Today's WTF Moment....

Apparently Obama now regrets not closing Guantanamo on his first day in office. sigh.
Read the rest here.

Another Detainee Cleared For Release...

Today the periodic review board announced that Saeed Sarem (235) won his Periodic Review case and is now cleared for release.

According to fellow Gitmo attorney Brian Foster the stats are now:

With this clearance, the prison population returns to equipoise, with 56 men cleared, 56 awaiting clearance, and 10 in the military commission system. 

Yemenis: 48 cleared, 25 awaiting clearance, 3 mil-comm

Others: 8 cleared, 31 awaiting clearance, 7 mil-comm

Why the U.S. Continues to Hold Shaker Aamer

Shaker Aamer has been cleared for release by both the Bush administration and the Obama administration. He is the last British resident to be held at Guantanamo. So the question is- why won't we release him?  It seems that the U.S. does not want Shaker to talk about what he witnessed at Guantanamo. More here.

St. Patrick's day-- second musical interlude....

H/T's off to the 1st. District DNC delegate....

St. Patricks Day musical interlude...

SO WHAT IS IT WE ARE HIDING.....?

It seems the U.N. has been trying to do a further investigation into torture at Guantanamo....and take a look at our U.S. prisons where solitary confinement for extremely long periods (years and decades) is a long standing policy. For some reason my government has refused to cooperate! (I guess we all know the reason why my government refuses to cooperate--they don't want to help the world see the torture and inhumane treatement). Read the story behind the request here.

Murder At Camp Delta

 A few weeks ago I posted a link to the talking dog's interview of Joseph Hickman- author of the book Murder at Camp David: A Staff Sergeant's Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay. ( You can purchase the book here.) I had not finished reading the book when I posted the link so I did not say too much about the book itself. I have now finished the book.
For those of you who think you know everything about Guantanamo (like me, for example) pick up the book and be amazed and disgusted. For those of you who would like a primer on the US war crimes at Guantanamo in a nice readable book- this is the book for you.
How can it be both? Joe managed to find, describe and put in readable format not only the facts regarding the three men that died together on June 9, 2006 but also- through meticulous investigative work (with Seton Hall law students and professor Mark Denbeaux) on the cover up and on other war crimes against the men being held at the base-- it is the extent of the cover up that I was unfamiliar with and which could be strong evidence to be utilized in the off-chance there is ever a criminal investigation into the deaths and the other war crimes at Guantanamo.
Read the book.

SNOWDEN PLEASE DO NOT COME HOME.... UPDATED

There are reports that Edward Snowden is trying to work out a deal to come home....IF-- he can have assuranes that he will receive a fair trial.
Ed, you can't get a fair trial. The system is pretty much broken at this point and although we have some good judges and some good proseuctors the system is stacked against you.
Stay where you are-- or find another safe haven but do not come back to the United States at this point in time.

INTERCEPT CLARIFIES THE FAKE STORY FROM THE CORPORATE MEDIA. READ IT HERE.

Talking Dog Interviews Nancy Hollander

Another must read interview. Nancy Hollander is one of the attorneys for Mohamedou Ould Slahr
The current detainee whose diary has been published.
Read Nancy's interview here. And buy the book!

FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER AT JUSTINIAN....

Hicks: the questions that should have been asked

ROGER FITCH ESQ • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

The biggest questions about the Howard government's blunders and crimes against Hicks are unasked.

For starters, why did the Australian government of the day refuse to provide effective consular assistance to one of its citizens, when it does no less for drug smugglers, murderers and rapists in trouble overseas?  

Why did Australia accept, without question, US assurances that Hicks was guilty, and not mistreated?

Can it ever be lawful for another country to seize an Australian citizen, question him on its ship on the high seas and then intern him in a prison camp, without any Article 5 hearing on prisoner of war status as required by the Geneva Conventions (and in Hicks' case, the US Uniform Code of Military Justice)?

Does the US president have the authority to unilaterally suspend the Geneva Conventions (or any other treaty)? Or flout parallel UCMJ provisions that track Geneva, word-for-word?  

After the initial decision in Hicks' favour in DC district court, how could the Howard Government take the side of the US government on subsequent appeals? Why weren't briefs filed on Hicks' behalf in Rasul - his own case that he ultimately won?  

Why wouldn't any government want to support its citizen's right to habeas corpus in a foreign court?

As for the military trials, is it possible that the Howard Government never took advice as to the legality of the prosecution of Hicks under either presidential or statutory military commissions? 

Did George Bush have power to create a system of military commissions outside the UCMJ? When the Supreme Court, in Hamdan, ruled he did not, finding instead that the Bush commissions violated both US law and Geneva Conventions, why didn't the Australian government demand Hicks' repatriation?

Incredibly, the government then supported and encouraged Hicks' re-prosecution under the new Military Commissions Act, an Act which also purported (unsuccessfully) to denyhabeas, and contained the novel Material Support for Terrorism, a "war crime" any first year law student could have assessed invalid.  

Aside from Hicks' own suffering, the worst thing about the Howard government's hostile mishandling of the affair was the terrible precedent it set, not least a presumption of guilt in "terror" cases and a reflexive deferral to the imperial demands of the US. 

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE.

THINGS ARE GETTING INTERESTING AT THE MILITARY COMMISSION--UPDATED!

Yesterday the military judge presiding over the 9/11 military commission trials concluded that a Defense Department order requiring him and other commission judges to move to Guantanamo in order to speed up the trials constituted an appearance of unlawful command influence stating  “An objective, disinterested observer fully informed of all the facts and circumstances would harbor a significant doubt about the fairness of the proceeding.”  (Order, p. 8). Really? Ya think? Someone could actually doubt the fairness of the military commission proceedings? I mean we have learned that the FBI has infiltrated defense teams, that they have put listening devices in attorney client meeting rooms, CIA interpreters have infiltrated the defense teams-- the sound was cut off in the courtroom during discussions between the judge and defense counsel--by unknown people- because something was said on the public record that some unknown individual far from the courtroom did not apparently think should be on the record--- and now there is finally a recognition that someone might think things are not fair? Well anyway, better late than never right? 
The military Judge suspended the trial indefinitely pending rescission of the order requiring the judges to move to the base.  Dismissal of the charges could follow if the move order isn’t rescinded and/or the prosecution doesn’t appeal within five days. 
Read the entire amazing order here.  
Could this be the final straw that shuts down the military commissions?

The new rule requiring the judges to move to gitmo was rescinded. Read more here.
I guess we have to wait for more interference and doubt about the fairness of the proceedings before the commission shuts down!

Chicago has its own "Black Site" UPDATED....

The Guardian reported yesterday on the Chicago Police Department's black site-- a place used to hold and torture people before they are charged... This is what we refer to as a parallel site-- as the men at Guantanamo have never been charged with any crime (except for the very few in the military commission). Seems the detainees in Chicago's black site don't have the longevity of Guantanamo (a few days of detention instead of 14 years!) but given time I think Chicago is up to the challenge.

More on Chicago's black site here.

Talking Dog interviews Joseph Hickman

Joseph Hickman is the author of

Murder at Camp Delta:  A Staff Sergeant's Pursuit of the Truth About Guantanamo Bay

Click on the title to purchase a copy of this must read book.

And read the interview here.

From Chicago to Gitmo and back again....

No I am not talking about my travels.... I am talking about the Chicago cop who had a reputatation of  using excessive force and torturing people into confessing here in Chicago. He was also in the military reserves-- and as a military reservist he was sent to Guantanamo where he allegedly used those same techniques on men being held at Guantanamo. One of those men was Mohamedou Slahi a current detainee at Guantanamo and coincidently- the man whose book was recently released. I wrote about his book here and here. It was from Slahi's book that Guardian reporter Spencer Ackerman determined that a man who was one of Slahi's main torturers was a Chicago cop with a similar reputation of abusive tactics here in Chicago.

The Guardian has been running a story about this now retired chicago cop, Richard Zuley, and the trail of dubious murder convictions in cases where he was the main detective. Seems he was just what they wanted at Guantanamo along with the likes of Major General Geoffrey Miller, the commander of join task force-Guantanamo, during Zuley's tenure at Guantanamo.  Just to remind everyone Miller moved on from Guantanamo to lead the activities at Abu Ghraib and the other Iraq prisons around the time when torture was rampant at Abu Ghraib. The Guardian reported at that time that "The US commander in charge of military jails in Iraq, Major General Geoffrey Miller, has confirmed that a battery of 50-odd special "coercive techniques" can be used against enemy detainees. The general, who previously ran the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, said his main role was to extract as much intelligence as possible."   

The introduction to the latest Guardian reporting can be found here. Part one is here. Part two is here.

David Hicks is officially exonerated... UPDATED

Yesterday the military commission threw out the conviction of David Hicks, the Australian man who pled guilty to a crime that was not a crime at the time of his "detention." Hicks pled guilty because that was the only ticket out of Guantanamo. My government tried hard to keep Hick's conviction from being tossed because also as part of his ticket out of Guantanamo he had to agree not to appeal. Fortunately the military commission saw the folly in that logic.
Read more here.
The Talking Dog has the decision by the military commission and a short history here.
And firedoglake has more here.