Comments on: Judge Orders Release Of Algerian From Guantánamo (But He’s Not Going Anywhere)

By: An Insignificant Yemeni at Guantánamo Loses His Habeas Petition « freedetainees.org

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:18:07 +0000

[...] Al-Kandari (October 2009), Justice Department Pointlessly Gags Guantánamo Lawyer (November 2009), Judge Orders Release Of Algerian From Guantánamo (But He’s Not Going Anywhere) (November 2009), Innocent Guantánamo Torture Victim Fouad al-Rabiah Is Released In Kuwait [...]

By: “Model Prisoner” at Guantánamo, Tortured in the “Dark Prison,” Loses Habeas Corpus Petition « freedetainees.org

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:17:34 +0000

[...] Monday, District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan handed the government its ninth victory (against 31 losses to date) in the habeas corpus petitions of the prisoners held at Guantánamo, ruling that the government [...]

By: The Jeff Farias Show: Sasha Abramsky + Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad

The Jeff Farias Show: Sasha Abramsky + Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:51:16 +0000

[...] which has been seen through by the judges in the prisoners’ habeas corpus petitions, where, in 80 percent of the cases on which District Court judges have ruled, they have dismissed the government’s supposed evidence [...]

By: Guantánamo Lawyer Calls Off Talk In Illinois After Receiving Threats Of Violence by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:33:02 +0000

[...] I would have said that the trial courts have looked at the cases of 38 of the prisoners at Guantánamo, and determined that in 30 of them the prisoner was actually an innocent civilian, not an enemy soldier or terrorist. [Note: Judges have now ruled in favor of the prisoners in 31 out of 39 cases]. [...]

By: Andy Worthington

Andy Worthington — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:20:12 +0000

Hi TD,
You did indeed, and we should all be grateful that you’ve spelled out so clearly the extent of the Obama administration’s failures.
And that post of Candace’s that TD was referring to is here:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/11/22/justice-department-pointlessly-gags-guantanamo-lawyer/

By: Judge Orders Release Of Algerian From Guantánamo (But He’s Not Going Anywhere) by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:39:53 +0000

[...] Andy Worthington Featured Writer Dandelion Salad http://www.andyworthington.co.uk 24 November [...]

By: the talking dog

the talking dog — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:57:16 +0000

Congratulations to Farhi Saeedbin Mohammad;
alas, I don’t think he’ll be going to Algeria given American insistence that he is a terrorist (even as Judge Kessler clearly concluded he is not), and unless a European country (or Palau) steps up, the best he’ll do is Camp Iguana, a less restrictive military prison, but still a military prison.

The 80% habeas case success rate is, if anything, arguably a high-water mark for the Government because it only involves cases the Government thinks it can win a nd hence is willing to have adjudicated (kind of like federal trials for KSM, et al.) If we counted the 75, 80, 85 or whatever the hell it is of so-called “executive review” cleared detainees, where the Gov’t itself acknowledges it has nothing, detainees’ win rate would be well into the 90+ % range.

We have kind of known for some time (and Candace Gorman’s post that Andy has reproduced below confirms) that supposedly “cleared” prisoners get a new label attached to their name (“cleared for transfer”) that is every bit as meaningless as the one they had before (“enemy combatant,” “unlawful enemy combatant,” or my personal choice, “FRED” [forcibly renditioned executive detainee]). The Obama Administration– again, you read that right– is, in this area, not merely as bad as the Bush Administration, but worse (and not just for ex post facto censoring Candace for having the audacity to try to bring its overreaching to public light). It is worse because the Bush Administration wasn’t duplicitous, — it campaigned on its “get tough” attitude,and I have no doubt that it was sincere in it. Further, the Bush Admin. didn’t purport to be headed by a “constitutional law ~~professor~~ senior lecturer.”
And the Bush Administration had the decency– you read that word right– to believe at least that what it was doing was kind of ad hoc, an emergent circumstance caused by the sui generis nature of the al Qaeda threat, even if it largely proceeded incompetently and, thanks to Dick Cheney, David Addington and John Yoo, criminally and insanely. But at least we didn’t hear about legislation enshrining indefinite executive detention, and as loathsome as the military commissions were (and are), we didn’t hear the President of the United States promise convictions… and executions in specific cases (at least I don’t think we did).

And worse still, we have reached the ineluctable conclusion that “hope and change” and the entire inauguration speech and a year of campaigning were a load of bulls***. I don’t care that I went to college with the man: the President’s first ten and a half months have been an unmitigated disappointment, and I see little “hope” for “change” in that.

Did I say all that out loud?