Al-Jazeera man 'close to death' at Guantanamo Bay

i'm pretty tired of "my" government torturing and killing innocent people for "freedom."

i'm pretty tired of hearing everyone's justifications for spying on everyone in america so that iraq can supposedly have the civil liberties we used to have as well. what the **** is wrong with this country?

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Senate bars bill to restore detainee rights [habeas corpus]

By Susan Cornwell


09/19/07 "Reuters" -- - The Senate voted on Wednesday against considering a measure to give Guantanamo detainees and other foreigners the right to challenge their detention in the U.S. courts.

The legislation needed 60 votes to be considered by lawmakers in the Senate, narrowly controlled by Democrats; it received only 56, with 43 voting against the effort to roll back a key element of President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.
( Click here below to see how they voted **)

The measure would have granted foreign terrorism suspects the right of habeas corpus, Latin for "you have the body," which prevents the government from locking people up without review by a court.

Congress last year eliminated this right for non-U.S. citizens labeled "enemy combatants" by the government. The Bush administration said this was necessary to prevent them from being set free and attacking Americans.

The move affected about 340 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban captives held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. It also affects millions of permanent legal residents of the United States who are not U.S. citizens, said one of the sponsors of the bipartisan measure, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

"Any of these people could be detained forever without the ability to challenge their detention in federal court" under the changes in law Congress made last year, Leahy said on the Senate floor. This was true "even if they (authorities) made a mistake and picked up the wrong person."

"This was a mistake the last Congress and the (Bush) administration made, based on fear," Leahy said.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican opposing the measure, said lawmakers should not allow "some of the most brutal vicious people in the world to bring lawsuits against their own (U.S.) troops" who had picked up the detainees on the battlefield.

Giving habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees would "really intrude into the military's ability to manage this war," Graham said, adding that it was "something that has never been granted to any other prisoner in any other war."

"Our judges don't have the military background to make decisions as to who the enemy is," Graham told the Senate.

Congress eliminated habeas rights as part of the Military Commissions Act, which also created new military tribunals to try the Guantanamo prisoners on war crimes charges.

Congress was led by Republicans when the act was rushed through, shortly before new elections put Democrats in control.

Sen. Arlen Specter, another sponsor of the bill and a Pennsylvania Republican, noted that the right to habeas corpus was a protection against arbitrary arrest enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215.

Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments from lawyers from Guantanamo prisoners challenging the law to eliminate the habeas right.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18422.htm

** http://restore-habeas.org/whip/total.php



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"When BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was being held hostage by the Palestinian Army of Islam, Sami issued a plea asking them to let his fellow journalist go without conditions. It was broadcast by Sami's Al Jazeera employers, in the hope that the kidnappers would be watching the Arabic news channel. I wonder how to contact Alan Johnston now, to see if he can return the favour. The western media has been too slow to come to Sami's aid. I am not sure why."

Clive Stafford Smith (Sami Haj's Anglo-American solicitor based in London)

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Journalists are entrusted with a huge duty to the people they serve. They are supposed to show what is happening in the most objective way possible. In order to do this, sometimes they have to risk going to some of the most dangerous areas of the world and dealing with some of the most unsavory people when they get there. They should be respected and applauded, not jailed, for providing this service.

Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist, was captured and held by Muslim extremists for 114 days earlier this year. There were worldwide calls for his release from corporate media groups, human rights organizations, and even Hamas, a Palestinian resistance movement. When Hamas gunmen escorted Johnston to safety, the world celebrated a victory for the freedom of journalists to operate in even the most hostile areas, and rightfully so.

If only the rest of the world cared as much about Sami al-Hajj as they did about Johnston.

http://media.www.dailycampus.com.

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The other disturbing piece of Al-Hajj's story is that he was carrying legitimate press credentials at the time of his capture. In order to ensure the most objective and responsible reporting possible, journalists must be allowed to operate throughout the world, anywhere they deem necessary to get the story right. Al-Hajj was doing just this. Instead of accepting the American press release version of the victory in Afghanistan, Al-Hajj wanted to show the reality on the ground to all of Al-Jazeera's many viewers.

Unfortunately, Al-Hajj never got his story and probably won't ever get another one. If he ever makes it out of Guantanamo alive, Al-Hajj has vowed to give up journalism because he wants to be able to watch his son grow up. The U.S. should afford him this very opportunity, by releasing him immediately.

http://media.www.dailycampus.com/

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Reporters Without Borders established a system of sponsorship 16 years ago in which international media are encouraged to adopt imprisoned journalists. More than 200 news organisations, journalists' associations, press clubs and other entities throughout the world are currently supporting journalists by regularly calling on the authorities to release them and by publicising their cases.

Al-Haj has been adopted by four Spanish media organisations - La Sexta, IPS-Comunica, La Voz del Occidente and Colexio de Xornalistas de Galicia - and six Canadian ones - Corriere Canadese, Atlas media, Magazine de Saint-Lambert, Mouton Noir, CIBL and Radio Canada Sudbury.

http://www.prisoner345.net/press/us-government-urged-free-detained-al-jazeera-cameraman-ramadan-gesture

I keep thinking about tinygiraffe's comment " what the **** is wrong with this country?"

The thing is that exactly the same thing is being said all over the world. They say it in India where farmers are committing suicide because their lands are being stolen by big companies.

They say it in China in all the sweat shops.

You can bet they're saying it in Iraq

I said it myself yesterday when I read that a lad (no prior record) caught spraying graffiti was imprisoned for 15 months here in Britain - four times as long as your average rapist gets
(there's a facebook protest going for this one btw).


I believe capitalism is the world-wide problem - where ever we live in the world - I was raised by working-class and I see no difference between me and say, a French lad raised in a similar street - but I see a whole load of difference between me and Sarkosy

Sami Haj is imprisoned for one reason only and although the neo-cons (or shall we just call them nazis) have had their cover blown and we all know the "War on Terror" is really "The Great Oil Robbery" -(Greenspan -
http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/?articleid=11626 ) he is going to die because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he had the wrong face.

I think it would suit others to remember that if you're not one of the elite - part of the Billion dollar world- wide 'fun gang'

You don't have the right face





Image - http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/

Obscene. It's all about the US saving face, isn't it?
Poor bastards, locked up indefinitely in that hell hole.

Judson Newman
Fri, 08/03/2007 - 21:34

Hello Sami,

I am a US Military veteran. I served from 1998-2002. I love my country. I love its justice system. However, the system that has fallen upon you is not just. This administration is a disgrace. The America I grew up in believed in Innocent until proven Guilty and the right to representation, along with a fair and speedy trial. These rights have been denied to you, for that I apologize. The saddest part of all this is that we, in the USA, have no idea what goes on at Guantanamo Bay. I wish that this will all come to an end soon for those who are innocent and those that are found to be guilty.
Furthermore, I look forward to a day when this world will live in peace with out those that instil fear like Bin Laden or George W Bush. A world in which the people who love their family and friends may live without those that bring hatred, fear, and separation.
The best of luck in your struggle. The supreme being is with you and is watching out for you.
Best Regards
Judson


Add a support message to Sami here

http://www.prisoner345.net/guestbook?page=7



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Hi Olga - thanks for posting

Johnston appeals for al-Hajj trial



Alan Johnston, a BBC reporter held for months in Gaza, has appealed for the right of Sami al-Hajj, Al Jazeera's cameraman detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a fair trial.

Al-Hajj has been held in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay for more than five years.

He is accused of filming Osama bin Laden and other links to al-Qaeda, but no official charges have been brought against him.

In a letter of support to al-Hajj, a copy of which was released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York on Thursday, Alan Johnston also thanked al-Hajj for his appeal to the Gaza kidnappers to release him earlier this year.

Johnston disappeared on March 12 while driving his car in the Gaza Strip and was held for nearly four months.

Journalists around the world repeatedly called for the BBC reporter's release.

Public appeal

Al-Hajj made a public appeal to the Gaza kidnappers in March, saying: "While the United States has kidnapped me and held me for years on end, this is not a lesson that Muslims should copy."

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, Johnston said he had been moved by al-Hajj adding his voice to the campaign for his release, given the enormous problems al-Hajj has faced in the US detention centre.

He said: "I understand that Mr al-Hajj is demanding the right to answer the accusations that have been made against him now for some five years in Guantanamo Bay and of course, I would always support any prisoner's right to a fair trial."

Since being detained, al-Hajj has never been charged.

Clive Stafford Smith, al-Hajj's lawyer, has called accusations of ties to al-Qaeda baseless and reported that US interrogators focused almost exclusively on obtaining intelligence on Al Jazeera.

Smith has emphasized al-Hajj's deteriorating health in detention, saying he has staged a hunger strike and was in declining physical and mental health, having lost nearly 18kg.

Ould Sidi Mohammed, a Mauritanian recently released from Guantanamo, on Wednesday said the Al Jazeera cameraman was losing weight continuously, suffering from a kidney infection and getting inadequate medical treatment.

Hopes that al-Hajj would be released at the end of August on condition that he remain in his country of origin, Sudan, have proved unfounded.
There are about 340 remaining detainees at the Guantanamo prison.

The first prisoners arrived nearly six years ago after the United States began what George Bush, the US president, has called a "war on terrorism" in response to the attacks on September 11 2001

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/71280084-B8F8-4E94-8AFD-681CA4FAA855.htm

October 20th, 2007 2:48 pm

Fears grow for hunger strike journalist held in Guantanamo
By Julie Tomlin / Press Gazette

Concern for the health of the only journalist held at Guantanamo Bay increased this week after news that his weight has plummeted because of a decision to reduce force-feeding during Ramadan.

Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj, who has lost 18kg (40lb) since beginning his hunger strike in January, lost a further 15lb during Ramadan, according to his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith.

He also told Press Gazette this week that the US authorities have now made fresh allegations that Al-Haj is a terrorist.


"They have said that he received terrorist training - and that was training from Al Jazeera in the use of cameras," said Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve. "Each year they change the allegations against him, and each year they allege something new. But this one is really offensive."

The human rights lawyer said Al Jazeera chiefs were considering taking legal action after he advised them that they should pursue a claim of defamation against the US government.

"It's something you journalists should all be concerned about," he said.

Stafford Smith, who returned from a trip to Guantanamo Bay this week, has to have his notes cleared by the US authorities and could not give specific details about Al-Haj's physical and mental health.

Stafford Smith said after visiting his client in July that Al-Haj was losing his memory and had become "fixated on his death".

He said after his most recent visit that Al-Haj, who has been in Guantanamo Bay since June 2002, has lost more weight because of the guards' decision to force feed him just once a day during Ramadan between 12 September and 3 October "out of respect for his religious belief".

Al-Haj, a Sudanese national who was detained at the Pakistan border in December 2001 while on his way to work in Afghanistan, made a plea for the release of Alan Johnston during the BBC correspondent's 113-day captivity in Gaza earlier this year.

Stafford Smith has since made contact with Johnston, who earlier this month wrote an open letter in support of Al-Haj.

Johnston, who was released in July, said he supported Al-Haj's call to be allowed to answer any allegations that are being made against him.

"And of course, I would always support any prisoner's right to a fair trial." Johnston wrote.



http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10450

What about international journalists' associations? Why are they not publicizing Sami Al-Haj's situation much more widely? He could well die in that place & it appears no one much cares.

Guantanamo Detainees' Fates on Trial

By Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet. Posted December 5, 2007.

The upcoming Supreme Court case Boumediene v. Bush will decide whether Guantanamo detainees will still have a right to habeas corpus.


The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday in Boumediene v. Bush. Most of the 34 detainees whose fate hangs in the balance in this case were brought to Guantánamo after being picked up by bounty hunters or tribesmen in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yet the Bush administration has fought hard to keep them away from any independent court where they could contest the legality of their confinement.

In February, two judges on a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that strips the statutory rights of all Guantánamo detainees to have their habeas corpus petitions heard by U.S. federal courts. The Supreme Court will decide in Boumediene whether these men still have a constitutional right to habeas corpus.

If the lower court decision is left to stand, they can be held there for the rest of their lives without ever having a federal judge determine the legality of their detention.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/69667/




The fight for habeas corpus

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0455718720071206




Waxman, the top Supreme Court lawyer during the Clinton administration, said that "after six years of imprisonment without meaningful review, it is time for a court to decide the legality" of their confinement.

The detainee case drew several hundred spectators who lined up outside the courthouse in a light snow. About 50 had camped out overnight for a chance to get inside to hear the arguments in the third case the Supreme Court has heard since 2004 on the administration's detention program.

Meanwhile, two dozen protesters, some in orange prison-like jumpsuits, chanted and waved signs.

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation/washington/supreme_court/20071205_ap_justicesquestiondetaineelawyer.html

After six years imprisonment with out a fair hearing for many of those men in G prison - (some given over to the US by bounty hunters for cash) - sorry to see so few demonstrate in support of habeas corpus and human rights - but that's one brave man, eh?