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Tuesday Guantanamo Roundup

By possum

Some detainees headed for Alexandria, VA?

If the government chooses the Alexandria court to try any of the 250 remaining detainees, who include five 9/11 plotters, "the prisoners may be housed at the Alexandria Detention Center

The issue is controversial in the local community, but the detainees must be transferred for judicial proceedings in accordance with Obama's promise to close Guantanamo.
Some Guantanamo attorneys are pressuring CIA Director Leon Panetta to preserve the CIA black site information.  In a letter the attorneys for detainee Abd Al-Rahim Hussain Mohammed al-Nashiri end by saying

Therefore, we are requesting that you preserve all the secret sites. By this letter you are now on notice that we will be seeking discovery and inspection of this highly relevant evidence in whatever court Mr. Al-Nashiri finds himself. We have already lost the video tapes which would have allowed a jury to see what happened to Mr. Al-Nashiri in those secret prisons. We cannot lose the remaining tangible evidence of the actual prisons themselves and the instruments of torture within them.

Omar Khadr's attorney, Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler, is back at work after a spat with military commanders.

Kuebler's return follows a decision last week by Judge Patrick Parrish that Col. Peter Masciola had no authority to remove the detainee's lawyer.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled

US courts cannot prevent the government from transferring detainees held at Guantánamo Bay to foreign countries on the grounds that detainees may face prosecution or torture in the foreign country.

This ruling may free the Uighur detainees for repatriation to China.

The British debate over torture by their intelligence service continues.

A senior member of Parliament says a probe of torture allegations could harm Britain's ability to gather intelligence on terrorist activities.

And so the work continues in spite of all the evidence showing torture is not productive for information gathering.

Andy Worthington has the twisted tale of Ayman Bararfi, a doctor at Guantanamo.

After he was kidnapped from the house in Karachi that he shared with his wife and four children, and was sent to Jordan for four months, where he said, he was "not physically abused by the GID [Jordan's notorious intelligence service] but was hidden from visiting Red Cross inspectors," he too has languished in Guantánamo, apparently waiting in vain for justice to come his way.

And at long last approved for release by Obama's review board.

As the days go by the tales continue to accumulate.  Little by little sun is shining on the dark place we call Guantanamo, but much work remains.  There are still many, many detainees awaiting any semblance of justice in their lives.

Peace.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on April 14, 2009 (boomark / email).