Ali Hamza al-Bahlul

Now here’s a problem that anyone with half a brain could have seen coming. Today the second trial by Military Commission at Guantánamo — in other words, the second US “war crimes” trial since the Second World War, following the underwhelming trial of Salim Hamdan this summer — opened not with a bang, and not [...]

One month ago, when the jury in the first US war crimes trial since the Second World War found Salim Hamdan guilty of providing material support for terrorism, but not guilty of conspiracy, the US administration regarded it as a victory, even though numerous commentators — myself included — remained profoundly critical of the entire [...]

As a 16th prisoner at Guantánamo, Noor Uthman Muhammed, is put forward for trial by Military Commission (the much-criticized system of trials for “terror suspects” invented in the wake of the 9/11 attacks), Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, provides a guide to the [...]

Anyone who has kept half an eye on the proceedings at the Military Commissions in Guantánamo — the unique system of trials for “terror suspects” that was conceived in the wake of the 9/11 attacks by Vice President Dick Cheney and his close advisers — will be aware that their progress has been faltering at [...]

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, examines a recent statement from the US military that appears to have been issued for propaganda purposes, and explains how its timing seems designed to deflect attention from recent negative publicity relating to the proposed trials of Guantánamo [...]

From the moment that the Toronto Star unleashed a gruesome, and previously unpublished photo of the chest wounds sustained by 15-year old Omar Khadr, after a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002, it was clear that the resumption of Khadr’s pre-trial hearing at Guantánamo last week would once more raise murky issues of torture and [...]

In an excellent article for GQ, The Defense Will Not Rest, Sean Flynn profiles William Kuebler and Tom Fleener, military lawyers assigned to defend two alleged terrorists, Ghassan al-Sharbi and Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, in their Military Commissions at Guantánamo Bay. Robustly defending established laws, and delivering a devastating condemnation of the Commission process, Kuebler and [...]