Guantánamo

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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09/07/2011
U.S. Torture

Ten Years Later

By Anthony D. Romero, ACLU at 2:44pm

On September 4, 2001, my first official day on the job at the ACLU, our agenda was already full as we embarked on a new decade of defending civil liberties. Just one week later, our nation’s future—and the ACLU’s — was fundamentally altered.

As we mourned the innocent victims and honored the fallen heroes of 9/11, we were reminded that America is not only the land of the free, but also the home of the brave. On the evening of the attacks, President Bush addressed the nation and stated, “Our country is strong. Terrorist acts can shake the foundation of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.”

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08/30/2011
Detention

Cheney Digs in on Legacy of Torture

By Sam Milgrom, Washington Legislative Office at 5:11pm

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is busy promoting his new book. The take-home message appears to be: He is not sorry for the torture and abuse that took place during the Bush administration.

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07/05/2011
U.S. Torture

The Value of the Rear-View Mirror

By Allie Bohm, Advocacy & Policy Strategist, ACLU at 1:32pm

Remember back in the 1980s when some cars only had one side rear-view mirror? Remember how that was later made illegal, and cars were required to have mirrors on both sides as a matter of safety?

On Friday, Gen. David Petraeus was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, "It is time to take the rear-view mirrors off the bus with respect to certain actions out there." Now, I remember driver education, and I remember the video showing just how large buses' blind spots are and just how necessary their mirrors are. As any 16-year old in drivers' ed can tell you, rear-view mirrors — and the ability to see behind yourself — are paramount to safety on the road.

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06/30/2011
Guantánamo

DOJ to Investigate Deaths of Two Detainees in CIA Custody

By Ateqah Khaki at 5:42pm

Earlier today, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department is launching a "full criminal investigation" into the deaths of two detainees in CIA custody during the Bush administration.

In August 2009, Holder asked Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Durham to open "a preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations."

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04/25/2011
Guantánamo

ACLU Lens: Guantánamo Documents Reveal Dubious Claims to Hold Detainees

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 1:38pm

Last night, a handful of news organizations released hundreds of pages of documents profiling past and present detainees held at Guantánamo. Among other things, the documents reveal:

The New York Times reports:

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03/08/2011
Indefinite Detention

ACLU Lens: New Executive Order Institutionalizes Indefinite Detention at Guantánamo

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 12:17pm

Yesterday, President Obama issued an executive order that institutionalizes the ongoing indefinite detention of detainees in U.S. custody at Guantánamo Bay. As ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero told the Washington Post, "It is virtually impossible to imagine how one closes Guantánamo in light of this executive order."

Furthermore, the Obama Administration reversed its January 2009 decision to stop bringing new military commission charges against Guantánamo detainees and announced that new trials will resume shortly. According to media reports, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is suspected of planning the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, is likely to be among the first detainees charged in new commission proceedings. The ACLU's Denny LeBoeuf blogged recently of al-Nashiri's treatment:

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02/19/2011
Guantánamo

Still Prosecuting the Little Fish at Gitmo

By Sarah Mehta, Fellow, Immigrants' Rights Project, ACLU at 9:01pm

At 5 p.m. on Friday, a jury of military officers sentenced Sudanese detainee Noor Uthman Muhammed to 14 years in prison. Shortly afterward, a military judge announced that under Muhammed's plea bargain agreement, he will serve almost three more years at Guantánamo, on top of his nearly nine years of detention (8 1/2 at Guantánamo). The jury's 14-year sentence is entirely symbolic, as Muhammed will serve the three-year sentence worked out in his plea deal, just like Gitmo detainees Ibrahim al-Qosi and Omar Khadr, who cut plea deals in July and October. (In al-Qosi's case, though the jury sentenced him to 14 years, he is serving only two additional years at Gitmo, and though the jury sentenced Khadr to 40 years, he will return to Canada within a year, where he will serve up to seven more years if he's not paroled earlier.) Under military commission rules, Gitmo detainees cannot get credit for their pretrial detention.

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02/17/2011
Guantánamo

Sentencing an Al-Qaeda Lackey

By Sarah Mehta, Fellow, Immigrants' Rights Project, ACLU at 1:19pm

Yesterday opened with the selection of jurors (the process called "voir dire") who will sentence Noor Uthman Muhammed, the Sudanese detainee who accepted a guilty plea Tuesday morning. Noor pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorist networks, on account of his involvement at a training camp in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2000. Reports have suggested that under a sealed plea deal, Muhammed will serve three more years at Guantánamo, in addition to the over eight years he has already spent in U.S. detention.

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