Posts tagged “Guantanamo”
Obama’s First Military Tribunal Case
Yesterday, the Obama administration proudly kicked off the “first major hearing of a military tribunal on (their) watch”. The poster child for the Obama military tribunals is a mere child. Or, at least, that’s what he was when he was captured, before being bunged into Guantanamo Bay. He has now spent a third of his [...]
In Defense Praise Of Military Commissions
Yesterday, attorney general Eric Holder held up military commissions for Guantanamo detainees as “not only appropriate, but also necessary.” It probably behooves us to ask: appropriate and necessary for what? Even he isn’t ready (yet) to argue that they are appropriate and necessary for the rule of law to triumph. They are appropriate and necessary [...]
UK Court Of Appeals Labels Bush A Liar
(1) We finally have a final resolution of the Binyam Mohamed case in the UK (backstory here): Three of Britain’s most senior judges have ordered the government to reveal evidence of MI5 complicity in the torture of British resident Binyam Mohamed – unanimously dismissing objections by David Miliband, the foreign secretary. In a ruling that [...]
Horton Hears A What
As in “what really happened”. In June 2006, the Bush military announced that three Guantánamo detainees had committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells. In November 2009, a team of students and faculty at the Seton Hall University law school analyzed a heavily redacted NCIS report of the alleged suicides, and found the official [...]
Holder Will Still Hold Two Dozen Guantanamo Detainees Indefinitely Without Charge
Attorney General Eric Holder‘s announcement last Friday that Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-defendants will be tried in civilian courts in New York City produced the predictable barrage of fulminations from Republicans (about how the sky will absolutely fall on our heads). But what has attracted next to no comment is just how few of [...]
Obama’s Justice Department Strikes Again
The Washington Post has a strange story in today’s paper suggesting that defense attorneys of high-value Guantanamo Bay detainees may have illegally provided classified information to their clients. Except that it’s far from clear that that’s what actually happened. What is clear is that Obama‘s Justice Department has created the appearance of intimidating Guantanamo defense [...]
The Justice Department’s Innovative Solution To Evidence-Obtained-By-Torture Problems
Last Friday, I wrote about the case of Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad. U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle had ordered Jawad released, because the evidence against him was “riddled with holes”, but the government still had the option of filing criminal charges against him in the regular justice system instead. Judge Huvelle “strongly encouraged the [...]
Tidbits From The War Against Terror
(1) Victims Of TWAT We still have detainees in Guantanamo who have been held there for years, without ever been charged with anything, not even before a military commission: Hambali (who “is accused of leading the Jemaah Islamiah group, an organization allied with al-Qaeda that is accused of staging the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing”) was [...]
Guantanamo Detainees And Senseless BushObama Seamlessness
(1) These days, when federal judges order Guantanamo detainees released, they seem to anticipate that the government may not actually follow through. That’s because the government also has the option of filing criminal charges in the regular justice system, instead: A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of a detainee at the U.S. military [...]
Another Island Nation Steps Up
(1) The brand new Coalition of the Willing is slowly but surely shaping up, it appears. First, there was Palau, seven weeks ago, agreeing to accept 17 Uighurs as “a small thing we can do to thank our best friend and ally for all it has done for Palau”, and also in grateful thanks for [...]