medical records and independent medical exams

Well unfortunately the headline does not indicate any changes in Mr. Al-Ghizzawi's case but if you click on the title you can read how some of the Judges are starting to allow lawyers to obtain medical records and in one case the Judge is even allowing an independent medical review.

dream team

The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece earlier this week suggesting that the Guantanamo habeas attorneys are in it for the glory and how nice it would be if big firm lawyers would volunteer to help out the poor department of justice lawyers. Well the Wall Street Journal did not see fit to print my letter in response so here it is (FYI, DOJ is the department of Justice... in name only of course) :

As one of the “dream teams” (my team is particularly small however because I am a sole practitioner) referenced in your opinion piece on December 16^th “Gitmo Lawyers are the latest in Radical Chic” I want to commend you for the excellent idea that the DOJ gets some assistance from competent lawyers from the outside. If the DOJ had competent lawyers on it’s side that would treat the courts as an independent branch of government rather than an irritant to be ignored… or worse yet to be lied to, perhaps we could get these cases resolved. Competent lawyers could start by giving refresher courses to the DOJ attorneys on both the court rules and the ethical rules for attorney conduct…. Including the most important rules “obey court orders” and “tell the truth.” A little friendly advice about the harm that comes to the judicial process when they deliberately insulate its lawyers from unfavorable facts would go a long way too.

I have been in private practice for more than twenty-five years and I can tell you that if I conducted litigation in the same manner that these attorneys from the DOJ have I would have been sanctioned by the Judges long ago. You are absolutely right that competent representation promotes justice and any involvement to raise the quality of the government's representation in these cases would be a welcome improvement.

The Worst Place in the World

Click on the title to read Andy Worthington's discussion about the men released to their homes in Bosnia two days ago.
I was particularly angered to hear that these men who were cleared by a federal judge of any wrongdoing were still treated like the "worst of the worst" on their trip home. They were diapered and chained for the ride home... not allowed to even use the god damned toilet on the plane. Shame on us.
So now we have three men who have been released pursuant to a court order. As my friend the talking dog pointed out one fewer than the number known to have died at Guantanamo. Oops...As my other friend Almerindo (from the Guantanamo testimonial project) pointed out, five men are known to have died at Guantanamo so the number released by court order is two fewer than the number known to have died at Gitmo.

Cert Petition

I finally got my copy of the cert petition I filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of Mr. Al-Ghizzawi. Thanks to Charly at the Project to enforce the geneva conventions for posting it on his website and providing the link. Click on the title to view the petition.

Judge Leon Rules....

Two important rulings from Judge Leon today (Judge Leon was the Judge in the case of the Algerian prisoners, five of the six were found not to be enemy combatants after their habeas trial...)
He ruled that the president (and others) are proper parties..
and that the government does not get a rebuttable presumption of accuracy and authenticity...etc.
click on the title to view the actual orders.

Three on their way back to Bosnia? UPDATED

The Washington Post is reporting that three of the five prisoners who were found not to be enemy combatants by Judge Leon are on their way back home to Bosnia. These were men who had settled in Bosnia from Algeria. Click on the title for the story.
Messrs. Nechla, Ait Idir and Boudells arrived in Sarajevo this morning.These are the first men to actually be freed because of a court order but in keeping with our general nastiness they were shackled for the plane trip home. Word just in that they are home with their families now.

FROM ROGER FITCH AND OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER

As always our friend from down under alerts us to the crimes of the Bush Administration....
I am not exactly sure why... (ok I do know why...) we in the US have to get the news about the US from places like Australia, Canada, Germany, Peru, etc.... but I guess until we have a real media in the US once again... or even what passes for one... I am forever grateful for the assistance of so many of you.
CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR MORE....

War Crimes- correction

I always thought it was Moazamm who was videoconferenced in but I stand corrected. It was one of the tipton three: Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal or Rhuhal Ahmed. Their detailed accounts are in the public domain which you can access on the CCR website: http://ccrjustice.org/tipton-three.
For me, one of the most distressing accounts of our war crimes came in a training session I attended in the fall of 2005. One of the tipton three had just been released from Guantanamo a few months earlier and he was video conferenced into our training session. He spoke about how he and hundreds of men were rounded up and placed in metal shipping containers on an airport runway in Afghanistan. The men who were crammed into these containers and left to boil under the hot sun were screaming for air... they were screaming for their lives. What they got in return were bullets fired into the metal containers and the military personnel yelled "here we will give you some air holes." The man was a British citizen, he saw both American and Afghan forces at the base and knew from the voices that that Americans forces were involved in the massacre. When he was finally released from the metal container that he had been held in most of the almost 100 men were dead. The conditions were the same for the men held in the other containers, most were dead. Now the evidence of those war crimes is being destroyed.


Click on the title for more.

new website

100 days to close guantanamo and end torture.
Click on the title and learn what you can do.

Senate Committee Inquiry into the treatment of Detainees in US custody

Bottom line:
Chairman Levin said: "The abuses at Abu Ghraib, GTMO and elsewhere cannot be chalked up to the actions of a few bad apples. Attempts by senior officials to pass the buck to low ranking soldiers while avoiding any responsibility for abuses are unconscionable. The message from top officials was clear; it was acceptable to use degrading and abusive techniques against detainees. Our investigation is an effort to set the record straight on this chapter in our history that has so damaged both America's standing and our security. America needs to own up to its mistakes so that we can rebuild some of the good will that we have lost."

Click on the title for more... or on the links below.
Executive Summary and Conclusions [PDF]
Statement of Senator Levin
Part I of the Committee's Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody - June 17, 2008
Part II of the Committee's Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody - September 25, 2008

THANK YOU PORTUGAL

I hope this is just the beginning! Click on the title for more.

Today's hearing before the Coordination judge

Click on the title for a summary From Scotusblog. Suffice it to say I was there and I have no clue how the court will rule... but a big applause goes to David Cynamon who presented the side of the Guantanamo attorneys. And now we wait to see how much longer we wait.

The Plea agreements

Contrary to earlier reports in the media yesterday, and based upon information I received later yesterday evening all of the defendants accused of crimes related to 9/11 have withdrawn any attempt to plead guilty. As far as I know, as of now, any effort to plead guilty has been delayed until at least after the competency hearings of two of the defendants. Motions concerning challenges to the Military Commission proceedings are also still proceeding. What most of you probably recognize is that these men have been tortured and abused for several years and even under the kangaroo military commissions plea agreements under these circumstances must proceed carefully.

John Lennon

No I didn't forget yesterdays anniversary (28 years ago) but I was on the road. Click on the title.

FIRE JOHN YOO

This week the Berkeley City council (thanks talking dog) will take up the issue of whether or not to ask the Justice Department to file charges against John Yoo. Maybe it is just me but the timing seems off a bit.... Maybe January 21st might be a better day.... (just thinking out loud).
John Yoo deserves to be tried and (hopefully) convicted of his war crimes and crimes against humanity and if you want to learn how you can do more to get the man behind the torture policies out of a job click on the title.