NEWS:
Guantánamo Bay:
Although 52 of
the remaining 116 prisoners have been cleared for release, including Shaker
Aamer, no transfers have been made since June. In August, it emerged the delay is
due to the new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter refusing to sign off their
release. All previous releases had been signed by his predecessor Chuck Hagel. This
is in spite of the fact that earlier in August the new envoy for the closure of
Guantánamo Lee Wolosky stated that he had secured deals with around one dozen
countries to accept at least half of those men.
For the remaining
prisoners who are not facing trial and have not been cleared for release, the “forever
prisoners”, it appears that Obama’s plan will not involve ending their 14 years
of indefinite detention without charge or trial but simply shifting the
physical prison at Guantánamo Bay to the US mainland, keeping the men in existing
military prisons where they will remain under military control and will not be
subject to potential trial in federal courts. The plan is not to close Guantánamo
but to shift it and potentially franchise it. It has been reported that the
Pentagon has already made visits to facilities in South Carolina and will visit
others in Kansas and four other potential sites. Some media have reported that
it is possible that a new Guantánamo will be built from scratch on
military-owned land. There do not appear to be plans to release these
prisoners. However, a potential block to the forthcoming plan is whether
Congress will allow prisoners to be transferred to the US mainland.
The governors of
South Carolina and Kansas have stated that they will block efforts to send the
prisoners there and have threatened to sue if the plan goes ahead. Mistakenly calling
the prisoners “terrorists”, it must be pointed out that there are no terrorists at
Guantánamo Bay; the few prisoners who have been convicted have not been
convicted of terrorism charges.
It has also been
revealed that out of the remaining 116 prisoners, only 3 were captured on the
battlefield by the US. This includes those accused of involvement and facing
trial for the 9/11 attacks. The others, like the majority of Guantánamo
prisoners overall, were sold to the US military by allied Afghan warlords, many
of whom in practice bore little difference to the Taliban.
On 5 August, the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a new report “Towards
the Closure of Guantanamo” which condemns the US for its human rights abuses at
Guantánamo, the discriminatory nature of the detention of Muslim men and
demands its closure without further delay:
Pre-trial
hearings for five men accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks was cancelled
yet again. A hearing scheduled from 24 August to early September was
cancelled, meaning that no hearings have been held at all this year.
Afghan prisoner
Mohammed Kamin, 37, had his hearing before the periodic review board on 17
August. He arrived at Guantánamo in 2004, was subject to charges that were
later dropped and never pursued and has been described as “one of the most
compliant detainees at Guantánamo”.
In June,
AlJazeera showed film footage on its Arabic channel, reportedly showing a raid
by Slovakian police on the home of former Guantánamo prisoner Hisham Sliti, a
Tunisian, who was released there last year. Although he is supposed to be
resettled, he is at a centre for asylum seekers. The video, shot by another resident
on a mobile phone, showed the police violently entering, sounds of shouting and
later images of broken household items from inside, as well as Sliti being led
away by the police. Slovak media have also alleged he was tortured. The police
deny all the claims. Amnesty Slovakia has written to the government demanding
an independent and thorough investigation of the incident.
Lawyers for
prisoner Tariq Ba Odah, a 36-year old Yemeni, who was cleared for release years
ago, have lost their legal case to have him released on medical grounds. He has
been on hunger strike since 2007 against his detention and continually force
fed. He currently weighs 34kg. Although his lawyers say he is poor health, the
US military maintains that he is fine.
Extraordinary Rendition:
Former Bagram
prisoner, Russian national Irek Hamidullin, was found guilty by a jury of all
charges including providing material support to a terrorist organisation and
trying to destroy US military aircraft in Afghanistan in 2009, where he was
arrested. He was held without charge at Bagram until 2014 when he was
transferred to the US and to the FBI to stand trial in a federal court for an
attack in which his alleged Taliban co-defendants were all killed and no US
personnel or tanks were harmed. During his trial, he did not speak. His lawyers
claimed there was insufficient evidence to back up the evidence. He was found
guilty on 7 August and will be sentenced later this year. He faces a life sentence.
LGC Activities:
The LGC will be
holding its second campaigns meeting this year on Monday 14 September at 6pm in
Friends House, Euston Road, NW1 from 6pm onwards. Please join us and get
involved in our work to close Guantánamo. We will meet in the café. Please
e-mail us for more details. All are welcome.
In November, the US will vote in the
midterm elections, the first opportunity the US public will have to challenge Donald
Trump’s policies at the ballot box. Ahead of this election, we are asking YOU
to make an effort to join us, for a part or all of our demonstration, to send a
strong message that Guantánamo is not a forgotten issue and closing Guantánamo
must be put back on the political agenda.
