Guantánamo

01/09/2012
Indefinite Detention

INFOGRAPHIC: Guantánamo by the Numbers

By Ateqah Khaki at 4:48pm

Our new infographic illustrates how, over the past decade, the prison camp has become a symbol of injustice, abuse and disregard for the rule of law.

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01/08/2012
Detention

Injustice at Guantánamo: Past and Present

By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 10:38am

Wednesday marks 10 years since the prison at Guantánamo Bay opened. Former detainee Lakhdar Boumediene tells the harrowing tale of the 7 1/2 years he spent imprisoned there.

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11/10/2011
Guantánamo

ACLU in Court Defending the Freedom of Speech for Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor

By Josh Bell, Media Strategist, ACLU at 3:19pm

Today the ACLU was in court arguing that the Library of Congress violated Col. Morris Davis’s First Amendment rights when it fired him from his job at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) because of opinion pieces he wrote criticizing the Obama administration’s decision to try some Guantánamo detainees in federal courts and others in the military commissions system.

Col. Davis served as Guantánamo’s chief prosecutor until October 2007, when he resigned because he came to believe that the military commission system had become fundamentally flawed. He has openly and publicly criticized the commissions ever since.

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11/10/2011
Military Commissions

The Machinery of Death: Witness to Al-Nashiri’s First Guantánamo Hearing

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).

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11/08/2011
Guantánamo

The Road to Death at Guantánamo

By Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 4:28pm

This week, we start down the dark path to a possible execution in Guantánamo.

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10/19/2011
U.S. Torture

ACLU Studio: A Fall from Grace, or Business as Usual at Guantánamo?

By David Felsen, ACLU at 4:43pm

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.

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09/27/2011
U.S. Torture

ACLU Studio: Porter Goss, Beer Nuts and Waterboarding

By David Felsen, ACLU at 12:44pm

Apparently, former CIA Director Porter Goss' favorite party trick is to use beer nuts to show how waterboarding is really no big deal. You'll learn this and other fun facts in our inaugural ACLU Studio Podcast.

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09/19/2011
Detention

Remembering 9/11 and Reclaiming Accountability for Human Rights

By Jamil Dakwar, Director, ACLU Human Rights Program at 3:01pm

Many people in the United States and around the world remember the horrific events of September 11th, 2001 as some of the worst crimes against humanity of the last decade. These attacks savagely flouted the fundamental values of international human rights.

While the international community was united behind the U.S. call to bring those responsible to justice, the struggle against terrorism — hardly a new enterprise — took a wrong turn towards undermining the international legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms that were developed after World War II.

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09/08/2011
Detention

Tenth Anniversary of Worldwide War; A Time to Reassess Who We Are

By Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:39pm

While the country focuses on the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11, there is another tenth anniversary that is coming up next week that triggered sweeping changes around the world.

Just a few days after 9/11, Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) — a single sentence that became the legal foundation for 10 years of war and of 10 years of claims of military power to imprison or kill civilian suspects far from any battlefield. Particularly with Osama bin Laden dead, al Qaeda incapacitated, tremendous levels of casualties for American service members, horrific harms caused by war to innocent people around the world, and with a country emotionally exhausted and financially depleted from 10 years of war, it is time for all Americans to decide whether it is time to turn the page on worldwide war, and decide for ourselves whether and where our country should actually be at war.

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09/08/2011
Detention

The Legacy of 9/11: Endless War Without Oversight

By Hina Shamsi, Director, ACLU National Security Project at 4:33pm

Almost ten years after 9/11, in May of this year, a majority of the US House of Representatives voted to give President Obama — and all future presidents — more war authority than Congress gave to President Bush two days after the 9/11 attacks: a president would no longer have to show a connection to 9/11, or even any specific threat to America, before using military force anywhere in the world that a terrorism suspect may be found, including within the United States.

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