The Guantánamo Blog

Pardoned White House Turkey Slays Nine

2009-11-27T11:04:00.000-05:00

-- Pardoned White House Turkey Slays Nine digg WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - In a potentially embarrassing situation for the Obama White House, a turkey pardoned by President Obama earlier this week went on a three-state killing spree on Thanksgiving Day, killing nine. While authorities were still piecing together the motivation behind the recidivist fowl's homicidal

Latest Gitmo News

2009-11-25T14:50:00.007-05:00

There has been some things happening related to the Gitmo detainees that is of interest. First, the Supreme Court is looking at the issue of whether the US Government is free to torture people...as long as it is not on our soil.... Click here for more on the story. Also newsworthy is that the Algerian Government acquitted two men who were released back to Algeria from Guantanamo after seven

Appealing the Stays (Updated)

2009-11-21T11:20:00.002-05:00

Click on the title to read about a little reported fact From AP: that most of the men that have been cleared for release by the Obama Administration have had their habeas cases "stayed".... in other words, the Judges are refusing to hear their petitions for habeas corpus. Apparently when the "king" says..."don't worry I am taking care of things" the constitutional right to a habeas hearing (

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian

2009-11-20T12:51:00.001-05:00

JUSTINIAN...Roger Fitch Esq • November 13, 2009Our Man in WashingtonGitmo closure looms … FBI releases documents on extraordinary rendition … Rendition lawsuits bogged down in US courts … All’s well that ends well for Ali Al-MarriThe Congressional Research Service has a report out on the legal issues involved in closing Guantánamo.CLICK ON THE TITLE FOR MORE....

Uighers in Palau

2009-11-15T19:52:00.002-05:00

Click on the title for a transcript from the "Dateline" interview with the four Uighers who arrived in Palau earlier this month and their attorneys.

Government trying to cut plea deals

2009-11-15T17:42:00.004-05:00

As the January deadline approaches for closing Guantanamo alot of us our wondering just what the heck is going on with this transparent government of ours? Only a handful of men have left the place since Obama became president...and many of those that have left can thank certain Judges who ordered their release, as opposed to the Obama administration. The vast majority of the men, some of whom

Andy Worthington on Democracy Now

2009-11-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

On Democracy Now! Andy Worthington Discusses the Forthcoming 9/11 Trials and “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (Video)13.11.09I was delighted to be invited to discuss Guantánamo on Democracy Now! this morning, just an hour after the story first broke that the Obama administration is preparing to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other prisoners to the US mainland to face trials in

Appealing the Stays

2009-11-12T10:42:00.002-05:00

A little reported fact is that most of the men that have been cleared for release by the Obama Administration have had their habeas cases "stayed".... in other words, the Judges are refusing to hear their petitions for habeas corpus. Apparently when the "king" says..."don't worry I am taking care of things" the constitutional right to a habeas hearing (upheld by the Supreme Court in Boumediene)

Will they meet the NOV. 16 deadline?

2009-11-12T09:28:00.003-05:00

On Monday the Obama administration is supposed to announce its plan for the 215 men still at Guantanamo. According to the administration they will have reviewed all of the files at least once by that date and they will know which men should be set free, which will be tried and which they just don't know what the heck to do with. The last public accounting was that about 50 were to be tried, 80

More on what is going on in the Supreme Court

2009-11-11T15:26:00.004-05:00

Kiyemba II has now been filed in the Supreme Court. This is an issue that is of vital importance to both of my clients (and many other men at Gitmo) as it asks the Court to rule on whether or not my clients (and I) are entitled to 30 days notice before they are moved out of Guantanamo. The 30 days notice gives us time to petition the lower Court if in fact the Government/military intends on

Obama's Guantanamo

2009-11-09T19:26:00.002-05:00

Although the conditions of confinement for Mr. Al-Ghizzawi have improved over the course of this year there are many men at Guantanamo for whom things have not improved. Those are, for the most part, the men in Camp 5. Click on the title to read about their conditions.

Arrogance Rewarded

2009-11-09T18:02:00.007-05:00

A few months back the Government decided it could disobey a judges order and that no one would take them to task. The order was actually entered in all of the pending cases and I volunteered to be the one to take them to task. In October I reported on the first judge that ruled on this here.... now Judge Lamberth, the second judge I filed in front of has ruled. Judge Lamberth went even further

The Guantanamo Lawyers

2009-11-05T15:49:00.004-05:00

Hot off the presses is this new book which provides stories from approximately 100 of us who are representing detainees at Guantanamo. The stories are amazing...and sad.If you click on the title it will take you directly to NYU press....and you can order your own copy.

In Their Own Words....

2009-11-02T18:41:00.002-05:00

Click on the title to see and hear a depressing account of what we did to men at Guantanamo and how they are trying to rebuild their lives.

Obama's Military Commissions....

2009-11-01T11:15:00.002-05:00

Some of you have asked about the "new" military commissions that Obama signed into law last week. Click on the title for a summary by Daphne Eviatar.

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian

2009-11-01T10:01:00.001-05:00

From Justinian......The ACLU, for example, has a dedicated Torture Report web site, and the National Security Archive has an online Torture Archive.The Public Record, by contrast, has a handy list of 50 people suitable for war crimes prosecutions, including a number of torture abettors.Torture is in the courts, too. Important rulings were issued on both sides of the Atlantic on the same October

6 Uighers to Palau

2009-11-01T09:41:00.003-05:00

Friday night six of the thirteen remaining Uighers flew off to Palau to try to rebuild their lives. Congrats to attorney George Clark and attorneys at CCR for their hard work. I guess that leaves about 215 to go....(including my two clients).click here and on the title for more.

Supreme Court's friday conference meeting

2009-10-31T12:25:00.003-04:00

Yesterdays conference was full of interesting Guantanamo questions. You can read more about another issue that was brought before the court this week here. We will have to wait for the release of orders on monday morning to see what, if anything, the court is going to do with all of this.

NPR's Worldview

2009-10-26T09:47:00.004-04:00

Hey I will be back on NPR's Worldview today at noon central time. you can listen here or listen to the podcast afterward....

More Supreme Court Activity

2009-10-24T16:05:00.003-04:00

On the heels of the Supreme Court's granting of Cert in Kiyemba comes the next issue "Kiyemba II." In Kiyemba the Supreme Court will decide if the Courts in granting habeas cases can order the men released in the US. In Kiyemba II the Court will be asked to decide if the Courts can bar the transfer of men to countries where the men fear torture or abuse. Both of these cases are important for men

MAY WE HAVE MORE HAPPY ENDINGS....

2009-10-23T15:04:00.000-04:00

AN UPDATE ON THE UIGHERS IN BERMUDA..........

MUSICIANS AGAINST TORTURE....

2009-10-22T10:10:00.000-04:00

AGAIN FROM FIREDOGLAKE:"On Tuesday, I reported a new campaign to close Gitmo (the campaign website is now live). Today, a bunch of musicians are the joining the National Campaign against Torture to FOIA information on how music was used in the government’s torture program."

Amherst steps up to the plate!

2009-10-21T15:49:00.004-04:00

It is nice when communities can see past the fear mongering and try to do the right thing.Click on the title for more.

Generals New Close Gitmo Now Campaign

2009-10-21T10:24:00.003-04:00

There is a new campaign underway to get Congress behind the closing of Gitmo...not just by allowing men to be tried here but to stop the fearmongering and allow some men that have been held wrongly all of these years and who are innocent of any wrongdoing to come here...to these united states. We cannot ask the rest of the world to help with the closing of Gitmo when we refuse to do the right

Our hero's....

2009-10-20T22:20:00.003-04:00

The Supreme court has once again stepped into the mess made by our courts (mostly, but not entirely, by the DC Circuit Court) and has agreed to take on yet another Guantanamo Cert Petition. Read what ScotUS has to say and once you finish that look to see what our friend the talking dog has to say. Last but certainly not least read this latest blog from Andy Worthington. I am just back from