I had written extensively about the fine work by Mohammed Jawad’s military defense attorney, Maj. David Frakt, who delivered a compelling speech to a House Committee in July, and by his former prosecutor, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, who resigned as a prosecutor in September 2008, when he declared that the Commissions were incapable of delivering justice.
Last spring, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Iraq got a makeover, replacing the scandal-plagued Blackwater private security company with a firm named Triple Canopy. But the company’s rise to prominence followed a long, often chaotic route, marked by questionable weapons deals, government bungling and a criminal investigation that was ultimately closed without charges being filed.
US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck another decisive blow to the credibility of the Bush administration’s detention policies at Guantánamo by granting the habeas corpus petition of Kuwaiti prisoner Fouad al-Rabia, a 50-year old aeronautical engineer and a father of four who had been accused of fundraising for Osama bin Laden and running a supply depot for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains.
In an interview for Radio 4’s Today program, which was partly filmed and televised on BBC News, Fried gave Jon Manel a largely spin-free account of the problems he faces, some of which have been exacerbated by the US government’s unwillingness — or inability — to resettle some cleared prisoners on the US mainland.
On Monday, one day after the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration was planning to introduce tribunals for the prisoners held in the US prison at Bagram airbase, Afghanistan, the reason for the specifically-timed leaks that led to the publication of the stories became clear.
Human rights activists and legal experts reacted swiftly today to disclosures that the U.S. Government is planning to introduce new measures they claim would give inmates at Afghanistan’s notorious Bagram prison more opportunities to challenge their detention.
Their views range from cautious optimism to total condemnation.
There are some 600-plus prisoners being held at the U.S. military [...]
A month ago, rulings made by District Court judges in the habeas corpus appeals of prisoners held at Guantánamo seemed, for the most part, to confirm that the courts were uniquely placed to deliver justice to the prisoners after their long years of imprisonment, largely without charge or trial.
As 13 prisoners held at the U.S. naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appeared set to finally win their freedom, others are asking their release to be deferred. The problem is that some of those cleared for release fear they will be tortured if they are transferred to other countries, in some cases their home countries.
The growing caseload of habeas corpus petitions has been seen as a contest between executive authority and judicial independence. While judges may find in favor of detainees and order them released – the usual remedy for habeas petitions — they are apparently powerless to enforce their rulings. As a result, 20 of the 29 prisoners ordered released are still at Guantanamo.
Eight U.S. Embassy guards stationed in Kabul were fired Friday and two others resigned after a watchdog group released photographs and videos this week that showed the guards engaged in lewd conduct and other inappropriate behavior that put the lives of diplomats at the compound at risk during a time when the Taliban and al-Qaeda were moving against U.S. targets.
