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Even as the anti-antiterror lobby cheers as the courts attack the Bush Administration's wartime legal architecture, the practical results are starting to emerge. It is increasingly possible that many enemy combatants will be set free -- in the U.S. On Tuesday, D.C. District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered that 17 foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay be transferred to the U.S. and released. Judge Urbina relied on the Supreme Court's June Boumediene decision, which extended the Constitutional right of habeas corpus to aliens captured abroad and incarcerated outside the U.S. Had an appeals court not granted an emergency stay, the...

From Hillary Clinton Forum Yesterday, 09:44 PM Maddie Kaddison New Member = <100 Posts Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 99 Poster Rank: #454 Obama's supporters scare me. Here is a comment I just read from this story (the story that Dean Reynolds of CBS wrote about Obama's "stinky" plane etc): Quote: I support Obama, but I disagree on some major issues. One is that we need to use major authoritarian measures against wingnuts and theocrats to save this country. That in particular includes deprogramming institutions and a Gitmo like camp to deal with the worst wingnuts. These people should be...

A federal judge yesterday ordered a small band of Chinese Muslims being held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison released into the United States by Friday, rejecting the Bush administration's contention that it could detain them indefinitely without cause. was the first time a U.S. judge has ordered the release of a Guantanamo Bay detainee, and the first time a foreign national held at the facility in Cuba has been ordered transferred to the United States. U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina issued his ruling in dramatic fashion from the bench in a packed courtroom, saying he was ordering the...

A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release 17 detainees at Guantánamo by the end of the week, the first such ruling in nearly seven years of legal disputes over the administration's detention policies. The judge, Ricardo Urbina of U.S. District Court, ordered Tuesday that the 17 men be brought to his courtroom Friday from Guantánamo, where they have been held since 2002. He indicated that he would release the men, members of the restive Uighur Muslim minority of western China, into the care of supporters in the United States, initially in the Washington area. "I think the...

Judges can kill you. Hon. Ricardo Urbina proved it unequivocally in a DC Courtroom yesterday. In the awful Boumediene v. Bush decision last June, the Supreme Court created a Constitutional right of habeas corpus for the Gitmo prisoners. In his dissenting opinion in Boumediene, Justice Scalia predicted that the court’s decision would cost American lives. Yesterday’s decision is an entirely predictable application of the bizarre law created by the court out of thin air in Boumediene. Clinton-appointed US District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina decided it was time to free some Gitmo detainees, right onto the streets of Washington DC. You...

The US has reacted angrily after a judge ordered that 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay should be released into the United States. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said the US could not hold the 17 as they were no longer considered enemy combatants. The Uighurs (WEE'gurz) were cleared for release in 2004 but the US says they may face persecution if returned to China. The White House said the ruling could set a precedent that would allow "sworn enemies" to seek US entry. The government says the 17 also pose a security risk if released into the US. Lawyers...

US judge orders Chinese Muslims at Guantanamo freed 07 Oct 2008 16:40:00 GMT Source: Reuters WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the release in the United States of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a landmark ruling that dealt a major setback to the Bush administration. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina read his ruling from the bench at a hearing to consider the appeals by the members of the Uighur ethnic group, who are seeking their release from the military prison and and asking to come...

Federal Judge Release Gitmo Detainees into U.S.by Kenneth Hanner (more by this author) Posted 10/07/2008 ET Updated 10/07/2008 ET A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the release of several Chinese Muslim detainees from Guantanamo Bay into the United States. The men all are ethnic Uighurs and come from a region of China that borders Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Chinese government considers them terrorists and the U.S. has refused to return them to their home country due to fears they will be persecuted. The men were detained by the U.S. since their capture in 2001. In 2004, their status as enemy...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba: Confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed offered Monday to help persuade one of his co-defendants to leave his prison cell for a pretrial hearing at Guantanamo Bay. ~ snip ~

A private jet that crash-landed almost one year ago in eastern Mexico carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine had previously been used for CIA "rendition" flights, a newspaper report said here Thursday, citing documents from the United States and the European Parliament. The plane was carrying Colombian drugs for the fugitive leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, when it crash-landed in the Yucatan peninsula on September 24, El Universal reported. The daily said it had obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which "show that that plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer...

Protest Groups Picket At 'Gitmo On The Platte'Written By Rick Sallinger Aug 17, 2008 2:18 pm US/Mountain DENVER (CBS4); Convention protest groups aren't happy with what they call a "clandestine" detention center. It's a warehouse filled with makeshift jail cells to be used if there are mass arrests during the Democratic National Convention. Protesters gathered at the site Friday. They think the conditions will be inhumane. They say the warehouse wasn't even fit for the voting machines it once housed. But the sheriff's department says the facility will actually speed up the time many of those arrested will have to...

They have closely studied suspects, looking for mental quirks. They have suggested lines of questioning. They have helped decide when a confrontation is too intense, or when to push harder. More than those in the other healing professions, psychologists have played a central role in the military and C.I.A. interrogation of people suspected of being enemy combatants. But now the profession, long divided over this role, is considering whether to make any involvement in military interrogations a violation of its code of ethics. At the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting this week in Boston, prominent members are denouncing such work...

By see-dubya  •  August 15, 2008 06:02 AM I’ve been griping about the Gitmo lawyers for over a year now–I first started noticing the problem back in this post when I first guest-blogged for Michelle back in January 2007. Back then I quoted Rob Pollock’s interview with a Gitmo official we now know to be Cully Stimson*: Guantanamo detainees don’t lack for legal representation. A list of lead counsel released this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request reads like a who’s who of America’s most prestigious law firms: Shearman and Sterling; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr;...

Last week saw three human rights episodes play out in Russia, China and the United States. These events show us how America stacks up against the rest of the world. This past week the world saw the resurgent danger of the old Soviet Union in the modern Russian Federation. Russian military forces invaded the sovereign neighboring nation of Georgia. Although Russia claims to be aiding people in the disputed Georgian province of South Ossetia, the reality is that covert Russian agents have been fomenting upheaval, and Russia had been moving forces into place for this invasion. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin...

Saudi Arabia is to build five modern prisons in the kingdom to replace US Guantanamo detention facility, a new report has revealed. Jordanian daily quoted unnamed sources as saying that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Saudi officials are cooperating to construct the prisons which are to replace Guantanamo and US secret prisons in Europe. Riyadh is to spent about two billion Saudi Rials for the project which can accommodate up to 18000 inmates, they added. Bin laden firm and with the help of German engineers will build the prisons in the Saudi cities of Mecca, Haer, Demmam, and Qasim....

'Gitmo On The Platte' Set As Holding Cell For DNCWritten By Rick Sallinger Aug 13, 2008 5:29 am US/Mountain DENVER (CBS4); CBS4 News has learned if mass arrests happen at the Democratic Convention, those taken into custody will be jailed in a warehouse owned by the City of Denver. Investigator Rick Sallinger discovered the location and managed to get inside for a look. The newly created lockup is on the northeast side of Denver. Protesters have already given this place a name: "Gitmo on the Platte." Inside are dozens are metal cages. They are made out of chain link fence...

An officer who served on the Guantánamo Bay military jury that convicted Salim Hamdan of providing material support for terrorism and sentenced to five months imprisonment on top of 61 months he has already spent in confinement at the military base awaiting trial tells The Wall Street Journal that the evidence against Osama bin Laden's former driver “simply didn't support prosecutors' depiction of a hard-core al Qaeda terrorist who hates America and its way of life” and that “along the spectrum” of terrorist activity, Hamdan fell on the “less significant end.”According to The Journal, this juror also insisted that the...

I am a former soldier, not a lawyer. I view the recent majority rulings of our Supreme Court concerning unlawful combatants such as in Hamdi, Rasul, Hamdan, and Boumediene as adding, not detracting, to the bloody chaos of war. In addition, the entire debate about using intelligence as evidence against the unlawful combatants, even that which was derived by coercive techniques, is flawed. Perhaps we should not pull the wings off flies like Salim Ahmed Hamdan and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed during this War on Terror but misery should be an unlawful combatants only lot in life. Beyond extending our Constitution...

Hollywood A-lister George Clooney is planning to bring the story of Osama bin Laden's driver to the big screen. The actor's production company, Smokehouse, has bought the rights to a book about Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, according to The Observer newspaper. The Challenge by journalist Jonathan Mahler chronicles Hamdan's capture and imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay and his subsequent trial, defended by a US navy lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. Charles Swift. Hamdan, from Yemen, was sentenced last week to 5 1/2 years in jail. It was the first sentence handed down to a Guantanamo Bay detainee by a U.S. military tribunal....

George Clooney, already one of Hollywood's leading liberal voices, has embarked on what may be one of his most controversial projects: the story of Osama bin Laden's driver. Clooney's production company, Smokehouse, has bought the rights to a book about Salim Hamdan, an inmate at Guantánamo Bay who last week was sentenced to jail for his role in helping the al-Qaeda leader. The book, The Challenge, is by journalist Jonathan Mahler and tells the story of Hamdan's capture and trial, defended by a US navy lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift. It has had a big critical success. Last week Yemen-born...

The verdict in the first war crimes trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is in: One poorly educated Yemeni, with an impish sense of humor and two little girls, is guilty of supporting terrorism by driving Osama bin Laden. With credit for time served, the sentence is no more than five months. The verdict and the five-and-a-half-year sentence may not have been as severe as the government had hoped for, but it was a green light for a tribunal that the Pentagon plans to use to prosecute as many as 80 detainees, including five men charged as the plotters and coordinators...

Recently the Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision, extended constitutional rights to enemy aliens captured on the battlefield and held outside the United States. As a result of this case, Guantanamo Bay detainees now have more rights than do prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. This has never before been the policy of the United States, nor has the court ever before granted such rights to those detained outside of U.S. jurisdiction. The activities of a released prisoner, Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi, discussed in the following report written by the sister of the pilot killed on Flight 77...

In an astounding finale to the first military-commission trial, Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s personal aide, has been sentenced by a military commission to five-and-a-half years in prison — five-and-a-half years — upon conviction for the war crime of providing material support to al-Qaeda.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2008 – The first detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to have his case brought to trial was sentenced today by a military panel there to 66 months in prison for providing material support to terrorism. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who served as Osama bin Laden’s driver, was tried and sentenced under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Following a two-week trial, a military jury yesterday found Hamdan guilty of providing material support to terrorism, but not of the more serious charge of conspiracy. Navy Capt. Keith Allred, the military judge, sentenced him to 66 months confinement but...

Update: After all the MSM ranting of an unfair trial, Hamdan gets 66 months including five years and a month time already served. As soon as Salim Ahmed Hamdan was convicted Wednesday, July 6, there were several things expected

The military tribunal verdict convicting Salim Hamdan of providing material support to terrorism was eminently just. The guy was, after all, Osama Bin Laden's driver, and he was, after all, arrested with two surface-to-air missiles in the back of his car. And there was, after all, the video of a 1998 Al Qaeda news conference for Pakistani journalists that at one point showed Hamdan with a machine gun and at another juncture captured him smiling at Bin Laden. And there were, after all, the undisputed facts that Hamdan fell in with Bin Laden in 1996 and worked with him through...

A military jury gave Osama bin Laden's driver a stunningly lenient sentence on Thursday, making him eligible for release in just five months despite the prosecutors' request for a sentence tough enough to frighten terrorists around the globe.

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — A panel of six military officers convicted a former driver for Osama bin Laden of one of two war crimes charges on Wednesday but acquitted him of the other, completing the first military commission trial here and the first conducted by the United States since the aftermath of World War II.

The first al-Qaida suspect charged at Guantánamo was today found guilty of aiding terrorism at a specially convened tribunal. These military commissions, however, have been highly controversial. Do you believe justice is being done at Camp Justice?

Can post link only. Your gag reflex is your responsibility.

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain issued the following statement on today's verdict in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan: "I welcome today's guilty verdict in the first trial held under the Military Commissions Act (MCA). This process of bringing terrorists to justice has been too long delayed, but I'm encouraged that it is finally moving forward. I supported that legislation, which was a good-faith effort by Congress to meet the Supreme Court's direction to establish a process to bring terrorist detainees to trial. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a trusted confidante of Osama Bin Laden, was provided a full hearing...

Why is it, that the impression the media leaves me with, is that Hamdan is "just a driver" and a victim of circumstances? Just another tragic pawn and casualty in the illegal and immoral war instigated by the imperialistic, oil-grubbing, human-rights/U.S. Constitution-violating Bush regime? Well, he's been found guilty of supporting terrorism, but acquitted on charges of conspiracy to commit acts of terror. Anyway... Jonathan Mahler writing last Sunday for the NYTimes Magazine: The men in the dock might very well be war criminals, the argument goes, but what about the policy makers and interrogators who violated their rights...

The following is a statement by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on the Military Commission ’s guilty verdict in the Salim Hamdan case. “I commend the military officers who presided over this trial and served on the hearing panel under difficult and unprecedented circumstances. They and all our Armed Forces continue to serve this country with valor in the fight against terrorism. That the Hamdan trial — the first military commission trial with a guilty verdict since 9/11 — took several years of legal challenges to secure a conviction for material support for terrorism underscores the dangerous flaws in the...

A military jury convicted Salim Hamdan on charges of providing material support to terrorism at his hearing at Guantanamo Bay. Hamdan was acquitted on additional charges of conspiring with al Qaeda to commit war crimes. The US military accused him of transporting missiles for al Qaeda and helping Bin Laden escape US authorities following the September 11 attacks by driving him around Afghanistan. Hamdan's defence team said he was merely a low-level Bin Laden employee. The Yemeni, who now faces a maximum life sentence, held his head in his hands and wept at the defence table. The White House welcomed...

Predictably the ACLU are crying over the verdict of Osama's Driver in his military trial. After a trial filled with overwhelming constitutional and procedural flaws, a jury of military officers today found Salim Hamdan guilty of providing material support for terrorism. The American Civil Liberties Union has been at Guantánamo Bay observing the Hamdan proceedings, which lacked the fundamental legal safeguards found in traditional U.S. courts or military courts governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Followed by bloviation and terrorist love from Anthony Romero. The Center For Constitutional Law is also pitching a hissy fit. And in a...

The first al-Qaida suspect charged at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp was today found guilty of aiding terrorism (though acquitted by a jury of six military officers of more serious conspiracy charges) at a specially convened tribunal. These military commissions, however, have been subjected to much criticism – and not just from the American Civil Liberties Union: even former chief prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, who resigned last October, has said: "full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system". Do you believe justice is being done at Camp Justice?

Verdict reached in first Guantanamo trial Wed Aug 6, 2008 10:05am EDT GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A jury of U.S. military officers reached a verdict on Wednesday in the trial of Osama bin Laden's driver

Gitmo Tribunal Has Reached Verdict in Bin Laden-Driver Case

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A potential mistrial was avoided in the first Guantanamo trial on Tuesday when the U.S. military judge ruled it was too late to challenge his war crimes instructions to the jury deliberating the case of Osama bin Laden's driver. But the judge acknowledged he may have erred and prosecutors sought clarification on the law that they said could affect plans to try up to 80 more Guantanamo prisoners.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — America's first war crimes trial since World War II went to the jury Monday as a panel of six U.S. military officers began deliberating whether to send Osama bin Laden's former driver away for life. The jurors, who were hand-picked by the Pentagon, were reviewing evidence from a two-week trial at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base that has become the first full test of the Bush administration's system for prosecuting alleged terrorists. Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni held here since May 2002, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of conspiracy and...

Boy, what a mess the highest court in the land can create. It was less than two months ago that a bare majority of the Supreme Court ruled that enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay naval base could proceed with lawsuits challenging their detention in our federal courts. In those seven weeks, not only has the entire legal landscape changed, but so has the real possibility that these suspected terrorists will be released - back to battlefields abroad, or worse into our midst here at home. The Court decided not only that the suspected terrorists had a legal right to...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- The commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention center said Saturday he has been researching new potential accommodations for Osama bin Laden's driver, who could be held here indefinitely regardless of the verdict at his war crimes trial. A jury of American military officers is expected to begin deliberations Monday in the case of Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni who faces a maximum life sentence on charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism. Even if he is found innocent, he may not leave this U.S. Navy base. The military retains the right to hold those considered to...

Alleged 9/11 Architect (KSM) Says bin Laden's Driver Was 'Not a Soldier'

FORT WORTH, Texas -- An East Texas congressman wants Gitmo moved to Supreme Court grounds You can practically see the sarcasm dripping off the wording in this bill U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert of Tyler filed last week proposing a new location for Guantanamo Bay. In light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling that Gitmo detainees are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s habeas corpus protections, Gohmert wants to move the controversial jail to the Supreme Court grounds, "confined by adequate fencing." "There can be no better way for the United States Supreme Court to exercise its new self-appointed war powers than...

Tara Setmayer, Communications Director for Rep.Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), gave an update on jailed former border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. VIDEO

Captive Miranda, Lord knows I have not given a thought to the paperwork you sent me. Let me tell you, Captive, that our release is not in the hands of the lawyers or the hands of America. Our release is in the hands of He who created us. The poem, "To My Captive Lawyer, Miranda," was written by Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi while he was a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No doubt, it would have given the former detainee, who was released in 2005, immense satisfaction to know that his last earthly deed was referenced in Justice Antonin Scalia's dissenting...

H.R. 6615: To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to... Bill Status Introduced: Jul 24, 2008 Sponsor: Rep. Louis Gohmert [R-TX] Status: Introduced Go to Bill Status Page You are viewing the following version of this bill: Introduced in House: This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House for consideration. Text of Legislation HR 6615 IH 110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6615 To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, DC, where...

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden wanted to introduce himself to America with an ABC television interview months before al Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa, the interviewer testified on Tuesday. Former ABC correspondent John Miller, testifying at the first Guantanamo war crimes trial, also recalled comparing bin Laden with U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt as he made small talk during filming of the May 28, 1998, interview at an Afghanistan mountain hideout. It was a rare opportunity for an American journalist, and Miller detailed a movie-thriller route to get to bin Laden, complete with...

After reading through Boumediene v. Bush, I cannot help but feel that it is simply about the judiciary expanding its own power by usurping the clearly defined constitutional powers of Congress and the president. In essence, the Supreme Court ruled in this case that when Congress and the president followed the decisions the court itself made in crafting law regarding enemy combatants, they did not act within the bounds of our Constitution. As Chief Justice Roberts noted in his dissent, “The DTA [Detainee Treatment Act] system of military tribunal hearings followed by Article III review looks a lot like the...

110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6615 To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, DC, where the United States Supreme Court will be able to more effectively micromanage the detainees by holding them on the Supreme Court grounds, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 24, 2008 Mr. GOHMERT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such...