By Alexander Abdo, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 4:10pm
In Guantánamo Bay last week, I had an enlightening opportunity to talk with Brigadier General Mark Martins—the Chief Prosecutor of the military commissions—along with a handful of other NGO observers of the commissions. There was no agenda for our meeting, but we quickly launched into a vibrant discussion of the wisdom and legality of the military commissions.
By Alexander Abdo, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 5:08pm
At the Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay this week, military commission proceedings have resumed in the capital case against Abd al-Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al-Nashiri, a 47-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia, who is facing a possible death sentence for his alleged involvement in the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole over a decade ago. Apprehended in 2002, Mr. al-Nashiri was held by the CIA for four years in secret before his transfer to military custody. According to a 2004 CIA Inspector General report, he was waterboarded and threatened during an interrogation with a power drill and handgun.
This weekend, Bill Moyers’ public television show is devoting a full hour to Reckoning With Torture, the innovative film project by director Doug Liman, the ACLU, and PEN American Center. The movie will tell the story of America’s torture program using the government’s own documents. Here’s a preview of the upcoming Moyers & Company episode: http://billmoyers.com/segment/preview-reckoning-with-torture/
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other prisoners accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks will soon be tried at a military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay, despite the Obama administration's earlier stated intention to try the men in federal court.
On Sunday, a New York Times editorial lamented that despite improvements in the military commission system made by the Obama administration, "even the best-managed trial will not be able to change the fact that this country has in the last decade accepted too many damaging and unnecessary changes to its fundamental principles of justice and human rights."
Today, the cases of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other prisoners accused of participating in the 9/11 attacks were officially referred for trial by military commission at Guantánamo Bay. Prosecutors have 30 days to hold an arraignment, which American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony D. Romero plans to attend. In April 2011, the Obama administration reversed a 2009 decision to try the men in federal court and decided instead to try them at Guantánamo using military commissions that have been broadly criticized.
By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 1:59pm
The republicans on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations released a report today rehashing old accusations about Guantánamo prisoner "recidivism." The report criticizes the Bush and Obama administrations for their release decisions and repeats without question or adequate verification claims that 27 percent of prisoners released from Guantánamo are either confirmed or suspected to have "reengaged in terrorist activities." Not a single democrat signed on to the report, which is unusual for this subcommittee when it comes to national security issues, and actually the democrats released a dissent.
By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 1:25pm
Yesterday, the man accused of planning the 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing appeared before the world for the first time, nine years after his capture, at a military commission hearing at Guantánamo. I was there to observe the proceedings for the ACLU.
The arraignment of Abd al-Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al-Nashiri (pronounced al-NAH-shiri) was the beginning of what will likely be a years-long death penalty trial before a military commission. Mr. al-Nashiri wore a white smock and trousers (similar to a doctor's scrubs, just a bit thicker and baggier).
Many people saw the torture and abuse of prisoners and indefinite detention at Guantánamo Bay in the wake of 9/11 as a fall from grace. Harvard Historian, Jonathan Hansen disagrees. “America,” he says, “scarcely has any grace to fall from.”
In this episode of ACLU Studio, ACLU National Security Project Litigation Director, Ben Wizner talks with Hansen about his new book, Guantánamo, An American History. Listen and learn how Guantánamo is a reflection of America; revealing the good, the bad and the ugly.
