Today, a group of musicians, including REM, Pearl Jam and The Roots filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out whether their music was played at the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. The request for information stems from former Guantánamo detainees’ testimony and released government documents that document that music has been [...]
(Also posted on Huffington Post)
According to news reports, the Obama administration will decide by November 16 whether or not to move the cases of the 9/11 defendants from the Guantánamo military commissions system to U.S. federal courts. It should make this important move and put an end to a shameful era in American history.
I am [...]
Nearly four years have passed since I first traveled to Guantánamo to observe proceedings in the military commission prosecution of Canadian Omar Khadr, who was 15 years old when seized in Afghanistan and has now spent fully a third of his life in captivity. In an ordinary justice system, Khadr’s trial – and very [...]
Since last Thursday’s ProPublica and Washington Post article about the unlikelihood of the Obama administration meeting its own goal (PDF) of shuttering Guantánamo by January 22, 2010, Gitmo has constantly been in the news.
With all the discussion, it’s important to reiterate that how Guantánamo will be closed is just as [...]
President Obama spoke eloquently this morning, delivering a historic speech before the United Nations General Assembly. In his speech, Obama outlined his administration’s steps towards what he called a "new era of engagement," noting that ensuring basic human rights is essential to a peaceful world. Anthony D. Romero, executive director of [...]
Yesterday, the ACLU’s Denny LeBoeuf was in Guantánamo to observe the restart of the military commission hearings. But the hearings were brought to another halt almost as soon as they began: the military judge granted the government’s motion to stay all proceedings in the case against the five alleged 9/11 conspirators [...]
The government indicated today it would ask for a further delay in the Guantánamo military commissions cases of the defendants charged in the 9/11 attacks. The proceedings are currently scheduled to resume on Monday, September 21, and it will be up to the military judge whether [...]
Last weekend , NOW on PBS explored indefinite detention in its latest episode, "After Guantánamo." In it, host David Brancaccio interviewed Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, who was tasked with prosecuting Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Guantánamo detainee accused of 9/11-related crimes. In 2004, Couch became the first of six [...]
Last week, the Department of State (DOS) released a huge tranche of documents on its website in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. There’s a lot of stuff to wade through, but we found [...]
After nearly seven years in U.S. custody, Mohammed Jawad was released and flown home to Afghanistan over the weekend. One of his defense attorneys, Marine Maj. Eric Montalvo, accompanied Jawad as a private citizen on this trip home.
The ACLU represented Jawad in his habeas corpus case in federal court, which [...]