Legal Commentary

9th Anniversary of Guantanamo Today: It's Obama's Gitmo Now

By Jeralyn

Today is the 9th anniversary of the receipt of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Center for Constitutional Rights is holding events for "Obama's Guantanamo", beginning at 11:45 this morning with a Demonstration with street theater, signs, and speakers, and announcement of 12-day fast at White House Plaza, between Lafayette Park and “picture postcard” zone.

To mark the beginning of the ninth year of detention without charge or trial at Guantánamo on Monday, January 11, activists and lawyers of detained men will rally, march and hold a briefing to outline current issues related to President Obama’s Guantanamo, demand that the president make good on his pledge to close the prison, and declare their opposition to any plan for holding prisoners without charge or trial in the U.S.

...This is Obama’s Guantánamo now. He has failed in his pledge to close the island prison from a lack of leadership, bowing to the pressures of partisan grandstanding, and vigorous attempts to keep all cases out of the courts. The transparency we were promised has been discarded. This is an anniversary that should not have come.”

Details of today's events are below:

At 12:30pm, they will begin a prisoner procession, a silent walk of more than 40 in detainee jumpsuits

At 1:00pm, there will be a Press Briefing at the National Press Club, 529 14th Street, Murrow Room.

...featuring detainee lawyers and human rights activists, titled “Obama’s Guantánamo” to address issues that include continued and worsening lack of transparency, resettlement for men who cannot return to their home countries, the threat of indefinite detention schemes in the U.S., the halt of transfers to Yemen and related responses to the recent terrorism attempt, and more.

....Lakhdar Boumediene will call in to the 1:00pm briefing at the National Press Club from his home in France, and Omar Deghayes will join the briefing from his home in the United Kingdom. Mr. Boumediene was the lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case of 2008, Boumediene v. Bush, in which the Court affirmed that Guantànamo detainees have the right to file writs of habeas corpus in U.S. federal courts. He was released on May 15, 2009.

Here is the Guantanamo scorecard, showing the resolution of cases.

CCR will also have an updated chart today of the detainees released, where they were released to, the number of detainees still being held, and where they are from. I received a copy by e-mail. 198 detainees (either 88 or 90 from Yemen) are still being held. The top four countries we returned detainees to are:

• Afghanistan: Of 221, 200 have been released. Obama released 5. 20 remain.
• Saudi Arabia: Of 140, 131 have been released. Obama relased 3. 15 remain.
• Pakistan: Of 71, 65 have been released. Obama released 0. 6 remain.
• Yemen: Of 111, 21 have been released. Obama released 7. 88 remain. (In a second chart, 90 are listed as remaining.)

By percentage: 94% of the Saudis being held have been released; 92% of the Pakistanis; 90% of the Afghans, and 11% of the Yemenis.

Here is the New York Times chart on the number of detainees released to each country (two of whom it is unable to identify)and its list of the 198 who remain.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 11, 2010 (boomark / email).