• US President Barack Obama signs an executive order calling for the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be closed within a year.

    Obama administration-backed legislation before the US Senate to revise military commissions would harm efforts to bring terrorism suspects to justice.

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Reports

Guantanamo - Military Commissions

  • May 9, 2012

    Andrea Prasow writes on Huffington Post regarding the significance of the military commission arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

  • May 6, 2012
    As I sat in the Guantánamo courtroom this weekend for the arraignment of the five leading suspects, the alleged masterminds of the September 11th attacks, I couldn’t help but feel cheated.
  • Apr 19, 2012
  • Apr 9, 2012
    Human Rights Watch wrote to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta urging the administration to redouble its efforts to facilitate the repatriation and or appropriate resettlement of those detainees already cleared for transfer and to implement as soon as possible the Periodic Review Board (PRB) process to facilitate identification of additional detainees for repatriation or resettlement.
  • Mar 23, 2012
    Majid Shoukat Khan is a Pakistani citizen who lived in the United States for several years.While visiting Pakistan again in March 2003, Khan was arrested by Pakistani agents along with his brother Mohammed and other family members. Khan faced a potential life sentence but on February 29, 2012, pleaded guilty as part of a pre-trial agreement. In exchange for the promise of a reduced sentence, he agreed to cooperate with the prosecution, presumably by providing evidence against other Guantanamo detainees.
  • Mar 2, 2012

    JURIST Special Guest Columnist Andrea Prasow of Human Rights Watch says that one of the reasons Majid Khan was not tried in civilian court and was offered a plea deal by Guantanamo prosecutors was to prevent him from testifying on his mistreatment while in CIA custody.

  • Jan 19, 2012
    Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions, has lately appeared at bar association conferences promoting “reformed military commissions” at Guantanamo. Yet this week, behind thick bulletproof glass in a secure hangar-like courtroom at Guantanamo, I saw vast differences between the two systems.
  • Jan 10, 2012
    Human Rights Watch writes to President Obama on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to urge him to reaffirm his stated commitment to closing Guantanamo by prosecuting detainees in federal court and repatriating and resettling those who will not be prosecuted.
  • Aug 15, 2011
    The Australian prosecutor’s office should drop the asset-seizing case against former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks for money he earned from a book he wrote about his six years in US custody at Guantanamo Bay.
  • Jul 7, 2011
    The Obama administration’s decision to prosecute a Somali terrorism suspect apprehended abroad in federal court demonstrates the importance of US civilian courts in countering terrorism. However, Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame should not have been held by the US military for more than two months without basic due process rights.