NY times' second mea culpa

I guess the more they try to explain it the angrier I get. Now if you read the latest excuses (click on the title) you will find this little gem.... "Bumiller said she made sure there was language signaling controversy in the second paragraph." So now we are being "signaled" that a story might be a pack of lies? They really don't get it do they? Reporters are supposed to investigate... not parrot and "signal controversy".... but I guess that was in the old days.

Vagabond Scholar: The Torture Apologia Chart

Vagabond Scholar: The Torture Apologia Chart

NY Times mea culpa....sorta

After a sensational (and false) story on May 21st that claimed one in seven gitmo prisoners who were released "returned" to the battlefield the NY Times is now admitting its error... although they still will not admit that they were spun.
The false story about the recidivism rate was "leaked" by the pentagon during the middle of a congressional debate about closing Guantanamo.... as a result of this and other scare tactics our wimpy senate voted to withhold money for closing Guantanamo. Shame on the NY Times.... and of course shame on those 93 wimpy senators.
Click on the title for the NY Times "correction."

POETIC INTERLUDE

STALK- LAURA ELRICK

Part dystopian urban cartography, part spatial-poetic intervention, this video/poem tracks a solitary figure (dressed iconically in the manner of a Guantanamo detainee) as it shuffles through work-a-day Manhattan at lunchtime. Appropriated text is from the Secret Orcon Interrogation Log, US Department of Defense. FYI: the first minute or so contains no images, only a black screen w/audio voiceover.

CLICK ON THE TITLE- 22 MINUTES

so much for the kinder, gentler administration

I know it is hard work. Bush told us that. But Bush was a slacker... so come on Obama.... aren't you better than that?

Two days ago, DoJ notified one of my fellow habeas counse that the Obama Review Team had cleared their client (Umar Abdulayev) for transfer to his native Tajikistan. The government tried to designate this information as "protected" under the protective order. Umar's lawyers objected to this designation and the government filed (under seal) a motion to stay Umar's habeas case. Yesterday, Judge Walton denied the government's motion and the government's attempt to designate the information as protected.
This development raises one of all of our worst fears, which is that our list of clients needing humanitarian protection and the government's list do not coincide. Or worse. That they do coincide but the Obama administration could care less.

Umar cannot return to Tajikistan - a country he has not lived in since he was 13, (back in 1992). In fact, Tajik officials made several trips to Guantanamo during Umar's years at Guantanamo to interrogate Umar and all the Tajiks (approximately 13). The Tajik officials specifically threatened Umar with imprisonment, torture, and death, and similarly threatened at least two other of their nationals detained there. The other two men who were threatened were repatriated by the U.S. in early 2007 and sentenced to 17-year prison terms in Tajikistan for nebulous "national security" offenses. According to the State Department, Tajikistan is a human rights abusing state where torture is prevalent, due process lacking, and where the ICRC is refused access to prisons. Nevertheless, the Obama administration has now followed in the footsteps of the Bush administration in determining to return Umar and perhaps other Tajikistan nationals to that country.

On A Related Subject

Protest at Gitmo Captured on film

Click on the title for one of the pictures and go to the Miami Herald for the story and more pictures.

Talking Dog Interviews Professor Peter Jan Honigsberg

Peter Jan Honigsberg is a professor of law at the University of San Francisco, where among other subjects, he teaches a course on terrorism and national security law. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including most recently, "Our Nation Unhinged: The Human Consequences of the War on Terror". I mentioned his book here on my blog earlier this spring and I have a reminder about the book on the right hand column of this blog. This is yet another terrific interview by the Talking Dog. Click on the title to read the entire interview and then go out and get the book.

ANOTHER DEATH AT GITMO

Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, aka al Hanashi, (ISN 078?)

I don't know anything more... well actually we all know alot more. These men have been held for more than seven years. They cannot take it any longer. This particular man was apparently a hunger striker and was down to 85 pounds. Also, despite media accounts this is the fifth "apparent suicide" at Gitmo (it really should not be that hard to keep track!)

Dick Gordon's "The Story"

I will be back on NPR's "the story" this afternoon. Click on the title to see when it will be on your local NPR station.

Who needs freedom when you have a laptop?

This article goes in the category of "I couldn't make this shit up." Unfortunately, when it comes to Guantanamo, this particular category keeps expanding.
Click on the title for more.

PUBLIC DOCUMENTS SHOULD BE PUBLIC

A while back I reported on the government's new practice of refusing to allow documents to be filed on the public record. In the past the Guantanamo court documents were screened and a few hours or days later the documents were either cleared for public filing or had a few words or sections blackened out and then the document was cleared. Right around the time of the presidential election everything that was filed in the Guantanamo cases was all of a sudden considered "classified" and nothing was ever declassifed by the Department of Justice (DOJ). (I think this was another way of the old DOJ controlling the filings and the new DOJ either not being aware or not challenging.) Today Judge Hogan said the practice must end. Thanks to Judge Hogan for ending a practice that was going to make the job of historians (and was in fact making the job of habeas counsel) that much harder.

AIM FOR THE FOOT AND KEEP SHOOTING

Obama is almost doing as good a job as our congress in making sure that closing Guantanamo is as difficult as possible. The Uighers were ordered released by a judge many months ago when Bush was still in office. It was no surprise when the Bush justice department appealed that decision and filed an outrageous brief accusing the Uighers of being terrorists and a threat to the sanctity of American soil. When Obama came into office he could have put an end to this charade by withdrawing any objection to the District Court opinion. Instead the Obama administration ignored the case and let the DC Circuit rule. After the Uighers filed a cert petition in the Supreme Court we all waited with baited breath to see if the Obama administration would do the right thing. They did not. Last week Obama's new solicitor general filed an opposition to the Uigher's Cert petition in which she seemed to suggest that the reason the Uigher's are still at Guantanamo is because they do not want to go home. It would have been more honest to say that they are still at Guantanamo because they want to live (as going "home" to China means certain death...) and with Obama clinging to the Bush position that the Courts can enter a Habeas petition but cannot order release they are tying their own hands for closing Guantanamo.
Click on the title for Scotusblog's summary and a link to the government's opposition and read more about the Uighers from Andy Worthington.

REMEMBERING

There are so many hero’s in the US ( and in the world). I want to just take a moment on this memorial day to recognize a group of hero’s that do not get the recognition that they deserve. The office of the chief defense counsel has been defending the rule of law at Guantanamo. They have done an excellent job of fighting to maintain our Constitution and in keeping the unlawful military commissions in cheque.

Thank you to the men and women of the defense counsel’s office. May this part of your work soon be over.

RETURNING TO THE BATTLEFIELD, take iv

I am so sick of this fake story. Every time people have actively criticized Guantanamo this story is "leaked" with new numbers. Last time it surfaced was around inauguration time. At least now the NYT is admitting it may have been duped. But they have missed the point of their being duped... now they are saying maybe these men "have not returned to the battlefield" but instead have joined the battle because of being locked up wrongly for so many years. Of couse that makes sense and you could bet your bottom dollar that I would be fighting mad if I was held for 5,6, 7, 8 + years for no reason and then just dropped back home with no apology, no compensation, nothing except a reputation for having been at the worlds most notorious prison. But anyway, getting back to the point of this duping.... no one is looking at who these supposedly dissatisfied people are and what exactly constitutes "returning to the battlefield". First I will point you again to the article I wrote all those many years ago when the first of these bogus stories appeared. In addition to claiming people that were never at Guantanamo, men who were still at Guantanamo and men that did little more than criticize our government as "returning to the battlefield" the propaganda machine has included men who have gone back to their former charitable work and of course working for Al-Jazeera. When the battlefield is everything Muslim it is not hard for them to paint this picture. A law suit will be filed in the next week for disclosure of the, most likely, non existent names. There is a reason that this story is always leaked but the numbers never confirmed with something like "evidence". The numbers are made up. What is not made up is that men who have been held illegally for all these years have a right to be angry. No thought was given to the men released by the Bush regime. They were sent from Guantanamo in the middle of the night and most were given no help to adjust back to a normal life. Even if the pentagon's false numbers were real we would have to consider ourselves lucky to have only 14% fighting mad. Hopefully we can help the remaining men to be settled in a way that will help them to adjust to life on the other side of the wire. Even something as simple as an apology tends to go a long way.