January 11th- the start of the 14th year

I didn't have a chance to remark about the anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo yesterday. Let me remark about it now.
Not only are the men at guantanamo now starting their 14th year but for many of the men- including my client Razak Ali- there is no end in sight. It has been six years since Obama made the promise to close the place within one year and it was apparent to many of us- based on the protocol Obama set in place to close Guantanamo- that it would take a lot longer than one year. It shouldn't have taken a whole year-- nevertheless more than six years-- but immediately Obama squandered the good will of the world and the only real chance he had to close the place by setting up an unwinable approach.
But even in our worst nightmares none of us thought it would take more than six years and none of us thought that Obama would continue with the illegal policy of indefinitely holding men without charge.
Yes, this has been a learning experience for many of us...

So, if you are in the Chicago area I will be speaking with Andy Worthington on thursday evening- come and join us and share ideas for ending this atrocity called Guantanamo.

Thursday January 15, 7pm: Close Guantánamo – End Torture, with Andy Worthington, Candace Gorman and Debra Sweet Grace Place, 637 S. Dearborn, Chicago, Illinois 60605. For this event in Chicago, Andy is joined by Guantánamo lawyer Candace Gorman and Debra Sweet, the national director of the World Can’t Wait. See the Facebook page here. This event is organized by Chicago World Can’t Wait. If you can, please also join the Rally to protest a 14th year of Guantanamo, torture and indefinite detention at 4.30pm at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60603. -

The forever prisoners at Guantanamo.

One of whom is my client Razak Ali....Al Jazeera takes a look at this illegal policy.

The difference between the French People and the American People

The French will not let fear paralyze them.

Now that Cliff Sloan is gone.....

The special envoy that was in charge of closing Guantanamo over the last 18 months (Cliff Sloan) has now publicly blasted many of the reasons put forth by the nuts that want to keep it open. Too bad he waited til he was gone to speak publicly on these issues.
Read More Here.

Five transferred to Kazakhstan...

Three Yemeni and two Tunisians. Read the story here. Thank you to the people of Kazakhstan!

By any other name....its still the same old war.

Yesterday I received this announcement by the military:

"At the end of this year, as our Afghan partners assume responsibility for the security of their country, the United States officially concludes Operation Enduring Freedom. Our combat mission in Afghanistan, which began in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, will come to an end. "

But just because we have ended "operation enduring freedom" does not mean that we have ended our invasion of Afghanistan.... the next paragraph of the military announcement stated this:

"In 2015, we begin our follow-on mission, Operation Freedom's Sentinel, to help secure and build upon the hard-fought gains of the last 13 years."

And just as a rose is a rose -  this war by any other name is still this war.

Happy New Year.

SIGH....

So now that we have finally had some movement with detainees being released we have this news-- the man Obama appointed 18 months ago to oversee the release of the cleared men is stepping down.
Read more here.

More on the four released to Afghanistan

Al Jazeera has more on the four men here.

YES!

The military just announced the release of 4 men to Afghanistan. One of the men is Shawali Khan- the client of my friends Len Goodman and Kent Spriggs. I also had the honor of working  on Shawali's habeas hearing-- I went to Guantanamo to handle Shawali's direct exam from the base while Len and Kent were in the courtroom in DC. Like so many of the men at Guantanamo the fact that Shawali was held for all of these years was a travesty and I wish him the best of luck.
Carol Rosenberg has more here.

The announcement from the military is below.

Detainee Transfer Announced The Department of Defense announced today the repatriation of Shawali Khan, Khi Ali Gul, Abdul Ghani, and Mohammed Zahir from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. As directed by the president's Jan. 22, 2009, executive order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of this case. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, these men were unanimously approved for transfer by the six departments and agencies comprising the task force. In accordance with statutory requirements, the secretary of defense informed Congress of the United States' intent to transfer these individuals and of his determination that this transfer meets the statutory standard. The United States is grateful to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for its willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The United States coordinated with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures. Today, 132 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay.

A NEW ROUTE TO GUANTANAMO OPENED UP

The only way habeas counsel have been able to get to the base to visit clients has been through a small commuter/cargo plane that takes over three hours to get from Ft. Lauderdale to the base (except for a short period of time when the military allowed us to take a military flight--but I never got to experience that travel arrangement as it required flying to the DC area and being available for a flight around 4:30 am---anyway that arrangement did not last very long).
Today the US government has finally decided to resume diplomatic ties with Cuba. The AP has more here. So will we get to fly to mainland Cuba and work our way to the base? Time will tell.
I don't know if we have ever recognized Cuba during my lifetime--I was pretty young during the cuban missile "crisis" and all I remember about that event is the basement bombshelter that my father built so we could hide when the bomb hit.! Anyway I am anxious to visit Cuba and perhaps find a new route to visit my client that does not require flying on a substandard aircraft. This is also very timely as the substandard commuter/cargo airlines has recently restricted the schedule of flights to the base to once a week. That means when we fly to visit our clients we have to stay on the base (on the lawyers side of the base!) for an entire week. It kind of puts a dent on the rest of our work week!
We shall see.....

Imagine that....OOPS

Seems one of the CIA's black sites was right there at Guantanamo. I think that explains alot--it might even explain those deaths back in 2006 (not 1985!)--the three men who supposedly committed "suicide" on the same night.
Read more here.
It would be nice to read the whole torture report instead of just the summary!

Happy International Human Rights Day......

We of course don't celebrate this particular holiday in these here United States-- but to those of you that are so fortunate as to live in a country that celebrates human rights, have a nice day!

I will note that the U.N. special rapporteur on counterterroism and human rights is celebrating this day by calling on the US to prosecute those responsible for the torture and other human rights violations that were unveiled in yesterdays report.

"The summary of the Feinstein report which was released this afternoon confirms what the international community has long believed - that there was a clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush administration, which allowed to commit systematic crimes and gross violations of international human rights law."

Read his entire statement herehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/10/un-us-torture_n_6300864.html. 
Jim White at Emptywheel has more here.

The Summary of the Torture report has been released

Today the senate released the summary of the torture report. You can find it here. They missed releasing it on international human rights day by a day! It is a big file (500ish pages) and it is heavily redacted. We still have to push for the full report which is several thousands of pages. And of course we still have to push for accountability. These were crimes against humanity and the the torturers and the higher ups (BUSH and CHANEY TO NAME TWO) should pay for these crimes. Sen. Feinstein's summary of the summary is here.
According to Feinstein these are the Key findings:
The study’s 20 findings and conclusions can be grouped into four central themes,
each of which is supported extensively in the Executive Summary: 2
1. The CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” were not effective.
2. The CIA provided extensive inaccurate information about the operation of the
program and its effectiveness to policymakers and the public.
3. The CIA’s management of the program was inadequate and deeply flawed.
4. The CIA program was far more brutal than the CIA represented to policymakers and
the American public.

One of the key findings in my opinion is one shared with bmaz at emptywheel and that is that they knew it was torture and they knew it was illegal before they started and when they were doing it-- and they did it anyway:

Here, from page 33 of the Report, is the language establishing the above:

…drafted a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft asking the Department of Justice for “a formal declination of prosecution, in advance, for any employees of the United States, as well as any other personnel acting on behalf of the United States, who may employ methods in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah that otherwise might subject those individuals to prosecution. The letter further indicated that “the interrogation team had concluded “that “the use of more aggressive methods is required to persuade Abu Zubaydah to provide the critical information we need to safeguard the lives of innumerable innocent men, women and children within the United States and abroad.” The letter added that these “aggressive methods” would otherwise be prohibited by the torture statute, “apart from potential reliance upon the doctrines of necessity or of self-defense.”

AND BY THE WAY-- THE GOVERNMENT NOW ADMITS THAT ABU ZUBAYDAH  WAS NOT PART OF AL-QUEDA -- they tortured the man and produced false information from the torture that was then used to scare the American people and falsely imprison many others....and now they admit that he was a nothing. I will have more on this later. Meanwhile the Intercept has a very good working summary here.

More on the men released to Uruguay

Free at last.

Read the update here.

Preparing for the torture report....

Well I am not sure the summary (the full report is thousands of pages long and we will probably need a crowbar to get that released any time soon) will really be released tomorrow--but that is todays rumor. So, in preparing yourself I suggest you start with emptywheel's  "torture facts" for a little background.