Military Commissions

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.

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.

It’s ten years since Majid Khan agreed to a plea deal at Guantánamo, and a month since his sentence came to an end, and yet, despite it being clear throughout this entire period that he would be eligible for release in March 2022, the US government has made no plans for his release.

My report about the decision by a Periodic Review Board at Guantánamo to approve for release Ghassan al-Sharbi, a Saudi once put forward for trial by military commission as an alleged al-Qaeda bomb-maker, although the charges were subsequently dropped. The decision means that over half of the men still held — 20 of the remaining 39 prisoners — have now been approved for release.

Videos from ‘Guantánamo: 20 Years After’, the online conference, hosted by the University of Brighton, which took place on Nov. 12-13, 2021, and which I helped to organize. I was also a keynote speaker, along with former prisoner Shaker Aamer. Included here are videos of the keynote speeches, a presentation by Jeremy Varon of Witness Against Torture, and the conference’s three panel discussions.

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.

The second part of my transcript of the powerful statement that Guantánamo prisoner and CIA “black site” torture victim Majid Khan read out at his sentencing hearing, with its powerful combination of contrition, on the one hand, and the brutality of his torture on the other, which seemed to be undertaken with no regard for discovering the truth, as he had persistently showed a willingness to cooperate with his interrogators.

A transcript of the first part of Majid Khan’s statement at his recent sentencing hearing at Guantánamo, in which he recounted his early life, how he was preyed on by al-Qaeda supporters following the death of his mother, and the horrendous torture to which he was subjected in a number of CIA “black sites”, despite having made it clear from the time of his capture that he intended to be as cooperative as possible.

Publicizing a great two-day online conference about Guantánamo on Nov. 12 and 13, hosted by the University of Brighton, which I’ve been organizing with Sara Birch, a law lecturer at the university, featuring former prisoners, panels of lawyers and other experts, and academic papers from around the world.

My report about the sentencing of former CIA “black site” torture victim and Guantánamo prisoner Majid Khan, finally and belatedly following his plea deal in 2012, his powerful statement during his hearing, and the unprecedented request for clemency from seven of his eight military jurors.