yes Guantanamo is still open

 Today begins the start of year 22. There is no end in sight for the 45 men still imprisoned.  Most of the men are like my client and have never been charged with anything. Try to wrap your head around that. Never charged but locked up at our gulag for all of these years and many Americans do not even know the place is still open. 

Here's hoping....

 

Support the Guantanamo Survivor Fund

 All funds received through the end of the year will be matched. For some of the men this is the only support they have had or will have. And life for these men and their families has been pretty awful.

so, if you have any spare money consider supporting the survivors of Guantanamo. Click here for more.

FOR OUR FRIENDS IN THE UKRAINE

 HOPING FOR A MORE PEACEFUL 2023:

part 2

 

christmas time in the U S of A

 

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

 The stolen documents saga ... The attempted coup ... Legal problems piling up for Trump ... 70 million people in America still believe the dangerous fantasies of a disturbed mountebank ... Criminal servitude beckons ... Roger Fitch reports from Washington 

"No other president has refused to concede that he lost an election, attempted a coup and incited an insurrection and then stolen hundreds of government secrets on his way out the door. He always says there's never been anyone like him, and it's true." - Salon

"Would he really give, say, Kim Jong-Un the names of undercover intelligence agents operating in South or North Korea, thus guaranteeing their assassination? If it meant fending off an indictment, he would ... they're sitting around at Main Justice asking themselves how many assets' lives they might be risking by indicting Trump." - New Republic 

In September, it seemed a tipping point had been reached in the legal pursuit of Donald Trump, with the filing of the NY Attorney General's "monumental" civil enforcement action against Trump, his family, and his corporate organisations. 

His accountants Mazars and banker Deutsche Bank have both parted company with their deadbeat client and provided evidence against him; Paris-based Mazars is probably used to official requests for the accounts of crooked politicians.

The man has so many stolen documents that Just Security set up a "Mar-a-Lago Clearinghouse" one can consult.

Even so, just after the elections, Donald Trump announced with astounding chutzpah that he's standing for president again. As Karl Marx observed, historical facts and figures appear twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. 

Trump proclaimed his candidacy in the glitzy ballroom of his Florida home, an estate as tasteless and garish as the man himself. Ivanka and Don Junior were missing, but the disgraced ex-president was bucked-up by the puzzling presence of the Western Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.

If he succeeds, it will be only the second time an ex-president has managed a second term.

So far, it's all been downhill. 

One investigation in particular - the January 6 insurrection - seems to be moving forward at the Justice Department. Will there be indictments? It seems likely, and for the document heist there's even a model prosecution memo to peruse here. 

In addition, the January 6 committee is winding up its investigation and on December 21 will release its final report in which a number of people will be referred to DoJ for criminal prosecution. 

Many wonder why US AG Merrick Garland hasn't already indicted the principal offender, Donald John Trump. One explanation may have been the AG's wish to avoid filing charges so close to a congressional election. 

In response to Trump's 2024 announcement, AG Garland has appointed a special counsel. Jack Smith, presently Chief Prosecutor of Kosovo war crimes at The Hague, is a man who should be able to find where Trump has buried the bodies, or documents.  

The ex-president is still in legal peril for the latter, although DOJ is said to believe he stole government documents to gratify his unbounded ego - a mere narcissistic hoarder - rather than for the more plausible purposes of blackmail, treason or cash.

READ THE REST HERE.

AND SPEAKING OF HUMAN RIGHTS....

 21 years is a long time to be held without charge.

And remember - being released from Guantanamo does not mean you are free. 

Please donate to this fund that helps former prisoners as they try to heal, support their families, and continue to fight for justice.

International Human Rights Day

 

Anther day in the U.S.....musical interlude...

 

another day in the U.S.

 It is really a sad day in this country when 48% of the people in an election vote for a clearly unqualified individual. The trumpers were willing to vote for this man because their hero asked them too.  But the good news is that Warnock won and our democracy hobbles on.

From our friends down under at Justinian

Fitch looks at some of the high and low notes from the election....

Some of the election results:

• Wisconsin, the Republican "laboratory for dismantling democracy", has re-elected Senator Ron Johnson, the most ignorant and (after Ted Cruz) obnoxious US senator. However, the party failed to obtain the veto-proof  legislature needed to frustrate its re-elected Democrat governor, Tony Evers, whose opponent had promised permanent Republican government.

• In Florida, a 25-year-old Afro-Cuban Democrat became the first member of "Gen Z" elected to congress;

• Maryland chose its first African-American governor, the Oxford-educated Democrat Wes Moore;

• Democrats made significant gains in state legislatures and governors;

• The Democrats flipped a senate seat in Pennsylvania while keeping those in Arizona and Nevada;  

• The top cop in Las Vegas has been elected Republican governor of Nevada;

• Ohio elected a Trump-endorsed Republican senator (JD Vance) to an open Republican seat;

• Georgia will hold a run-off for the senate as neither the Democrat incumbent or his woeful Republican opponent obtained 50% of the vote, and Georgia doesn't have preference voting (in the US, "ranked-choice" or "instant run-off" voting);

• Alaska has ranked choice, and will hold a further election this month where four qualifying candidates from November 8th compete (the top two contenders are both Republicans);

• America's worst state attorney general, Ken Paxton, has won his second four year re-election since being indicted for securities fraud; and

• America's most partisan "secretary of state", Kris Kobach, will now make trouble as Kansas Attorney General.

READ THE WHOLE FITCH HERE.

REFLECTIONS...

 

POWER HAS BEEN CRIED BY THOSE STRONGER THAN ME....

  Musical interlude while we see what the American People have to say about democracy. [I will be off to Detroit to monitor the shenanigans by the white supremacists...]

Oldest Gitmo prisoner released

 Saifullah Paracha, 75

Mr. Paracha was held since 2003. He was primarily represented by fellow Gitmo attorney GT Hunt. GT is a remarkable attorney who is also a solo attorney. GT tried everything to get his client out of there-- clearly the man, like so many others-- should never have been held. Mr. Paracha had numerous health problems and had never been charged in his more than 17 years being held and he was cleared for release almost 2 years ago.

The guardian has more but unfortunately they did not interview GT.