INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS:

CLOSING GUANTANAMO PRISON CAMP:

It's coming close to the anniversary of the election of the great white hope (pun intended) Obama in the USA, and his promise to close the Guantanamo prison camp is still unfulfilled. Not that I find this surprising. Politticians do, after all, routinely renege on their promises, and so-called leftist politicians are no different. As we speak the kangaroo court for Omar Khadr is going on down on the US imperial outpost in Cuba. Not that I feel any great sympathy for Khadr or for his scumbag family. If they were to have their way we would be enduring a regime that would make our present governance look all sweetness and light. Still, to prevent our own regime from getting worse, certain rules have to observed. One of those might be that when you invade a foreign country without a declaration of war then you cannot charge people in a home with "war crimes" when armed soldiers break into said home trying (and mostly succeeding) to kill the inhabitants and one of the inhabitants survives. This is bizarre beyond measure.

That is the simple be all and end all of the Khadr case. Whether he threw a grenade or not is irrelevant. How many of the other people in the room survived when foreign invaders attacked with intent to kill them all ? Is this a "war crime" or is an invasion without a declaration of war a "war crime" ? You be the judge.

In any case the American Human Rights First group is campaigning to have the issue of the continued existence of the American prison camp at Guantanamo be an issue in American politics. Here is their statement >>>>

HRHRHRHRHR
Hitting the Campaign Trail to Close Guantánamo
This week marks a new low at Guantánamo, as the United States begins the trial of Omar Khadr, who was picked up in Afghanistan at age 15 and has spent more than a quarter of his life at Guantánamo. International law prohibits the use of children under 18 in armed conflict and requires states to rehabilitate child soldiers by assisting with their physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration. The United States has failed to abide by these obligations; instead it began jury selection in Khadr's trial, undermining a fundamental norm and setting a dangerous precedent for children forced into armed conflict around the world.

This development underscores what we know from our years of observing military commissions at Guantánamo: setting up a trial system that depends on coerced confessions, redefining the laws of war, and violating fundamental human rights standards is not only wrong, it's counter-productive. And in terms of convicting those who have committed terrorist acts, military commissions are a poor substitute for our federal courts. Not only have they failed to guarantee due process, they have only managed to convict four people, while the federal courts have convicted more than 400 terrorism suspects since 9/11.

As the election season gets underway, we're sharing the facts about military commissions with congressional candidates. Next week we will be in Illinois with retired military leaders who continue to speak out against torture and Guantánamo. They will make the case to candidates from both parties that closing Guantánamo and relying on our time-tested federal courts for terrorism trials will make our nation stronger and more secure.

You can join us in Illinois next week by signing our petition which we'll deliver personally to the candidates.

Watch the retired military leaders making the case for federal courts in our video-and join them in Illinois by signing the petition!

Sincerely,

Elisa Massimino
President and CEO
Human Rights First

HRHRHRHRHR

THE PETITION:

Please go to this link from Human Rights First to call for the byelection candidates in Illinois to come out for closing the Guantanamo prison camp. You don't have to be an Illinois resident to sign this petition. No matter how absurd this may seem to those of us outside of the USA we should still add our voices to this even if some Americans believe that they can invade a foreign country without a declaration of war, attack a home, kill almost everyone in the home and yet still charge someone who may or may not have thrown a grenade with "war crimes". Others would call it "failed self defence" against an illegal invader. Obviously if Khadr was dead he would not have been charged. As to his "international terrorist importance" that is an absurd joke. Note that his sick family continues to stay in Canada for the money despite their silly religious beliefs. Economics trumps ideology every time.

HRHRHRHRHR
Dear Candidates,

I am writing to ask that you support closing Guantánamo and using our civilian courts to try terrorism suspects.

Congress should preserve the Administration’s ability to bring terrorist suspects to justice in the United States, resettle them abroad, or repatriate them as appropriate. Should you win the seat you are running for, I ask that you support efforts to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay and end military commissions.

Our federal courts have convicted 400 terrorists since 9/11. Military commissions have only convicted four, two of whom have already been released.

Please stand strong against the fear-mongering, listen to national security experts who support the decision to close Guantánamo, and use our tried and true system of federal courts to see justice served.

Guantánamo has been a stain on America’s reputation. It has undermined our values, undercut our counterterrorism efforts and squandered an opportunity to demonstrate the strength of the American justice system. If you win your office, please help us fix this and bring the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks to justice.

Thank you.

CANADIAN POLITICS/AMERICAN POLITICS:

RETURN OMAR KHADR TO CANADA:

Omar Khadr is one of the children of the Pakistani-Canadian Khadr family whose jihadi beliefs and incredibly loud mouths (especially Khadr's foolish mother) have made them somewhat infamous in this country. With little access to the outside world in Canada Omar was "guided" from an extremely young age to become a good little Islamic soldier. Reprehensible no doubt, but little different except for opportunity from millions of fundamentalist Christian families in the USA and Canada. Omar had the misfortune to be in Afghanistan at the time of the US invasion of that country, and he had the further misfortune of being in a house where others were committing the "war crime" of fighting back when they were attacked by a country that hadn't even declared war. He was severely injured in the attack and almost killed. Later on he ended up in the Guantanamo concentration camp at the age of 15. Since then other citizens of western countries have been returned to their country of citizenship, and Khadr is the only one who remains. He has long since renounced the beliefs of his family. Civil rights activists in both the USA and Canada have urged his return to Canada. The following is the story from the American Civil Liberties Union via the online Canadian newsmagazine Straight Goods. To learn more about the Khadr case see the Wikipedia article on him.

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Review justice for Omar Khadr:
US human rights groups urge Obama to stop Guantánamo proceedings against child soldiers.

from the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and others
WASHINGTON, January 12 — Five leading human rights and civil liberties groups sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama today, urging him to suspend the Guantánamo Bay military commissions and to ensure that the upcoming trial of Omar Khadr, a 22-year-old Canadian, does not proceed. The trial is scheduled to begin on January 26, six days after the presidential inauguration.

Khadr is slated to be tried before the widely discredited military commissions for war crimes he is alleged to have committed when he was 15. There is broad global recognition that the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict is a serious abuse in itself. This is reflected in the fact that no existing international tribunal has ever prosecuted a child for war crimes.

If the trial goes ahead, Omar Khadr will become the first person in recent years to be tried by any western nation for war crimes allegedly committed as a child.

The groups — the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch — urged Obama to drop the military commission charges against Khadr and either repatriate him to Canada or, if there is evidence to support it, to prosecute him in US federal courts in accordance with international juvenile justice and fair trial standards.

The groups also called on Obama to immediately suspend pending proceedings against Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who is also charged before the military commissions for crimes allegedly committed when he was 16 or 17. A military judge twice ruled that statements Jawad made following his arrest were not admissible at trial because they were obtained through torture. However, the government has challenged the ruling and the Court of Military Commission Review in Washington, DC, is scheduled to hear arguments on Tuesday, January 13.

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LETTER TO PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA
January 12, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama

Obama-Biden Transition Project

Washington, DC 20720
Dear President-elect Obama:
We write to you regarding Omar Khadr, the 22-year-old Canadian national slated to be tried by military commission at Guantánamo for crimes allegedly committed when he was aged 15. If the trial, now scheduled for January 26, 2009, is allowed to go forward, Omar Khadr will become the first person in recent years to be tried by any western nation for war crimes allegedly committed as a child.

We urge that upon taking office, you act quickly to suspend the military commissions, drop the military commission charges against Khadr, and either repatriate him for rehabilitation in Canada or transfer him to federal court and prosecute him in accordance with international juvenile justice and fair trial standards.
Background
United States forces captured Khadr on July 27, 2002, after a firefight in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of US Army Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, as well as injuries to other soldiers. Khadr, who was seriously wounded, was initially detained at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. There, according to his lawyers, he was forced into painful stress positions, threatened with rape, and hooded and confronted with barking dogs.

In October 2002, US officers transported Khadr to Guantánamo, where the abusive interrogations continued, and where he has been ever since. Khadr told his lawyers that his interrogators shackled him in painful positions, threatened to send him to Egypt, Syria, or Jordan for torture, and used him as a "human mop" after he urinated on the floor during one interrogation session. He was not allowed to meet with a lawyer until November 2004, more than two years after he was first captured.

During his third year of detention, Khadr was charged with murder and other related crimes under the first set of military commissions authorized by President Bush. Those charges were dismissed when the Supreme Court ruled the commissions unlawful in the case of Hamdan v Rumsfeld. In 2007, under newly authorized commissions, the United States government charged him with murder, attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying. He faces a possible life prison sentence.
Violations of human rights and juvenile justice standards
Khadr's prolonged detention in Guantánamo Bay contravenes the United States' binding legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and international juvenile justice standards. Although these international standards allow for detention of juveniles only as a last resort and require prompt determination of juvenile cases, Khadr was detained for more than two years before being provided access to an attorney, and for more than three years before being charged before the first military commission. After more than six years the lawfulness of this detention still has not been judicially reviewed on the merits.

Further, despite international standards requiring treatment of children in accordance with their age, as well as segregation of children and adults, Khadr has been housed with adult detainees, even when other child detainees were being housed together in Guantánamo's Camp Iguana. The abusive interrogations and prolonged detention in solitary confinement violated both international juvenile justice standards and general humane treatment standards, including Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, and other binding prohibitions against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Failure to comply with obligations under the Optional Protocol
International law requires the United States to recognize the special situation of children who have been recruited or used in armed conflict. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict ("Optional Protocol"), which the United States ratified in 2002, explicitly prohibits the recruitment or use of children under the age of 18 in armed conflict by non-state armed groups and requires state parties to criminalize such conduct. It also requires the rehabilitation of former child soldiers within a signatory's jurisdiction, including "all appropriate assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and their social reintegration."

Yet in its dealings with Khadr, the US government has ignored its legal obligations under the Optional Protocol. For years, Khadr was denied access to education, vocational training, counseling, or any family contact. Instead, he was held in isolation and abused.

Last May, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which oversees compliance with the Optional Protocol, criticized the United States' treatment and military prosecutions of children held at Guantánamo, and called on the US government to treat children in its custody in accordance with international juvenile justice standards.
Military trial moving ahead
Despite widespread criticism of the military commission system and its treatment of Omar Khadr, the outgoing Bush administration has continued to move his case toward trial. Motions hearings are now set for January 19, with a trial date scheduled for January 26. Unless you act quickly to suspend the commissions, Khadr will become the first person in recent history to be prosecuted for war crimes allegedly committed as a child, before a system that you have consistently criticized as "flawed."

As you are aware, you voted against the legislation passed by Congress in October 2006 to authorize the commissions, calling it a "betrayal of American values." When charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the 9/11 co-conspirators were announced in February 2008, you criticized that decision on the grounds that "[t]hese trials are too important to be held in a flawed military commission system" and that the men should be tried in federal court or by courts-martial, in order to "demonstrate our commitment to the rule of law." Just five months ago, after the conviction of Salim Hamdan, you reiterated your criticism of the commission process, stating it is "time to better protect the American people and our values by bringing swift and sure justice to terrorists through our courts and our Uniform Code of Military Justice."

You have also co-sponsored legislation (the Child Soldier Prevention Act, S1175, which was subsequently incorporated into the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, and the Child Soldier Accountability Act, S2135) designed to help end the use of child soldiers. These measures, both signed into law in 2008, commit the US government to expand services to rehabilitate child soldiers and reintegrate them back into their communities, and allow the United States to prosecute the individuals responsible for the recruitment of children as soldiers.

Now is the chance to ensure America's commitment to the rule of law by putting an immediate halt to Omar Khadr's trial. If there is evidence that Khadr committed a federal crime, he should be transferred to a federal court and prosecuted in accordance with international juvenile justice and fair trial standards; if not, he should be repatriated for rehabilitation and integration.

This is also the course you should take with the other known juvenile detainee, Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan, who has been in Guantánamo for six years, reportedly subjected to torture, sleep deprivation, and other abuse and charged with attempted murder by the military commission for acts allegedly committed when he was either 16 or 17 years old. No trial date is currently set in his case.

We hope that you will act quickly on this matter in the interest of justice, protection of human rights, and the rule of law.
Sincerely,
American Civil Liberties Union

Amnesty International

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

Human Rights First

Human Rights Watch
The letter from the groups to President-elect Barack Obama is below and can also be found online at the page linked below.
More information on the ACLU's work to close Guantánamo can be found online, please follow the link below.
Related addresses:
URL 1: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/38285res20090112.html

URL 2: http://www.aclu.org

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS:

ONE HUNDRED DAYS TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO:


I doubt that there has been such a flocking of petitioners to the crowning of a new Emperor since the ascension of Augustus. Molly has already mentioned one group who will be on hand for the inauguration of Barack Obama in the next few days. There are dozens and dozens of others (perhaps hundreds), some of them visible and public and many working behind the scenes. One of the public presences will be a coalition of groups who want to end the US torture camp at Guantanamo Bay. the Emperor-to-be has already expressed his dislike of said camp, and this is one of the promises that he is more likely to fulfill. Still, without public pressure, the end of the camp is unlikely. The 100 Days Campaign is working to keep the pressure up. Here is what they intend to do and their call for support.

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CALL TO ACTION:
With Barack Obama taking office, we have a historic opportunity to reverse the disastrous policies of the last eight years. As activists who have been working for the closure of this illegal prison and torture chamber, we are glad to hear the President-elect's commitment to "close Guantánamo" and "make sure that we don't torture." But we know that political promises can be little more than words without continuous, visible and effective pressure. We insist on action.




Witness Against Torture announces a new chapter in the campaign to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, end torture and indefinite detention, as well as stop extraordinary rendition by the U.S. Government. The 100 Days Campaign brings together a coalition of groups and individuals who will take part in demonstrations, educate Congress and the public, and engage in nonviolent direct action.




We invite you to come to Washington and participate, or else join or plan an action in your own community.




Many activities by peace, social justice and human rights groups are being planned for the first 100 days of the new administration. The 100 Days Campaign to Close Guantánamo and End Torture hopes to collaborate with those are undertaking similar campaigns or events of their own.




We will begin with a Prisoner Procession and nine-day fast on January 11, 2009, which marks seven years since the opening of the prison at Guantánamo. And then, from January 20 with the inauguration of the next President through April 30, we will maintain a regular schedule of activities. At the end of the 100 days, we hope to celebrate both the closure of the detention facility at Guantánamo and the adoption of policies and laws that decisively ban torture by the U.S. government.




The prison at Guantánamo has been at the center of the shameful incarceration policies of the Bush administration. Those policies have denied detainees fundamental legal rights and subjected them to systematic torture at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Such practices violate the U.S. Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and basic human rights. They have been a source of domestic and international outrage, denigrating America's character, weakening its standing in the world, and threatening - not enhancing - its security.




The Bush administration has tenaciously defended its detention regime, twice defying landmark rulings by the Supreme Court and relying on secrecy, cover-ups, propaganda, outright lies, and corrupt legal arguments to conceal or to justify its methods. A Republican Congress acted to further deprive detainees of rights and permit the CIA to "lawfully" torture.




We say: no more. The 100 Days Campaign therefore demands that the new President, working, when appropriate, in conjunction with Congress and the courts:
***Close the detention facilities at Guantánamo
***Permit, without political interference, the hearing of habeas petitions by current Guantánamo detainees
***Charge those against whom there is sufficient, credible evidence with a crime, and let the others go free, repatriating them to their country of origin or to countries where their safety from persecution can be guaranteed
***Scrap the current Military Commissions process for prosecution of Guantánamo inmates and move those accused of crimes into the federal justice system
***Ban all forms of psychological torture and do away with the exemption for the CIA's enhanced interrogation program from laws barring the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees
***End legal immunity for alleged U.S. torturers
***Close other U.S. detention centers worldwide that do not comply with international human rights standards, such as those at the U.S. Air Base at Bagram and at any remaining CIA black sites
***Allow and abide by meaningful international inspection and oversight of U.S. detention facilities
***Call for a rigorous inquiry, with subpoena powers, to determine the precise origins and evolution of the Bush administrations detention policies and hold architects of this system accountable(Molly truly loves this one. One wonders how Bush in front of a war crimes tribunal would compare with Saddam Hussein. I don't think the comparison would be charitable to Bush)





The campaign calls on all citizens — from jurists to journalists, military personnel to medical professionals, activists to artists to defend the rule of law and human rights by supporting us in these demands.
CLOSE GUANTANAMO. END TORTURE.
WHO WE ARE
The 100 Days Campaign was initiated by Witness Against Torture in conjunction with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Pax Christi USA, School of the Americas Watch, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International, United for Peace and Justice, and the War Resisters League. Read more about these groups.




Endorsing groups include the Catholic Peace Fellowship, Code Pink, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Pace e Bene, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and a growing list of others.
SUPPORT THE 100 DAYS CAMPAIGN!
***Order a copy of the recently published Witness Against Torture Book and DVD.
***Buy a Witness Against Torture T-Shirt.
***Donate online or send a check made out to "Witness Against Torture" to Mary House Catholic Worker, 55 E. Third Street, New York, NY 10003. .
***Sign on as an endorsing organization.
***Spread the word! Email a friend, download and distribute flyers, or put a button on your website.

AMERICAN POLITICS:

STORY OF BIN LADEN'S DRIVER TO BECOME A MOVIE:
Only in America ! The picture to the left is that of Salim Hamdan in happier times. Hamdan is one of those captured by the Americans when they invaded Afghanistan without a declaration of war and accused of "war crimes". Seems like the Nazis invading Poland and then declaring any Poles who fought back as "war criminals". Even Hitler's minions had no such gall. But Mr. Hamdan didn't even fight back. His crime ? He was Osama Bin Laden's chauffeur. You heard me right. By the same American logic anyone who ever cooked Hitler one of his vegetarian meals, any barber who ever cut Stalin's hair, any tailor who ever sewed Mao's shirts and any janitor who ever cleaned Pol Pot's toilets is "guilty of genocide".


All that is well and good, even if the absurdity of such sort of prosecutions is obvious to anyone but neo-conservative ideologues. The United States holds about 5% of the world's population, but I swear that they have 60% of the world's nuts, coming in all different political and religious flavours. Now, in true American form, the story is to be made into a movie. No doubt it will play well in Peshawar. Here's the story from the pages of the British newspaper 'The Guardian'.
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George Clooney, already one of Hollywood's leading liberal voices, has embarked on what may be one of his most controversial projects: the story of Osama bin Laden's driver.



Clooney's production company, Smokehouse, has bought the rights to a book about Salim Hamdan, an inmate at Guantánamo Bay who last week was sentenced to jail for his role in helping the al-Qaeda leader. The book, The Challenge, is by journalist Jonathan Mahler and tells the story of Hamdan's capture and trial, defended by a US navy lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift. It has had a big critical success.



Last week Yemen-born Hamdan, who has already spent seven years in US custody, received a surprisingly light sentence of just five and a half years for being bin Laden's driver in Afghanistan. Prosecutors had billed the case as a key plank in the 'War on Terror', designed to show that terrorists could be dealt with by Guantánamo. They had described Hamdan as a member of bin Laden's inner circle who had knowledge of his terrorist plans.



Defence lawyers, however, portrayed him as a simple man who had taken a high-paying job in order to feed his family. A military jury seemed to agree with that assessment, clearing him of terrorist conspiracy charges, but finding him guilty of providing support to a terrorist.



The case became a cause célèbre on both sides of America's political divide. Supporters saw it as a chance to show Guantánamo was effectively and fairly dealing with terrorists. Critics, meanwhile, saw it as an abusive system that was using low-level prisoners as scapegoats.



Clooney is believed to be interested in playing the role of lawyer Swift and the case certainly has all the drama and tension of any fictional legal thriller. Aside from the terrorism and exotic locations, The Challenge describes Swift's battle as a classic case of a crusading 'little guy' winning against the odds. When he was first assigned Hamdan's case Swift was a relatively inexperienced, young military lawyer. Few expected him to mount much of a defence. But he led a team that took Hamdan's case to the Supreme Court and won. However, his work was not without cost, as he pushed the case so hard it cost him his marriage and saw him passed over for promotion.



But Swift did not stop. Last week, during Hamdan's sentencing, he appealed to the court to let him go back to his family in Yemen: something now seen as a possibility given the length of time he has served. 'The best chance for him to rehabilitate is to reunite with that family. He won't put them at risk again,' Swift said. In an ending that seems written for a movie, the military judge in the trial, Captain Keith Allred, even said in court that he hoped Hamdan would see his family soon.

JAN 11: INTERNATIONAL DAY TO SHUT DOWN GUANTANAMO:
January 11th, 2007, will be the fifth anniversary of the first prisoner arriving at the US Guantanamo Bay detention centre. The "war against terror" has since that time seemed to become even more endless, and the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo has become a source of international and domestic controversy. A number of mostly faith based groups have called for an international day of action to shut down the torture/detention centre at the US base on January 11th. After 5 years not a single detainee has been charged and convicted of any crime. The torture centre has been condemned by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch amongst others. Court cases in the USA have brought the constitutionality of the methods used at Guantanamo into question.
The coalition that includes the Center for Constitutional Rights, CodePink, the Network of Spiritual progressives, Pax Christi, the School of the Americas Watch and United for Peace and Justice have called for an international day of action with its focus on Washington DC on Jan. 11th. To learn more about this action, to add organizational endorsement or to see how you can organize support actions in your own community go to the Witness Against Torture site.