Just in: The Periodic Review Board has cleared Yemeni "forever prisoner" Said Salih Nashir for transfer from Guantanamo with "robust security assurances, to including monitoring, travel restrictions and integration support." His hearing was a year ago. prs.mil/Portals/60/Doc…
Mr. Nashir is the only detainee cleared PRB during the Trump presidency. Two other Yemeni detainees who had waited two and three years for a final decision were not cleared. One of them, Moath al-Alwi is known for his jailhouse art, such as this boat made from found objects.
To clarify, the Gitmo prisoner now approved for transfer is held as Mr. Nashir. His Montana lawyer since 2005 calls him Hani Saleh Rashid Abdullah. He was captured in Pakistan in 2002, got to Gitmo 6 weeks later.
This is what his lawyer told the board. prs.mil/Portals/60/Doc…
The status of Guantanamo's 40 prisoners as of today:
--9 are charged or have been convicted at a military commission;
--6 are cleared for release with security guarantees from the receiving nation;
--25 are indefinite detainees eligible for parole style hearings at the PRB.
Since you asked... this only prisoner cleared by the parole board during the Trump Era cannot be repatriated because U.S. law forbids transfers of detainees from Guantanamo to five countries: Libya, Somalia, Syria, the United States and Yemen.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
BREAKING: The Marine judge who was assigned to preside in the 9/11 trial two weeks ago abruptly quit today. His departure is sure to delay the Guantanamo trial past next year’s anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. nytimes.com/2020/10/02/us/…
Colonel Keane got the case on Sept. 17 and said that, upon reflection, certain jobs he had held in his Marine career, as well as family connections, led him to conclude that his serving as a judge in the case “arguably creates an appearance of bias.”
Judge: This case has been mired in lengthy, slow-moving and costly litigation... I would be remiss to be the cause of further delay whilst also sewing such a significant appellate issue into the record of this case. Maintaining the integrity of the process is my foremost concern.
Just in: No hearings in the 9/11 case until 2021. The new trial judge, Marine Col. S.F. Keane, cites his need to familiarize himself with the complex Sept. 11 case as well as working down there under pandemic restrictions.
Judge Keane: "In a complex case such as this one, a newly-detailed judge requires time to familiarize himself/herself with the case and issues raised in the various motions that have been filed prior to holding hearings." nytimes.com/2020/09/17/us/…
In his order canceling the November and December hearings, the new judge notes that the pandemic has forced cancelation of hearings in June, July, August, September and October. He also separately granted a 30-day extension on litigation filing deadlines.
A California based Marine colonel who was raised in the Bronx and New Jersey is the next judge in the long running Sept. 11 trial at Guantanamo. He is the senior @USMC judge on the West Coast, litigated as a prosecutor and serves at Camp Pendleton. nytimes.com/2020/09/17/us/…
No hearings have been held at Guantánamo since February, in part because of a complicated two-week quarantine for commuting court personnel, to safeguard base residents from the coronavirus. Gitmo has 6,000 residents, 40 of them prisoners and 1,500 troops assigned to the prison.
The new judge was a Marine officer and in law school at William and Mary at the time of 9/11.
Latest: The chief war court judge just canceled the Oct. 19-29 pretrial hearings in the Sept. 11 case at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Col. Douglas Watkins wrote in his four-page order that the coronavirus pandemic "continues and remains fluid." #COVID19
The judge also said prosecutors have yet to submit "an approved plan that meaningfully alleviates the adverse impact" of Gitmo's quarantine-style restrictions.
He called an embryonic prosecution idea to test court-bound travelers before flight a "yet-to-be-approved concept."
That leaves just two more sessions of pretrial hearings in the Sept. 11 case on the 2020 Guantanamo court calendar: Nov. 16-20 and Dec. 7-16.
The last 9/11 hearing was held in February, before the trial judge abruptly resigned. Watkins is caretaker judge. nytimes.com/2020/07/27/us/…
BREAKING: The coronavirus has caused the International Red Cross to cancel its coming visit to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba -- forcing the longest absence of the humanitarian relief organization from the remote U.S. military prison since it opened in 2002 nytimes.com/2020/08/07/us/…
A defense lawyer for a Yemeni detainee was disappointed by the decision. She said independent medical experts considered the 46-year-old man, Sharqawi al-Hajj, to be suicidal -- and that he had only seen prison personnel for the past year.
The @ICRC says that during the pandemic it has arranged for the delivery of "a steady flow of Red Cross messages" and "many phone calls" between Guantanamo prisoners and their families.
Photo: The Red Cross phone booth inside a Gitmo cell back in 2014.
The military is considering creating a quarantine zone at Guantanamo's crude Camp Justice compound to try to restart hearings in the Sept. 11 case. On the war crimes prosecutors' struggle to make progress at remote Gitmo during the coronavirus pandemic. nytimes.com/2020/07/27/us/…
The proposal would airlift about 100 hearing participants to the remote base and confine them to a series of tents and trailers that are on track for renovations -- at the height of hurricane season during the pandemic.
Latest: Sept. 11 trial prosecutors are asking the caretaker judge to reinstate the 75-year-old, excused capital defense lawyer because his successor has projected he will need 30 months to prepare for the 9/11 death-penalty trial -- after the pandemic restrictions are over.