Charges Dropped on Five Gitmo Detainees
The government is dropping the charges because the cases have been tainted by torture, and because the prosecution has deliberately withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense:
Detainee Being Held as “Enemy Combatant” in Floating Prison Is Losing His Sanity
Yesterday, matttbastard wrote an important piece about a federal judge’s decision ordering the Bush administration to immediately transfer to the United States and release 17 Chinese Uighur detainees who have been held illegally at Guantanamo for seven years.
Judge Orders Release of Unlawfully Held Uighur Prisoners
Well, it’s about goddamn time:
In a dramatic setback for the Bush administration, a federal judge ordered the U.S. government Tuesday to immediately transfer to the U.S. and release 17 Chinese-born Muslims detained for seven years at Guantanamo.
Reading his decision from the bench, Judge Ricardo Urbina declared the continued detention of the group from the ethnic Uighur minority to be “unlawful” and ordered the government to transfer the detainees to the U.S. by Friday.
The decision marked the first time a court has ordered the release of Guantanamo detainees into the U.S.
[...]
Dozens of members of a Uighur-American organization attending the hearing reacted to his words with applause.
“The American system has given us justice,” said Rebia Kadeer, president of the World Uighur Congress.
Hamdan Gets 5.5 Years (Plus Time Served)
Carol Rosenberg of The Miami Herald reports from beautiful, sunny Guantanamo Bay:
In a stunning rebuke, a six-member U.S. military jury Thursday ignored a Pentagon prosecutor’s plea for a 30 years-plus term and ordered Osama bin Laden’s driver to 66 months in prison.
With credit for time served given by the judge, that means Salim Hamdan, 40, of Yemen will be sent back to the general detainee population of Camp Delta by January, and eligible to return home.
[...]
In court, Hamdan’s longest-serving defense attorney, retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, clasped the more diminutive Yemeni in a bearhug and both men openly wept.
Afterwards, Swift vowed that lawyers would work to send Hamdan home to his wife and two daughters by January. Lawyers were prepared to go straight to federal court with a habeas corpus petition, he said, were the U.S. to seek to continue to hold the driver after the sentence were done.
”What happened — despite the system — is justice,” said Swift.
[...]
After the jury’s verdict, the judge turned to the convicted terrorist and said:
“I wish you godspeed, Mr. Hamdan. I hope the day comes when you return to your wife and your daughters and your country.”
”God willing,” the man in traditional Yemeni robe and head scarf replied in Arabic, interrupting.
The judge continued: “And I hope that you are able to be a father, and a provider, and a husband in the best sense of the word.”
Then the detainee said it again: “Inshallah.”
Allred replied in Arabic. “Inshallah.”
On Kangaroo Courts and Dry Runs: Hamden is Ready For His Close-Up
Tomorrow marks an historic occasion: the first military commission trial of a so-called ‘enemy combatant’ in the War on Terror is scheduled to take place at beautiful, sunny Guantanamo. And Osama Bin Laden’s chauffeur–a prime example of “the worst of the worst”, IMO–is the lucky duck who’s been given the opportunity to see post-9/11 justice in action:
The Articles That Got Away
I admit, I missed some:
The great thing about Tom Friedman is that he never gives us a chance to forget what an idiot he is.
Colonialism off: Pres. Bush will not get his Status of Forces Agreement before he leaves office.
Jeralyn’s post about the Omar Khadr interrogation video includes links to transcripts of previous trial proceedings and TalkLeft’s prior coverage of the case.
Matthew Yglesias’s post, “War for War’s Sake,” is one of his last as an Atlantic contributor (he’s moving to the Center for American Progress).
Ron Beasley writes about a radioactive river.
We already know that John McCain called his wife a “cunt.” Now we find out he is a fan of rape jokes as well.
Did you know that the only way to get around Arizona is by small private plane?
Over 100 University of Chicago professors have signed a letter to the university president objecting to the university’s new $200 million investment.
The Bush administration is trying to push through a new rule requiring recipients of federal health aid funding to certify that opposition to abortion or to contraception will not be a bar to employment. (To bypass compulsory free registration, go to www.bugmenot.com.)
Maliki wants the Green Zone back, too.
If I Write About It, I’ll Feel Better
I’m starting to notice a trend among far right bloggers. Instead of insisting that particular interrogation techniques like waterboarding are not torture, and that what the rest of the world calls torture is not torture at all but simply “aggressive interrogation,” bloggers on the right are starting to acknowledge — sometimes tacitly, sometimes outright — that torture is torture.
Chris Dodd Gives Hope To Constitution Advocates
I’m listening to the audio of Chris Dodd’s speech on the Senate floor last night about why immunity for telecoms is such a terrible idea. This is a take-no-prisoners speech. One of the best things Dodd does is tie together all the other constitutional crimes committed by the Bush administration, and he makes it clear they are not separate issues and should not be treated as if they were:
The Banality of Evil, Redux
The great and wonderful Dahlia Lithwick reflects on the Bush administration’s less-than-lucid explanations for why they turned the Bush administration into a torture regime. They just don’t really know why, but they meant well:
The Detainee Report
Glenn Greenwald has a must-read post about John Yoo’s deeply dishonest Wall Street Journal op-ed (which I also wrote about, here and here). The lies, Glenn writes, serve a clear purpose: Without them, Yoo’s entire narrative falls apart.
Conservatives on Boumediene
As the right-wing response to Boumediene becomes increasingly crazed, there are some sane and measured conservative voices out there. And yes, my choice of “right-wing” for the crazies and “conservative” for the rational responses is intentional.
A Debate We’re Happy To Have
Seriously, the deja vu couldn’t be more defined; the latest salvo in the current national security debate in the presidential election so frighteningly similar to the nature of the debate four years ago it’s enough to make your head spin.
And at the heart of it, despite all the talk that McCain is somehow a different form of Republican, he’s already telegraphing that he intends to use the dirtiest of the Republican dirty tricks. Not push polls, not whisper campaigns, but the politics of fear.
Somehow, I’m simply not all that shocked.
More Lies and Half-Truths on the Gitmo Decision
Let’s start with John Yoo, who declares in the Wall Street Journal that last week’s SCOTUS ruling is “judicial imperialism of the highest order.”
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