Guantanamo/Detainees

Waterboarding Evidence Could Be Used at Guantanamo Trials

The top legal adviser who oversees Guantanamo prosecutors told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee yesterday that evidence obtained by waterboarding could be used at detainees’ trials if judges agree it is reliable. Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann said the decision on whether to admit evidence obtained by the simulated…

Dec 12, 2007 3:56 PM CST

Lawyer: CIA Has Photos of Outsourced Torture of Gitmo Suspect

A lawyer for a Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspect allegedly tortured in Morocco when his interrogation was outsourced by the U.S. says the CIA was present and has photographs of the physical abuse of his client. Binyam Mohamed, a 27-year-old Ethiopian was sliced in the chest and penis by interrogators during…

Dec 11, 2007 6:43 PM CST

Ex-CIA Officer Tells of Waterboarding

One of the two al-Qaida suspects whose interrogation was chronicled on a destroyed videotape was subjected to waterboarding, according to a former CIA officer. John Kiriakou, a former CIA interrogator, said he didn’t regard waterboarding as torture at the time, but he has since changed his mind, the Washington Post…

Dec 11, 2007 1:12 PM CST

CIA Lawyers Gave Written OK to Destroy Tapes

CIA lawyers in the clandestine branch, known then as the Directorate of Operations, gave written approval to destroy two videotapes of interrogations of al-Qaida suspects, the New York Times reports. A former intelligence official told the newspaper that Jose Rodriguez Jr., then the chief of the directorate, concluded he had…

Dec 11, 2007 12:31 PM CST

Detainees Ask Court for Probe Into Destroyed CIA Tapes

Lawyers for 11 Yemeni detainees yesterday asked a federal judge to begin a formal inquiry into whether the CIA violated a preservation order when it destroyed two videotapes of interrogations of al-Qaida suspects. The detainees’ motion (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) was filed with U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy of Washington,…

Dec 10, 2007 12:43 PM CST

Camping Out to See SCOTUS Live

Ari Kaplan is a lawyer and freelance writer based in the New York City area. He is developing a documentary called Like Snowflakes in December about lawyers working with detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Here’s some advice: If you are ever going to camp outside the U.S. Supreme Court to hear…

Dec 6, 2007 7:41 PM CST

Supreme Court Appears Focused on Gitmo Remedies

At the close of oral arguments yesterday, it appeared likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will send the appeal by Guantanamo detainees back to an appeals court along with a “road map” of ways to expand procedural protections for their trials, the New York Times concludes. The details of the…

Dec 6, 2007 2:51 PM CST

Kennedy Doesn’t Tip Hand in Gitmo Arguments

The U.S. Supreme Court justice who is considered the pivotal vote in a suit by Guantanamo detainees didn’t signal how he will rule during oral arguments today. The court is considering whether the detainees have a constitutional right to challenge their confinement through federal habeas actions, and if so, whether…

Dec 5, 2007 7:11 PM CST

Tribunals Considered Praying Habits of Gitmo Detainee

Two U.S. military tribunals have declared a German student to be an al-Qaida ally despite evidence that intelligence experts did not consider him a terrorist. Lawyers for Murat Kurnaz obtained documents showing the disparity in a lawsuit against the Pentagon, the Washington Post reports. Newly released portions of a ruling…

Dec 5, 2007 3:01 PM CST

Detainee Case Reflects ‘Interbranch Drama’

Updated: The latest Guantanamo detainee case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which asks whether federal courts have jurisdiction to hear the enemy combatant cases, “reflects an extraordinary interbranch drama,” the New York Times reports. Last year, the court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld struck down the military commission system because President…

Dec 3, 2007 1:21 PM CST

Ashcroft Heckled, Protesters Forcibly Removed

Students at the University of Colorado at Boulder booed former Attorney General John Ashcroft during his appearance there earlier this week. The protest escalated to the point that several students were reportedly forcibly removed. The heckling intensified when Ashcroft described Guantanamo Bay as a “good place” for detainees. But the…

Nov 29, 2007 11:14 PM CST

Now on Internet: Gitmo Prison Manual

Updated: Want to know what the exact rules are for running the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba? If so, you’re in luck—the entire Gitmo prison operating manual was posted last week on the Internet. Although stamped “unclassified,” the prison manual is also stamped “for official use only,” meaning…

Nov 15, 2007 5:28 PM CST

Moussaoui Judge Not Told of Recorded Al-Qaida Interrogations

Prosecutors have disclosed the CIA has video and audio recordings of interrogations of three senior al-Qaida officials. Prosecutors say in a court filing made public yesterday that the judge who presided over the trial of terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was misinformed about the recordings, McClatchy Newspapers reports. The CIA’s possession of…

Nov 14, 2007 12:24 PM CST

Court Turns Down Case of Gitmo Detainee Who Wants to Stay

The U.S. Supreme Court refused today to accept a case filed by a Guantanamo detainee who fears he will be tortured if he is released to his home country of Algeria. Petitioner Ahmed Belbacha had sought to bypass the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit with a Supreme…

Nov 13, 2007 4:29 PM CST

Lawyers: Gitmo Deck Stacked Against Defense

As the arraignment process got underway today in the first trial by a Guantanamo Bay military tribunal of a terrorism suspect, defense counsel complained that the deck was stacked against the suspect. For one thing, defense lawyers said, they only heard the previous evening from prosecutors of a possible witness…

Nov 10, 2007 1:41 AM CST