LGC Newsletter – January 2020

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://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/approved-by-the-cia-gitmo-testimony-sheds-light-on-81-million-contract-for-black-site-interrogations

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.

https://www.cp24.com/news/u-s-court-won-t-force-military-to-hear-omar-khadr-war-crimes-appeal-1.4772714

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.

https://lfpress.com/news/canada/omar-khadr-to-make-first-public-appearance-as-keynote-speaker-at-dalhousie-university-event/wcm/eeddb2c8-850e-4512-b139-09f9f6c5a32c

 

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/