"The 'Detainee
Policies' show the anatomy of the beast that is post-9/11 detention, the
carving out of a dark space where law and rights do not apply, where persons
can be detained without a trace at the convenience of the US Department of
Defense. -- Julian Assange
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham gets an award for obstruction of justice, war criminals publish memoirs, and the use of torture continues to be open to debate...
last month when it was revealed
that an internal national security strategy memo for the Mitt Romney campaign advocated a
return to torture, hardly anyone blinked. In the years since the executive
order was signed, tolerance for torture seems resurgent. What happened in those
intervening years? Actually, what didn't happen is what matters. In the nearly
four years since Obama took office, no one has been held accountable for
authorizing the regime of torture and other ill-treatment...
It's like arguing that outing a Nazi guarding a concentration camp would hurt the national security of Germany. --
former Justice Department official Jesselyn RadackIn a brief but heated exchange with defense lawyer Michael Schwartz over whether prisoners' statements were voluntarily given, Judge James Pohl ruled on mandatory courtroom attendance of the five accused of plotting 9/11 attacks.
What the hell was a war criminal doing in a San Francisco high school?
"This is the new face of the police, with the collaboration of the justice system. -- Dimitris Katsaris, lawyer for four of the defendants
UPDATE: Latest Court Ruling Paves Way for Indefinite Detention
"The Obama administration is doubling down in their effort to chill civil liberties, reporter activities and activists in the United States by hyper aggressively trying to overturn an opinion by a federal judge -- plaintiffs' attorney Carl Mayer
activating extradition provisions of Torture and Geneva Conventions
"The refusal of our government to bring to justice those who ordered, justified and carried out torture is inexcusable. It is the height of hypocrisy for the US to criticize, and sometimes punish, other countries for their human rights violations while the torturers in our midst walk free. -- Marjorie Cohn
At Guantanamo, it means that Fayiz al-Kandari faces indefinite detention. Worse, since the government plans no prosecution, it sees no reason to continue providing counsel.
What worries the prisoner's attorney most is acceptance of this situation as "the new norm."
