Tag: Guantanamo (page 4)

Carole Rosenberg at the Miami Herald writes about Republican outrage over a $750,000 soccer field just completed at Guantanamo for the detainees. It opens in April. It cost $750,000.

One Republican, Rep. Dennis Ross (Lakeland, Fla.) has even introduced a bill called the “NO FIELD Act” which stands for " None of Our Funds for the Interest, Exercise, or Leisure of Detainees Act." It would reduce the Defense budget for 2013 by

The first-term Ross shows his lack of knowledge about who is being held at Gitmo with this comment: [More...]

Bump and Update: Majid Kahn pleaded guilty today at Guantanamo. The ACLU says his plea deal must be viewed through the lens of torture. Carole Rosenberg at the Miami Herald, who was at the hearing, reports that under the plea deal, he could be freed in four years when he's sentenced:

Under the plea deal, a military jury will hear the case and sentence Khan in 2016. The jury can order him to serve up to 40 years, after which a military judge would reduce it to at-most 25 years. A senior Pentagon official would then have the authority to suspend any or all of it. Once the sentence is over, it would be up to the Executive Branch to decide whether to keep him as a post 9/11 war-on-terror prisoner like the vast majority of the 171 captives here.

Here are the plea agreement and the Appendix, and the Statement of Facts. [More...]

The DC Appeals Court today upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by surviving relatives of detainees who committed suicide at Guantanamo. While the district court cited failure to state a claim as a basis for the dismissal, the Appeals Court cites the Military Commissions Act(Section 7(a) and 28 USC 2241 (e)) as depriving federal courts of jurisdiction to hear claims regarding conditions of confinement (as opposed to habeas claims regarding lawfulness of detention.)

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 results in no remedy being available. The Court (opinion here) says tough luck.

“Not every violation of a right yields a remedy, even when the right is constitutional.”

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A motions hearing is underway at Guantanamo in the military commission proceeding against detainee and U.S.S. Cole bombing suspect Abd al Rahim al Nashiri. Here's the agenda. Miami Herald/McClatchy reporter Carol Rosenberg provides this backdrop. She's also at Gitmo tweeting updates. The hearing is being broadcast by closed circuit at Ft. Meade.

The big issue involves the reading of al Nashiri's legal mail. Gitmo Chief Adm. Woods will testify tomorrow about how the prison staff is reviewing legal mail. (Update: He is testifying today.) The defense motion is now available here on the court's website (You have to click on al-Nashiri's active case and then bring up the docket and then scroll down to 12/19 for the motion.) [More...]

Mohammed al Qahtani, from Saudi Arabia, has been detained at Guantanamo for 10 years. This week the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit on his behalf seeking public release of his videotaped abusive interrogations.

Mr. al Qahtani’s treatment – which included a litany of abusive techniques ranging from severe sleep deprivation, 20-hour interrogations, isolation, threats by military dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures and religious and sexual humiliation - was partially detailed in a military interrogation log leaked to Time Magazine on March 2, 2006. As a result of this treatment, the senior U.S. official in charge of military commissions determined that U.S. personnel tortured Mr. al Qahtani. Mr. al Qahtani’s attorneys have viewed some of the tapes but are not allowed to discuss the contents. The lawsuit argues it is crucial for the public interest that the tapes be publicly released.

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The ACLU today published this handy graphic after crunching the numbers on Guatanamo detainees.

Among the stats:

• 92% of the detainees were never al-Qaeda fighters. 86% were turned over to coalition forces for a bounty. Only 5% were captured by U.S. soldiers.
• Number of children detained at Gitmo: 21 (the youngest was 13.)
• The oldest detainee was 98.
• More than 200 FBI agents reported abusive treatment of detainees
• At least 16 were tortured in overseas secret prisons before getting to Gitmo
• 8 detainees have died. 6 were suicides, including a detainee who arrived at Gitmo at age 16 and killed himself at age 21.

There are 171 detainees still at Guantanamo. 89 have been cleared for release. The amount it costs per year to keep the 89 detained at Gitmo: $70 million.

Guantanamo will turn 10 years old Wednesday -- it was January 11, 2002 that the first 20 detainees arrived. In the New York Times, Akhdar Boumediene, imprisoned there for 7 years, now living in Provence, France with his wife and children, tells his story.

Boumediene has left his mark on Supreme Court jurisprudence. In his case (opinion here), the Supreme Court ruled that those imprisoned at Gitmo are entitled to their day in court.

Petitioners have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus. They are not barred from seeking the writ or invoking the Suspension Clause’s protections because they have been designated as enemy combatants or because of their presence at Guantanamo.

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President Obama today signed into the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains the controversial and objectionable provisions on indefinite detention and restrictions on transfers of detainees from Guantanamo. He issued a signing statement with it that doesn't ameliorate the damage.

The ACLU says:

While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations.

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Guantanamo Commander, Navy rear Adm. David Woods, has sent a 27 page memo to defense lawyers representing clients charged in military commission proceedings which includes a provision that attorney-client mail will be submitted to a security review.

The memo asked the lawyers to sign and approve the the memo within 48 hours. Instead, the lawyers filed an objection.

The defense objection, filed December 19, is listed on the Guantanamo docket "Defense Motion to Bar JTF-GTMO from Interfering with the Defendant's Right to Receive Confidential Legal Mail and Access to the Courts". The site says it is undergoing a security review. If deemed publically releasable, it will be made available to the public 15 business days after the document was filed with the court.

The next hearing in al-Nashiri's case is Jan. 12. On Dec. 21, Gitmo sent out this invitation to the press to attend.

As Guantanamo detainee Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu Al-Nashiri is arraigned on capital charges of masterminding al Qaida's 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, lawyers are also arguing some important motions. Chief among them is: If al-Nashiri is acquitted, will he be released? Miami Herald Reporter Carol Rosenberg is live-tweeting the proceedings. Here's a handy twitter link to many of the reporters' live tweets in one place.

What are the possible outcomes of al-Nashiri's trial? If there are only 3, guilty and a death sentence, guilty and a sentence less than death, acquittal followed by indefinite detention, probably for life, why bother with a trial? A trial with no possibility of release is nothing but a show trial.

The defense argues that the military jury that will decide al-Nashiri's fate should be told that an acquittal means continued incarceration, if that's the case. Its motion is here. [More...]

Carol Rosenberg of McClatchy reports on the cost of housing inmates at Guantanamo in the Miami Herald. It costs $800,000 a year to house one detainee, according to a letter Eric Holder and Leon Pannetta sent Congress this summer. There are 171 detainees still at Guantanamo.

Congress, determined to keep Gitmo open, authorized provided $139 million for its operation last year. Why isn't it under consideration for part of the $1.5 trillion budget cut?

This has been the worst week for the stock market since 2008.

The Dow lost 6.4 percent for the week, its biggest drop since the week that ended Oct. 10, 2008, when it fell 18 percent. That was at the height of the financial crisis.

Investors fear a recession or worse. The Administration is out pushing its deficit/jobs plan and telling us there are hard choices to make.

Yesterday, the Navy published a notice seeking a contractor to repair the bowling alley, youth center and Liberty Center at Guantanamo, at a cost of $3 million. (Note, this is not for the detainees, but the military employees.) [More...]