guantanamo

Activists Seek Executive Order Banning Torture

NEW YORK - Shutting down the infamous detention centre at Guantanamo Bay is just one of a series of measures to reform U.S. counterterrorism practices being urged by the watchdog organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In a report released Sunday, the New York-based HRW urged President-elect Barack Obama to quickly repudiate the abusive policies put in place by the George W. Bush administration in its "global war on terror".

Posted in guantanamo, torture

Cal Study Finds Ex-Guantanamo Prisoners Broken

BERKELEY, California - The first extensive study of prisoners released from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, finds that many of them are physically and psychologically traumatized, debt-ridden and shunned in their communities as terrorist suspects.

"I've lost my property. I've lost my job. I've lost my will," said an Afghan man, one of 62 former inmates in nine countries interviewed anonymously by UC Berkeley researchers for a newly released report.

Posted in guantanamo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2008
3:47 PM

CONTACT: ACLU

Laurie Gindin Beacham, (212) 519-7811 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org

ACLU Praises Obama’s Plan to Close Guantánamo

Government’s Replacement of Military Judge in 9/11 Cases Is Transparent Attempt to Ram Through Cases Before Administration Changes, Adds Group

NEW YORK - November 17 - The American Civil Liberties Union strongly praises President-elect Barack Obama's promise on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday night to close down Guantánamo and its unconstitutional military commissions being used to prosecute detainees.

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Posted in guantanamo

Restoring America's Rights Record: Memo to the President-Elect

America's human rights record has been badly tarnished by seven years of abuse by the Bush Administration in its conduct of the war on terror, particularly as regards U.S. policy towards detainees. The United States has been criticized before the Torture Committee, the Human Rights Committee, the Inter American Commission, the European Parliament, many national courts and Parliaments and the international press. What should the new administration do to set matters right?

Posted in guantanamo, international law, torture

Obama's Biggest Guantanamo Dilemma May Lie in Yemen

SANAA, Yemen - President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces a major obstacle: Yemen.

The Bush administration has transferred hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners to the custody of their home countries, but it's been unable to win assurances from Yemen - whose approximately 100 prisoners are the largest group still jailed at Guantanamo - that the men, if they're returned, won't pose a threat to the United States.

Posted in beyond obama, guantanamo

Obama Has to Pay for Eight Years of Bush's Delusions

American lawyers defending six Algerians before a habeas corpus hearing in Washington this week learned some very odd things about US intelligence after 9/11. From among the millions of "raw" reports from American spies and their "assets" around the world came a CIA Middle East warning about a possible kamikaze-style air attack on a US navy base at a south Pacific island location. The only problem was that no such navy base existed on the island and no US Seventh Fleet warship had ever been there.

Posted in domestic spying, guantanamo, torture, war on terror, War/Empire, Iraq, Israel/Palestine

Rights Groups Urge Obama to Mount Guantanamo Probe

Two human rights groups urged the future Obama administration on Wednesday to appoint a well-funded commission with subpoena power to systematically examine the U.S. treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere since the 9/11 attacks.

Posted in guantanamo

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 12, 2008
12:23 PM

CONTACT: Center for Consitutional Rights (CCR)

press@ccrjustice.org

UC Berkeley Report Details Shattered Lives of Released Guantánamo Detainees

Study in Partnership with CCR Demands Investigation of ‘War on Terror’ Policies

WASHINGTON - November 12 - Detainees released from U.S. detention in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and Afghanistan live shattered lives as a result of U.S. policies in the "war on terror," according to a new report by human rights experts at the University of California, Berkeley done in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). The report is available below.

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The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

Posted in guantanamo

Guantanamo Bay: Obama's Options

Barack Obama, the US president-elect, has said repeatedly that he will shut down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and is now faced with decisions about how to proceed.

Rights groups have urged Obama to move swiftly once he begins his White House term in January.

The detention and treatment of prisoners held at the US facility has been widely condemned by international rights groups and the UN and EU.

Posted in guantanamo

Obama and the Imperial Presidency

Barack Obama enters the White House with more constitutional and legal power than any president in US history. One of his biggest problems will be figuring out what to do with it.

Posted in beyond obama, fisa, guantanamo