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By Ned Sublette
$18.45
By Daniel Ellsberg
$101.79
$35
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Wikimedia Commons
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An appeals court in D.C. has sided with an Algerian detainee, Belkacern Bensayah, finding that since there was no direct communication between Bensayah and al-Qaida, he could not be considered part of a terrorist group.
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AP / Charles Rex Arbogast
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The Obama administration may have hit upon a potential answer, if not a solution, to the still-pressing problem of what to do with Guantanamo Bay detainees once the Cuban prison is shuttered. According to The Washington Post, the government has picked the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois as a destination for “dozens of terrorism suspects”—but it’s not clear whether they’ll be prosecuted prior to their move.
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Flickr / NCinDC
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The nation’s top court decided on Monday that former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI honcho Robert Mueller aren’t directly accountable for the abuses that Pakistani detainee Javaid Iqbal, a Muslim, says he endured as a result of his race and religion in a New York prison in 2002.
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AP photo / Brennan Linsley
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In yet another decision that chips away at the Bush administration’s withering theory of executive dominance, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the evidence presented against five Algerians—who have been in U.S. custody since 2001—was insufficient, freeing the detainees from the bowels of the prison at Guantanamo.
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AP photo / Brennan Llinsley
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A military lawyer for a Guantanamo detainee says it was standard operating procedure to destroy evidence of torture (or harsh interrogation techniques, as some call it) in order to “minimize certain legal issues.” Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler is concerned that, because of the policy, he will not be able to challenge the alleged confessions of his client, who was detained at the age of 15.
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By Marie Cocco — Seven years after the 9/11 attacks, if we were to seek a portrait that is emblematic of the way the U.S. has tried—and failed—to bring those responsible for the heinous plot to justice, we would have to produce a photograph of Mohammed al-Qahtani.
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mcclatchydc.com
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Sami al-Haj, a cameraman for Al-Jazeera, was released Thursday evening after spending almost seven years in U.S. custody, six of those as an inmate at Guantanamo Bay. Haj was never charged with any crime, nor was any evidence against him ever revealed.
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inthesetimes.com
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Despite fleeting promises by the administration to shut the place down, the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba is still up and running, complete with many of the terrible conditions we’ve all come to know and be ashamed of, according to transcripts recently obtained by the Associated Press.
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After almost six years since suspected enemy combatants started serving time without being able to challenge their detainment at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the U.S. Supreme Court has changed its stance, giving prisoners—and their lawyers—some hope that their cases may eventually be heard.
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A Saudi prisoner at the detention center in Guantanamo Bay has apparently committed suicide, the U.S. military said in a statement. Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that indefinite detentions—some now longer than five years—combined with harsh “interrogation techniques” and unfair trials could drive detainees to take their own lives.
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dw-world.de
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The Washington Post has an inside look at “black sites,” the secret detention centers operated by the CIA that hold abducted terror suspects, one of whom describes a world of interrogation, torture and misery.
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An Italian judge has decided to go forward with the first criminal trial of extraordinary rendition. Twenty-six Americans and five Italians—including the former head of military intelligence—have been indicted and ordered to stand trial for the abduction of an Egyptian cleric who was detained and allegedly tortured in Cairo.
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spyflight.co.uk
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The European Parliament has condemned 14 member states for either ignoring or assisting the U.S. policy of “extraordinary rendition.” The report, which won approval by a wide margin, says the CIA carried out 1,245 flights of abducted suspects, sometimes to nations where the detainees could expect torture.
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politikforum.de
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Germans are outraged over the emergence of documents that suggest a government official allowed an innocent German citizen to remain in Guantanamo for years after the United States offered to repatriate him.
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The lawyers for Adel Hamad, a Guantanamo detainee, put together this video after traveling the globe to verify his story. After five years, the notion that potentially innocent men continue to be held without charge or trial undermines the very decency of our society.
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By Marie Cocco — The Iraq Study Group has offered its anticlimactic advice on the war, but how will we address that other quagmire in Cuba, where some 430 anonymous prisoners languish in limbo?
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nytimes.com
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Recently released video footage of Jose Padilla for the first time reveals life as an “enemy combatant” in U.S. custody. The footage shows Padilla, manacled and deprived of vision and hearing, en route to a dental appointment. Padilla was denied access to a lawyer for 21 months, testing the extent of the Bush administration’s executive power.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross will contact the White House to address concerns over U.S. torture policy’s compliance with the Geneva Conventions.
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Keith Olbermann responded to the passage of the torture bill with this tongue-in-cheek investigative report on habeas corpus. (Video & Transcript)
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From Salon.com
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Guantanamo guards are bragging in bars about things like slamming detainees heads into cell doors, according to a Marine sergeant’s sworn statement, surfaced by the AP. (Above picture not of guard described in article.)
Don’t miss Rolling Stone’s riveting, sickening blow-by-blow account of these practices
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By Marie Cocco — The GOP’s coverup of Mark Foley’s Internet escapades is actually the party’s least shocking shirking of responsibility.
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Lawyers for 25 men being held in Afghanistan filed a habeas corpus petition in advance of Bush’s plan to outlaw that exact motion.
If Congress isn’t going to stand up to Bush on this travesty of a law, it’s good to see that some parties are.
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While we wait for the Supreme Court to invalidate Bush’s torture law, we offer up a little satire on the issue. In this piece, a Nation writer hilariously re-imagines our new Military Commissions Act. (Or let Jon Stewart take it away.)
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As expected, the Senate sent the despicable detainee interrogation bill to the president’s desk last night. See its horrifying provisions here.
As long as this law stands, we too shall stand in forfeit of the moral high ground in this struggle. It’s a sad day for our once-proud republic.
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By Molly Ivins — With a smug stroke of his pen, President Bush is set to wipe out a safeguard against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal justice since the Magna Carta.
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Join Truthdig’s Robert Scheer, along with Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller, for a lively discussion on the week in politics, policy and culture. This week: the Bush-Republican detainee-interrogation deal, U.N. rants, midterm elections, corporate spying, upheaval at the Los Angeles Times and the furor surrounding the pope’s recent comments on Islam.
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The U.N.‘s chief anti-torture expert, Manfred Nowak, says: “The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein.” Sectarian violence has filled the Baghdad morgue with bodies bearing evidence of brutal torture. More
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Only last week, the president drew a line in the sand over his proposed interrogation rules, threatening to cancel the CIA interrogation program altogether if a trio of rebellious Republicans refused to pass his version. In a total reversal, the Bush administration has reestablished talks with the defiant senators, hoping to work out a deal and pass the stalled legislation.
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On Monday, Stephen Colbert went after Bushs proposed re-imagining of the Geneva Convention by inviting the president to come on the Report and demonstrate his preferred interrogation techniques. Mocking the presidents assertion that the treaty banning torture lacks clarity, Colbert observed: I personally think the image of the president saying specifically what, to him, is not an outrage on human dignity will make everyone see his position very clearly….
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Illustration by Peter Scheer
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In 2002 Abu Zubaydah, a captured Bin Laden henchman, experienced two radically different kinds of interrogation as the FBI and the CIA secretly engaged in a debate that continues today. As one official put it: ?When you rough these guys up, all you do is fulfill their fantasies about what to expect from us.?
Posted on Sep 9, 2006
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Legislation put forward by the Bush administration this week would legalize the same torture techniques recently banned by the Army. By selectively interpreting the Geneva Conventions, the legislation would allow CIA operatives and even the Army, should it decide to revert to previous rules, to conduct interrogations using unsavory methods.
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flickr/nukeit1
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An Army officer has recommended the execution of four soldiers, should they be found guilty of murder. The soldiers are accused of improperly shooting three Iraqi detainees during a raid. No U.S. soldier has been executed since 1961.
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The U.S. soldier who exposed the atrocities at the notorious Iraq prison camp is speaking out for the first time about his experiences. His claims are unexpected: “Nobody in command knew about the abuse, because nobody in command cared enough to find out.”
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From the Washington Post: “The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners.”
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Two Hamas leaders recently released from detention in the West Bank say the Israelis mistreated them while in custody. Israel says they got the same treatment as other prisoners. Also, the allegations—being forced to sit for long stretches in backless chairs and living in squalid conditions—don’t appear to rise to near Abu Ghraib or Gitmo levels.
Posted on Aug 2, 2006
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From the AP: “U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration.”
This is apparently an attempted end run around the Supreme Court’s Hamdan decision, which barred Bush’s military tribunals.
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The detainees hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes, sparking renewed calls to close the detention facility.
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From Salon.com
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Sgt. Michael Smith (pictured above threatening an Abu Ghraib detainee with a dog) becomes the ninth soldier to be convicted for detainee abuse. He faces over eight years in prison.
To date, no high-ranking officials have been charged with crimes stemming from the abuses.
Posted on Mar 21, 2006
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From the New York Times
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Salon.com presents exclusive evidence that The New York Times incorrectly identified—in a Page 1 story!—the hooded detainee shown in one of the most iconic abuse photos from the notorious Iraqi prison. (Hat tip: Huff Po)
Posted on Mar 14, 2006
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In a rare interview with the BBC, the Guantanamo detainee says that the force-feeding of hunger strikers amounts to torture: “Death in this situation is better than being alive and staying here without hope,” he says.
Posted on Mar 3, 2006
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Truly shocking: White House lawyers are arguing that the new law banning cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees does not apply to people held at Guantanamo.
Of course, we should have seen this coming when Bush, upon signing the law, brushed off Congress and America by reserving the right to ignore the law under his powers as commander in chief.
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Two years before the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the Navy’s general counsel warned the Pentagon that its wink-and-nod policies on torture would invite abuse, reports The New Yorker.
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In at least two instances, American forces have seized wives of insurgents as a means of “leverage.” | story
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Amnesty International renews its request for the prison to be shut. | story
Also, the U.S. general at the center of the detainee abuse scandal refuses to answer questions in a court-martial. | story
Posted on Jan 11, 2006
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After Bush signed the bill outlawing detainee torture, he “quietly reserved the right to bypass the law,” acccording to the Boston Globe. more
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Another Memorial Day in This Endless War
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