A new commander for the Gitmo base.....UPDATED.

He takes over in July. We shall see what we shall see. The base has had more than its fair share of bad commanders but there have been a few that were not too bad....Time will tell.
Read more here.
More on the new commander here.
We can only hope he will remember his own words as he embarks on this "mission:"

“Your legacy is a lot like what you put on the Internet, it is always out there for all to see,” Ponds said, according to a university news release. “Be mindful of what you say and do and what you leave behind for others to see and remember.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article18226721.html?utm_source=NSHR+Rapid+Response&utm_campaign=26a58815cd-NSHR_Alerts_News_October_9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a915757be-26a58815cd-328192709#storylink=cpy

The Defense department's insubordination on closing Guantánamo

Wells Dixon, is a fellow Gitmo attorney who works at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
His article at "The Hill" questions the failure of the DOD to follow Obama's directive to close Guantanamo:

American military doctrine is clear: when a superior officer identifies a lawful strategic objective, forces under his or her command must work to achieve it without delay.  When it comes to Guantánamo, however, the Pentagon continues to obstruct President Obama's mandate to close the prison.  Their defiance is tantamount to insubordination.

Read the rest here.

Catching Up..... again.

A lot has been happening.... and yet nothing really changes in the Gitmo world.
The military commission is at a standstill again. Read more about that here.

Jeff Kaye has written a book about the high dose "antimalarial" drugs given to the detainees when they landed at Guantanamo and the psychological impact of those drugs. That drug being provided at such high doses caused psycholigical trauma for the men that lasted for weeks and the drug was not given to them because of any threat of malaria. Read more here.

AND
In really good news--- at least for now--- a French court has summoned one of the Guantanamo (and Abu Ghraib) torturers-- the infamous Gen. Geoffrey Miller for an inquiry. I'm guessing Geoffrey Miller will not be going to France (or the rest of Western Europe) soon.... Read more about that here   and here.

And wait... did I hear that my temporary home from a few years ago is thinking about taking on a Gitmo refugee or two (or maybe more....)? That is the rumor. I tried hard when I was there to convince the government to accept some men.... but of course that was mostly during the Bush years and no country in western europe was willing to help Bush......but it would be great if that wonderful country would be willing to lend a hand now. Read more here.

If Obama is really sorry he didn't close Guantanamo on day 1---

Some advice to Obama on how to close it now....

Read it here.

Poland asks the US not to execute men tortured on their soil...UPDATED YET AGAIN....

Warsaw (AFP) - Poland wants the United States to rule out the death penalty for two men who were tortured by the CIA in its territory before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay, according to a government letter released Tuesday.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Poland for hosting secret CIA prisons, saying it knowingly abetted the unlawful imprisonment and torture of Guantanamo-bound detainees Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian, and Saudi Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 2002-2003.

READ THE REST HERE.

Sadly Abu Zubaydah is on the forever to be detained but never to be charged list- because all of that torture just showed that he was a nobody! Maybe Poland can step up and ask the US to resettle Abu Zubaydah in Poland?

Today it was announced that Poland has apparently sent an "official note" to U.S. authorities seeking assurances that Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri will not be subject to the death penalty.
More here.

So today I have learned more about why Poland is finally stepping up and asking that al-Nashiri not be executed. It seems Poland risks breaching the Court of Human Rights ruling. In addition, Poland has to turn over files and finish its investigation (that has been ongoing since 2008) and turn over the results of that investigation.
READ MORE HERE.

So what does it mean when Obama claims the Afghani war is over??

Lawyers for Al Warafi, who was has effectively spent his entire adult life in jail,[at Guantanamo] filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last month to grant a writ of habeas corpus, which would require the government to release Al Warafi. The motion pointed to Obama’s public statements about the war, including his State of the Union Address, when he declared that “our combat mission in Afghanistan is over.”

Read the rest here.

International Court is now run by three women...

Not much attention is paid to the ICC here in the United States (wonder why that is???) anyway I did not want to let this historic moment go unnoticed.
Read more about it here.

From Roger Fitch and our Friends Down Under at Justinian

Justinian in Guantanamo, International law, Military Commissions, Roger Fitch Esq, US Supreme Court 

At Guantánamo, the government has once again shown it can't be trusted to play nice at the innately unfair military commissions and the Convening Authority has resigned under pressure after adverse court rulings. 

Defence lawyers have already had to contend with FBI listening devices planted in smoke detectors of client interview rooms; government interference with and attempted co-option of a defence team member; and even real-time censoring of court proceedings by unidentified spooks. 

Now, an interpreter offered to the counsel for the "9/11" accused has been recognised by the defendants as an alumnus of the CIA team at their torture black site.  

Confronted by the judge, the Pentagon readily admitted the interpreter was a CIA asset, but wouldn't say where. The case is proceeding without him.

There was some good news. The Kafkaesque gag order, which had prevented the defendants and their counsel from even talking about their black site and other torture by the CIA, has been partially lifted.  

One of the first prisoners to benefit will be the 9/11 defendant Mustafa Hawsawi, now free to discuss being - uh - sodomised by the CIA (see December post). 

Marty Lederman is optimistic things are improving. More here. 

Read the rest of Roger Fitch's report here.

A Day in the Life at Guantanamo....

"Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi, a Yemeni national who has been detained at the American prison facility at Guantánamo Bay since 2002, weighs only 98 pounds. Never charged with a crime, al-Alwi, now 35 years old, is one of many detainees at the camp who have gone on a prolonged hunger strike."

...

"Al-Alwi, who has described his strike as “a form of peaceful protest against injustice,” has said that he will not resume eating until there is some sort of legal resolution to his case. Prison officials have responded to his hunger strike by placing him in solitary confinement, denying him access to prescribed medical items and subjecting him to extreme temperatures in his cell."

READ THE REST HERE.

France should investigate the torture claims of their nationals that were held at Guantanamo

On March 5, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) urged a French Appeals Court to fully investigate claims by three French nationals that they were sexually and physically tortured during their detention at the Guantánamo Bay prison in 2002. But a lack of cooperation from U.S. authorities has stymied the French investigation.
So citizens of France, is it really this easy to ignore the claims of torture???
Read the rest here.

In other Guantanamo related medical news....

The summary of the torture report which was released a few months back (I reported on it here) discussed a prisoner at Gitmo who is now subject to a military commission and who was sodomized as part of his torture. In February the attorneys for that man asked the judge for medical help for their client who still suffers from his torture:

In February, the attorney for Saudi captive Mustafa al Hawsawi asked the judge to intervene in the case, referring to a recently released portion of the Senate Intelligence Committee's “Torture Report,” and saying that the 46-year-old man had been rectally abused while in CIA custody — and that he continues to bleed now, at least eight years later.

“Some would call that sodomy,” said attorney Walter Ruiz, adding that “those acts caused longstanding chronic medical conditions that have yet to be resolved.”

Well it seems our great military commissions and their judges cannot (or perhaps more likely, will not) order medical treatment for the defendants in their court rooms...On friday (march 20) the judge released a short order:

Army Col. James L. Pohl wrote in a two-page order released by the Pentagon Friday that the Court's "jurisdiction is limited to try persons subject to the Military Commissions Act Of 2009. lO U.S.C. § 948d. Thereby, this Commission does not have the authority to address issues concerning medical care."  
The order was dated March 10.

Carol Rosenberg has more here.

ADD THIS TO THE VERY LONG LIST OF WAR CRIMES BY MY GOVERNMENT....

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article15621776.html?utm_source=NSHR+Rapid+Response&utm_campaign=5ac33448b8-NSHR_Alerts_News_October_9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a915757be-5ac33448b8-328192709#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article15621776.html?utm_source=NSHR+Rapid+Response&utm_campaign=5ac33448b8-NSHR_Alerts_News_October_9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3a915757be-5ac33448b8-328192709#storylink=cpy

Military finally realizing that force feeding might violate medical ethics and international law.....

In January, VICE News obtained a two-page document in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that contained the first known acknowledgement by the US military that force-feeding people who are capable of making informed decisions about their own health is a violation of medical ethics and international law.
This realization has only taken more than 13 years.....
Read the rest here.

An update on the men released to Uruguay

I know from my own clients transition to the country of Georgia-- this is a difficult situation and it takes time.
Read the update here.

Today's WTF Moment....

Apparently Obama now regrets not closing Guantanamo on his first day in office. sigh.
Read the rest here.

Another Detainee Cleared For Release...

Today the periodic review board announced that Saeed Sarem (235) won his Periodic Review case and is now cleared for release.

According to fellow Gitmo attorney Brian Foster the stats are now:

With this clearance, the prison population returns to equipoise, with 56 men cleared, 56 awaiting clearance, and 10 in the military commission system. 

Yemenis: 48 cleared, 25 awaiting clearance, 3 mil-comm

Others: 8 cleared, 31 awaiting clearance, 7 mil-comm