Lest we forget our newest legacy....

Happy 4th?

Some interesting things going on....

Time will tell but there are a few stories that I am keeping my eyes on:

First is the leak that some of the Afghan men at Gitmo may be heading to an Afghani prison (run by the US of course). The thing that is different about this story is that it is not about the 4 or 5 top Taliban guys that have been in discussions for about a year but instead it is about the farmers and other innocents being held. It has always been ironic -especially to the men at Guantanamo- that many of the first ones to leave (even before attorneys were allowed on the base) were the ones who were involved in at least some hostilities.... anyway read more about this here.

Second is this story about the military abruptly dropping charges against a Kuwaiti man (read it here)....while at the same time it seems that at least some talks have resumed with Kuwait about taking there remaining two men. It doesn't look like the talks are going anywhere very quickly (see this article by the Kuwaiti's military attorney Barry Wingard)....but maybe it is a start.

And then there is Omar Khadr, the young man we have been holding at Guantanamo since he was 15 years old. Canada (SHAME ON CANADA) still refuses to repatriate him but it seems he is getting a pretty good education while he waits....read more on that here.  Despite the horrific things my country has done to this young man at least he is not being warehoused like the other men...the military cannot even bother letting the men learn english, nevertheless some life skills while they wait. Yes, I know the military claims the men can take English and Art but that is propaganda....

And finally there is this story- Gitmo gets a new admiral and some are acting like its the 4th of July or some shit....I mean really- this is the first time I have read any pomp and glory surrounding a change of hands- is it really that the last guy was so bad they are celebrating his exit (he really was bad) or is it just another WTF moment....stay tuned.

FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER AT JUSTINIAN

Election year show trials

Monday, June 25, 2012
Justinian in Citizens United, Drones, Guantanamo, Habeas, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Roger Fitch Esq

US Supremes summarily dismiss review of Citizens United ... Judicial appointments frozen ... Obama's drone frenzy makes him "hit-man-in-chief" ... Guantánamo trials seek to neuter Republican bellicosity ... The sham of habeas hearings ... Our Man in Washington reports 

Obama: launched six times as many drones as "lawless yahoo Bush"

IT'S an election year, and Mother Jones has a handy list of how much a seat in Congress will cost you.

These calculations are not mere cynicism, as the 2010 Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court has made unlimited corporate money the essential medium in US elections.

Now the Supreme Court's conservative majority has just dismissed in a single paragraph attempts by Montana, or any other state, to impose restraints on corporate election spending. 

Meanwhile, the lower courts remain clogged with around 70 judicial vacancies remaining to be filled. 

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST....

THANK YOU JIMMY CARTER

As a much younger friend asked me today- "why didn't you reelect him back when I was in diapers"...
yes, I too am sorry about that...but read this great patriots opinion piece on the dismal human rights record of the good ole U. S. of A.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/opinion/americas-shameful-human-rights-record.html?_r=3

ONLY ONE SENATOR THAT CARES ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION?

Maybe we should consider ourselves fortunate that there is one Senator out there who gives a shit about things like the Constitution but it is depressing that this is the only one...Read this whole article to get a better understanding about how our government works these days....secret committee meetings- votes without discussion...this is supposed to be our government but the powers to be are keeping their work secret from us....and you have to ask yourself, who are they protecting? it ain't me, I can tell you that for sure...
Emptywheel has more here....

"The Story"

Today I was on Dick Gordon's "the story" once again- this time talking about my client Razak Ali and the frustrations in dealing with our courts and the government as they aside what used to be a pretty grand system of laws in this here U.S. of A.
You can listen to it here.

Habeas Corpus is officially DEAD

Once the cornerstone of the free world- Habeas Corpus -the centuries old proposition that, in essence, allows one to come before the court and demand to be told why they are being held- is now dead. The D.C. Circuit, which is the appellate court for all of the Guantanamo cases has ruled against the men held at Guantanamo in every single case, basically finding that any reason (OR NO REASON) that the military/executive branch states for holding someone is good enough-- and today the Supreme Court refused to review any of the seven cases that were seeking to overturn the DC Circuit.
Emptywheel has a nice tidy summary here and ScotUS blog has a more in depth look here.

ALGERIA ACQUITS TWO FORMER GITMO DETAINEES

My remaining client at Guantanamo is Algerian so I have been anxiously awaiting the news from Algeria regarding the fate of two former Guantanamo detainees who were returned home and quickly charged by the Algerians for being connected to terrorists "because the Americans said so." Today we learned that the final two were acquitted by the Algerian court after finding there was no evidence they belonged to a terrorist group.
You can read more here.
I feel very confident that my client would have the same fate if only I could get him home-as our government has absolutely no evidence that he was tied to any illegal or terrorist activity. Unfortunately our Government has no interest in sending the men who remain at Guantanamo and COULD go home, back to their homelands... so my client remains.
Shame on my country.

Washington DC March Against Torture, Guantanamo & the NDAA

When: Sunday June 24th from 1PM - 2:30PM 
Where: Gather at the reflecting pool in front of the US Capitol building in Washington DC 
What: March in orange jumpsuits from the Capitol to the White House 
Why: To stand against torture, Guantanamo, indefinite detention and the National Defense Authorization Act 
Who: Amnesty International USA, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Witness Against Torture, American Civil Liberites Union, America Come Home, Antiwar.com, Bellevue/NYU Center for Survivors of Torture, Bill of Rights Defense Committee,  Center for Constitutional Rights, CODEPINK, Council on American Islamic Relations,  Dorothy Day Catholic Worker,  Liberty Coalition,  Midwest Antiwar Mobilization, Pax Christi USA,  PEN American Center,  Physicians for Human Rights, Rabbis for Human Rights - North America, Refuge Media Project,  September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows,  Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, United Nations Association - USA East Bay Chapter,  Voices for Creative Nonviolence,  WarIsACrime.org, World Can’t Wait 
More Info: Email security@aiusa.org 
Flyer:  http://bit.ly/IunfqI 
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/Jy6IRU 

Bush and company found guilty of war crimes....

No this is not an April fools joke....

KUALA LUMPUR, 11 May 2012 (mathaba)

The five-panel tribunal unanimously delivered a guilty verdict against former United States President George W. Bush and his associates at the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal hearing that had started on Monday, May 7th.

On the charge of Crime of Torture and War Crimes, the tribunal finds the accused persons former U.S. President George W. Bush and his associates namely Richard Cheney, former U.S. Vice President, Donald Rumsfeld, former Defence Secretary, Alberto Gonzales, then Counsel to President Bush, David Addington, then General Counsel to the Vice-President, William Haynes II, then General Counsel to Secretary of Defence, Jay Bybee, then Assistant Attorney General, and John Choon Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney-General guilty as charged and convicted as war criminals for Torture and Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment of the Complainant War Crime Victims.

Earlier in the week, the tribunal heard the testimonies of three witnesses namely Abbas Abid, Moazzam Begg and Jameelah Hameedi. They related the horrific tortures they had faced during their incarceration. The tribunal also heard two other Statutory Declarations of Iraqi citizen Ali Shalal and Rhuhel Ahmed, a British citizen.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE STORY....

More on the Commissions....

I am providing a few links to articles of interest on the commission process:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/08/messy-legal-rules-and-procedures-make-khalid-sheikh-mohammed-trial-doubtful.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2012/05/20125772736897909.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/07/guantanamo-911-show-trial?newsfeed=true

The Military Commissions

A number of you have sent emails to me regarding the military commission proceedings now going on at Guantanamo. My client is not and will not be subject to a military commission-he is on the indefinite detention list. Basically what this means is that the government has no evidence for which to try him in any legal (or in the case of the military commissions-illegal) proceedings. I do read read about the military commissions- just as many of you do-but I do not consider myself an expert on the proceedings. I will post some links over the next few days for you to follow - there are many fine reporters covering the proceedings and if I had to pick just one it would definitely be Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald-she has been following Gitmo since the beginning. Here is one of her articles.

TWO DETAINEES RELEASED (updated)

          I was going to title this post "so much for court orders" but later I might be looking for the post that described the release of these two Uighers to El Salvador and this title will make it easier....also I was waiting to post about this release until I had time to see how long it has been since any detainee has been released from Guantanamo. I did a search of my blog today and it seems the last man release was in July 2010...sigh.
  In regards to last weeks release I am quoting the email announcement from the Pentagon:

            "The Department of Defense announced [April 19] the  the transfer of two Uighur detainees from the detention facility at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to the Government of El Salvador.  These detainees were subject to release from Guantanamo as a result of a court order issued on October 7, 2008 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and are voluntarily resettling in El Salvador. 
            As directed by the President's January 22, 2009, executive order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of these cases.  As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, these individuals were designated for transfer by unanimous consent among all six agencies on the task force.  In accordance with statutory reporting requirements, the administration informed Congress of its intent to transfer these individuals. 
            The United States coordinated with the government of El Salvador to ensure the transfer took place in accordance with appropriate security and humane treatment measures. 
            Today, 169 detainees remain at the detention center in Guantanamo." (emphasis added)


         So yes, the Court ordered these men to be released in 2008...but that wasn't good enough....so then the Obama Gitmo Task force in 2009 "okd" the release that had been ordered by the Court  and now three years after that the men are finally free.


Justice U.S. style.
I wish these two men the best of luck.

The Drone Murder of a US Teenager (con't)

Back in October I blogged about the American teenager that we (the US) murdered in Yemen- Abdulrahman al Awlaki. Abdulrahman had just turned 16 when he was murdered by drone. His crime was that he was the son of another US citizen that we murdered by drone a few days earlier, Anware al Awlaki. Abdulrahman was murdered along with some cousins who were enjoying a barbq in their backyard...and the US first tried to paint a picture of Abdulrahman as being someone older and more militant- as though that justified his murder-the truth was pretty muffled here in the ole U S of A but if you searched you could find it. Emptywheel now reports that the person that the US was really trying to murder was not even present. For more on AbdulRahman's death just being more collateral damage read this account by Michelle Shephard.
I don't know what else to say except to emphasize that Obama really is worse than GW.