Senate passes bill to allow Gitmo prisoners to be tried in US

The yahoo’s in the House passed their version last week. From Jurist:

The US Senate voted 79-19 Tuesday in favor of a bill permitting Guantanamo Bay detainees to be brought to the US for trial. The measure was part of a $42.7 billion spending bill for the US Department of Homeland Security.While the detainees still may not be released on US soil or housed in US jails, the bill requires the Obama administration to develop a plan for the anticipated closure date of Guantanamo Bay in January 2010. Navy Rear Admiral Tom Copeman has announced that he can clear the base of all detainees given only 10 days notice and appropriate logistical support. Meanwhile, a group of retired generals has launched a national ad campaign in support of closing the facility. Tuesday’s bill also extends the life of the E-Verify program, which permits employers to check on the immigration status of their new employees. The bill will now go to President Barack Obama for his signature.

This doesn’t mean the US can now house prisoners in the US proper..Oh hell no..the assholes in congress won’t allow that. My thought is they don’t want the scrutiny that would come with incarcerating them in US prisons.

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Obama’s National Security speech- May 21st

I found his speech lacking in a plan. I found myself comparing him to Bush43 in regard to how he skated around several of the issues, all of which are major issues for America. I was disappointed but will of course give him his kudo’s for another grand speechifying moment..it just lacked substance.

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They are not above outright lying to us.

And that fact just totally pisses me the hell off. The obvious, blatant lies being spewed by The Big Dick Cheney^TM, Boss Limbaugh, Michael Steele, Boehner, et. al. are just incredibly disingenuous..and outright fuckery. Cheney used a noun, a verb and 9/11 over 20 times this morning during his stint.

I missed The Big O’s speechifying this morning..but my dumb ass caught TBDC in all his glory. MSNBC showed Cheney’s entire speechifying at that massage parlor known as AEI.

The Ball n’ Chain^TM asked me to find something to do…away from the house for awhile. I was that bitchy after watching Cheney lie his ass off.

So I went out and about for a while, running household errands. But when I got home..Cheney and Obama were still on my boob tube. Tweety is now proselytizing about both of them along with former CIA spook Jack Rice, Lawrence ODonnell and that fucktard Pat Buchanan.

Larry looks like he is gonna have a stroke listing all the lies that Cheney told at AEI this morning. I know that feeling too after watching TBDC this morning. It’s hazardous to one’s health to watch that fucker for more than 60 seconds I think.

I am just not in the mood for these guys today. I am going to find a baseball game to watch until the Lakers game starts.

Because these fearmongering fuckwits just drive me to scream and holler like a mental patient.

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Gitmo lawyer reassigned after filing complaint

The assholes running the kangaroo court at Guantanamo are still screwing around with the truth, inspite of having a new Commander in Chief. From Jurist:

The US Navy on Friday reassigned Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler, a military lawyer who had been in charge of defending Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, after Kuebler filed a formal complaint against a military official overseeing the case. Kuebler had worked on the case for two years before he was fired after alleging that the military’s chief Guantanamo defense lawyer, Colonel Peter Masciola, had a conflict of interest in overseeing the case. Kuebler said Masciola should be removed from the case because Masciola said Khadr should also face civil liability for the alleged killing of a US soldier, despite his role overseeing Khadr’s defense. Khadr is the only Canadian citizen currently being held in Guantanamo, and Canadian officials have said they may investigate the circumstances surrounding Kuebler’s removal.

Kuebler has long criticized Masciola’s handling of the case, and in February said that he had prompted an investigation of the defense team’s ethics based on Masciola’s leadership. In January, a US intelligence official said in pre-trial testimony that Khadr admitted he threw a grenade that killed a US soldier in 2002. He has been charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, and spying. In January, US President Barack Obama ordered Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to halt all military-commission proceedings involving Guantanamo detainees pending a review of their detentions. That month, a military judge granted the Obama administration’s request for a continuance of Khadr’s case until May 20.

Khadr was 15 years old when he was tossed in Gitmo and the key thrown away. He is now in his 6th-friggin-year of being held at Guantanamo. Not only was this kid renditioned..he was also tortured. He has spent a quarter of his life behind bars in Guantanamo.

What kind of people torture children? What do they tell themselves so they can look in the mirror each morning?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Omar Khadr’s defence lawyer fired (cbc.ca)
• Robert Gates follows through on his promises to reform the Pentagon. (slate.com)

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Federal Judge grants habeas petition to Gitmo prisoner.

This looks like a good omen to me. From Jurist:

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday granted a habeas corpus petition filed by Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Yasin Muhammed Basardh, ordering his release from the prison. His detention came under exclusive review of the court after a panel for the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] suspended its consideration of his case in light of the 2008 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush, which it said gave the District Court sole jurisdiction over the matter. Justifications for Basardh’s release were kept classified. The US government was ordered “to take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps to facilitate the release of petitioner Basardh forthwith.”

The order comes after a Tuesday stay of proceedings against fellow Yemeni detainee Ayman Saeed Batarfi and follows a call by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Sunday for the US and Yemen to agree on a repatriation plan that provides “meaningful legal process” for the nearly 100 Yemeni detainees still at Guantanamo Bay. The repatriation plan dates back to July 2008, when Yemeni officials met with a visiting US delegation to discuss the possible transfer of Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, with the US voicing concerns that they would be freed upon their return. The stay of proceedings against Batarfi follows a January executive order from US President Barack Obama directing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within one year and a review and disposition of all individuals held at the facility.

Lets here it for the little guy. Because if you think about it…this is who we are: fair and equitable or nightmarish dictatorial bags of batshit that torture and run kangaroo courts.

Oh…And today, m’dear reader, is the big dog and pony show in Congress on the Obama Budget. It should be a real comedy of errors and just fine slapstick comedy period.. if recent history shows us anything.

Related articles by Zemanta

• DC Circuit Court’s Contempt for Habeas and the SCOTUS (dailykos.com)
• Yemeni inmate to leave Guantanamo (news.bbc.co.uk)

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Double Binds

The question of what to do about the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has been on the minds of both the previous and current administrations. Shortly after being sworn in President Obama instructed military prosecutors to ask that the proceedings be delayed in order that a full review could take place. This from TPM Muckraker, (2/6/09) explains the most recent events: “Thanks To Obama’s Order, Military Drops Charges In Gitmo Trial.” It settles the question of whether military tribunals will be the justice method of the Obama administration. At the same time the 9/11 families were not happy about it when they recently met with the President. To quote:

All but one judge complied with the prosecutors’ requests. That one, Army Colonel Jame Pohl, declined to do so.But now, the Associated Press reports, Susan Crawford, the top legal authority for Guantanamo’s proceedings, has decided to drop the charges in the case over which Pohl is presiding, thereby bringing the case into compliance with Obama’s order.

Shedding additional light on these dilemmas for the administration, are columns at Salon.com, by Glenn Greenwald. In his 2/6/09 piece, “Counter-terrorism logic” (Update section), Glenn debunks the claims that 61 released detainees have returned to the battlefield. In an earlier (2/4/09) column entitled “Various Items,” several pertain to today’s subject here: Item 3 — regarding the Obama administration’s position on rendition of detainees, Item 5 — regarding the US Government erecting a wall of secrecy around what it has done to torture detainees, and demands that “other countries [the UK] do the same, upon threat of being punished,” and Item 6 regarding an ACLU letter to Secretary of State Clinton regarding the US/UK matter in Item 5 above. (See ACLU Blog for more on the Gitmo Truth Out)

Another illustration of the difficulty in which the administration finds itself is the quandry of a public opposition to torture and secret detentions, colliding with a legal requirement to defend former government employees under certain conditions. John Yoo, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and John Ascroft will get help in the Jose Padilla lawsuits over his alleged torture. The story is from Wired – Threat level (2/4/09): “Obama: Reject Torture, defend Torturers.” To quote:

The new U.S. president has renounced those Bush administration practices, but government lawyers continue to defend the previous administration’s top officials accused of authorizing and carrying out those policies.

. . . Chief among those enjoying a taxpayer-funded defense is John Yoo . . . As a Bush administration lawyer, Yoo wrote the so-called torture memos the previous administration invoked to rationalize torture of enemy combatants.

. . . in federal court in San Francisco, in a lawsuit (.pdf) brought by Jose Padilla. The one-time alleged “dirty bomber,” Padilla claims Yoo’s internal legal opinions paved the way for his harsh interrogation while he was secretly held without charges at a Navy brig in South Carolina.

Government lawyers are also defending former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and other Bush administration officials in a second lawsuit by Padilla accusing (.pdf) them of violating his constitutional rights.

Double binds, where we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t, appear to be a fact of life for the new administration. That is the inevitable outcome of the Bush administration’s failure to adhere to the rule of law. The future will not be easy, but the Constitution stands as bedrock to help solve these double-bound legal dilemmas.

See also a collaborative post today about this same subject called, “Bush Leftovers For Sunday Dinner” at my brand new blog, Behind the Links.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics rule of law national security guantanamo

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Obama signs executive order to close Gitmo, end torture.

Oh Happy Day! He just finished signing the executive order to close Gitmo within one year of today. He also signed an E.O that disallows torture of prisoners. From MSNBC:

Moving quickly to reverse his predecessor’s policies on the treatment of terror suspects, President Barack Obama on Thursday signed an executive order to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year.

He also signed an executive order to require that all U.S. interrogations of terror suspects must now conform to the U.S. Army Field Manual, a move meant to restrict what the CIA can do. The presdient created an interagency task force to advise him on detainee policy.

He is starting off on the right foot…or is that the left foot?

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120-day Hold put on Gitmo trials.

AP WaPo and Reuters are reporting that a 120 day hold has been placed on any military tribunal trials at Gitmo…by order of President Obama. From the Reuters writeup:

Hours after taking office on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to ask for a 120-day halt in all pending cases.

Military judges were expected to rule on the request on Wednesday at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an official involved in the trials said on condition of anonymity.

The request would halt proceedings in 21 pending cases, including the death penalty case against five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 hijacked plane attacks in 2001.

Prosecutors said in their written request the halt was “in the interests of justice.”

This is a great day folks.

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Gates tells the Pentagon to start planning the closing of Gitmo

From Jurist:

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has ordered the Pentagon to draft a proposal for shutting down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay in preparation for a possible order from President-elect Barack Obama, a Pentagon spokesperson said Thursday. Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that Gates wants to have a plan in place in the event Obama issues an order shortly after his inauguration to close the facility. Morrell said:

[Gates] has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down [and] what would be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility, while at the same time ensuring that we protect the American people from some very dangerous characters.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Executive Director Anthony Romero applauded the move [press release], saying:

The fact that Defense Secretary Gates is finally taking steps to close down Guantanamo and its unconstitutional military commissions is a welcome and encouraging sign that President-elect Obama intends to fulfill his campaign pledge. This is an important first step toward turning the page on eight years of shameful policies that allowed torture and violations of domestic and international law.

Also Thursday, the ACLU, along with Amnesty International USA, Human Rights First, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a letter to Obama calling on him not to create a similar detention system, should he close Guantanamo and end the military commissions system.

It can not happen soon enough for those still languishing there. Obama must end the torturing of this individuals as well as provide them with due process. Gates is stepping up to the plate on this issue and I do applaud him for that move.

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“As President, I will close Guantánamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions”

Those words above were spoken on August 1st, 2007 by President-elect Barack Obama. We need to hold him to those words.

To that end, the ACLU and Brave New Foundation have created the video below as well as this site. The ACLU and Brave New Foundation are collaborating on a series of videos containing direct testimony from those with firsthand knowledge of the system of injustice that thrives at Gitmo.

Close it down President Obama..shut the fucking place down and end the military commissions. Please. Restore the rule of law and end the madness that is Gitmo and the military commissions kangaroo court.

To sign a letter demanding the above, click here.

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Military knew Gitmo prisoners were being abused mentally.

From Jurist:

US military officers feared for the mental health of alleged terrorism detainees held in isolation in the US, according to documents received through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) . The materials released Wednesday are a collection of heavily redacted e-mail communications between unidentified US military officials involved in the detention of alleged terrorism suspects Yaser Hamdi, Jose Padilla, and Ali al-Marri at US Navy brigs in Virginia and South Carolina. In one e-mail found in the released documents (PDF), an unidentified US official expressed concern over Hamdi’s mental health due to his imprisonment, saying:

I saw the detainee this morning during routine daily rounds and found him to be in low spirits and somewhat depressed. … He indicated he feels very stressed due to his incarceration and being here now for almost (14) [sic] months, with no news pertaining to his future. … He went on to indicate that he feels as if he has been forgotten and that no one is working on getting him freed. … He indicated that he would continue to endure, but he did not leave me with a good impression that he is capable of going on much longer. … I know I can not give him any false hope, but I fear the rubber band is nearing its breaking point here and not totally confident [sic] I can keep his head in the game much longer. I will continue to monitor his behavior and get the [redacted] onboard [sic], but fear that once this individual decides to go south, there will be little if anything, [sic] I can do to bring him back around. I have directed my staff to pay close attention to his behavior, to pick up their discussions with him and that I will conduct evening rounds in an effort to assure him we are concerned about his state of mind and health and welfare .

Rotten bastards. AP has more.

Crossposted at Bring It On!

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SCOTUS rules FOR detainees at Gitmo

In a ruling that is sure to send shivers down the spine of every loyal Bushie, The Supremes ruled this morning that detainees at Guantanamo have the right to appeal to US civilian courts. From the MSNBC writeup:

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court’s liberal justices were in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”

For once they got it right..the Constitution must survive even the attacks on it from within. Justice Kennedy, was the swing vote, I would bet my last devalued dollar on it. A key piece of the ruling from Slates Deborah Perlstein:

The Government argues petitioners must seek review of their CSRT determinations in the Court of Appeals before they can proceed with their habeas corpus actions in the District Court. As noted earlier, in other contexts and for prudential reasons this Court has required exhaustion of alternative remedies before a prisoner can seek federal habeas relief. … The cases before us, however, do not involve detainees who have been held for a short period of time. … Were that the case, or were it probable that the Court of Appeals could complete a prompt review of their applications, the case for requiring temporary abstention or exhaustion of alternative remedies would be much stronger. These qualifications no longer pertain here. In some of these cases six years have elapsed without the judicial oversight that habeas corpus or an adequate substitute demands. And there has been no showing that the Executive faces such onerous burdens that it cannot respond to habeas corpus actions. To require these detainees to complete [MCA] review before proceeding with their habeas corpus actions would be to require additional months, if not years, of delay. The first [MCA] review applications were filed over a year ago, but no decisions on the merits have been issued. While some delay in fashioning new procedures is unavoidable, the costs of delay can no longer be borne by those who are held in custody. The detainees in these cases are entitled to a prompt habeas corpus hearing.

Prompt? With BushCo still leading the charge? I doubt that.. Read the entire ruling here.

Crossposted at LeftwingNutjob and Bring it On!

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Gitmo doubling amount of lawyers.

From Jurist:

The Pentagon has said that an additional 108 military lawyers and paralegals will be assigned to work on the cases of prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay, twice the current number. Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, legal advisor to the Office of Military Commissions, made the announcement last Thursday, the same day as five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks were arraigned. Before a military commission at Guantanamo bay, a critical move in the legal proceedings against some of the 19 detainees awaiting trial.

Hartmann said that the additional lawyers will ensure fair trials, but critics argue that the allocation of additional resources is political, designed to finish the commissions before the November elections and to avoid the possible result of a Supreme Court ruling expected later this month on whether federal courts may consider the legality of Guantanamo detentions. Hartmann himself was recently disqualified by a US military judge from participating in the trial of Guantanamo detainee Salim Hamdan because he was deemed too closely associated with the prosecution. Reuters has more. American Forces Press Service has additional coverage.

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“We can’t have acquittals. We’ve got to have convictions.”

I have shuddered at the thought that most, if not all, of the individuals to be tried in BushCo’s kangaroo court known as the military tribunals would be found guilty. That they would be found guilty on shoddy or non-existing evidence coerced out of them by torture and certainly without any decent representation.

Great gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands has occurred on this topic for me. This might cause some folks to see me as a loony lefty, among other things. As if that matters to me what people think of me.

I want the guilty to be found guilty…but I doubt that even a third of the people still being held in Gitmo are guilty of anything, even though they are considered ‘high value’ detainees by the people in charge.

Recently, one of those high-value guys saw the case against him dismissed. The alleged 20th hijacker, Mohammed al-Qahtani’s case came to an abrupt end. The reason? He was tortured and tortured…and tortured some more. As Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick notes:

The decision not to try him comes from the convening authority for the commissions, Susan Crawford. She didn’t give an explanation for halting the prosecution, but, then, we don’t really need one.

Read more

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Even the head of the Joint Chiefs says to close Gitmo..

Sadly his reasons are shallow. Not because of what has been done there in our name, but because it makes us look bad around the world. AP has this:

By ROBERT BURNS

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) – The chief of the U.S. military said Sunday he favors closing the prison here as soon as possible because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been “pretty damaging” to the image of the United States.

“I’d like to see it shut down,” Adm. Mike Mullen said in an interview with three reporters who toured the detention center with him on his first visit since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last October.

Damn skippy Mikey. We look like fucking barbarians. And we are..And I am SO damn tired of all the lipservice we get from fuckwits like you about actually doing something about it.

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