Sunday, March 31, 2013

The perspective of some of the habeas attorneys of events at the base


The mass hunger strike at GTMO has drawn a lot of media attention. At first, the detainees simply demanded that the authorities stop searching their Qurans. As the strike has dragged on, however, many of the men, entering their twelfth year of detention without charge and no end it sight, are also demanding an end to their illegal, AKA "law of war" detention.
The military is currently applying brutal tactics to break the hunger strike, e.g., withholding water, reducing temperatures to freezing levels, and moving the detainees from communal living to isolation cells. A detainee’s motion to end these practices is pending. Judge Thomas F. Hogan has scheduled an evidentiary hearing for April 15.
The detainees are desperate, the camps were a tinderbox, and a new tough-guy commander of detention operations lit the fuse. If this commander is acting on orders from higher ups, consider this narrative an indictment of them. 

Talking Dog Interviews Pat Bronte

The talking dog is back to doing interviews and today's interview is with habeas attorney Pat Bronte. Pat is an attorney for two men at Guantanamo-one of whom is the subject of a current motion in the US District Court in which Pat and her co-counsel are seeking humanitarian relief for their client who is part of the on-going hunger strike.
Read the interview here. and if you are in the DC area and can make your way to the federal courthouse on April 15th to show your support for the men still being held at Guantanamo without trial or legal process that would be great.