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Archive for the 'Military Commission' Category

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01
Jul

Guantanamo detainee charged with USS Cole bombing

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Detainee and Military Commission

Mike Rosen-Molina

Photo source or description

[JURIST] US Department of Defense [official website] prosecutors announced Monday they had filed charges [press release] related to the 2000 al Qaeda attack [US DOD inquiry report; JURIST news archive] on the USS Cole [official website] against Guantanamo Bay detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri [Globalsecurity backgrounder]. Al-Nashiri, a Saudi national, is charged with terrorism, attempted murder, and providing material support to terrorism, among other offenses. The charges fall under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text; JURIST news archive] and must now be approved by Convening Authority Susan J. Crawford, who will decide whether to refer the charges to military commission. AP has more.

Last year, al-Nashiri said that his confession to planning the USS Cole attack was coerced through torture [JURIST report] at Guantanamo. In 2004, a Yemeni security court charged [JURIST report] al-Nashiri in absentia in connection with the attack, saying he belonged to the al Qaeda terrorist network. In 2005, a Yemeni appeals court upheld a death sentence [JURIST reports] against al-Nashiri.

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20
Jun

Boumediene Jurisdiction Correction Act

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Boumediene v. Bush Decision, Military Commission and Military Tribunal

By Linda G. Richard

Well, that certainly didn’t take long. On June 12, 2008 the Supreme Court of the United States of America made a historic decision that never should have been necessary. In 2006, Bush found it in the best interest of his agenda to keep the detainees of his war on Afghanistan locked up illegally for as long as possible. Congress enacted the Military Commissions act, which basically took away Habeas Corpus.

His excuse for this was “To authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes.” It was a knee-jerk reaction to Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which stated that the military commissions act of 2005’s “structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949.”

Whatever Bush wants, Bush gets.. until June 12, that is.

Perhaps our celebrations were premature. Rep John B. Shadegg, bless his little neocon heart, introduced H.R.6274, “To provide an equivalent to habeas corpus protection for persons held under military authority under that part of Cuba leased to the United States.” He introduced this little gem on June 17, 2008. This bill is called “Boumediene Jurisdiction Correction Act”, if you can believe that one. We need to correct Supreme Court decisions now, imagine that.

Let me think, why is Arizona so familiar? Oh yes! John McCain is from Arizona, too! What a coincidence. Better yet, I wonder what political and/or monetary favors McCain (or McManchurian as I fondly call him) owes ol’ Johnny B?

Partners in crime (Co-Sponsors) include:

Rep Bachmann, Michele [MN-6] - 6/18/2008
Rep Fallin, Mary [OK-5] - 6/18/2008
Rep Garrett, Scott [NJ-5] - 6/18/2008
Rep Gingrey, Phil [GA-11] - 6/18/2008
Rep Issa, Darrell E. [CA-49] - 6/18/2008
Rep Latta, Robert E. [OH-5] - 6/18/2008
Rep Myrick, Sue Wilkins [NC-9] - 6/18/2008
Rep Pence, Mike [IN-6] - 6/18/2008
Rep Pitts, Joseph R. [PA-16] - 6/18/2008
Rep Price, Tom [GA-6] - 6/18/2008
Rep Shimkus, John [IL-19] - 6/18/2008
Rep Sullivan, John [OK-1] - 6/18/2008
Rep Wamp, Zach [TN-3] - 6/18/2008
Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. [GA-3] - 6/18/2008

Status: Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. (ASAP I imagine since the the Habeas petitions are already in and pouring in)

Please do take a moment to read the full text of the measure. Just grab a cup of tea - better yet something soft that can be thrown across the room without actually breaking anything, and peruse the hastily written document.

Then hastily write some documents to the pawns, er, politicians above, and don’t forget dear old Johnny B. Drop a line to McManchurian while you’re at it, and let him know that you have a pretty good idea of where ol’ Johnny B. got this bright idea.

After all that.. visit Johnny B. for Congress here.

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08
Jun

Detainee’s Attorney Seeks Dismissal Over Abuse

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Abuse, Angel/Attorney, Detainee, Detainee Abuse, Guantanamo, Maj David Frakt, Military Commission, Mohamed Jawad, Torture and human rights

Man Accused of Trying to Kill Troops Was Moved Cell to Cell, 112 Times in 14 Days

A military defense attorney for a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has asked that all charges against his client be dismissed after prosecutors provided him documents that show the detainee was subjected to an abusive technique that had been banned at the facility, calling the treatment a violation of the law of war and U.S. laws and policies.

According to Guantanamo prison records, Mohammed Jawad was subjected to the military’s “frequent flier program” in May 2004, which meant he was moved repeatedly from one detention cell to another in quick intervals and usually at night, a program designed to deprive detainees of sleep. Such sleep deprivation was banned at the facility in March 2004, and other prison records indicate that it was used on detainees as late as July 2004.

Air Force Maj. David Frakt, who represents Jawad, said prison logs show that his client was moved 112 times in 14 days between cells L40 and L48, for no apparent reason. Frakt alleges Jawad had no intelligence value and was abused maliciously.

Click here to read the rest of Detainee’s Attorney Seeks Dismissal Over Abuse

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05
Jun

Al-Qaeda’s Mohammed Asks to Be `Martyred’ for Attacks (Updated)

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Black Site, Detainee Abuse, Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Military Commission and human rights

(Bloomberg) — Self-proclaimed al-Qaeda commander Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, he would welcome the martyrdom of execution for masterminding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.

“This is what I wish,” Mohammed, speaking in English, told a judge who warned that he might be executed if convicted. “I am looking to be martyred for a long time.” Mohammed said he was rejecting legal representation and will defend himself. “Nothing shall befall us, save for what Allah has ordained for us.”

Click here to read the rest of Al-Qaeda’s Mohammed Asks to Be `Martyred’ for Attacks (Updated)

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05
Jun

Terror suspect censors his courtroom sketch

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Detainee, Guantanamo, High Profile, Kangaroo Kourt, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Military Commission, Politics and September 11 Six

Bravo! There is one right he was actually afforded! Personally - I don’t use the photo of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad that shows him “after torture.” To me that’s just perpetuating the dehumanization process. We have enough of that already in our mainstream medial. I will use a photo that actually looks like him. For instance, see below:

Pre-Torture

Pre-Torture
Post-Torture

Post-Torture

BY CAROL ROSENBERG

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed was granted — and wielded — the right to censor his own courtroom sketch Thursday.

Pool sketch artist Janet Hamlin said that a court security officer brought her drawing to Mohammed inside the courtroom for approval during a lunchtime recess at the arraignment.

From a window in the spectators gallery, Hamlin could see the Pakistani-born, U.S.-educated captive lean back in hiscourt chair, hold up the image — and point disapprovingly at a portion.

‘He said, `Look at my FBI photo. Fix the nose. Then bring it back to me,’ ” she said, quoting the instructions to her — as related through the U.S. officer.

Click here to read the rest of Terror suspect censors his courtroom sketch

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05
Jun

Afghan Fantasist to Face Trial at Guantanamo

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Afghanistan, Detainee, Guantanamo, Kangaroo Kourt, Military Commission, Politics and USA

By Andy Worthington
Now here’s a weird one to ponder on the eve of the arraignments at Guantánamo of five prisoners — including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — who are charged with facilitating the 9/11 attacks.
I’ve always thought that there was something particularly perverse about charging minor Afghan insurgents in specially conceived “terror courts” at Guantánamo, as though there was any case whatsoever to be made that a national of a country at war with the United States could, by resisting foreign occupation, be regarded as a terrorist rather than as a soldier in a war.

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04
Jun

Briton held in Guantanamo charged with war crimes despite pleas to free him

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Abuse, Binyam Mohammed, Detainee Abuse, Guantanamo, High Profile, Military Commission, Torture and UK

A British man held at Guantanamo Bay is to be charged with war crimes, despite pleas from the UK to release him.

Binyam Mohamed, 30, has been accused of plotting with al-Qaeda to bomb apartment buildings in America.

The Government requested last year that he be released from the notorious U.S. Navy base in Cuba, but the Pentagon have confirmed they have filed charges against him.

Binyam Mohamed has been charged with terrorism offences

Mohamed, who is originally from Ethiopia, is the 20th detainee selected to face the military tribunals at Guantanamo, and the fifth in the last week.

Susan Crawford, a Pentagon official who oversees the tribunal system, must approve the charges before an arraignment is scheduled.

Lawyers for Mohamed have argued that the U.S. case against him rests on evidence obtained in Morocco.

They allege his genitals were slashed with a scalpel and he was repeatedly beaten during two years of confinement following his capture in 2002.

All the evidence against him appears to have been “derived from coercive interrogation and torture,” civilian attorney Clive Stafford Smith and military counsel Air Force Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley said in a letter urging Crawford to dismiss the charges.

His lawyers filed a lawsuit back in the UK last month seeking to force the British government to hand over documents they claim prove the prisoner was tortured before being sent to Guantanamo in 2004.

Mohamed, moved to Britain when he was 15, travelled to Afghanistan in May 2001 and trained at an al-Qaeda camp, according to the U.S. charge sheet released yesterday.

They allege he later accepted instructions from al-Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to conduct terror operations inside the United States.

Click here to read the rest of Briton held in Guantanamo charged with war crimes despite pleas to free him

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03
Jun

Lawyers urge 9/11 charges dismissal

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", Abuse, Black Site, Children, Death Penalty, Detainee, Detainee Abuse, Extended Solitary Confinement, Extraordinary Rendition, Family, Ghost, Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Military Commission, Torture, human rights and waterboarding
Lawyers defending Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and four other Guantanamo detainees have asked for the presiding military judge to dismiss their cases, saying the timing is politically motivated.
khalid_shaikh_mohammed_1
The men are to stand trial over the attacks on September 15, according to the court filing quoted by AP.
However the men’s lawyers say the date for the trials, coming only a few weeks before the US presidential election, is politically motivated.
The news comes as three other detainees were charged on Thursday with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism.
‘Strategic value’
Mohammed and the four other detainees are to be arraigned in a US military court on June 5 on charges including murder and conspiracy.

“It is safe to say that there are senior officials in the military commission process who believe that there would be strategic political value to having these five men sitting in a death chamber on November 4, 2008″

Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian Mizer

However, Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian Mizer, one of the men’s lawyers, said in Thursday’s court filing that their trial date could prejudice the outcome of the case.

“It is safe to say that there are senior officials in the military commission process who believe that there would be strategic political value to having these five men sitting in a death chamber on November 4, 2008,” Mizer is quoted by AP as saying.
The other men facing charges include Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, known as Ammar al-Baluchi and a nephew of Mohammed, al-Baluchi’s assistant Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, from Saudi Arabia, and Waleed bin Attash, reportedly from Yemen.
A sixth man, Mohammed al-Qahtani, whom the Pentagon had alleged was the “20th hijacker” in the September 11 attacks, had charges against him dropped.
Controversy over the upcoming trial of Mohammed arose after the US authorities admitted earlier this year that he had been “waterboarded” - an interrogation method designed to simulate the sensation of drowning - by CIA investigators before he reportedly confessed.
Further charges
Also on Thursday, three more Guantanamo Bay detainees were charged with identical counts of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism.
The men are Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi, from Saudi Arabia, who is alleged to have visited al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden, Jabran Said bin al-Qahtani, also from Saudi Arabia, and Algerian detainee Sufyian Barhoumi.
Al-Qahtani is also accused of attending an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and learning how to make explosives, while Barhoumi is accused of being an explosives trainer for the group.
The proposed charges will be reviewed by Susan Crawford, the US defence department official in charge of the military commissions, who must approve them before the men can face trial.
http://tinyurl.com/4frqm6
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01
Jun

Army Judge Is Replaced for Trial of Detainee

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Kangaroo Kourt, Military Commission and Omar Khadr

by: William Glaberson, The New York Times

photo

In this courtroom sketch, Omar Khadr attends
his war-crimes trial in Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba Thursday, May 8, 2008. Khadr’s defense
attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr William Kuebler, calls
the sudden replacement of the military judge in
Khadr’s case, Col. Peter E. Brownback III, ”
very odd.”
(Photo: Janet Hamlin / Courtesy CBC)


The chief judge at Guantánamo replaced the military judge in one of the most closely watched war crimes cases on Thursday, creating a new controversy in the military commission system and the potential for new delays.

The decision to replace the judge, Col. Peter E. Brownback III, came without explanation from the chief military judge, Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann. Judge Brownback has been presiding over pretrial proceedings in the prosecution of Omar Ahmed Khadr, a 21-year-old Canadian charged with the killing of an American serviceman in Afghanistan.

Pentagon spokesmen said Judge Brownback, a retired Army judge who was recalled to hear Guantánamo cases in 2004, would return to retirement as a result of “a mutual decision” between the judge and the Army.

But defense lawyers and critics of Guantánamo said there had been no warning of the change and suggested that he had been removed because of a recent ruling that was a rebuke to prosecutors.

During a proceeding on May 8, Judge Brownback expressed irritation that military prosecutors had failed to turn over records of Mr. Khadr’s incarceration to defense lawyers. He threatened to stop pretrial proceedings if the records were not supplied by May 22. They met that deadline.

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31
May

Still silenced in Guantánamo

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Abuse, Detainee, Detainee Abuse, Guantanamo and Military Commission

After years spent here, one prisoner pins his hope on a single phone call from the outside world — if it ever comes.

Editor’s note: Read Salon’s full coverage of U.S. judicial proceedings at Guantánamo Bay.

By Carol Chodroff

  • GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — It wasn’t easy getting to court last week to observe the military hearing for Ibrahim al-Qosi, a 47-year-old Sudanese national and an alleged driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, whom the U.S. government wants to put on trial at Guantánamo Bay. Besides having to pass through three metal detectors, I was searched by several armed guards and asked to lift up my blouse before I was granted access to the military commission building where a new form of justice, Guantánamo-style, is being tested. A trip to the porta-potty required accompaniment by a military escort, who stood outside with four military police until I re-emerged.

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30
May

Latest Gitmo Setback: The Delayed Trial of Salim Hamdan

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Detainee, Military Commission and Salim Hamdan
By Andy Worthington, Andy Worthington’s Blog
Posted on May 28, 2008, Printed on May 29, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/86657/

For most of 2008, the media’s interest in Guantánamo has focused not on the majority of the 273 prisoners who are still held there without charge or trial and largely unknown to the outside world, but on the 13 who have been plucked from the grinding obscurity of indefinite detention to face trial by Military Commission, an innovation unrelated to either the U.S. courts or the U.S. military’s own judicial processes that was conceived in November 2001 by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisers.

Click here to read the rest of Latest Gitmo Setback: The Delayed Trial of Salim Hamdan

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27
May

Lawless in Guantánamo

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Detainee and Military Commission

Even an Air Force colonel who once prosecuted detainees here is condemning military commissions at the prison as politicized and unjust.
By Jennifer Daskal

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — “Everyone tells me the law. But where is the law?” asked Salim Hamdan, in a courtroom here on Monday morning. Hamdan was dressed in his khaki prison garb, his forehead wrinkled and eyes dulled, his shoulders hunched. The 37-year-old detainee’s military commissions case once made it all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court, which delivered a powerful rebuke to the Bush administration in Hamdan’s favor. But you wouldn’t have known it now, nearly two years later.
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27
May

Inside the Guantánamo terror trials

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Abuse, Detainee, Detainee Abuse, Military Commission and boycott military commision

A bruised-up detainee rejects the proceedings, and his lawyer discovers that military officials withheld records about his client’s mental health

By Carol Chodroff

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — As a former federal defender, I’ve been to countless court hearings, but Wednesday was the first time I had to take a speedboat, equipped with two M2 50-caliber machine guns, to get to court. That’s because Wednesday was also my first experience with the military commissions at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, where the U. S. government is putting 15 terror suspects on trial.

The first hearing was an arraignment of Mohammad Kamin, a thin, frail Afghan, estimated to be about 30 years old, whom the United States accuses of providing material support for terrorism by receiving arms training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan for several months in 2003.
Click here to read the rest of Inside the Guantánamo terror trials

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24
May

Canadian court rules gov’t grant access to Guantanamo Bay documents

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Children, Detainee Abuse, Military Commission and Minor

OTTAWA,  (Xinhua) — The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday that the Canadian government must allow access to confidential documents requested by lawyers for Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr.

Khadr’s lawyers have been seeking the documents, saying they could be crucial to their client’s defense in his upcoming U. S. military trial. The demand has been rejected by the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
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20
May

Guantanamo Trial Delayed

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Andy Worthington, Detainee, Military Commission and Torture

By ANDY WORTHINGTON

For most of 2008, the media’s interest in Guantanamo has focused not on the majority of the 273 prisoners who are still held there without charge or trial and largely unknown to the outside world, but on the 13 who have been plucked from the grinding obscurity of indefinite detention to face trial by Military Commission, an innovation unrelated to either the US courts or the US military’s own judicial processes that was conceived in November 2001 by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisers.

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20
May

Lawyer: suspect at Guantanamo attempted suicide

By Dazeylin 0 Comments
Categories: Detainee Abuse, Guantanamo, Kangaroo Kourt, Lies of the U.S. Administration, Mental Health, Military Commission, Military Tribunal, Suicide Attempt, Torture, URGENT Health Issue, URGENT Mental Health Issues, human rights, religious abuse<