| More in “celebration” of Guantanamo’s anniversary. So supported by U.S. Conservatives primarily, like the Heritage Foundation. Now busily working to incite global war under their “Project 2025 Plan” as a Mein Kampf style outline of their “Common Plan.” As led by Kevin Roberts, so celebrated by the “Conservative-wing” of the Quincy Institute (the part I criticize, for giving a platform to National Conservatives like Saurabh Sharma, Mollie Hemingway, et al.) as “flipping the script” of Heritage Foundation’s Perpetual War-Mongering, when the “script that was flipped” was only to become even more militaristic, to the degree that’s even possible.
But I encountered their right-wing provocateurs numerous times when on active-duty as Guantanamo defense attorney. At an event at West Point, for one, where they were in opposition to the Dean of Students there, a Brigadier General who opposed torture. And more outrageously, at their event sponsoring and promoting Judge Randolph’s assertion he would never allow a habeas corpus release of a Guantanamo prisoner! Proving once again how so many Conservatives have an actual hostility to the “Enlightenment” informed U.S. Constitution.
Oops, honest mistake. I reversed them.
Consistent with Freisler, I mean, Randolph, here is “Traditional Conservative” favorite Jeff Sessions’ thoughts on Guantanamo: BLUF: "Sessions responded that "it's time for us to think through how we're going to use Guantanamo, to what extent we're going to use military commissions to try these unlawful combatants. They are like prisoners of war, and prisoners of war can be held throughout the time of the conflict. You don't have to release them so they can continue to kill you. But at the same time, if they have violated the rules of war, they can be prosecuted. And we’ve got to work our way through this. It would be done, if done, by the United States Military, their JAG prosecutors."
This should adequately explain my hostility to “Conservatives” (capital “C,” as opposed perhaps to that handful of “conservatives” who at one time, too, opposed Guantanamo, before they mutated into New Right Trumpite, “Conservatives,” with a capital “C.” Leaving no principled notable “conservatives,” with the exception of Bruce Fein! Who has always taken principled, Constitutional stands on free speech, and "actual” due process, as against the “Outside the Law” courts set up by the “Right,” to include a handful of “Goldwater Democrats” like Joe Lieberman.
In addition, two webinars today which should not be missed:
On Thursday, January 11 Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin will be participating in two webinars to discuss the 22nd anniversary of the opening of the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In 2023 in her role as Special Rapporteur, she made a technical visit to the detention facility at the U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay. The UN report from the visit can be found here. Join Prof. Ní Aoláin and Human Rights Center Visiting Fellows, Mansoor Adayfi and Mohamedou Ould Slahi for the following events: Guantánamo at Twenty-Two: What is the Future of the Prison Camp? - Thursday, Jan. 11 at 11:00-12:00 pm CST
- Speakers include Fionnuala Ní Aoláin and Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Former Detainee at Guantánamo Bay and Author, Guantánamo Diary
- Register here
Guantánamo at 22: Imprisonment Without End - Thursday, Jan. 11 at 12:30-1:30 pm CST
- Speakers include Fionnuala Ní Aoláin and Mansoor Adayfi, Former Detainee at Guantánamo Bay and Guantánamo Coordinator at CAGE International
- Register here
Begin forwarded message:
Hi, list members.
I hope all of you are well, and that you got some restful time off over the holidays. For those interested – and in addition to many other things that are happening today – here are a few materials / resources relevant to today’s 22nd(!) Guantanamo anniversary: - An NPR segment from Tuesday covering a letter that almost 100 NGOs sent to POTUS expressing concern about how little progress was made toward closure in 2023, and urging he act without delay.
- A Just Security post that my colleague Yumna Rizvi and I now have up discussing why, in our view, 2023 was a lost year on GTMO.
- A Just Security Post that our colleague Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, former UN Special Rapporteur on Counterterrorism and Human Rights, has up now highlighting some of the concerns she raised in her report following her technical visit to Guantanamo.
- Two communications from Fionnuala, from her tenure as SR, which are now public:
| · terrorism | Information received concerning tconcerning the situation of Mr. Hussein Salim Al-Marfadi Yafai, a Yemeni citizen currently a resident of Slovakia. Mr. Al-Marfadi Yafai was cleared for release and transferred from the detention facility at the U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay to Slovakia on 20 November 2014, following over a decade of alleged arbitrary detention and torture, inhuman and degrading treatment sustained in U.S. custody. I am concerned that Mr. Al-Marfadi Yafai remains unable to fully exercise his human rights specifically in respect of a right to legal identity and freedom of movement.
Alleged victims: 1
More details... |
| 27 Oct 2023 Slovakia AL | · terrorism | Information received concerning the situation of Mr. Hussein Salim Al-Marfadi Yafai a Yemeni citizen currently a resident of Slovakia.
Alleged victims: 1
More details... |
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