LGC Newsletter – August 2019

Guantánamo Bay

Pre-trial hearings continued at Guantánamo in the case of Abdul Hadi Al-Iraqi (who claims his real name is Nashwan Al-Tamir), accused of fighting against the US in Afghanistan after the war broke out there in 2001; his trial is expected to start in 2020. The hearing proceeded slowly with formal matters, and due to back problems and pain in his spine, the defendant did not attend all of the hearing which was delayed at times. Issues covered included a legal filing against two former employees working on the case, including a judge, for a conflict of interest, after they applied for civilian jobs at the Department of Justice while working on the case. Others involved in the case were also questioned concerning their involvement and connections to other officials.

During the hearing, Al-Iraqi’s lawyers tried to get a federal court to stop the current pre-trial hearing to consider whether he is medically competent to take part in the hearing. In addition, they sought to get access to Camp 7 where he is residing to look at the conditions of his confinement and whether that can impact the case. As part of this claim, statements made by a former commander, Rear Adm. John C. Ring, at Guantánamo, who was fired in April without a reason given, were considered. For over one year, he had been seeking to have Camp 7 closed and replaced by a Camp 8 with better facilities for inmates. During consideration of this point, it was revealed that Ring was fired for “mishandling classified information and not being truthful about it,” according to one prosecutor. The case is in recess until October.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/us/politics/guantanamo-commander-john-ring-fired.html

The judge in the case of five men accused of involvement in attacks on New York City in September 2001, Judge Col W Shane Cohen, has set a tentative trial start date of 11 January 2021 for their case. The men were charged in 2008 and face the death penalty but pre-trial hearings have proceeded slowly and have been stopped for over a year at some stages with many outstanding issues still to be resolved. The date is tentative and the trial start may not happen but having taken over the case recently Cohen is keen for matters to proceed.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/30/khalid-shaikh-mohammad-9-11-trial-start-date   

Following new charges filed earlier this year against Indonesian prisoner Hambali, accused of involvement in the Bali bombings in 2002, the FBI has visited Malaysia on several occasions to conduct interviews and collect evidence ahead of a potential trial. Lawyers for Hambali have also interviewed at least one witness in Malaysia. Two Malaysians are held at Guantánamo and were arrested with Hambali. The Malaysian authorities said they cooperated with the FBI and are also still seeking to get the two Malaysians repatriated, although the decision is up to the US. Hambali’s lawyer does not believe he will be tried, if at all, in open court due to evidence in the case having been obtained through torture at secret CIA prisons.

https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/malaysian/Hambali-terorrism-08302019194538.html

LGC Activities:

The September Shut Guantánamo! demo will be on 5^th September at 12-2pm outside the US Embassy, Nine Elms Lane, SW11 (nearest underground: Vauxhall): https://www.facebook.com/events/2382928988470574/

LGC Newsletter – July 2019

Guantánamo Bay

On 12 July, the US House of Representatives passed a draft US$733 billion defence spending bill for 2020, its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the coming year. This includes provisions on Guantánamo, which this year allow prisoners to be transferred to the US mainland for medical treatment and an amendment authorising judges at the Guantánamo military commissions to broadcast hearings. These can currently only be viewed by attending the hearings in person or at closed circuit television sites at US military bases. The amendment, tabled by Representative Adam Schiff, is aimed at improving the transparency of the process: “The military commissions at Guantanamo have been out of sight, and therefore out of mind, for far too long. As Guantanamo nears its third decade, and with trials still years away, it is all the more important that victim’s families, the media, and the public are able to follow the trials before the military commissions. I’m pleased that my amendment was included in the defense bill and it had now passed the House, and I will push for its inclusion in the final legislation.”

The Bill has yet to be passed and this process will take several more months, including reconciling this version with that of the US Senate. It must then be signed into law by President Trump.

https://www.brecorder.com/2019/07/13/509547/us-house-passes-733bn-defence-policy-bill-after-trump-threatens-veto/

https://schiff.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-passes-schiff-amendment-to-broadcast-guantanamo-bay-proceedings

During the latest pre-trial hearing in the case of five men accused of involvement in terrorist attacks in New York in September 2001, the prosecution presented to the new judge in the case, Air Force Col. Shane Cohen, who has presided over two hearings so far, its case that the detainee torture programme was legally sanctioned, and thus the torture programme was “certainly nothing outrageous”. On the same day, the US government handed over new documents related to the programme to the parties: “The latest tranche included instant-messenger chats between personnel involved in the interrogations at CIA black sites” which defence lawyers are still looking into.

http://www.lawdragon.com/2019/07/23/government-previews-defense-of-cia-interrogation-program-lawyers-receive-discovery-of-depraved-conduct/

Extraordinary Rendition

The CIA is currently seeking to push through an amendment expanding the scope of the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) which offers anonymity and protection to intelligence agents posted abroad. As part of a raft of intelligence bills this year, the CIA is seeking to have amendments made that extend the scope of the Act with the result “that intelligence agencies could criminalize the disclosure of the identities of clandestine officers and agents in perpetuity, including after retirement or even after death”. The amendment, tabled by the CIA and which has remained in the same wording as it proposed, is currently being fast tracked through Congress and is supported by Rep. Adam Schiff who at the same time is calling for transparency in the Guantánamo military tribunals. Such an expansion of this Act would offer protection to CIA officers, including Gina Haspel, who have been named as operatives in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition and those who are sought as witnesses in the ongoing pre-trial hearings at Guantánamo.

The expansion of this law and its “threat of prosecution could impair reporting in the public interest where the threat of physical harm to an intelligence officer is minimal.”

https://www.justsecurity.org/65053/expanding-the-covert-agent-secrecy-law-threatens-to-chill-reporting/

 

On 10 July, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Rendition Project published a 400-page report on the CIA’s "rendition, detention, interrogation" (RDI) programme, the most expansive study of the extraordinary rendition programme yet, looking at its origins and up to the end of the Bush era in 2008. The report “CIA Torture Unredacted” builds on the findings of the 2014 US Senate Intelligence Committee Report and provides a list of at least 100 prisoners who were held at CIA black site torture prisons around the world.

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/blog/2019-07-10/cia-torture-unredacted-revealing-hidden-us-senate-torture-report

The British government has told parliament that there will be no judge-led inquiry into the UK’s complicity in prisoner torture under the US’s extraordinary rendition programme. A year after the release of a report by the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) on British complicity in US torture and prisoner abuse, to which the government promised to respond within weeks, it has finally turned down the recommendation to launch an independent inquiry, which had been promised by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010. The “Detainee Inquiry” launched in his era collapsed in 2012 due to the withdrawal of the victims and NGOs from the process due to the limited terms of the inquiry and criminal investigations. The ISC report deplored the scant information made available to it and the refusal to allow it to interview a range of different people involved. The ISC report and various reports have found the British government and its intelligence agencies to have been involved in the torture and abuse of British and foreign prisoners in breach of its domestic and international obligations. Without an inquiry into exactly what the UK knew and did, it is impossible to know whether or not it is involved currently in similar practices or in facilitating them, such as through the training of foreign armies.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/uk-government-u-turn-torture-inquiry-branded-disgraceful

LGC Activities:

The August Shut Guantánamo! demo will be on 1^st August at 12-2pm outside the US Embassy, Nine Elms Lane, SW11 (nearest underground: Vauxhall): https://www.facebook.com/events/639190026595505/

LGC Newsletter – June 2019

Guantánamo Bay

The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Yemeni prisoner Moath Al Alwi, held since 2001, for a ruling on whether the US can hold him indefinitely. Al Alwi is a “forever prisoner”, originally accused of fighting for Al Qaeda against the US in Afghanistan, but for which there is no evidence and he has never been charged or tried. Nonetheless, one of the judges, Justice Stephen Breyer, said the court should at some point decide “whether, in light of the duration and other aspects of the relevant conflict, Congress has authorized and the Constitution permits continued detention”. One of the longest-held prisoners, Al Alwi has argued since 2015 in the court that he should be released because the US war in Afghanistan has “effectively ended”. He brought his case after President Obama declared the end of hostilities in Afghanistan in 2014; peace talks with the Taleban are currently ongoing. His claim has been repeatedly rejected and he faces spending the rest of his life, without trial or charge, at Guantánamo.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-court-guantanamo/yemeni-guantanamo-detainees-bid-for-release-rejected-by-us-supreme-court-idUKKCN1TB2EN

The draft bill for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2020, the annual military spending law, is currently being negotiated in Congress and the Senate and for the first time could include provisions that allow Guantánamo prisoners to be transferred to the US mainland in emergency medical situations. The House of Representatives’ draft contains a provision prohibiting the transfer of new prisoners to Guantánamo and extends the list of states to which prisoners cannot be transferred, including Cuba and North Korea, but does not include the United States mainland.

https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/press-release/defense-authorization-includes-rights-respecting-provisions-guantanamo-military

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/10/house-panel-bans-new-detainees-entering-guantanamo/

Air Force Col. Shane Cohen is the new judge in the long-running case of five men accused of involvement in attacks on New York City on 11 September 2001. He was assigned to the case on 3 June. Lawyers for the men had an opportunity to question the new judge who told them that he does not intend to leave the case for at least the next two years. Neither the prosecution nor the defence challenged the appointment of the new judge. It is the first time that Cohen, who has been a judge for five years, is presiding over a death penalty case as well as a case with multiple defendants.

http://www.lawdragon.com/2019/06/18/sept-11-case-at-guantanamo-gets-another-new-judge-and-this-one-plans-to-stay/

Majid Khan, who was convicted through a plea bargain before the military tribunal at Guantánamo in 2012, is still awaiting sentencing for his crimes. The evidence against him was obtained through years of torture at secret CIA torture facilities around the world before he arrived at Guantánamo, including being “hung from his wrists, naked and hooded, for two straight days, causing wild hallucinations”. Torture such as “In 2004, his second year of C.I.A. detention, the agency “infused” a purée of pasta, sauce, nuts, raisins and hummus up Mr. Khan’s rectum when he went on a hunger strike” was reported in the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture. As part of his sentencing hearing, his lawyers plan to argue that the torture he suffered needs to be taken into consideration in his sentencing “and are asking the military judge in the case to grant Mr. Khan time off his prison term as a form of credit for what the C.I.A. did to him”. The judge has agreed to hear arguments from both the prosecution and defence in this regard during his hearing in July before making a decision to grant the request. If granted, it would be a major decision with a serious impact on other cases based on CIA torture evidence and an opportunity to hold those responsible to some form of account as well as shed more light on it. Furthermore, if granted, Khan’s lawyer can file a clemency petition after sentencing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/us/politics/guantanamo-case-to-test-whether-torture-can-be-put-on-the-docket.html

On 26 June, UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released a new report on medical care for Guantánamo’s remaining prisoners. Deprivation and Despair: The Crisis of Medical Care at Guantánamo looks at the medical needs of prisoners and how these have been responded to, problems with medical records which do not include “physical and psychological trauma histories” and a lack of equipment and medical expertise.

https://www.justsecurity.org/64691/deprivation-and-despair-the-crisis-of-medical-care-at-guantanamo/

LGC Activities:

There was no Shut Guantánamo! demo in June as the LGC joined the Guantánamo Justice Campaign to form a ‘Close Guantánamo’ bloc on the Together Against Trump demonstration on 4 June. The July shut Guantánamo! demo will be on 4 July (US Independence Day) at 12-2pm outside the US Embassy, Nine Elms Lane, SW11 (nearest underground: Vauxhall): https://www.facebook.com/events/1257579677743125/