Extraordinary rendition and secret prisons

Celebrating the release from Guantánamo of two Pakistani brothers, Ahmed and Abdul Rahim Rabbani, who were held without charge or trial for over 20 years, first in CIA “black sites,” and, since September 2004, at Guantánamo, where they were finally approved for release by Periodic Review Boards in 2021. With their release, 18 other men, also approved for release, are still held, and the Biden administration needs to make their release a priority.

The latest good news from Guantánamo, as Majid Khan, whose terrorism-related sentence came to an end nearly a year ago, has been resettled in Belize. Sadly, I have to contrast his situation with that of the 20 other men still held at Guantánamo, never even charged with a crime, who have also been approved for release, but whose freedom isn’t being prioritized by the Biden administration, because the recommendations for their release were made via a purely administrative process, which has no legal weight.

My report about the latest medical scandal at Guantánamo, as a medical team was flown in to conduct emergency surgery on Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who has a degenerative spinal condition. Al-Iraqi previously had five surgical operations at Guantánamo, in 2017-18, after his condition was ignored for ten years. It is clear that his needs cannot be met at the prison, but he cannot receive urgent and more appropriate medical care on the US mainland because of an ongoing ban, imposed by Congress in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which prevents prisoners from being transferred to the US mainland for any reason. I also look at the case of Ammar al-Baluchi, who suffered brain damage as a result of torture in a CIA “black site,” but whose calls for independent medical experts to assess him are being resisted by the Biden administration.

My report about Guled Hassan Duran, a Somali prisoner in Guantánamo who has worrying health problems, and whose lawyers have just asked a US court to revisit his long-stalled habeas corpus petition, and to order his release, a year since he was approved for release by a Periodic Review Board.

Celebrating the release of Saifullah Paracha, Guantánamo’s oldest prisoner, but also explaining in detail how unreliable information obtained through the coercive interrogation of his son, Uzair, was used to justify Saifullah’s imprisonment, even after Uzair had his sentence quashed by a federal court judge on the US mainland.

A world exclusive: the story of Abu Faraj al-Libi, one of 14 “high-value detainees” brought to Guantánamo from CIA “black sites” in September 2006, who appeared publicly for the first time in June this year, for his latest Periodic Review Board, which, nevertheless, approved his ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial last month, as one of the prison’s four remaining “forever prisoners.”

My reflections on Guantánamo and 9/11 on the 21st anniversary of the terrorist attacks, which led to two failed wars, the CIA’s torture program, and, of course, the establishment of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, the enduring symbol of the US’s shameful and lawless response to the 9/11 attacks, where 36 men are still held, most of whom have never been charged with crime. Also included is a video of my discussion about 9/11 and Guantánamo with Inayat Wadee of Salaamedia in South Africa. Ironically, the men held who were allegedly responsible for the attacks have still not been successfully prosecuted, because of the torture to which they were subjected, while, alarmingly for the old men who still want to keep the “war on terror” alive, no one under 25 even remembers 9/11, and in many cases don’t even know what happened that day.

Looking at the problems faced by the US government in finding a third country prepared to offer a new home to Guantánamo prisoner Majid Khan, whose sentence for involvement in terrorism ended on March 1 this year. Khan is thoroughly repentant about his actions, and has cooperated with the authorities on other terrorism-related cases, but it remains uncertain whether another country can be found that will take him in. As a cooperating witness, he should, it seems to me, be resettled with his family under a new identity in the US, but that is currently illegal under provisions in the annual National Defense Authorization Act introduced by Republicans during the Obama presidency, and maintained ever since.

My report about the first plea deal reached at Guantánamo with a “high-value detainee” under President Biden — Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a military commander in Afghanistan, who arrived at Guantánamo from a CIA “black site” in 2007, and was first charged in 2013. He is also one of the most physically disabled of the remaining 36 prisoners, suffering from a severe degenerative spinal condition.

As “forever prisoner” Muhammad Rahim, an Afghan, has his ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial at Guantánamo recommended by a Periodic Review Board, I look at his case, and those of the other four remaining “forever prisoners” (down from 22 when Joe Biden took office), and the problem they represent for the president in his efforts to finally close the prison.