Close Gitmo
"Five Years of Kafkaesque Legal Shenanigans," One More Chance to Do Right by Omar Khadr
originally posted by Suzanne Ito, ACLU for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Aug 24th
On Saturday, Alex Neve, Secretary General for Amnesty International Canada, wrote an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen about the military commissions trial of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr. As we blogged earlier, Khadr’s defense attorney, Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, collapsed in court, and the trial was stayed for at least a month. (We later learned Lt. Col. Jackson’s illness was due to complications following gall bladder surgery last month.)
Neve sees this one-month stay as Canada’s last chance to end the "five years of Kafkaesque legal shenanigans" and bring Khadr home:
It is a delay that offers the Canadian government one last chance to do right by Omar Khadr. It also offers a chance to demonstrate to the world that we do in fact stand by the important international legal standards dealing with child soldiers that Canada was instrumental in developing.
To date we have heard nothing but silence and excuses from the government. The Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal have both ordered the government to seek his repatriation. The Supreme Court has found that the Canadian government continues to violate his rights and that those violations must be remedied (by repatriation or some other means). UN human rights experts and agencies such as UNICEF have called on the U.S. government to abandon this trial and for Canada to seek his return.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has defiantly refused to do so. It is a position that has become a source of both international puzzlement and national embarrassment. I was even asked by various soldiers stationed at Guantanamo why Canada seemed so indifferent to Omar’s fate.
It is an untenable position not worthy of our nation. But it is not too late to change it.
From the other side of the border, we’ve watched in horror as the U.S. government has charged towards the first prosecution of an alleged child soldier since World War II. The military judge has been holding scheduling conferences to determine when Khadr’s trial can resume. It’s full steam ahead once Lt. Col. Jackson is well enough to return to Gitmo.
So while it’s Canada’s last chance, it’s also a last chance for our country to do the right thing, too. Send Khadr back home to Canada.
The Gitmo Sentence Guessing Game
originally posted by Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Program for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Aug 20th
Before Omar Khadr’s trial ground to a halt last week, the sentencing hearing of 50-year-old detainee Ibrahim al-Qosi continued apace. Al-Qosi is the first detainee to be convicted in the military commissions under the Obama administration, in a plea deal in which he admitted to being an al Qaeda cook and occasional driver.
During the two days of sentencing hearings, everyone in the room other than the jurors knew that there had been a secret plea agreement capping the actual amount of time al-Qosi will serve at 10 years (two years in addition to the eight he’s already served). On Monday, the judge, Lt. Col. Nancy Paul, ruled that this true sentence would be kept secret until the military commissions’ Convening Authority approves it, at an unspecified date. The jurors were only given the enumerated charges to which al-Qosi had pled guilty, and had to set a formal sentence based on that information.
So what followed in the courtroom was a charade. The jury’s sentence was just for show. The true sentence was secret.
On Wednesday, Judge Paul ordered the jury to give a sentence of 12 to 15 years. There’s nothing in the military commissions rules manual empowering a judge to set a minimum sentence; it also never happened in the two cases that have gone to trial here at Gitmo. Prosecution and defense lawyers made arguments about why the sentence should be 15 or 12 years, respectively. The judge told the jurors that in determining the sentence, they could consider the amount of time al-Qosi has already served. (Under a new Obama administration rule enacted this April, the judge can’t give credit for time served — 8 years, 7 months, and 27 days in al-Qosi’s case.) After a brief deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of 14 years. Al-Qosi reportedly showed no emotion when the sentence was read. Not surprising, since he probably knew he’s headed in home in two years, not 14.
This charade was a win-win situation for the Obama administration. News articles with the headline "Al Qaeda Cook Gets 14 Years" were splashed across the Internet and print media, and the administration avoids criticism for sentencing their first convicted Gitmo detainee to only two more years in prison.
While an election-year charade that conceals a detainee’s true sentence may serves the administration’s political goals, it is galling from a president who promised transparency . Even the Bush administration didn’t conceal Salim Hamdan ’s 2008 sentence of five months beyond time served.
The farce that was al-Qosi’s sentencing hearing brings to mind a hand-written statement that Omar Khadr read to the court in July, in which he announced that he had rejected a secret plea deal. He said the military commissions are not fair or seeking justice, but rather are
"…to accomplish political and public goal and what I mean is when I was offered a plea bargain it was up to 30 years which I was going to spend only 5 years so I asked why the 30 years? I was told it make the U.S. government look good in the public eyes and other political causes."
Welcome to the Obama military commissions, where sentences are made secret to silence critics, and guilty pleas are secured with the threat that detainees won’t get credit for eight-plus years of pretrial detention if they go to trial.
I guess this is what passes for justice at Guantánamo.
(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)
Gitmo Justice
originally posted by Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Program for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Aug 17th
Friday morning, the first trial at Gitmo under President Obama was suspended because the defendant’s lawyer, Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, collapsed and had to be medevacked off the base for medical treatment. He’s been given 30 days’ convalescence leave. In a closed-door meeting in his chambers Friday, the military judge declared Omar Khadr’s trial on hold for at least 30 days. The scheduled hearing was cancelled and the jury was never brought back into court.
Because there was no public hearing, there’s no word yet on whether the judge will declare a mistrial or send the jurors home with instructions to stay away from press reports about the case for the next month or longer. Khadr’s case has been beset by delays and legal challenges over the five years he’s been before the military commissions. Khadr is the third detainee to go to trial since the prison that has held nearly 800 detainees was opened in 2002.
I was last here at Gitmo in July, for a hearing in which Khadr fired his civilian lawyers and Lt. Col. Jackson was appointed sole defense counsel. That hearing was a week after Lt. Col. Jackson underwent gall bladder surgery, and his collapse on Friday morning was reportedly due to complications from that surgery. It’s notable that the Pentagon provided Lt. Col. Jackson with only two military paralegals to assist him with the complex and historic trial, while the prosecution team includes four lawyers and around four paralegals.
That’s justice in the military commissions.
(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)
Reasonable Doubt
originally posted by Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Program for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Aug 13th
Opening statements began in the first trial under Obama’s military commisions yesterday, and the prosecution called their first two witnesses against Canadian Omar Khadr. The youngest of Guantanamo’s remaining 176 detainees, Khadr was captured in Afghanistan eight years ago, when he was 15 years old.
Khadr is accused of throwing the grenade that killed Delta Force Sgt. Christopher Speer. Sgt. Speer’s widow, Tabitha Speer, observed the trial today, dabbing her eyes with a tissue when witnesses described her husband’s mortal injury in the firefight that preceded Khadr’s capture.
More than 1,200 U.S. servicemembers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, but Sgt. Speer’s death is the only one being prosecuted as a war crime. In fact, this trial is the first prosecution in history for murder in violation of the laws of war (murder is not a recognized war crime; it is usually handled in domestic criminal courts).
Prosecutor Jeffrey Groharing said in his opening statement, "This trial is about holding an Al Qaeda terrorist accountable for his actions and vindicating the laws of war." Defense lawyer Army Lt. Col. Jon Jackson told the jury in his opener, "Omar Khadr did not kill Sgt. Speer. He has been waiting eight long years to tell you that. To tell somebody who can finally listen and who can finally make a difference." He said the only reason Khadr was in the compound where the firefight occurred was because Khadr’s father "hated his enemies more than he loved his son."
After opening statements, the Special Ops commander who led the assault on the compound (who can be identified only as Col. W because of a court order protecting his identity), testified about a report he wrote hours after the battle, in which he reported that one of his shooters killed the enemy who threw the grenade that killed Sgt. Speer. His report also noted that in addition to the enemy forces his men had killed, there was one wounded, Khadr. Years later, after an investigative team from the Guantanamo military commissions visited Col. W about the case against Khadr, he altered his copy of the report to indicate that the enemy who killed Sgt. Speer was "engaged" by the Special Ops shooter, not "killed."
A U.S. commando, identified as Sgt. Maj. D, also testified today that there were two individuals alive in the compound when the grenade that killed Sgt. Speer was thrown. He said that after the grenade came from an alley, he shot and killed an adult male in the alley, then shot another sitting with his back to him — Khadr.
None of this testimony is news to those who have followed the case, as these factual issues were raised in pretrial hearings long ago. Given the reasonable doubt cast by today’s evidence — not to mention Khadr’s age at the time the alleged crime was committed — it is hard to fathom why this case was chosen as the first test case of the Obama-era military commissions.
The first day of the trial ended abruptly when, while cross-examining Sgt. Maj. D, Khadr’s defense lawyer collapsed. Lt. Col. Jackson had asked for a momentary pause, stood at attention until the last juror filed out of the courtroom for a five-minute recess called by the judge, and collapsed. The first to come to his aid was the case’s chief prosecutor, Jeffrey Groharing, who kneeled down and loosened Lt. Col. Jackson’s tie. He was taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher.
Lt. Col. Jackson is the lone defense attorney for Khadr; he is up against four prosecutors who are trying the case. It is unclear what his prognosis is, and how it will affect the trial schedule, but it is inconceivable that the case could continue without Khadr’s sole lawyer.
(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)
A Beacon for Liberty and Justice
originally posted by Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Program for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Aug 13th
Tuesday was the conclusion of jury selection for the trial of Canadian Omar Khadr, as 15 jury pool members were whittled down to seven selected jurors, all officers in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marines.
Jury selection offered a glimpse into the opinions of high-ranking military officers about Guantánamo and the military commissions. Two of the prospective jury members said they believed Guantánamo should be closed, but only one of the two was selected for the jury.
The jury foreman (based on highest rank), a Navy Captain referred to only as Juror #5, said Guantánamo presents a "no-win" situation, hurts our reputation overseas, and has led to bad press and bad relations with other countries. The chief prosecutor in the case, Jeffrey Groharing, unsuccessfully argued that Juror #5 couldn’t be impartial because of his opinions about Gitmo.
Eliminated during voir dire — the jury selection phase wherein potential jurors are questioned by the attorneys — was Juror #16, an Army Lt. Colonel and history professor who was the best informed about Guantánamo among the jury pool (he was also the only one who mentioned reading national newspapers). The 20-year Army officer said he agrees with the President that Guantánamo should be closed. He said Guantánamo has "eroded America’s moral authority in the world" and caused America to lose its "status as a beacon of liberty and justice" because Gitmo "runs contrary to those principles."
Under questioning by the prosecutor, Juror #16 said he disagrees with the policies here at Gitmo, including lengthy pretrial detention, torture, and denial of Red Cross access to detainees. He said he is aware of controversial legal issues that arise in the military commissions and have led to delays in bringing cases to trial, including the admissibility of evidence obtained under torture, the lack of legal precedent for many of the charges brought before the military commissions, and the rights of minors charged as enemy combatants.
He’s absolutely right: these controversial legal issues, all of which are live issues in Khadr’s case, could lead to years of appeals after this trial is over, instead of an outcome we can count on.
Groharing argued vociferously against Juror #16, at one point bizarrely arguing that the juror will be prejudiced against the government (what they call the prosecution here) because he agrees with the President. Groharing argued, "Number 16 has a decidedly hostile attitude toward Guantánamo. He kept saying he agreed with the President."
The military judge, for his part, denied the prosecution’s request to eliminate Juror #16 for cause (though the prosecution later axed the juror using their one available peremptory challenge, which doesn’t require an explanation). The judge, Army Col. Patrick Parrish, wryly ruled, "while he believes the U.S. should be a beacon for liberty, that should not be the basis for a challenge for cause."
Making History
originally posted by Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Program for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Aug 11th
Yesterday, I witnessed history being made here in Guantánamo, as jury selection began today in the first war crimes prosecution of a child soldier since World War II, and the first ever in U.S. history.
Accused of throwing a grenade that killed Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer and participating in a terrorist conspiracy beginning when he was only 10 years old, Khadr literally has grown up at Guantánamo. Now 23, the full beard Khadr has grown since his imprisonment in 2002 obscures the fact that he was only 15 at the time he was shot and captured by U.S. forces.
Khadr has now spent a third of his life at Guantánamo, and after five years in the discredited military commissions, his trial began today. Khadr faces charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support to terrorism, and spying. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.
Khadr’s is the first trial in the illegitimate military commissions under President Obama. The trial of an alleged child soldier who was abused in U.S. detention is a terrible case for the administration to open with, and yet here we are, in the middle of jury selection.
Guantánamo’s youngest prisoner, Khadr is the only one of the 176 remaining detainees who was a juvenile when transferred here. A Canadian, he’s also the only Westerner remaining at Gitmo. Khadr’s case is also unique because it will be the first prosecution in history for murder in violation of the laws of war (murder isn’t a recognized war crime; like the charges of spying and material suppport for terrorism that Khadr also faces, the charge was fashioned out of whole cloth for the purposes of the military commissions).
Omar Khadr’s trial flies in the face of international law and policy that recognizes child soldiers as victims and candidates for rehabilitation. The U.N. Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict said in a statement today that Khadr’s trial sets a dangerous precedent that could endanger child soldiers around the world. She also said "juvenile justice standards are clear—children should not be tried before military tribunals."
Since World War II, there hasn’t been a war crimes prosecution of a child soldier—until today. And that’s not because children don’t commit war crimes. Children committed some of the most heinous abuses of the Sierra Leonean civil war in the 90’s, including murder, rape, and amputation of limbs. But the U.N. war court convened to prosecute those responsible for wartime atrocities chose not to prosecute anyone under 18 at the time of their crimes, and instead entered these child soldiers in rehabilitatation programs and used them as witnesses in the war crimes trials against the adults who recruited or used them during the war.
The former chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leonean war court, former Defense Department official David Crane, has said that Khadr’s trial is "morally and legally wrong." Author Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone who, like Khadr, was captured when he was 15, has also criticized Khadr’s prosecution. Beah admits that during the civil war he killed "too many people to count," but since a stint in a rehabilitation center he has written a best-selling memoir, graduated from Oberlin, and served as a UNICEF ambassador. Beah has said he struggles to understand the dramatic difference between the compassion shown him and the lack of compassion shown Khadr.
(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)
What We Stand For
originally posted by Jennifer Turner, Human Rights Program for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Aug 10th
Yesterday was a stark reminder that instead of closing the book on the Bush-era military commissions, President Obama is adding another sad chapter to that history. Although President Obama promised transparency and sharp limits on the use of tortured and coerced statements against the accused, at Guantánamo today one military judge ordered that a sentence be kept secret from the public and another military judge allowed statements obtained by abuse and coercion of a 15-year-old to be used at trial.
Yesterday was a stark reminder that instead of closing the book on the Bush-era military commissions, President Obama is adding another sad chapter to that history. Although President Obama promised transparency and sharp limits on the use of tortured and coerced statements against the accused, at Guantánamo today one military judge ordered that a sentence be kept secret from the public and another military judge allowed statements obtained by abuse and coercion of a 15-year-old to be used at trial.Monday was Day One of the sentencing hearing in the case of Sudanese detainee Ibrahim al-Qosi. Al-Qosi was the first detainee to be convicted under President Obama, in a plea deal entered this June in which he admitted to being an al Qaeda cook and occassional driver. Yesterday sawjury selection of senior military officers, who would deliver a formal sentence in al-Qosi’s case. If the jury delivers a sentence longer than what was agreed to in the plea bargin, it will be moot. Unless the jury delivers a shorter sentence, al-Qosi’s true sentence will be what was hammered out in the plea agreement.
But in an unprecedented move, military judge Air Force Lt. Col. Nancy Paul ordered today that al-Qosi’s true sentence will be kept secret until he’s released. The judge said the government requested that the sentence be kept secret.
A fellow observer of the military commissions here, former Marine judge and law of war expert Gary Solis, here to monitor the commissions for the National Institute for Military Justice, says he has participated in 700 courts-martial and has never heard of a secret sentence.
Last month, the Al-Arabiya satellite news network cited two sources who have seen the plea agreement and say the plea deal would cap al-Qosi’s sentence at two years (beyond the eight years he’s already served). I’ve heard speculation here at Gitmo that the reason for concealing al-Qosi’s sentence from the public is to prevent political attacks portraying the Obama administration as weak on terrorism before the November mid-term elections. (There have been only three other convictions by the military commissions — all under former President Bush — and two of the three have already been released. Former Guantánamo detainee Salim Hamdan’s 2008 sentence of five months on top of time served drew fierce criticism from some.)
This country deserves more than election-year charade, in which a jury delivers a show sentence and the true sentence is concealed from the public because some may perceive it as too lenient.
A final pretrial hearing also took place Monday in the case of Canadian Omar Khadr, who will start trial today as the first test trial of the military commissions under President Obama. In a summary decision of only a few words, and with no explanation, the military judge in Omar Khadr’s case, Col. Patrick Parrish, denied defense motions to exclude self-incriminating statements Khadr made to interrogators because of torture and other abuse. The judge will issue a written decision, certainly after the trial begins and possibly after it’s ended, but for now he’s offered no explanation.
It boggles the mind that the military judge could find that Khadr was not coerced and gave these statements to interrogators voluntarily. Khadr, then 15 years old, was taken to Bagram near death, after being shot twice in the back, blinded by shrapnel, and buried in rubble from a bomb blast. He was interrogated within hours, while sedated and handcuffed to a stretcher. He was threatened with gang rape and death if he didn’t cooperate with interrogators. He was hooded and chained with his arms suspended in a cage-like cell, and his primary interrogator was later court-martialed for detainee abuse leading to the death of a detainee. During his subsequent eight-year (so far) detention at Guantánamo, Khadr was subjected to the "frequent flyer" sleep deprivation program and he says he was used as a human mop after he was forced to urinate on himself.
In closing arguments before the judge’s ruling, Khadr’s sole defense lawyer, Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, told the judge, "Sir, be a voice today. Tell the world that we actually stand for what we say we stand for."
Though President Obama promised that coerced evidence would not be used against detainees in the military commissions, today’s ruling suggests that as a country, we stand for abusing a 15-year-old teenager into confessing, and using those confessions against him in an illegitimate proceeding.
Not just Omar Khadr, but also the United States, is on trial starting tomorrow. We should show the world that we can provide a fair trial to Omar Khadr, after what is known about what we’ve done to him. But that simply is not going to happen in a Guantánamo military commisison designed to ensure quick convictions at the expense of due process and transparency, and structured to prevent the revelation of abusive interrogations engaged in by the U.S. government.
(Originally posted on DailyKos.)
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post stated that Gary Solis “presided over 700 courts-martial.” That was incorrect. Solis presided over 400 cases as a judge, but participated in 760 as a lawyer or judge.
First Military Commissions Trial Under Obama Scheduled for This Week
originally posted by Suzanne Ito, ACLU for Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union [click here]
Aug 10th
When Omar Khadr was just 9 years old, his father took him from their home in Toronto to Afghanistan, and introduced him to al Qaeda. Six years later, he was captured by U.S. forces after a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. When he was taken into U.S. custody, he was nearly dead, suffering from two gunshots to the back, blinded in one eye by shrapnel, and buried by rubble.
When Omar Khadr was just 9 years old, his father took him from their home in Toronto to Afghanistan, and introduced him to al Qaeda. Six years later, he was captured by U.S. forces after a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. When he was taken into U.S. custody, he was nearly dead, suffering from two gunshots to the back, blinded in one eye by shrapnel, and buried by rubble.He was taken to Bagram, where he underwent three major surgeries. While has still recovering from these operations, sedated and handcuffed to a stretcher, he was interrogated and threatened with rape. During his subsequent eight-year detention at Guantánamo, he was hooded, menaced with dogs, forced to urinate on himself, endured more threats of rape and torture and subjected to the "frequent flyer" sleep deprivation program.
This week, Omar Khadr is scheduled to face the first military commissions trial under the Obama administration. During the trial, prosecutors will try to portray Khadr as an al Qaeda terrorist who allegedly threw a grenade that killed Army medic Sgt. Christopher Speer during that firefight. Khadr asserts his innocence. During pretrial hearings in May 2008, the very basis for the case against Khadr was thrown into question when a secret government document was inadvertently revealed during the hearing:
The significance of the document was made clear by Khadr’s military defense counsel, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler. Asked to describe it later in the day, Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler said it dispelled what he referred to as a myth propagated by the government: that Khadr was the only person who could have lobbed the grenade that killed U.S. soldier Christopher Speer — the basis of the most serious charge against him. The document, created in 2004, turned out to be an interview of a witness to Khadr’s capture. In it, the witness describes finding two people alive in the Afghan compound in which Khadr was captured — the witness shot and killed the first man before he saw Khadr. Then, according to Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler, Khadr, who was 15 years old at the time, "was shot on sight — in the back — twice — while wounded, sitting and leaning against a wall facing away from his attackers."
The case against Khadr is weak, and tainted by torture and coerced confessions. In an affidavit submitted in 2008, Khadr states:
During this interrogation, the more I answered the questions and the more I gave him the answers he wanted, the less [REDACTED] on me. I figured out right away that I would simply tell them whatever I thought they wanted to hear in order to keep them from causing me [REDACTED].
The United States signed and ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The optional protocol mandates the "physical and psychosocial rehabilitation and social reintegration of children who are victims of armed conflict." The Obama administration’s plan to prosecute Khadr, a child soldier, flies in the face of this treaty.
ACLU Human Rights Researcher Jennifer Turner is in Guantánamo for the next two weeks to observe the pretrial hearings and trial, should it proceed. Khadr’s defense attorney, Army Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, told the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg back in July, when Khadr attempted to fire him:
"I never envisioned a scenario in my career as an Army lawyer that would require me to defend a child-soldier against war-crimes charges levied by the United States[…] I always believed we were better than that."
We are better than that. The Obama administration should shut down the illegitimate military commissions system that has become a stain on our nation’s reputation and prosecute terrorism suspects in the time-tested federal criminal courts, which guarantee due process. The commissions system is unfit to try any Guantánamo detainee, especially an alleged child soldier.
While he was running for office, then-Sen. Obama said: "As president, I will close Guantánamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions." But 18 months after he took office, the Obama administration plans to test the new military commissions with the prosecution of a child soldier who was tortured and abused in U.S. custody, and has spent one-third of his life in Guantánamo.
We’re in for a sad week indeed.
“They Were Buying Arabs From Pakistan”
Jun 4th
On April 30, the University of California, Davis, celebrated the fifth year of its Guantánamo Testimonials Project, an effort to gather first-hand testimony of the abuse of detainees held there in U.S. custody, and to make their stories available to the general public. The anniversary was marked with a milestone of its own: for the first time, a public discussion between a former detainee — Omar Deghayes — and former Gitmo guard Terry Holdbrooks took place before an American audience. (Since his one-year stint as a guard at Guantánamo, Holdbrooks has converted to Islam and is now known as Mustafa Abdullah.)
You can read the transcript of their discussion here, but for some good background and context, we suggest heading over to Andy Worthington’s site, where he’s broken it up into three parts. Part One is mostly Deghayes’ story, Part Two focuses on Holdbrooks, and Part Three features the discussion between the two and about the "Gitmo suicides." Deghayes is also featured in Worthington’s film, Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo, which is being screened throughout the U.K. this summer.
Omar Deghayes is also featured in our video, Justice Denied: Voices from Guantánamo, which was just honored this week at the Media That Matters Film Festival in New York.
Last weekend, we learned that the Guantánamo Review Task Force report basically confirmed what the ACLU and many other groups have been saying all along: most of the men detained at Gitmo are not "the worst of the worst," and were not involved in plots against the U.S. Many, like Deghayes, were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time: they were picked up and sold for a bounty. Deghayes told the U.C. Davis audience:
When we were in Pakistan, the American authorities of the government of Bush at the time was paying lots of money to people, any people, who would hand them any Arabs. They were buying Arabs from Pakistan. So [we were] rounded up, in our village and our house, we were captured and then taken to lock-ups where we were mistreated in Pakistan and then sold to the Americans.
More than 700 men have been detained at Gitmo since it opened in 2002. Most were released during the Bush administration. While the Obama administration figures out what to do with the remaining 181 detainees, the unlawful military commission hearings against some detainees proceed. The ACLU will return to Guantánamo in late June to observe the pre-trial hearings of Ibrahim al-Qosi.
ACLU Film to be Featured in “Media That Matters Film Festival”
May 25th
Next week, the ACLU’s film, "Justice Denied: Voices from Guantánamo," will be featured as one of 12 shorts selected in the 10th annual Media That Matters (MTM) Film Festival, a showcase for short films — all under 12 minutes — on a variety of issues. Every June, MTM presents a new collection of shorts that are diverse in style and content, with documentaries, music videos, animations, experimental work and everything else in between.
Our film, "Justice Denied: Voices from Guantánamo," features former detainees who were held by the U.S. in Afghanistan and Guantánamo for years, without charge or trial, and without any meaningful opportunity to challenge their detention. The men in the video series were captured, abused, and imprisoned — some for as long as five years — before being released without any explanation, criminal charge or apology.
We’re honored to be a part of this year’s MTM Film Festival, and hope you can join us for the NYC world premiere if you are in New York City (details below).
WHAT: ACLU film "Justice Denied: Voices from Guantánamo" featured in the 10th annual Media That Matters Film Festival
WHEN: Wednesday, June 2, 2010 (Doors open at 6:00 pm, arrive early to take part in a salon with festival filmmakers and presenting partners, including the ACLU! The screening will be held from 7:00-9:00 pm)
WHERE: School of Visual Arts (SVA), Visual Arts Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, New York, NY
TICKETS: Purchase your ticket online before they sell out!