Guantanamo lawyers

My report about the first plea deal reached at Guantánamo with a “high-value detainee” — 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, and who is also of one the most physically disabled of the remaining 36 prisoners, suffering from a severe degenerative spinal condition.

Celebrating the latest release from Guantánamo — of Asadullah Haroon Gul, an Afghan held without charge or trial since 2007, who was approved for release last year by a Periodic Review Board, and who also had his ongoing imprisonment judged as unlawful by a District Court judge reviewing his habeas corpus petition.

The latest news in the case of Guantánamo prisoner Majid Khan, who has submitted a habeas corpus petition seeking his release, 100 days since his sentence for involvement with terrorism ended. While Khan should have the law on his side, I also compare his case to that of the 20 other men approved for release by administrative review processes, but also still held, for whom, shamefully, no legal mechanism at all exists to compel their release.

My report about the case of Khaled Qassim, one of the last five “forever prisoners” in Guantánamo, after his recent Periodic Review Board, including a powerful statement in support of his approval for release that was sent to the Board by Mark Maher, one of his attorneys.

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.

More good news from Guantánamo, as Hassan bin Attash, Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, who was just 16 or 17 years old when he was first seized in a house raid in Pakistan in September 2002, is approved for release by a Periodic Review Board.

In a world exclusive, originally posted on the Close Guantánamo website, I tell the story of Saeed Bakhouch, an Algerian prisoner seized in Pakistan in March 2002, who has finally been approved for release by a Periodic Review Board, after being held for 20 years without charge or trial.

Promoting two recent radio interviews about Guantánamo – with former Guantánamo attorney Buz Eisenberg on WHMP 101.5 FM in Western Massachusetts, and with activist Misty Winston on TNT Radio, a new online radio station streaming worldwide, and based in Australia.

Celebrating the release from Guantánamo of Sufyian Barhoumi, an Algerian who was approved for release nearly five and a half years ago. 37 men now remain at the prison, but over half of them — 19 men — have also been approved for release, and President Biden also needs to arrange for these men to be given their freedom.

My report about a stunning Supreme Court dissent by Justice Gorsuch, a Conservative, in the case of Abu Zubaydah, who was seeking to compel the architects of the torture program to testify about what happened to him when he was held in a CIA “black site” in Poland. Shamefully, the government sought to block the testimony because it regards all mention of a “black site” in Poland as a “state secret,” even though it is common knowledge, and only Gorsuch, and Justice Sotomayor, who joined his dissent, disagreed.