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POPSGuantanamo Unclassified YouTube video about Adel Hamad, a Sudanese aid worker who lived in Afghanistan and Pakistan, who was arrested in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo in 2003. Even one of the US Army officers who sat on his tribunal said the evidence against him was weak and called his detention "unconscionable". Because Congress nullified the writ of habeas corpus, Hamad has no recourse to prove his innocence. Hence this Youtube video made by his lawyers. Find out more at: www.projecthamad.org
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POPSAmerican filmmaker sues Rumsfeld over detention in Iraq "Human rights monitors note that the vast majority of the over 15,000 detainees in U.S. military custody in Iraq have never been charged, tried, provided counsel, or allowed to challenge their detention in court, and over one-fifth of them have been detained for over a year in this manner," the suit states.
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POPSFBI threatens to sic Egyptian government on suspect's family After 9/11, an Egyptian student in the US was picked up by the FBI, which mistakenly thought he owned an aviation transceiver found in a hotel room. When the FBI interrogated him, agents threatened to make sure Egyptian security "gives family hell." Higazy confessed to owning the transceiver (but later an airline pilot admitted it was his). This information was contained in a court decision letting Higazy's lawsuit against the FBI proceed. Subsequently, the court removed this decision from its website and replaced it with a redacted version...which removed the information about the FBI threats! Unfortunately, the US news media (Washingon Post, New York Times) have failed to cover this aspect of the story.
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POPSIs Bush a War Criminal? "The majority holds... that trying persons under the president's military commission order violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, suggesting that trial is a war crime within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 2241."
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POPSWen Ho Lee Gets Last Laugh Wen Ho Lee sued the federal government for smearing his name. He settled the lawsuit with the government, but what is even more surprising is that big media organizations, who were being subpoenaed to provide the names of government sources who defamed Lee, also pooled together money for the settlment--even though they weren't defendents in the lawsuit. Does this "signal to plaintiffs' attorneys that newsrooms are becoming soft touches when it comes to subpoena defenses"?
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POPSUS jails, tortures Taliban victim Other detainees whose lawyers filed new evidence in U.S. District Court motions this month include: Adel Hassan Hamad, a Sudanese charity worker arrested at 1:30 a.m. July 18, 2002, in his Peshawar, Pakistan, apartment. Co-workers swear he was a hospital administrator with no connection to terrorists. A dissenting U.S. Army major on the panel that reviewed the unclassified and secret evidence against him called it "unconscionable" to detain him because some employees of the same charity may have supported terrorist ideals. Nazar "Chaman" Gul, a 29-year-old Afghani who thought he was working as an armed fuel depot guard for the Karzi government installed by U.S. forces. The man who hired him swears that was the case, but he is accused of being a member of a terrorist group. The lawyers say he has been mistaken for a commander of that terror group, named Chaman Gul, also held at Guantanamo.
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POPSTerry Gross interview with Joseph Margulies Margulies is a lawyer who has defended Guantanamo detainees and has written the book Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power. I listened to part of the interview in the car and it is disturbing, especially the part about the man who was falsely accused to being in Afghanistan and under duress he confessed he was in Afghanistan.. Finally British intelligence gave the US military proof that he lived in Britain at the time and he was let go.