Guantanamo Diary

The guardian has an amazing series from the diary of Ould Slahi a current detainee at Guantanamo. Part of the story has to be how Ould was able to tell his story from inside Guantanamo. The diary is due to be published next week. Here is the description by the Guardian:

"The groundbreaking memoir of a current Guantánamo inmate that lays bare the harrowing details of the US rendition and torture programme from the perspective of one of its victims is to be published next week after a six-year battle for the manuscript to be declassified."

Guantánamo Diary, the first book written by a still imprisoned detainee, is being published in 20 countries and has been serialised by the Guardian amid renewed calls by civil liberty campaigners for its author’s release.

H/O to W.A. for alerting me to this.....

AND FOR THOSE IN THE CHICAGO AREA....

 I will be speaking with Andy Worthington on thursday evening- come and join us and share ideas for ending this atrocity called Guantanamo.

Thursday January 15, 7pm: Close Guantánamo – End Torture, with Andy Worthington, Candace Gorman and Debra Sweet Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn, Chicago, Illinois 60605. For this event in Chicago, Andy is joined by Guantánamo lawyer Candace Gorman and Debra Sweet, the national director of the World Can’t Wait. See the Facebook page here. This event is organized by Chicago World Can’t Wait. If you can, please also join the Rally to protest a 14th year of Guantanamo, torture and indefinite detention at 4.30pm at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60603. -

Big Surprise....well not really.

In other news-- the CIA did an investigation of itself and determined that it did nothing wrong when it broke into Senate computers to spy on the Senates investigation of torture of detainees at Guantanamo (and elsewhere)... Read about the conclusion of the CIA investigation here.

5 men transferred today. Updated

Four to Oman. One to Estonia.
122 still at Guantanamo.
Hopefully I will have more information on these men who were released tomorrow.
Some information on the men here.

Of the 122 men still in the prison, 54 are cleared, 58 are awaiting clearance, and 10 are in the military commission system.

Of the 54 cleared, 47 (87%) are Yemenis and 7 are non-Yemenis.  The awaiting-clearance category remains at 26 Yemenis and 32 non-Yemenis.

(Thanks to fellow Gitmo attorney Brian Foster for keeping track of the men held for all of us--he also has great charts showing the demographics but I haven't figure out a way to paste it into this blog)

TWO RATHER DISTURBING PIECES OF NEWS

First, the ACLU describes a section of the torture summary where it is admitted that U.S. prison officials rubber stamped "the salt pit"-- a CIA dungeon prison in Afghanistan where individuals were kept in completely dark solitary cells chained to the wall or floor with a bucket for their waste.

And this depressing news about guantanamo child detainee Omar Khadr who is going blind in his only eye.

January 11th- the start of the 14th year

I didn't have a chance to remark about the anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo yesterday. Let me remark about it now.
Not only are the men at guantanamo now starting their 14th year but for many of the men- including my client Razak Ali- there is no end in sight. It has been six years since Obama made the promise to close the place within one year and it was apparent to many of us- based on the protocol Obama set in place to close Guantanamo- that it would take a lot longer than one year. It shouldn't have taken a whole year-- nevertheless more than six years-- but immediately Obama squandered the good will of the world and the only real chance he had to close the place by setting up an unwinable approach.
But even in our worst nightmares none of us thought it would take more than six years and none of us thought that Obama would continue with the illegal policy of indefinitely holding men without charge.
Yes, this has been a learning experience for many of us...

So, if you are in the Chicago area I will be speaking with Andy Worthington on thursday evening- come and join us and share ideas for ending this atrocity called Guantanamo.

Thursday January 15, 7pm: Close Guantánamo – End Torture, with Andy Worthington, Candace Gorman and Debra Sweet Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn, Chicago, Illinois 60605. For this event in Chicago, Andy is joined by Guantánamo lawyer Candace Gorman and Debra Sweet, the national director of the World Can’t Wait. See the Facebook page here. This event is organized by Chicago World Can’t Wait. If you can, please also join the Rally to protest a 14th year of Guantanamo, torture and indefinite detention at 4.30pm at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60603. -

The forever prisoners at Guantanamo.

One of whom is my client Razak Ali....Al Jazeera takes a look at this illegal policy.

The difference between the French People and the American People

The French will not let fear paralyze them.

Now that Cliff Sloan is gone.....

The special envoy that was in charge of closing Guantanamo over the last 18 months (Cliff Sloan) has now publicly blasted many of the reasons put forth by the nuts that want to keep it open. Too bad he waited til he was gone to speak publicly on these issues.
Read More Here.

Five transferred to Kazakhstan...

Three Yemeni and two Tunisians. Read the story here. Thank you to the people of Kazakhstan!

By any other name....its still the same old war.

Yesterday I received this announcement by the military:

"At the end of this year, as our Afghan partners assume responsibility for the security of their country, the United States officially concludes Operation Enduring Freedom. Our combat mission in Afghanistan, which began in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, will come to an end. "

But just because we have ended "operation enduring freedom" does not mean that we have ended our invasion of Afghanistan.... the next paragraph of the military announcement stated this:

"In 2015, we begin our follow-on mission, Operation Freedom's Sentinel, to help secure and build upon the hard-fought gains of the last 13 years."

And just as a rose is a rose -  this war by any other name is still this war.

Happy New Year.

SIGH....

So now that we have finally had some movement with detainees being released we have this news-- the man Obama appointed 18 months ago to oversee the release of the cleared men is stepping down.
Read more here.

More on the four released to Afghanistan

Al Jazeera has more on the four men here.

YES!

The military just announced the release of 4 men to Afghanistan. One of the men is Shawali Khan- the client of my friends Len Goodman and Kent Spriggs. I also had the honor of working  on Shawali's habeas hearing-- I went to Guantanamo to handle Shawali's direct exam from the base while Len and Kent were in the courtroom in DC. Like so many of the men at Guantanamo the fact that Shawali was held for all of these years was a travesty and I wish him the best of luck.
Carol Rosenberg has more here.

The announcement from the military is below.

Detainee Transfer Announced The Department of Defense announced today the repatriation of Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani, and Mohammed Zahir from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. As directed by the president's Jan. 22, 2009, executive order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of this case. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, these men were unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies comprising the task force. In accordance with statutory requirements, the secretary of defense informed Congress of the United States' intent to transfer these individuals and of his determination that this transfer meets the statutory standard. The United States is grateful to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for its willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The United States coordinated with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures. Today, 132 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay.

A NEW ROUTE TO GUANTANAMO OPENED UP

The only way habeas counsel have been able to get to the base to visit clients has been through a small commuter/cargo plane that takes over three hours to get from Ft. Lauderdale to the base (except for a short period of time when the military allowed us to take a military flight--but I never got to experience that travel arrangement as it required flying to the DC area and being available for a flight around 4:30 am---anyway that arrangement did not last very long).
Today the US government has finally decided to resume diplomatic ties with Cuba. The AP has more here. So will we get to fly to mainland Cuba and work our way to the base? Time will tell.
I don't know if we have ever recognized Cuba during my lifetime--I was pretty young during the cuban missile "crisis" and all I remember about that event is the basement bombshelter that my father built so we could hide when the bomb hit.! Anyway I am anxious to visit Cuba and perhaps find a new route to visit my client that does not require flying on a substandard aircraft. This is also very timely as the substandard commuter/cargo airlines has recently restricted the schedule of flights to the base to once a week. That means when we fly to visit our clients we have to stay on the base (on the lawyers side of the base!) for an entire week. It kind of puts a dent on the rest of our work week!
We shall see.....