Guantánamo

04/04/2012
Guantánamo

9/11 Suspects To Be Tried in Broken Guantánamo Military Commissions System

By Ateqah Khaki at 1:35pm

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.

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03/27/2012
U.S. Torture

Accountability for U.S. Torture — But in Poland

By Anna Estevao, National Security Project at 1:21pm

A Polish investigation into CIA black sites has made a meaningful step towards accountability for torture. Zbigniew Siematkowski, former chief of Polish intelligence services, has reportedly been charged with "unlawful deprivation of liberty" and "corporal punishment" against prisoners of war for facilitating the CIA's torture of terror suspects in Poland. Jameel Jaffer, ACLU Deputy Legal Director, had this reaction:

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03/21/2012
Universal Human Rights

New Briefing Paper: Obama's Unfinished Business on Human Rights

By Devon Chaffee, Legislative Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:46pm

Today, the ACLU laid out concrete steps the Obama administration should take to live up to the human rights promises it made to the U.N. just over one year ago. The release of our new briefing paper coincides with the administration's announcement today of a newly created interagency process for implementing those commitments. The new process is a step in the right direction, and will establish working groups in areas such as criminal justice, immigration, and national security.

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02/29/2012
Guantánamo

Guantánamo Plea Deal Tainted by Torture

By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 12:42pm

Former CIA prisoner Majid Khan has pled guilty and agreed to testify against other Guantánamo prisoners in exchange for a sentence of no more than 19 years.

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02/09/2012
Detention

Holes in GOP Guantánamo Report Only Highlight the True Problems

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.

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01/19/2012
Guantánamo

Report from Guantánamo Hearings: When Due Process is a Matter of Life and Death

By Devon Chaffee, Legislative Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:39pm

After two lengthy days of arguments, the al-Nashiri case seems hardly closer to coming to trial. Defense counsel suggested the trial wouldn't even begin until 2015.

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01/17/2012
Guantánamo

Guantánamo and the Death Penalty: Two Terrible Ideas Come Together

By Denny LeBoeuf, Capital Punishment Project at 1:38pm

The "new" military commission has a new motto: "Fairness, Transparency, Justice." But this week is all about a system that cannot seem to provide basic rights to a defendant.

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01/11/2012
Guantánamo

Guantánamo Chief Defense Lawyer Orders His Attorneys: Don't Agree to Monitoring

By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 5:12pm

Ten years on, Guantánamo authorities are back to their old tricks, throwing up roadblocks to fair trials. But now the top defense lawyer for the controversial Guantánamo military commission system has ordered the attorneys under his command not to comply with new rules issued by the Guantánamo prison chief that require Defense Department screening of all written materials lawyers want to send to their clients.

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01/11/2012
Guantánamo

ACLU Studio: An Innocent Man in Guantánamo

By David Felsen, ACLU at 10:54am

Former Guantánamo detainee Lakhdar Boumediene speaks about the 7 1/2 years he spent in detention without charge or trial.

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01/10/2012
Indefinite Detention

Check Out Our "Close Gitmo" Activist Toolkit!

By Ateqah Khaki at 5:45pm

Tomorrow marks 10 years since the first prisoners were sent to the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, making it the longest-standing war prison in U.S. history.

To learn how you can amplify the call to close Guantánamo, once and for all, check out our new activist toolkit.

And in case you missed them, be sure to check out the “Gitmo by the Numbers” Infographic that we blogged about yesterday, and our blog post about Lakhdar Boumediene, an innocent man who was imprisoned at Guantánamo for seven and a half years without charge or trial. Tomorrow, we’ll feature a podcast conversation with Mr. Boumediene.

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