THREAD: We need eyes on the medical situation at Guantanamo Bay.
1. BLUF: the U.S. govt has made clear that they will let my client @BaluchiGitmo and other men deteriorate rather than allow independent medical evaluations, bc secrecy will always trump law and ethics at Gitmo.
2. Some of you will remember that in March, we filed a motion to compel a Mixed Medical Commission - essentially an independent medical evaluation - for @BaluchiGitmo before DC District Court.
Details abt how his torture led to his poor health:
3. The brief was supported by an astonishing document - @CIA internal report abt how they tortured Mr. al Baluchi at the black sites. However, @thejusticedept decided to ignore the causes of @BaluchiGitmo's conditions, and stick to propaganda that “medical care”at Gitmo is A-OK.
The above tweet is not to say that conditions of confinement in U.S. jails are generally acceptable; they are not. We consistently subject pre-trial (and post-conviction) prisoners to inhumane conditions that violate all sorts of domestic and international law.
It's just that most of America has not historically cared about conditions in jails because the imprisoned population across the country is overwhelmingly African American. #structuralracism
I have a whole trove of items for your museum. (Thread)
First of all, here is "Vertigo" by @BaluchiGitmo, which was painted to depict the effects of the brain damage your interrogators caused at black site COBALT:
@TheJusticeDept has opposed @BaluchiGitmo's motion for a Mixed Medical Commission to evaluate his multitude of serious medical/psych conditions stemming from his state-sponsored @CIA torture/illegal detention. Among the whoppers is:
I'm old enough to remember when our client Abu Qa'el Dhiab (and several others) were painfully force-fed for EXACTLY that reason:
Weaponizing and withholding "medical care" is a hallmark of Guantanamo detention. And remember, @BaluchiGitmo's long-term injuries - including brain damage - originate with the same USG now trying to whitewash detainee "medical care": foreverwars.substack.com/p/cia-inspecto…
Today I had the opportunity to visit Courtroom 600, site of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg - many, many thanks to the Memorium for their detailed tour and for the lengthy discussion that followed about Nuremberg v Guantanamo. (Thread)
The USG has had the unfortunate habit, over ten yes of pre-trial hearings in the 9/11 case, of making comparisons to Nuremberg. In a fiery affidavit that we published last year, former Nuremberg prosecutor @BenFerencz highlighted the contrasts instead: justsecurity.org/77835/nurember…
There were three major aspects of this afternoon’s exploration of the IMT site that really highlight how wholly opposite Guantanamo is from the values we sought to crystallize at Nuremberg: transparency, adversarial process with equality of arms, and conditions of confinement.
A few weeks ago, the truth about the @CIA’s illegal rendition, interrogations, and torture of Ammar became public for the first time - through the Agency’s own internal report (2)
Today, I am at the @Europarl_EN to meet with advocates and allies on the need -still!- for @CIA torture accountability, and medical treatment for the tortured men now deteriorating fast at Guantanamo Bay (3):