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Alka Pradhan⁷ Profile picture
Alka Pradhan⁷
@PradhanAlka
Int'l human rights lawyer at Guantanamo & ICC. @PennLaw prof. No DoD opinions here; retweets are not confirmation/denial of classified info. She/Her
Oct 4, 2022 • 18 tweets • 8 min read
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:
Oct 3, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Oh, my misguided friends, let me talk to you about that “top notch medical care.”
(Uh, there isn’t any) 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.
Sep 26, 2022 • 13 tweets • 8 min read
What is this fresh hell @CIA?
npr.org/2022/09/26/112… I have a whole trove of items for your museum. (Thread)
May 5, 2022 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
@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: Image I'm old enough to remember when our client Abu Qa'el Dhiab (and several others) were painfully force-fed for EXACTLY that reason:

reuters.com/article/uk-usa… Image
Apr 22, 2022 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
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…
Apr 20, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
A decade ago, @BaluchiGitmo’s horrific torture was shown as entertainment for the masses in the film Zero Dark Thirty (1)
theguardian.com/law/2019/feb/2… 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)

foreverwars.substack.com/p/cia-inspecto…
Jan 10, 2022 • 26 tweets • 17 min read
Buckle up, friends. Tomorrow, Jan. 11, is the 20th anniversary of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. In 2022, torture endures, arbitrary detention is the norm, and 39 men remain illegally held by the USG. (THREAD)

👇🏿I took this photo of Camp X-Ray yrs ago. #CloseGuantanamo #GITMO20 In light of this grim anniversary, and the continuing humanitarian crisis at Guantanamo, here are 20 Gitmo resources that I personally recommend, including firsthand accounts from its victims. #CloseGuantanamo @WhiteHouse you may find these useful.
Nov 17, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Accurate. There should be a public legal process/prosecution/accounting. Also, I honestly cannot imagine the hubris - the depth of arrogance - it takes to give an answer like that to a question about the wrongful deaths of innocent people. @DeptofDefense @PentagonPresSec #Humanrightspresidency
Oct 6, 2021 • 57 tweets • 7 min read
Thomas: "The contractors have testified before" - yup, we examined them in open session, w/govt lawyers present. The distinction govt is making is not accurate; Drs. Mitchell and Jessen testified at the military commissions about the facilities themselves, but without confirming or denying the locations of the sites.
Jan 11, 2021 • 22 tweets • 10 min read
Today is the grim 19th anniversary of the opening of the offshore gulag at Guantanamo Bay. The crimes the USG committed (that continue) at GTMO and lack of accountability led us directly to the nat-sec chaos of 2021. Here are 10 myths and 9 little-known facts abt GTMO (thread) First, let me welcome my longtime followers from @DeptofDefense and @TheJusticeDept - pls pay close attention, you might learn something useful.
Aug 19, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
One of those amazing moments every teacher can appreciate. Yet another brilliant former student at @pennlaw has published a paper - incredibly timely - on the int'l legal culpability of freshly-emerged torture architect, John Yoo. brill.com/view/journals/… While I'm spotlighting formidable former students, here is @NatashaArnpr's 2017 article on the human rights challenges wrt the private military industry: scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jil/vol38/iss4…
May 13, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Incisive piece in @just_security by my teammate @br_farley about the GTMO military commission's fundamental jurisdiction problems. Spoiler alert: "the military commission’s approach is . . . fundamentally incoherent and incorrect in law."

justsecurity.org/70123/getting-… And it has taken EIGHT YEARS of pre-trial hearings for the military commission to elucidate that incoherent/incorrect view of its own jurisdiction, because the govt is so arrogant/MC system so corrupt, that they never thought they'd need to demonstrate jurisdiction.
Apr 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Yet another example of GTMO insanity: the military judge has just denied the defense access to the full SSCI torture report, despite a letter from @SenFeinstein supporting release to security-cleared counsel, and despite its centrality to @BaluchiGitmo's death penalty case. When we say that @BaluchiGitmo and others are facing "trial" at Guantanamo, please understand that it is an illegal process before an illegally constituted "court," bound by rules that intentionally violate all semblance of due process.
Apr 11, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Why are we willing to accept such a shameful standard of living in the United States (health care, wealth disparities, justice system)? The complacency/willful blindness/self-defeating jingoism is constantly stunning. Exhibit A: washingtonpost.com/world/europe/h…
Mar 23, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
HE DID NOT. This is a bold-faced lie that Dems have adopted to justify lack of accountability during the Obama years, which is one reason Guantanamo is one of the most bi-partisan atrocities the USG has ever perpetrated.
Feb 19, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This cannot be it.

What about all the wrong calls made by @CIA last month during Mitchell and Jessen? How do we clear those up in real-time? Or do we just not and forever cut off entire areas of examination or argument bc the CIA wants to call something classified? @CIA cut us off last month when we asked Dr. Mitchell about COBALT having 20 cells, which is in the SSCI report. Record wasn’t cleared till days later - BY US - and questioning was over. This is illegal.
Feb 15, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I have never in my life seen a brief with as many ad hominem attacks as the USG's filing to oppose a 75 yo attorney's withdrawal from a case whose trial the govt has delayed for 8 yrs while hiding torture evidence and spying on defense counsel. It is an embarrassment to the United States.
Feb 13, 2020 • 5 tweets • 5 min read
Because the @CIA and @DeptofDefense have *such* great track records in psych analyses.

This is just criminal, and people needs to be watching. @UNHumanRights @ICRC @CIA @DeptofDefense @UNHumanRights @ICRC Do you know what this charade of a "review process" does to detainees psychologically - having to put together a thorough package to support a bid for clearance (not release, just CLEARANCE FOR RELEASE) (2)
Jan 11, 2020 • 35 tweets • 11 min read
Another year of Gitmo, and now we’re 18. (Long thread)
@GitmoWatch There is a lot today about the men at Gitmo who will never be charged, having spent most of their adult lives there. And rightly so.
Dec 30, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Actually, a lot of us understood the genocidal intent of family separations right away, following from a long line of consistently racist nat-sec decisions. #Gitmo "Nat-sec," obviously, because racism is the antithesis of real nat-sec.
Dec 3, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
24 hours back “home” in Genève for work. Missing my grandfather, R. Krishnamurti, a formidable diplomat/economist at @UNCTAD (also one of the funniest men I knew), who brought us to this same promenade each summer for Mövenpick. Image @UNCTAD Some of you lovely people have messaged for more info. Here he was at home in Columbus, in a photo that I probably took: unctad.org/en/pages/newsd…