October 08, 2009

Gitmo, Kafka, and the abuse of 'law'

Kudos to Christopher Flavelle of ProPublica for his article about the case of Kuwaiti citizen Fouad Mahmoud al-Rabiah. Rabiah's been held at Gitmo since 2002-- and finally, last month, received...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:01 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

May 24, 2009

Closing Gitmo: The Abe Lincoln solution

I understand the degree of difficulty that pres. Obama and many members of Congress feel they have in closing Gitmo. A proportion of the people incarcerated there-- some for more...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:23 AM | Fulltext link (18 comments)

January 12, 2009

From Specialst Armer to Obama: Actions vs. Words

The WaPo today informs us that US troops are increasingly "uneasy" in Iraq. No mention is made of the carnage being inflicted on Gaza as a concern. Instead, journo Ernesto...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 10:52 AM | Fulltext link (43 comments)

December 07, 2008

Recruiting for the Enemy

The US occupation forces in Iraq have, from the beginning of the occupation more than five years ago, engaged in the arbitrary imprisonment ("detaining") of Iraqi citizens. As one former...
Posted by Don Bacon at 02:19 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

October 21, 2008

Bush not closing Guantanamo

Back in June 2006, Pres. Bush said he'd "like" to find a way to close the black-hole Guantanamo detention camp. In today's NYT, Steven Lee Myers quotes un-named administration officials...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:45 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

July 05, 2008

Bush at Monticello: The Irony

Dan Jordan, outgoing and venerated President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, is getting more "love" than usual this past week. Many were dismayed that Monticello, Jefferson's historic home, had invited...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 02:40 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

July 02, 2008

More on coercing confessions at Gitmo

The NYT's Scott Shane has an excellent piece of reporting today, on how, The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:21 AM | Fulltext link (13 comments)

June 15, 2008

US Diplomats and Boumediene Case

I too am encouraged by the US Supreme Court's Boumediene v. Bush ruling that detainees held at Gunatanamo Bay are entitled to Habeas Corpus protection -- the right to challenge...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 10:03 PM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

June 13, 2008

Israeli lawyers: Treatment of Gitmo detainees worse than what Israel does

I was interested, and encouraged, to see that among the 23 'amicus curiae' (friend of the court) briefs presented to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the habeas corpus...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:05 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

June 12, 2008

A banner day for the rule of law in America!

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the Guantanamo detainees have the right to challenge their detention before a civilian U.S. Court! This is such excellent news! The New...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:34 PM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

April 29, 2008

"Justice" and politics

I long ago concluded that "justice" is always, inescapably, a highly political matter. Including-- perhaps especially-- the workings of criminal courts, which for some reason so many western liberals seem...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:09 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

July 07, 2007

Jefferson & the Reign of Witches

Kudos to the Baltimore Sun for its July 4th editorial. Contrary to the keen imagination of another former "Jefferson Fellow" now at Oxford, I (Scott), as far as I know,...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 05:00 PM | Fulltext link (15 comments)

February 28, 2007

The terrible odyssey of Marwan Jabour

Human Rights Watch and the WaPo have both done ground-breaking work on the case of Marwan Jabour, a Palestinian whom the US accused of funding and helping Al-Qaeda operatives and...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:18 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

January 10, 2007

Day of Shame: Five years of Guantanamo

Jan. 11 is the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first group of prisoners at Guantanamo. Some of those original 20 men are still there today, having been through...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:32 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

October 18, 2006

Not at Gitmo (yet)

I was supposed to be in Guantanamo today. Actually, the beginning of the story was that I was supposed to be there last Wednesday, October 11. As I'd noted here...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:06 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

The new global Star Chamber?

Yesterday, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It was a defining moment, marking the first time that a duly enacted statute in this country has stripped the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:16 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

October 03, 2006

Garrison Keillor takes on Gitmo

Garrison Keillor comes as close to being the bard of the American heartland as anyone I can think of. He does a weekly hour-long radio show, the whimsically named "Prairie...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:13 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

October 02, 2006

"Modern" means of coercion at Gitmo

I've been continuing my pre-Gitmo research. Thanks to all who have sent in suggestions for directions I can go with that. I just discovered tonight that I should be able...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:56 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

September 29, 2006

So really, who IS going to Gitmo?

I guess I never answered the question in the title of my last post. So the answer is: me, I'm going to Gitmo October 11. Last week, I was contacted...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:00 PM | Fulltext link (14 comments)

Guess who's going to Gitmo?

Yesterday, all the Republican Senators except Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Olympia Snowe of Maine lined up with the Bush administration to pass the "Military Commissions Act of 2006",...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:14 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)