Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The battle to see the force feeding tapes....UPDATED WITH LINK

The government/military has been fighting the release of the force feeding tapes- most recently it filed a desperate motion asking the judge to reconsider her earlier ruling that the tapes should be made public--the military provided several declarations from various members of the military attesting the harm to "national security" if those tapes were made public. Read the complete motion to reconsideration filed by the government here.

Yesterday Judge Kessler denied the government's motion. Click here to the link (h/o to Lee) and let me leave you with this quote from the judge:

"One particular example given in the declarations is flat out unbelievable, namely, that if the
videos are released, Mr. Dhiab's privacy would be invaded. Mr. Dhiab has already clearly stated,
in no uncertain terms, that "I want Americans to see what is going on at the prison today, so they will
understand why we are hunger-striking, and why the prison should be closed. If the American
people stand for freedom, they should watch these tapes. If they truly believe in human rights, they
need to see these tapes."

It will undoubtedly be a long time before we see those tapes but I hope one day my fellow countrymen (and women) will see these tapes and understand the torture that we have subjected these men-- these men who have never been charged with any criminal activity.


Shaker Aamer update...

No Shaker has not been released.... at least as far as I can tell.
Supposedly the latest hiccup is that three republican members of congress decided to take a trip to Guantanamo this week and of course their little visit could not be disturbed by a plane taking Shaker home. So Shaker waits a few more days. Sigh.-
Meanwhile you can join the "I fast for Shaker" campaign and fast for one day in support of Shaker's release. It is a rotating fast so that on each day individuals are fasting. Details are here. I signed up for thursday-- why not join me on this?

A nice summary of commission happenings....

Earlier this week I discussed a couple of things going on with the military commissions but this article from aljazeera puts it all together in a nice understandable way.