January 2018 Archives

Human Rights First condemns President Trump's reported decision to sign an executive order to keep open the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

"Nobody, not even the 'Constitutional law professor' [Barack Obama] who committed the same crime [warrantless spying] for the 8 years before Trump, re-wrote the Fourth Amendment," writes David Swanson. "The powers of the imperial president to spy, imprison, torture, and murder increased under Bush, and under Obama, and under Trump. And if we survive Trump, that trend will continue."

Removing Trump Will Require New Activists

"President Donald Trump's declaration that he intends to keep all current prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo indefinitely is being used as justification by legal advocates that the courts must intervene on behalf of the 41 remaining detainees at the military prison," writes Miami Herald Journalist Alex Daugherty. January 11 marks the 16th anniversary of Camp X-Ray's opening.

A new legal petition proposes court hearings for 11 of the remaining 41 prisoners, arguing that "these petitioners may never leave Guantánamo alive, absent judicial intervention." Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Pardiss Kebriaei, who represents one of the prisoners, suggests "Another three or seven years under President Trump may mean a death sentence for men like Sharqawi Al Hajj, who is in poor health and damaged by past torture."