Hearing for Majid Khan
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Day Two of Military Judge Questioning 9/11 Accused About Self-Representation
Public amnesty international USA Guantánamo: Day two of military judge questioning 9/11 accused about self-representation 11 July 2008 AI Index: AMR 51/077/2008 On 10 July 2008, military commission judge US Marine Colonel Ralph Kohlmann held further proceedings to question the men accused of orchestrating the attacks of 11 September 2001 about their decision to represent themselves at their forthcoming death penalty trial in the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Amnesty International had an observer at the proceedings. The primary purpose of the hearings was to inquire of each of the accused individually about whether they had been intimidated before or during their arraignment on 5 June 2008 into making a choice to represent themselves, or whether this decision had been made knowingly and voluntarily. Judge Kohlmann had questioned two of the accused, ‘Ali ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ‘Ali (‘Ammar al Baluchi) and Mustafa al Hawsawi at individual sessions held on 9 July (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/076/2008/en). He had scheduled sessions for the other three men, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Ramzi bin al-Shibh on 10 July. In the event, Ramzi bin al-Shibh refused to come to his session. It seems unlikely that the military judge will question him again on the matter of legal representation until the issue of Ramzi bin al-Shibh’s mental competency is addressed at a hearing scheduled to take place next month (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/074/2008/en). Both Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Walid bin Attash denied that they had been intimidated or that any intimidation had taken place. -
Observer Dispatch by Mary Ann Walker
Interrogating the Interrogator at Guantánamo Bay GTMO OBSERVER PROGRAM FEBRUARY 5, 2020 By: Mary Ann Walker As part of the Pacific Council’s Guantánamo Bay Observer Program, I traveled to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2020 to attend the 9/11 military pre-trial hearing of alleged plotter and mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammad and four others charged with assisting in the 9/11 attacks: Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. Pretrial hearings have been ongoing in Guantánamo Bay since 2008. The trial itself is scheduled to begin in January 2021, nearly 20 years after the 9/11 attacks. I was among 13 NGO observers from numerous organizations. Media outlets including Al Jazeera, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times were also present in order to cover this historic hearing along with many family members of the 9/11 victims. It was an eye-opening experience to be an observer. Defense attorney for Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, James Connell, met with the NGOs and media the evening we arrived on January 18. He explained the current status of pretrial hearings and what we could expect in the days to come. Chief Defense Counsel General John Baker met with the NGOs on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day to give background on the upcoming trial and military commissions. At the start of the meeting, Baker commended Pacific Council on International Policy for its excellent work on the three amendments to the FY2018 defense bill allowing for transparent and fair military commission trials in Guantánamo Bay, which includes the broadcast of the trials via the internet. -
Forming and Maintaining Productive Client Relations with Al Qaeda Members and Their Supporters
FCDJ Volume V FORMING AND MAINTAINING PRODUCTIVE CLIENT RELATIONS WITH AL QAEDA MEMBERS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS 1 TRAVIS J. OWENS 1 This article is written in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the California Western School of Law L.L.M. in Trial Advocacy. My thanks to Professor Justin Brooks for his contributions to my writing process and to a host of attorneys and interpreters who provided their practical insights on the substance of this article. The author is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law (J.D.) and the Naval Postgraduate School (M.A. in Security Studies: Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.). He is a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Department of Defense or the United States Navy. 50 FCDJ Volume V I. INTRODUCTION As a Federal Defender, you have just been assigned to the case of Ahmed Warsame, a Somalian general detained for two months on a ship by the United States, questioned by intelligence services, and now indicted in federal district court. The indictment alleges, among other things, that Mr. Warsame materially supported “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.” As a defense attorney, you have represented a multitude of difficult clients - sexual predators, drug dealers with diagnosed mental disorders, and foreign nationals who speak no English and have never been in an American jail. You are respected for how you can win in court and for having brought clients to the table for deals that people thought could never be made. -
True and False Confessions: the Efficacy of Torture and Brutal
Chapter 7 True and False Confessions The Efficacy of Torture and Brutal Interrogations Central to the debate on the use of “enhanced” interrogation techniques is the question of whether those techniques are effective in gaining intelligence. If the techniques are the only way to get actionable intelligence that prevents terrorist attacks, their use presents a moral dilemma for some. On the other hand, if brutality does not produce useful intelligence — that is, it is not better at getting information than other methods — the debate is moot. This chapter focuses on the effectiveness of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation technique program. There are far fewer people who defend brutal interrogations by the military. Most of the military’s mistreatment of captives was not authorized in detail at high levels, and some was entirely unauthorized. Many military captives were either foot soldiers or were entirely innocent, and had no valuable intelligence to reveal. Many of the perpetrators of abuse in the military were young interrogators with limited training and experience, or were not interrogators at all. The officials who authorized the CIA’s interrogation program have consistently maintained that it produced useful intelligence, led to the capture of terrorist suspects, disrupted terrorist attacks, and saved American lives. Vice President Dick Cheney, in a 2009 speech, stated that the enhanced interrogation of captives “prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people.” President George W. Bush similarly stated in his memoirs that “[t]he CIA interrogation program saved lives,” and “helped break up plots to attack military and diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow Airport and Canary Wharf in London, and multiple targets in the United States.” John Brennan, President Obama’s recent nominee for CIA director, said, of the CIA’s program in a televised interview in 2007, “[t]here [has] been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures. -
Homeland Security Implications of Radicalization
THE HOMELAND SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF RADICALIZATION HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, INFORMATION SHARING, AND TERRORISM RISK ASSESSMENT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SEPTEMBER 20, 2006 Serial No. 109–104 Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 35–626 PDF WASHINGTON : 2008 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY PETER T. KING, New York, Chairman DON YOUNG, Alaska BENNIE G. THOMPSON, Mississippi LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas LORETTA SANCHEZ, California CURT WELDON, Pennsylvania EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut NORMAN D. DICKS, Washington JOHN LINDER, Georgia JANE HARMAN, California MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana PETER A. DEFAZIO, Oregon TOM DAVIS, Virginia NITA M. LOWEY, New York DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of JIM GIBBONS, Nevada Columbia ROB SIMMONS, Connecticut ZOE LOFGREN, California MIKE ROGERS, Alabama SHEILA JACKSON-LEE, Texas STEVAN PEARCE, New Mexico BILL PASCRELL, JR., New Jersey KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, U.S. Virgin Islands BOBBY JINDAL, Louisiana BOB ETHERIDGE, North Carolina DAVE G. REICHERT, Washington JAMES R. LANGEVIN, Rhode Island MICHAEL MCCAUL, Texas KENDRICK B. MEEK, Florida CHARLIE DENT, Pennsylvania GINNY BROWN-WAITE, Florida SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, INFORMATION SHARING, AND TERRORISM RISK ASSESSMENT ROB SIMMONS, Connecticut, Chairman CURT WELDON, Pennsylvania ZOE LOFGREN, California MARK E. -
Requests Report
Received Request ID Requester Name Organization Closed Date Request Description Date 12-F-0001 Vahter, Tarmo Eesti Ajalehed AS 10/3/2011 3/19/2012 All U.S. Department of Defense documents about the meeting between Estonian president Arnold Ruutel (Ruutel) and Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney on July 19, 1991. 12-F-0002 Jeung, Michelle - 10/3/2011 - Copies of correspondence from Congresswoman Shelley Berkley and/or her office from January 1, 1999 to the present. 12-F-0003 Lemmer, Thomas McKenna Long & Aldridge 10/3/2011 11/22/2011 Records relating to the regulatory history of the following provisions of the Department of Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), the former Defense Acquisition Regulation (DAR), and the former Armed Services Procurement Regulation (ASPR). 12-F-0004 Tambini, Peter Weitz Luxenberg Law 10/3/2011 12/12/2011 Documents relating to the purchase, delivery, testing, sampling, installation, Office maintenance, repair, abatement, conversion, demolition, removal of asbestos containing materials and/or equipment incorporating asbestos-containing parts within its in the Pentagon. 12-F-0005 Ravnitzky, Michael - 10/3/2011 2/9/2012 Copy of the contract statement of work, and the final report and presentation from Contract MDA9720110005 awarded to the University of New Mexico. I would prefer to receive these documents electronically if possible. 12-F-0006 Claybrook, Rick Crowell & Moring LLP 10/3/2011 12/29/2011 All interagency or other agreements with effect to use USA Staffing for human resources management. 12-F-0007 Leopold, Jason Truthout 10/4/2011 - All documents revolving around the decision that was made to administer the anti- malarial drug MEFLOQUINE (aka LARIAM) to all war on terror detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility as stated in the January 23, 2002, Infection Control Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). -
Closing the Guantanamo Detention Center: Legal Issues
Closing the Guantanamo Detention Center: Legal Issues Michael John Garcia Legislative Attorney Jennifer K. Elsea Legislative Attorney R. Chuck Mason Legislative Attorney Edward C. Liu Legislative Attorney May 30, 2013 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R40139 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Closing the Guantanamo Detention Center: Legal Issues Summary Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Congress passed the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), which granted the President the authority “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those ... [who] planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks” against the United States. Many persons subsequently captured during military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere were transferred to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for detention and possible prosecution. Although nearly 800 persons have been held at Guantanamo since early 2002, the substantial majority of Guantanamo detainees have been transferred to another country for continued detention or release. Those detainees who remain fall into three categories: (1) persons placed in non-penal, preventive detention to stop them from rejoining hostilities; (2) persons who face or are expected to face criminal charges; and (3) persons who have been cleared for transfer or release, whom the United States continues to detain pending transfer. Although the Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that Guantanamo detainees may seek habeas corpus review of the legality of their detention, several legal issues remain unsettled. In January 2009, President Obama issued an Executive Order to facilitate the closure of the Guantanamo detention facility within a year. -
Military Commissions: a Place Outside the Law’S Reach
MILITARY COMMISSIONS: A PLACE OUTSIDE THE LAW’S REACH JANET COOPER ALEXANDER* “We have turned our backs on the law and created what we believed was a place outside the law’s reach.” Colonel Morris D. Davis, former chief prosecutor of the Guantánamo military commissions1 Ten years after 9/11, it is hard to remember that the decision to treat the attacks as the trigger for taking the country to a state of war was not inevitable. Previous acts of terrorism had been investigated and prosecuted as crimes, even when they were carried out or planned by al Qaeda.2 But on September 12, 2001, President Bush pronounced the attacks “acts of war,”3 and he repeatedly defined himself as a “war president.”4 The war * Frederick I. Richman Professor of Law, Stanford Law School. I would like to thank participants at the 2011 Childress Lecture at Saint Louis University School of Law and a Stanford Law School faculty workshop for their comments, and Nicolas Martinez for invaluable research assistance. 1 Ed Vulliamy, Ten Years On, Former Chief Prosecutor at Guantanamo Slams ‘Camp of Torture,’ OBSERVER, Oct. 30, 2011, at 29. 2 Previous al Qaeda attacks that were prosecuted as crimes include the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the Manila Air (or Bojinka) plot to blow up a dozen jumbo jets, and the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa. Mary Jo White, Prosecuting Terrorism in New York, MIDDLE E.Q., Spring 2001, at 11, 11–14; see also Christopher S. Wren, U.S. Jury Convicts 3 in a Conspiracy to Bomb Airliners, N.Y. -
View Issue As
national lawyers guild Volume 68 Number 4 Winter 2011 Turn to the Constitution in 193 Prayer: Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Obama, the Constitutionality and the Politics of the National Day of Prayer Gail Schnitzer Eisenberg Anatomy of a “Terrorism” 234 Prosecution: Dr. Rafil Dhafir and the Help the Needy Muslim Charity Case Katherine Hughes The National Defense 247 Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012: Battlefield Earth Nathan Goetting editor’s preface On April 17, 1952, with the U.S. nearly two years into the bloody “police action” against the “Godless Communists” in Korea and Tailgunner Joe McCarthy at the height of his foaming and fulminating power in the Sen- ate, President Truman signed into law a bill requiring presidents to exhort Americans to do the one thing the First Amendment seems most emphatic the federal government should never ask citizens to do—pray. The law establish- ing the National Day of Prayer was the result of a mass effort of evangelical Christians, such as Billy Graham, who rallied support for it during one of his “crusades,” to use the organs of government and the bully pulpit of the presidency to aid them in their effort to further Christianize the nation. After a push by the doddering Senator Strom Thurmond from South Carolina, who for decades expressed a uniquely southern zeal for God matched only by his uniquely southern zeal for racial segregation, the law was amended in 1988 so that the National Day of Prayer would be fixed on the first Thursday of every May. It has since become a jealously guarded and zealously promoted evangelical holiday of the politically active Christian right, who use it to perpetuate the false and self-serving narrative that a nation whose founding documents were drafted largely by Enlightenment-era skeptics and deists was actually designed by a council of holy men to be an Augustinian City of God. -
| Book Reviews |
| Book Reviews | Lincoln the Lawyer Lincoln was at root a collection law- Lincoln’s experience as an attorney By Brian Dirck yer. The West in the 19th century was served him well in his later political University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 2007. the scene of both easy lending and fre- career, in that he made political con- 228 pages, $29.95. quent defaults, and Lincoln was in the nections on the circuit and, more im- center of this process. As Dirck states, portant, he learned the values of settle- “Lincoln practiced law in a veritable ment and reconciliation. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: shower of [promissory notes]. They The four-volume selection of legal Legal Documents and Cases rained down on him, year in and year cases edited by Daniel Stowell was out, for his entire 25-year practice. ... meticulously prepared. There is a bio- Edited by Daniel W. Stowell Insofar as Lincoln specialized in any graphical note for every person men- University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, VA, area of the law, he was a debt-collec- tioned in the records, including parties, 2007. 4 volumes, $300.00. tion attorney.” Most of these cases were judges, sheriffs, and jurors. There are straightforward—just a matter of turn- maps of the southern Illinois counties ing to the appropriate page in Chitty’s and photographs of litigants and court- REVIEWED BY HEN R Y S. CO H N Pleading. houses. Stowell weaves the documents Lincoln’s law practice also included in each case together and explains their In 2000, the University of Illinois probating estates and handling family importance. -
Defense Lawyers in 9/11 Case Face Huge Hurdles | Daphne Eviatar
Defense Lawyers in 9/11 Case Face Huge Hurdles | Daphne Eviatar http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daphne-eviatar/defense-lawyers-... August 23, 2013 Defense Lawyers in 9/11 Case Face Huge Hurdles Posted: 08/21/2013 4:29 pm Like 21 people like this. Be the first of your friends. It's been nearly impossible to follow all the arcane procedural arguments being made in the 9/11 military commission pre-trial hearings at Guantanamo Bay this week. But one thing has become clear: defense lawyers representing the five co-defendants in what may be the most important trial in U.S. history are subjected to unprecedented restrictions on the ability to communicate with their clients and infringements of the attorney-client privilege that would be unheard-of in a regular federal court. If that sounds like a technicality, it's not. In fact, it pervades the ability of defense lawyers to fairly represent the five accused men in this death penalty case. Take, for example, the court discussion Wednesday morning, where lawyers complained they couldn't communicate with their clients in the period before the military commissions' Convening Authority -- the person who decides the charges -- decided to seek the death penalty against all five men accused in this case. Before deciding on the charges, the Convening Authority reviews a report from a legal advisor that would normally include, among other things, what's known as "mitigating evidence" -- evidence that would weigh against seeking the death penalty. In this case, that evidence is about the defendants' torture in CIA custody. As Cheryl Bormann, lawyer for Walid bin Attash, put it in court on Wednesday: "As we know, torture is a huge issue in this case, and is probably the cornerstone of mitigation." Yet the pretrial report prepared by the legal advisor to the Convening Authority "made no mention of torture," said Bormann. -
Petition for Writ of Certiorari
No. ____________ IN THE SALIM AHMED HAMDAN, OMAR KHADR, PETITIONER, PETITIONER, V. V. ROBERT GATES, ET AL., GEORGE W. BUSH, ET AL. RESPONDENTS RESPONDENTS __________ On Petition for Writ of Certiorari and Writ of Certiorari Before Judgment to the United States Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit __________ PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI AND WRIT OF CERTIORARI BEFORE JUDGMENT __________ NEAL K. KATYAL MUNEER I. AHMAD Counsel of Record RICHARD J. WILSON 600 New Jersey Ave., NW KRISTINE A. HUSKEY Washington, D.C. 20001 American University Washington (202) 662-9000 College of Law Int’l Human Rights Law Clinic HARRY H. SCHNEIDER Washington, D.C. 20016 JOSEPH M. MCMILLAN (202) 274-4147 CHARLES C. SIPOS Perkins Coie LLP LT. COL. COLBY C. VOKEY USMC, Regional Defense LAURENCE H. TRIBE Counsel KEVIN K. RUSSELL Harvard Law School LT. CMDR. WILLIAM C. KUEBLER Supreme Court Litigation Clinic Office of Military Commissions LT. CMDR. CHARLES SWIFT Attorneys for Omar Khadr Office of Military Commissions Attorneys for Salim Hamdan Date: February 27, 2007 -i- QUESTIONS PRESENTED This case presents a question that is also presented by petitions for certiorari anticipated in Boumediene v. Bush, No. 05-5062 (D.C. Cir., Feb. 20, 2007) and Al Odah v. United States, No. 05-5063 (D.C. Cir., Feb. 20, 2007): 1. Do individuals detained as alleged enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba have access to habeas corpus under the Constitution or by statute? In addition, this case presents two further questions, which make this case a logical and necessary companion to the Boumediene and Al Odah petitions: 2.