Tag: Guantanamo

A bi-partisan group of dignatories (list here, pdf)has issued a declaration for safely closing Guantanamo. It is backed by the Constitution Project and Human Rights First. The plan supports trying detainees in federal court and opposes indefinite detention. The declaration is available here (pdf).

The largest bipartisan group of prominent Americans to propose a plan for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has backed a single scheme for the disposition of cases of current and future detainees.

• close Guantanamo on schedule;
• use federal courts, not military commissions, to prosecute accused terrorists; and
• prohibit forever the practice of indefinite detention without charges.

Yesterday, President Obama signed the Homeland Security appropriations bill passed last week by Congress that prevents the release of photos depicting torture and abuse of detainees and allows the transfer of detainees from Guantánamo Bay to the U.S. for prosecution -- but won't allow those acquitted to remain in the U.S or those convicted to serve their sentences in U.S. prisons.

Last week, the ACLU sent this letter (pdf) to Defense Secretary Gates on why the photos should not be excluded from Freedom of Information Act Requests. [More...]

The Senate has passed the bill authorizing trials of Guantanamo detainees in U.S. criminal courts. But, it also prevents those who are acquitted from remaining in the U.S. What happens to those who can't return to their home country for fear of torture? If they can't stay in the U.S., Guantanamo is closed and they can't go to their home country, where will they go?

Also, those who are convicted won't be allowed to serve their sentences in US prisons. Will we build new prisons abroad for them? That's a terrible idea. We need to get out of the prison business.

The bill now goes to President Obama for signing.

There's more to the bill: No release of torture photos: [More...]

This ad to close Guantanamo will air on cable tv channels for a week beginning tomorrow. From the press release (received by e-mail, no link)

The campaign, called the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, was launched with a press call with Retired Generals Bob Gard and John Johns, VoteVets.org Chairman Jon Soltz and former US Congressman and Director of the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo Tom Andrews. The campaign will support President Obama’s call to close the prison and urge Congress to reject the scare tactics of Dick Cheney, and the far right, and shut down the Guantanamo.

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An Obama Administration official said Saturday that a decision on where to move the 223 remaining Guantanamo detainees is in the final stages:

"We are doing everything we can to close it by the date," the official said, declining further identification. "We are in the final stages of locating a secure facility in the U.S. where detainees can be held."

Not likely to be chosen: Standish, MI and Fort Leavenworth, KS. That seems to leave Supermax in Florence, CO, also known as "Alcatraz of the Rockies" and U.S. military brigs. More than 200 prisoners convicted on terror charges are currently in U.S. prisons.

Supermax sounds like the most likely choice. The offical said Obama hasn't been briefed yet on the possibilities, which means a decision is not imminent.

Alla Ali bin Ali Ahmed, an innocent Yemeni stranded at Guantanamo for months after being ordered released by a U.S. District Court Judge, has been sent home to Yemen. Judge Gladys Kessler's May opinion is here. (pdf.)

Two other Gitmo detainees have been sent to Ireland. Their names haven't been released yet. Here's a chart with the names of those ordered released but still detained in red. The New York Times has this list of countries that have accepted Guantanamo detainees.

The judge presiding over the military commission proceedings of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh and three other detainees at Guantanmo issued a stay order today putting the cases on ice until November 16, so President Obama can decide whether he prefers to have the cases transferred to federal criminal courts.

The military had flown some family members of 9/11 victims in for the hearing. The defendants didn't appear in court which disappointed them -- and the prosecutor. The prosecutor asked they be brought from their cells but the judge refused. [More...]

Two Syrian detainees at Guantanamo have arrived in Portugal and are now free.

The U.S. has not released their names. In June, a federal judge ordered the release of Syrian detainee Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko. The court's opinion is here (pdf.)

Al-Janko was first captured by al-Qaeda who tortured him, causing him to falsely confess he was an American spy. Then he was imprisoned by the Taliban who thought he really was an American spy. The Taliban abandoned the prison where al-Janko was being held but left him there. The Americans found him, imprisoned him in Kandahar and sent him to Guantanamo where he has remained for 7 years. Hopefully, he's one of those released to Portugal and freed.

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The AP reports President Obama is considering moving detainees at Guantanamo to a maximum security prison in Michigan that state officials are planning to close or to Ft. Levenworth in Ks.

The facility would include both a courtroom for military tribunal trials and federal criminal court trials and a prison. But, the details also include:

Providing long-term holding cells for a small but still undetermined number of detainees who will not face trial because intelligence and counterterror officials conclude they are too dangerous to risk being freed.

Building immigration detention cells for detainees ordered released by courts but still behind bars because countries are unwilling to take them.

So there are two classes of detainees the Administration plans to keep detained without charges or trial or after acquittal or a court-ordered release. [More...]

President Obama asked his task force to provide a roadmap to closing Guantanamo by today. They didn't. The report has been delayed until the fall . Michael Isikoff reports:

The task force, set up on Obama's second day in office, was charged with preparing a report to the president by Tuesday, July 21, outlining a long-term detention plan for detainees captured in counterterrorism operations after Sept. 11. But continued debate within the task force over the legal basis for holding detainees who are not charged with any crimes—and where to house them once they are moved from Guantánamo—has forced the task force to postpone its report by a "few months," a senior administration official told NEWSWEEK.

The ACLU's response is here. Also being delayed: the task force report on interrogations of "high value detainees."

Navanethem Pillay, a lawyer from South Africa who serves as the U.N.'s top Human Rights offical, criticized President Obama and the U.S. today over the continued detention of Guantanamo detainees:

In her most detailed statement on U.S. detention policy, the South African lawyer criticized President Obama's decision to hold some suspected terrorists in detention indefinitely without a trial. She also called for a probe into officials who participated in torture sessions or provided the legal justification for it.

"People who order or inflict torture cannot be exonerated, and the roles of certain lawyers, as well as doctors who have attended torture sessions, should also be scrutinized," Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement dedicated to victims of torture.

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Props to Palau, for tentatively agreeing to take up to 13 of the Chinese Uighur muslims from Guantanamo.

It is one of the world's smallest countries, with about 20,000 people scattered over islands of lush tropical jungle. Most work in tourism, construction and farming.

China is not happy. [More...]

Good news out of Guantanamo Bay today: Four of the Chinese Uighurs being held there have been moved to Bermuda where they will live and be free.

Bermuda's prime minister, Ewart Brown, said the men would be allowed to live in the self-governing British territory, first as refugees. Brown said they would be allowed to pursue citizenship and would have the right to work, travel and "potentially settle elsewhere".

Brown said negotiations with Washington over taking in the Uighurs began last month and he had no security concerns because the men had been cleared by US courts.

What a great place to resettle. It's beautiful, clean and, civilized. Major props to the island's Government for accepting them. [More...]

Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, a 31 year old Yemeni held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, has committed suicide, according to the AP and Pentagon.

Salih was in the psychiatric ward, being force-fed due to being on a hunger strike. He was down to 86 pounds. No charges had been filed against him.

"Salih was being force-fed in a restraint chair; the other six surviving inmates are being force-fed from bed," Remes said, adding that he didn't think the Yemeni had any legal representation until two lawyers arrived in February. "They were due to see him for the first time in a couple of weeks," he said.

The military says he was found unresponsive in his cell. Suicide or did his body give out? Stay tuned. [Update below]

Via Atrios and Pufferfish, get ready for Rendition Gitmo, the video game.

A SCOTTISH firm is set to make millions from a computer game based on Guantanamo Bay. And they have brought in Moazzam Begg – one of nine British Muslims held in the jail before being released in 2005 – to help them get it right.

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