETAINEES

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO READ THIS EXPOSE BY JASON LEOPOLD AND JEFFREY KAYE.

The article discusses a little known directive by then deputy defense secretary Wolfowitz allowing for experimentation on some of the prisoners at Guantanamo. One of the many disturbing points about this article is how the Government turned the humane treatment of prisoners as a "privilege" to be afforded only those who were considered "lawful combatants." Of course one of the many ironies is that the Government never could get its terminology consistent so the men at Guantanamo were never found to be "unlawful combatants" but were instead found to be "enemy combatants." I know....picky picky.

Little by little the war crimes are coming to the surface. Wolfowitz has moved up on my list.

Catching up....updated....

Well I still haven't gotten to the trial that is supposed to prove to us why we should turn our backs on our court system and adopt military law but here are a few updates to the important story from Dafna Linzer:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2010/10/the-case-of-the-two-orders.html

http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2010/oct/11/gitmo-ruling-changes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wnyc_home+(WNYC+New+York+Public+Radio)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/11/909477/-This-Is-Enormously-Disturbing-.

http://www.lawfareblog.com/2010/10/dafna-linzer-on-secret-opinion-in-uthman-abdul-rahim-mohammed-uthman-case/

http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=11598

I have been buried preparing for my remaining clients habeas hearing which I had hoped would be next week but on monday I found out it will not be until December.....so let me try to catch up.

This will take a few days but I will start with Dafna Linzer's two pieces in Pro Publica:

Link directly to story: http://www.propublica.org/article/in-gitmo-opinion-two-versions-of-reality

Link directly to the sidebar: http://www.propublica.org/article/dojs-troubled-case-against-uthman

The fact that things are being kept from the public...not because they involve National Security but because they are embarrassing to our country has been a problem since this litigation began....what is even more disturbing in these two articles is that a judge actually rewrote his opinion to placate the government and in the process took out some very important facts that puts this case in perspective. The government has been abusing the classification system for a long time but it got ten times worse in the late fall of 2008. From that point on there is very little on the public docket about our cases.

Tomorrow I will get up to speed on the Gitmo trial going on in New York...........

And for those of you with a TV

THE OATH by Laura Poitras, will air on Tuesday, September 21 at 10 PM (www.pbs.org/pov/tvschedule).

I saw this movie a few months back and it is very powerful.

A synopsis of the film:

Filmed in Yemen and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, The Oath interweaves the stories of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantánamo facing war crimes charges. Directed by Laura Poitras, The Oath unfolds via a narrative rife with plot reversals and betrayals that ultimately leads to Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantánamo and the U.S. Supreme Court. Winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Excellence in Cinematography Award: Documentary. A co-production of ITVS in association with American Documentary/POV.
You can view the trailer here: http://www.pbs.org/pov/oath/

Reality Radio Regarding The War on Terror under Obama

Interview with writer and journalist Victoria Brittain: the show features discussion on issues such as the use of torture, the Guantanamo and Bagram detention facilities, detainees such as British resident Shaker Aamer, and the state of the 'War on Terror' under the Obama Administration. The show can be downloaded at http://realityradio.org.uk.

Andy Worthington Updates...

Click on the title to go to Andy Worthington's introduction to his latest work: looking at the men who are still at Guantanamo. Then follow with parts one and two....

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian

Law of war is a moveable feast

Monday, September 13, 2010
Justinian in Law of war, Roger Fitch Esq

State Department reports to UN on human rights in the USA ... Surprisingly few US civilians killed overseas by terrorists last year ... Of all the defendants before Military Commissions, only one has been charged with an actual war crime

In January, an appellate panel of the DC Circuit ruled 2-1 (in the Guantánamo habeascase of Al Bihani) that the president is not constrained by the international law of war, a Bush claim that Obama disowned.

The majority judges in that panel were Janice Rogers Brown and Brett Kavanaugh, perhaps the most extreme of George Bush's dismal appellate appointees.

A full bench of the circuit has now denied a rehearing to Al Bihani. While the decision was unanimous, seven of nine judges disclaimed the lower court's dicta on international law.

CLICK ON TITLE TO CONTINUE

RIP Steven Biko

Robben Island ("we serve with pride) .... the Guantanamo ("honor bound to defend freedom") of apartheid South Africa....

on this the 33 anniversary of Biko's murder.

The Real Way Past Gridlock

Mary takes on Goldsmith and Mary wins...Click on the title for more.

As for me...I am knee deep in preparing for my client's (Razak Ali ISN 685) habeas hearing set for October 4-5.....complete with the Government changing its entire theory for detaining him...yesterday. Yes, I said yesterday. I mean what the heck they haven't had much time to think about this...he has only been held for 9+ years without any god damn charges and they knew my client would win on the BS they were advancing up until yesterday.

I head to Gitmo on Monday for a visit with my client before his hearing and because of the dynamics of getting to and from gitmo the trip will last until Friday....

so you won't be hearing much from me except on the odd day when I come up for air and to lash out at the injustice.....

Did I mention that I was pissed off?

The Ninth Circuit (remember them? they use to be the good guys and gals...) ruled today that the state secrets doctrine bars a court action for torture.....

From the ACLU's Ben Wiznver via emptywheel.... regarding the decision:

This is a sad day not only for the torture victims whose attempt to seek justice has been extinguished, but for all Americans who care about the rule of law and our nation’s reputation in the world. To date, not a single victim of the Bush administration’s torture program has had his day in court. If today’s decision is allowed to stand, the United States will have closed its courtroom doors to torture victims while providing complete immunity to their torturers. The torture architects and their enablers may have escaped the judgment of this court, but they will not escape the judgment of history.

Well....you know what I say? Fuck history.

I am pushing for judgment from a court. A real court that is not afraid of dispensing justice.

And in case you have not notice I am persistent.

Click on the title for the full decision.....

37-16