Military Commissions

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

American Civil Liberties Union