For those of you who have been thinking in the back of your mind that you can always flee to Canada when things get (more) unbearable here you might want to check out the Beaver for a reality check....things are not all that great up north when it comes to democracy either.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Guantanamo censors....
When I was down at Guantanamo a few weeks ago I had a little time on my hands and now that they actually have wireless at the luxurious accommodations that we lawyers are forced to stay at I did a little web browsing to my favorite websites. Only problem was that one of those websites was blocked by the thugs that run the place: A Canadian website called Galloping Beaver. Last week I sent a short email to the Beaver congratulating them for being controversial enough to be banned from the base and they followed with this post.
Friday, June 4, 2010
LOOKING FORWARD.....
Former President Bush bragged this past week about his policy of waterboarding those suspected of terrorism (key word being "suspected")....but of course even though waterboarding is torture and torture is against the law (or was against the law) in this here country of mine the current powers to be have decided to turn their collective cheeks....which of curse is easy for them since it was not their cheeks that were smacked....
Of course Bush only spoke about his joy in waterboarding KSM.....I wonder how he will respond to questions about waterboarding Abu Zubaydah (some 100 times) as the government has now been forced to admit Abu Z was not al-Qaeda or taliban....just some smuck who had the misfortune to be captured by my criminal Government.......
anyway Scott Horton has more here.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Task Force Report
Obama set up the Task Force shortly after taking office to review the gitmo detainees and to make recommendations as to whether they should be released, prosecuted or detained forever without charge. The task force completed its job in January and they just got around to releasing the report....click on the title to review.
As for my two clients- Mr. Al-Ghizzawi was cleared for release and ultimately released in March of this year to the country of Georgia. Razak Ali was not cleared for release and is apparently on the list to be detained forever, although the reason for his being in this category boggles the mind.
emptywheel has more on the report here.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Take Action and Support the military lawyer who refused to prosectute a man who was tortured into confessing......
A former prosecutor who blew the whistle on the abuse of our Constitution in the Guantanamo Bay military commissions is now in danger of losing his 19-year military career. Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld was retaliated against for having the courage to follow orders and speak the truth about the mockery of due process afforded to detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
On June 1, a military promotions board will meet, ironically, not to honor or promote Lt. Col. Vandeveld, a highly decorated member of the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps who served in Bosnia, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, as both a solder in combat and a prosecutor. More than likely, they will smear his name, preventing him from an honorable retirement just 4 months away from 20 years of outstanding service to our nation.
Lt. Col. Vandeveld needs your help to defend his honor, as he has stood up to defend the Constitution.
Lt. Col. Vandeveld resigned from his position at Guantanamo, because he could not ethically or legally prosecute Mohammed Jawad. The Jawad case brought to light many of the problems occurring at Guantanamo, including abusive interrogations, evidence withheld from the defense, judicial incompetence, and confessions coerced through torture. Lt. Col. Vandeveld gave judge-ordered testimony in the Jawad case, and in return for his honesty under oath and the public outrage that followed, the military issued him his first negative performance evaluation.
My Country should be so embarrassed....and so should Canada
Click on the title to read the latest statement from UNICEF regarding the Canadian held at Guantanamo since he was 15 years old........
Monday, May 24, 2010
House Armed Service Committee Votes to Keep Gitmo Open and Investigate Lawyers Who Represent the Men at Gitmo
The final text of the House Armed Services Committee-passed National
Defense Authorization Act has been posted on the House Rules Committee's
website: www.rules.house.gov. The key pages seem to be pages 389-406.
- No transfer to the US, until 120 days after comprehensive plan is submitted to Congress re: disposition of each detainee
- No transfer or resettlement to any foreign country, until 30 days after certification to Congress re: risks, etc.
- No transfer to any country with confirmed case of recidivism, unless waived by SECDEF
- No funds to construct or modify any facility in the US to house GTMO detainees
- Report on the merits, costs and risks of using any facility in the US to house GTMO detainees
IF YOU CARE ABOUT THESE THINGS PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATORS AND TELL THEM TO VOTE NO ON THESE PROVISIONS.........
Catching up...
A lot has happened over the past couple of weeks while I was at Guantanamo for a week and then taking some time to catch up...
First one of the best decisions to come out of the DC District Court was shot down by the DC Circuit paving the way for new Guantanamos around the world. This particular one is in Afghanistan... the decision can be found here and Scotusblog has more on the decision and its possible ramifications.
The Guantanamo testimonial project has a new interview. This one is of Alfred Souza who discusses the treatment of some of the most vulnerable men at Guantanamo, those with mental heath issues. Read the interview here. "In that interview, condecorated corpsman Souza tells about the dehumanization of the Guantanamo prisoners, and in particular those in the Psych Ward, where he found mentally-ill patients locked up in small places and punished with extreme deprivation for not complying with orders."
Also, be watching for more men to be leaving the prison. The Obama administration apparently has decided that it is ok to send men to countries where they have legitimate fears of prosecution.
And finally, Elena Kagan....I will have more to say later but basically I think she will be just fine. All of this yakking about her lack of judicial experience is just a distraction to me....I mean we have all seen what a great help all of that legal experience has done for people like Roberts and Alito.
Monday, May 10, 2010
From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian
From Justinian:
Roger Fitch Esq • May 7, 2010
Our Man in Washington
Terror trial dramas … The Omar Khadr case where the crimes are unknown to the law of war … Manipulating the Military Commission system … New rule that a law of war conviction doesn’t require a law of war violation … Pentagon bans four leading reporters from Guantánamo
The US had two terror-trial dramas scheduled for the last week of April. Both departed from script.
In New York, the case of Syed “Fahad” Hashmi was set for trial. Hashmi, an American citizen, was charged with material support for terrorism because he let an acquaintance store luggage in his London flat for two weeks which turned out to contain waterproof socks, ponchos and sleeping bags destined for al-Qaeda.
(CLICK ON THE TITLE TO CONTINUE......)
Saturday, May 8, 2010
A wrap-up of the week at the kangaroo court.....
Click on the title to read Spencer Ackerman's wrap up of this weeks travesty at Gitmo.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
And what happens when you report publicly available information?
This is a subject I know all too well...Last year a judge in Mr. al-Ghizzawi's case barred me (and only me) from talking about the fact that Mr. al-Ghizzawi had been cleared for release....despite the fact that the same information was available all over the internet and the Government itself cleared the information for public release. Today the kangaroo court down at Guantanamo has given the boot to some of the best reporters covering Guantanamo (including the Miami Herald's Carol Rosenberg) for publishing the name of interrogator no. 1 at the Khadr hearing today. Interrogator no. 1 is Joshua Klaus and since he has his own entry on wikipedia you can read more about him here.
Click on the title for more from Spencer Ackerman.
Emptywheel has more here.
SIGH........
What happens when you take a seriously wounded 15 year old kid, throw in some racism, and add cultural exploitation?
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
THAT WAS YESTERDAY....THIS IS TODAY
Today's hearing at the kangaroo court differs only slightly from yesterday....Click on the title to see what Spencer Ackerman has to say.
And click here to read what Andy Worthington has to say about Obama's legacy in making his first commission hearing one in which we are prosecuting a 15 year old who was seriously injured when US troops attacked the village he was living in.... good job Barack.
And just in case you are wondering....most of the judges hearing the habeas cases will not give any credence to things learned while the men were being held at Bagram.....it has been pretty well established that the place was a torture chamber....that of course hasn't stopped some of those same judges from denying the habeas petitions for men who later repeated the lies that were tortured out of them while at Bagram (most likely because the men were afraid to switch to the truth...).
Sunday, May 2, 2010
A Canadian perspective
Since Khadr is a Canadian and every other western country that had a man at Guantanamo eventually got around to asking for their man back what is up with Canada? For those Americans reading this who do not even know who the prime minister of Canada is let me give you this cliff note version: his name is Stephen Harper and he is a GW wannabe....and is doing a pretty good job of it at that.
A lot has happened across the boarder (including at least two trips to their Supreme Court) but none of it has resulted in Khadr being returned to his home. Click on the title to read one of the two Canadian blogs I regularly follow..the other is the galloping beaver (which has just the right element of humor and irony...)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
IT REALLY IS NOT FUNNY............
Reporting from Guantanamo, Spencer Ackerman captures a chaotic scene at what was supposed to be a pre-trial hearing for Omar Khadr:
Omar Khadr’s pre-trial hearing this morning experienced an unexplained hour-long delay. Court officers filtered in at 10 a.m., without a certain important individual: Omar Khadr.
Prosecution promptly called a marine corps captain, Laura Bruzzese, to testify that she informed Khadr at 5:15 a.m. that there was a hearing scheduled for this morning. Khadr had a blanket over his head and complained of pain in his left eye, which has been sightless after an injury sustained during his 2002 capture in Afghanistan. She had him escorted to the infirmary, where he received an eyedrop for the pain, and in Camp Delta security officers attempted to load Khadr into a van to transport him to court. Part of that transfer involved putting what Bruzzese called “Eyes and Ears” on Khadr: blackout ski goggles and earmuffs to block out his senses while in transit.
Only Khadr refused. When Brezzese asked him why he wouldn’t wear the Eyes and Ears — standard operating procedure for transiting a detainee, she testified — Khadr responded, “The only purpose is to humiliate me.” [...]
Defense counsel Barry Coburn and his partner, Kobie Flowers, are now racing to Camp Echo, where detainees meet with their lawyers, to talk to Khadr. Neither would tell me in the confusion of the courtroom which option they’d choose. But they brought along Steve Xemakis, a mental health expert, to evaluate Khadr — most likely so that if Khadr declines to attend, they could proffer an expert statement about how voluntary he considers his absence.
“How quick can we get on the road, guys?” was the last thing I heard Coburn say before his team raced out the door.
Read the full account here: http://washingtonindependent.com/83509/confusion-reigns-at-gitmo-after-khadr-is-a-courtroom-no-show
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