Guantanamo and US Senate/House of Representatives

Posting the letter sent by 69 lawmakers to the chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee, urging them to drop the ban on sending Guantánamo prisoners to the US mainland for any reason (even for urgent medical treatment) in next year’s National Defense Authorization Act – plus my account of the shameful 12-year history of the obstacles raised by Republicans regarding Guantánamo in successive versions of the NDAA.

My report about last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “Closing Guantánamo: Ending 20 Years of Injustice,” chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin, including the video of the entire hearing, which featured expert witnesses explaining why the prison must be closed.

My transcript of a speech in the Senate, urging the closure of Guantánamo, which was made by Sen. Dick Durbin, a longtime opponent of the prison’s existence, as he introduced an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), seeking to close the prison once and for all.

My analysis of the significance of last week’s full en banc hearing, in the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., in Al-Hela v. Biden, a case focused on whether the prisoners at Guantánamo have due process rights (a question that shouldn’t need asking after nearly 20 years), highlighting the obstructive role played by the Justice Department throughout the prison’s long history.

A link to, and discussion of my interview yesterday, about the men still held indefinitely without charge or trial at Guantánamo, and the Biden administration’s slowness in releasing prisoners already approved for release, and moving towards the prison’s eventual closure, with Chris Cook, for his Gorilla Radio show in Victoria, Canada. Chris and I have spoken many times before over the years, and he is always an extremely well-informed host.

Publicizing an important letter to President Biden from 75 members of the House of Representatives, led by David Price (D-NC), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), calling for the closure of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, and also pointing out that the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban must not lead to cynical right-wingers seeking to derail efforts to close Guantánamo.

An important letter from 24 Democratic Senators to President Biden, urging him to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, including, most significantly, a call to release all the prisoners who are not going to be charged with crimes. The signatories include Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

A cross-post, with my own introduction, of a detailed proposal for how Joe Biden can close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, written for Just Security by Benjamin Farley, currently a 9/11 trial attorney, and, from 2013-17, Senior Adviser to the Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure at the State Department.

Promoting a letter to defense secretary Mark Esper, initiated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and also signed by 14 other Senators, asking for clarification of what the Pentagon is doing to protect the prisoners at Guantánamo, and US military personnel, from the coronavirus COVID-19.

My report about the passage of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which maintains restrictions on the release of Guantánamo prisoners, and on any moves towards the prison’s closure. These, sadly, have been part of the NDAA for many years, since the Republicans took control of Congress under President Obama. Sadly, although Democrats took control of the House in the 2018 midterms, they were unable to amend the repressive Guantánamo legislation in the final version of the NDAA that was consolidated with the Republican-controlled Senate.