Guantánamo Bay
James Mitchell and Bruce Jensen, the CIA’s two independent
contractor psychologists who designed its torture programme, spent two weeks
giving testimony and defending the use of torture on prisoners at the
Guantánamo military commissions. Lawyers for five defendants accused of
involvement in attacks on New York City in September 2001, who face the death
penalty, had the opportunity to question the two men about the torture
programme. It was the first time that the two men spoke under oath in open
court about the programme and their role in it. They were paid $81 million for
the programme that tortured over 100 men. While giving testimony, they objected
to lawyers calling their methods “torture”. As can only happen at Guantánamo,
the torturers gave evidence in support of their methods against their victims
on whether evidence obtained through physical, psychological and sexual torture
can constitute admissible evidence, something that would not be a consideration
anywhere else and would have seen the case dismissed long ago as there does not
appear to be any credible evidence that was not obtained through the use of
torture in their case.
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/29/guantanamo-9-11-forever-trials/
https://www.newsweek.com/tortured-jessen-mitchell-rabbani-sorry-guantanamo-1483100
The US
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a request by Omar
Khadr to order the military appeals court to hear his appeal against his 2010
conviction, which has been suspended since 2013. The court said that Khadr “has
not demonstrated a 'clear and indisputable right' to the extraordinary remedy”
of having the hearing of his appeal forced and expedited. His appeal was
suspended pending the hearing of another appeal. The court also stated that
some of the legal issues in that case were outstanding and that Khadr’s appeal
would be heard once they were resolved.
Omar Khadr will give a public speech in February at Dalhousie
University along with another renowned former child soldier Ishmael Beah as
keynote speakers at an event about child soldiers, along with retired Canadian general
and former senator Roméo
Dallaire and others.
LGC Activities:
The London Guantánamo Campaign joined the Guantanamo Justice
Campaign at a rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 11 January to mark 18 years
since the opening of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp. 40 prisoners remain.
Our first monthly Shut Guantánamo! demonstration for 2020, now
entering our fourteenth year of regular protests, will be held outside the US Embassy
in London on Nine Elms Lane, SW11 7US (nearest underground: Vauxhall) at
12-2pm. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/118841106056029/
