Guantanamo prisoners

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Advisers to Bush: You Asked for It
Advisers to Bush: You Asked for It

Advisers to Bush: You Asked for It

Lawyers warned him that detainee policy would backfire

(Newser) - President Bush ignored warnings that his detainee policy would spark a Supreme Court backlash, the Washington Post reports. Top lawyers both in and outside Washington said that jailing suspects without Congressional approval would push the court to rule on national security—but the White House either ignored the advice or...

Fierce Military Lawyers Take On Gitmo Fight

Defense attorneys wage tough battles for terror suspect clients

(Newser) - Military lawyers appointed to represent Guantanamo prisoners have been fighting in their clients' corner with unexpected fierceness, the New York Times reports. The lawyers have infuriated prosecutors by challenging the administration's war crimes system and demanding rights for their clients. One of them describes the task as a "historic...

High Court's Gitmo Ruling Raises Election Issue
High Court's Gitmo Ruling Raises Election Issue
ANALYSIS

High Court's Gitmo Ruling Raises Election Issue

Landmark ruling could be lightning rod for focus on the court's direction

(Newser) - The Supreme Court's ruling on Guantanamo detainees may put the court in the election spotlight for the first time in decades, Linda Greenhouse writes in the New York Times. The dramatic language of Antonin Scalia's dissent could be a signpost for conservatives worried about the court's course; because of the...

Gitmo Will Be Transformed, Not Closed
Gitmo Will Be Transformed, Not Closed
ANALYSIS

Gitmo Will Be Transformed, Not Closed

Court ruling strips base of its legal rationale for US

(Newser) - The Supreme Court's ruling yesterday against the Bush administration will not shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention center. But by concluding that detainees can appeal their detention in US civilian courts, the high court stripped away its reason for being, erasing the government's claim that an offshore prison was beyond...

'Landmark' Gitmo Ruling Is a Blow Against Tyranny

Justices rebuke Bush and restore one of the nation's founding principles

(Newser) - Today's Supreme Court decision giving Guantanamo Bay prisoners the right to challenge their detention "will be one of the most celebrated landmark rulings of this generation," Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon. By upholding habeas corpus—a rebuke to the Bush administration and complicit pols of all stripes—the...

Destroying Key Records Was Standard at Gitmo

US interrogators told to 'minimize certain legal issues' in questioning detainees

(Newser) - Guantanamo Bay interrogators were urged to destroy notes from interviews with detainees, including Canadian Omar Khadr, documents suggest. Minimizing interrogation records “can minimize certain legal issues,” reads a Guantanamo operational manual for intelligence teams shown to Khadr’s lawyers. The case against Khadr is thought to be based...

Alleged 9/11 Leader Faces Gitmo Tribunal

Doubts about fairness attend trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

(Newser) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, will be arraigned today at a special military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay, reports the Washington Post. Five years after his arrest in Pakistan, the detainee and four others will appear in a specially designed, $4 million courtroom to...

US Slammed for Secret 'Floating Prisons'

Prisoners held far from courts and scrutiny, human rights group charges

(Newser) - The US has detained terror suspects on some 17 naval ships that have been used as secret "floating prisons" around the world since 2001, according to a study by the human rights organization Reprieve. At least 50 prisoners were held on a single ship and delivered to unknown locations,...

Gitmo Defense Lawyers See Case as a 'Privilege'

They take it pro bono to 'rein in' federal abuse

(Newser) - Defending a Guantanamo Bay detainee isn't a normal pro bono case for Seattle corporate lawyers used to making $575 an hour, the Post-Intelligencer reports: But Harry Schneider and Joe McMillan say the "effort to rein in" what they see as President Bush's legal abuse is motivation enough. "Even...

'20th Hijacker' Tried Suicide at Gitmo

Detainee 'lost all hope' after learning of capital charges

(Newser) - A man accused of being al-Qaeda's 20th 9/11 hijacker tried to kill himself at Guantanamo Bay last month, Reuters reports. A lawyer for the Saudi said he cut his wrist open after learning that the Pentagon had filed capital charges against him. The charges were dropped last week without explanation...

Charges Dropped Against '20th Hijacker'

Case against other accused 9/11 planners will go forward

(Newser) - The US has dropped charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, who allegedly planned to be the “20th hijacker” in the 9/11 attacks, Reuters reports. The US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay rejected the charges against Qahtani “without prejudice,” meaning that the Saudi citizen may yet face prosecution. The charges...

Judge Purges General From Gitmo Case
Judge Purges General From Gitmo Case

Judge Purges General From Gitmo Case

Says he's not impartial; move could throw wrench in 9/11 trials

(Newser) - A military judge has expelled a Pentagon general from the case of a Guantanamo detainee in a move that could open the military tribunal system to further attacks. The judge said the general—who is supposed to be impartial as overseer of the Gitmo legal process—worked too closely with...

9/11 Suspects Won't See Trial on Bush Watch

Lack of precedent has Gitmo cases moving at snail's pace

(Newser) - Guantanamo Bay inmates likely will not be tried for charges connected to the Sept. 11 attacks while President Bush is still in office, US officials say. The system set up in 2006 for trying charges brought against the prisoners is crawling. "Every little detail ends up being contested, because...

Newsman Freed From Gitmo After 6 Years

Al-Jazeera cameraman held for 6 years

(Newser) - A cameraman was released yesterday from the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay after being held without charges for 6 years. Al-Jazeera's Sami al-Hajj, who has been on a hunger strike, was immediately taken to a hospital in Khartoum. "I've been dreaming of this moment," said the Sudanese...

Gitmo Drives Detainees Crazy: Lawyers
Gitmo Drives Detainees Crazy: Lawyers

Gitmo Drives Detainees Crazy: Lawyers

As trials draw near, prisoners' mental health at issue

(Newser) - Osama bin Laden's driver can't help his lawyers prepare his defense because he's been driven mad by years of isolation at Guantanamo Bay, his lawyers say. The conditions "boil his mind" and prevent a fair trial, they say, an argument that will become increasingly common as lawyers begin preparing...

Gitmo Prisoner Hails 9/11 at Court Hearing

He plans to skip future court sessions

(Newser) - A terror suspect told a military court at Guantanamo yesterday that he didn't recognize its legitimacy, and praised the 9/11 attacks. "I believe that Osama bin Laden has succeeded in a great way in attacking you," said Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, the Sudanese man accused of being...

Gitmo Detainees' Military Tribunals Mired in a Host of Snags

Untested system for 9/11 suspects stalling

(Newser) - Six men detained in Guantanamo in connection with the 9/11 attacks were charged with war crimes two months ago—they were to be the first defendants in President Bush's never-tested military commission system. But not a single one has even met their counsel yet because military lawyers are in extremely...

Lawyers Declare Innocence of Waterboarding Victim

Gitmo detainee 'was never in al Qaeda'

(Newser) - Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah isn’t a member of al Qaeda or the Taliban, his lawyers contend, and he’s never tried to harm American citizens. Held in CIA secret prisons and waterboarded, Zubaydah wasn’t given anything “that would satisfy even the most basic notions of due process,...

Gitmo Prisoners Granted Phone Call to Family

They'll get just one a year, along with censored letters

(Newser) - "Unlawful enemy combatants" detained at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will be allowed to phone their families one a year, Reuters reports. But the military task force in charge of managing the prison has yet to work out the details. As it stands, Gitmo inmates can send and receive...

Gitmo Lawyers Probe Cheney Link to Leak

VP's office accused of tampering with high-profile trial

(Newser) - Lawyers for a Canadian held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 are investigating allegations that Dick Cheney's office defied a court order and leaked a damning video about their client to "60 Minutes," the National Post reports. The footage, which appears to show Omar Khadr building a roadside bomb,...

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