Guantanamo Bay Trials Begin

The New York Times reports the beginning of the Guantanamo Bay trails. The report concludes that this is not only a trial for Salim Hamdan but also a trial for these tribunals:

Mr. Hamdan’s trial is, in a sense, two trials. Mr. Hamdan is being tried on accusations of conspiracy and material support of terrorism. And the Bush administration’s military commission system itself is on trial. After years of debate, protest and litigation, the legal standing of the tribunal system at Guantánamo remains a question for American courts and officials around the world.

The chief Guantánamo prosecutor, Col. Lawrence J. Morris of the Army, said this first Guantánamo tribunal was “the most just war crimes trial that anybody has ever seen.”

Matt Pollard, a legal adviser for Amnesty International who is an observer here, sees it differently. He said he was struck by a sense that the proceedings were more of a replica of a trial than a real one.

“We are within a frame of a beautiful picture,” created by the Pentagon, Mr. Pollard said. “When you’re inside that frame, everything looks nice.”

The Guantánamo legal system was intended to try “unlawful enemy combatants” caught on the post-Sept. 11 battlefield. Prosecutors say there is little room for the usual legal restrictions in interrogations intended to prevent a terrorist attack. The administration’s strategy in using the Guantánamo naval station was based on its belief that the Constitution would not apply here.

Legal challenges to that assertion are among a number of factors that have delayed the government’s efforts to conduct trials here for years.

Read the whole report.

More Visas for Iraqis

The New York Times reports that the United States has expanded its Visa program ten fold for those Iraqis employed by the American government in Baghdad:

Although the program was established by law in January, it has become a practical reality just in the last two to three weeks as guidelines have been finalized and the embassy has brought in staff members and started processing applications.

The decision is the latest step in the administration’s attempt to answer sharp criticism over its failure to help even those Iraqis who have made the American presence in Iraq possible by serving as translators and supervisors on embassy projects, for the American military and for the Agency for International Development. But critics in the refugee relief community noted that the State Department had promised several times that it would try to speed up the process, and that it had not come through.

State Department officials attribute the gap between words and deeds to a cumbersome refugee resettlement system that includes fingerprinting, job checks, name checks and interviews.

The program will allow 5,000 Iraqis to go to the United States for each of the next five years. Each person can take immediate family members, who include spouses and children. More distant relatives, including siblings, parents and grandchildren, can apply under another program. So the actual numbers emigrating will probably be considerably higher. The average Iraqi household is estimated to have about six people, according to officials from the International Organization for Migration.

Read more.

Radovan Karadzic Captured

Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic was captured this week in Belgrade. The BBC has created an intense and thorough report on the rise and fall of Karadzic:

The former Bosnian Serb leader was arrested on Monday near Belgrade after more than a decade on the run.

He has been indicted by the UN tribunal for war crimes and genocide relating to the war in Bosnia in the mid-1990s.

The UN says Mr Karadzic's forces killed up to 8,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 as part of a campaign to "terrorise and demoralise the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat population".

He has also been charged over the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995.

Go here to read the full report.

ICC Warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir

According to the New York Times:

The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court formally requested an arrest warrant on Monday for Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the past five years of bloodshed in the Darfur region of his country.

The prosecutor’s pursuit of Mr. Bashir introduced new volatility to the already chaotic situation in Darfur. While some diplomats and analysts worried that the move would undermine efforts to negotiate peace and provide aid to the millions displaced by violence, others said it offered new leverage to pressure the Sudanese government to end the conflict in Darfur.

Read the whole report.

"My Guantanamo Diary"

Mahvish Khan is recent law graduate who took more than thirty trips to Guantanamo Bay to act as an interpreter for the detainees and their lawyers. She has now written book:

During our meeting, Nusrat's emotions range from anger to despair. In his desperation, he begins to promise Peter that he will make him famous if he helps him get home. "Everyone in Afghanistan will know your name," he says. "You will be a great, famous lawyer."

As I interpret, I feel a lump growing in my throat. Suddenly, I can't speak. Peter and Nusrat pause as the tears flood down my face and drip onto my shawl.

The old man looks at me. "You are a daughter to me," he says. "Think of me as a father." I nod, aligning and realigning pistachio shells on the table as I interpret.

As the meeting ends and we collect our things to go, the old man opens his arms to me and I embrace him. For several moments, he prays for me as Peter watches: "Insha'allah, God willing, you will find a home that makes you happy. Insha'allah, you will be a mother one day. . . . "

He lets me go and asks me to say dawa, prayers, for him. "Of course," I promise. "Every day."

And until the next time I see him, I will.

Read Mahvish's Washington Post Article.

Is Waterboarding Torture?

The discussion continues as Gasper Tringale reports on his experience in Vanity Fair:

What more can be added to the debate over U.S. interrogation methods, and whether waterboarding is torture? Try firsthand experience. The author undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist—not inflict—it.

Tringale voluntarily underwent waterboarding. He describes the effect of waterboarding:

Also, in case it’s of interest, I have since woken up trying to push the bedcovers off my face, and if I do anything that makes me short of breath I find myself clawing at the air with a horrible sensation of smothering and claustrophobia.

Read about his experience.

Governor Schwarzenegger June 26 Proclamation

June 26, 2008, as "Day in Support of Survivors of Torture"

PROCLAMATION

by the

Governor of the State of California

Sadly, far too many people around the world suffer from torture every day. These tragedies are horrifying and unacceptable, and California joins with others across the world in demanding change and offering support for these victims.

It is estimated that around a quarter of the refugees in the United States have experienced some form of torture, and many of those refugees live in California. It is crucial that we assist them in their efforts to rebound and build happier, healthier lives. Our Golden State has a proud legacy of offering kindness and safety to torture victims, and I urge all those who have been persecuted to take advantage of the many resources available to them.

Additionally, I thank all those who have opened their hearts to help others recover from these difficult experiences. Torture victims have experienced unimaginable pain and grief, and by providing counseling, health care services, housing and food, compassionate individuals and organizations are rekindling hope and the belief in a brighter future.

On this day and all others, I encourage all Californians to help end persecution and take a stand to eliminate torture world-wide.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim June 26, 2008, as "Day in Support of Survivors of Torture."

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 2nd day of June 2008.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Governor of California

ATTEST:

DEBRA BOWEN
Secretary of State

Abu Ghraib Inmates Sue For Torture

The AFP reports that four former Abu Ghraib prisoners are suing a U.S. firm for torture:

Their lawsuit is against private security contractor CACI International and two of its interrogators, Daniel Johnson and Tim Dugan, and the translation agency L-3 (formerly Titan Corp) and its interpreter, Abel Nakhla, lawyer William Gould told AFP in Istanbul on Monday.

One of the current plaintiffs, Suhail Najim Abdullah Al-Shimari, 49, was taken from his Bagdad home in November 2003 and spent more than a year at Abu Ghraib, where he claims to have been subjected to electroshock and night-long cold showers in the winter.

"We think there will be people there in the United States who will want to give us back our dignity... by bringing these people to justice," he told AFP via an interpreter.

Sa'adon Ali Hameed Al-Ogaidi, 39, said he was repeatedly beaten at Abu Ghraib and tied to door handles.

"At times, it seemed they were torturing people to have fun," said the former prisoner, who claims to have witnessed guards sodomising prisoners.

Taxi driver Mohammed Abdwihed Towfek Al-Taee, 39, was taken to Abu Ghraib in 2003.

He has scars on his leg and head that he said came from beatings with an iron rod. He also said he was forced to drink litres of water while his penis was tied to prevent him from urinating.

"I wish I would be the last person to be detained and to be tortured," he said.

Read more.