Prosecutors, defense counsel, a military judge, several journalists and a handful of non-governmental organization observers like myself convened at Guantanamo Bay this week for what was to be the first hearing for a Guantanamo defendant under the Obama administration's "new and improved" military commissions.
The ‘war on terror' long ago added ‘waterboarding' and ‘rendition' to the language of public life, but only now is the scale of abuse committed during the ‘war' truly becoming apparent.
One got a glorious homecoming. The other was left to rot. Bill Frelick on the paradoxes of justice, Libya-style-and the perils of pretending Gaddafi has changed his stripes.
The Léger Committee, tasked with drawing the outlines of a broad reform to criminal procedure and which issued its final report on September 1, has recommended narrow adjustments to the rights of those held in police custody that neither go far enough nor apply to everyone.
Scotland's release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in connection with the Lockerbie bombing of 1988, was supposed to be Gaddafi's ultimate international relations coup in a year when, at times, Libya held the chairmanship of the African Union and the presidency of both the UN Security Council and of the General Assembly. But Megrahi's homecoming did not go as smoothly as planned.
The overwhelming evidence of illegal detention and torture by Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force (JATT) in Kololo, Kampala, has been met with official denials, excuses and contradictions.
Last week's release of four top-secret United States Justice Department memos on torture demonstrates the readiness of the new administration to swap the secrecy and lies that have surrounded the treatment of terrorism suspects by the US Government in the past six years for some transparency and truth. But that should not be the end of it. Truth is no substitute for accountability.
What will Obama do with Guantanamo's single largest group of detainees? One hundred Yemenis wait to go home--but those who've already returned to Yemen didn't find a warm welcome.
On his second full day in office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order calling for the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be closed within a year. The question is, how? Will the Obama administration insist that all detainees be either prosecuted or released, as Human Rights Watch and other groups have recommended? Or will it effectively move Guantánamo onshore by closing the facility in Cuba but continuing to detain certain individuals without trying or even charging them?
Prosecutors, defense counsel, a military judge, several journalists and a handful of non-governmental organization observers like myself convened at Guantanamo Bay this week for what was to be the first hearing for a Guantanamo defendant under the Obama administration's "new and improved" military commissions.
The ‘war on terror' long ago added ‘waterboarding' and ‘rendition' to the language of public life, but only now is the scale of abuse committed during the ‘war' truly becoming apparent.
One got a glorious homecoming. The other was left to rot. Bill Frelick on the paradoxes of justice, Libya-style-and the perils of pretending Gaddafi has changed his stripes.
The Léger Committee, tasked with drawing the outlines of a broad reform to criminal procedure and which issued its final report on September 1, has recommended narrow adjustments to the rights of those held in police custody that neither go far enough nor apply to everyone.
Scotland's release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in connection with the Lockerbie bombing of 1988, was supposed to be Gaddafi's ultimate international relations coup in a year when, at times, Libya held the chairmanship of the African Union and the presidency of both the UN Security Council and of the General Assembly. But Megrahi's homecoming did not go as smoothly as planned.
The overwhelming evidence of illegal detention and torture by Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force (JATT) in Kololo, Kampala, has been met with official denials, excuses and contradictions.
Last week's release of four top-secret United States Justice Department memos on torture demonstrates the readiness of the new administration to swap the secrecy and lies that have surrounded the treatment of terrorism suspects by the US Government in the past six years for some transparency and truth. But that should not be the end of it. Truth is no substitute for accountability.
What will Obama do with Guantanamo's single largest group of detainees? One hundred Yemenis wait to go home--but those who've already returned to Yemen didn't find a warm welcome.
The creation of an entirely new system of detention without charge within the United States will cause more harm than good.
On his second full day in office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order calling for the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be closed within a year. The question is, how? Will the Obama administration insist that all detainees be either prosecuted or released, as Human Rights Watch and other groups have recommended? Or will it effectively move Guantánamo onshore by closing the facility in Cuba but continuing to detain certain individuals without trying or even charging them?