Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

[Vrede too]

Karma:

Former commander of Guantánamo Bay Navy base sentenced to federal prison

A federal judge sentenced a former commander of the Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday to two years in prison for trying to cover up a drunken fight with a commissary worker who was later found dead in the bay.

Testimony at the trial showed that the fight inside the official residence of the now-retired Navy captain, John R. Nettleton, 54, followed a night of drinking during a celebration at the base’s private officers’ club. At the party, the man who died, Christopher Tur, 42, loudly accused Nettleton of having an affair with his wife....

Federal prosecutors had sought 37 to 46 months in prison, citing sentencing guidelines. Defense lawyers had urged no time, or home confinement.

Tur was found dead and floating in Guantánamo Bay on Jan. 11, 2015, two days after the fight and after Nettleton ordered the military and other residents to mount an extensive search for him. Tur had four broken ribs, a bruised forehead, and potentially lethal amounts of Prozac and alcohol in his system. A medical examiner ruled his death was caused by drowning, probably accidental.

Before announcing the sentence, the judge said: “This is not a homicide case. This is not a murder case. It’s not a case in which Capt. Nettleton stands accused or convicted of causing the death of Mr. Tur.”

Rather, a civilian jury found that during the search, Nettleton did not report that he had fought with Tur, denied to another officer that Tur had come to his house and lied about the affair he had with Lara Tur, who ran the base’s social service department.

Tur’s family members asked the judge to exceed the sentencing guidelines and send a message of accountability to other military officers about the costs of getting drunk, infidelity and lying. Some argued that had Nettleton called the base police after the fight, Tur would be alive.

“What message will it send to other members of the military if the sentencing is guidelines?” said Ann Tur, his mother. “If you’re not highly ranked, you are not entitled to justice? Senior officers in the Navy, the Department of Justice will watch this closely. A good man, my baby boy, is dead.” ...

[neoplacebo]

Tragic; a love story blooming among torture and legal black holes that ends in an unexpected way. Should be a movie.

[Vrede too]

Tragic; a love story blooming among torture and legal black holes that ends in an unexpected way. Should be a movie.

You are a poetic describer of sleaze.


Man Accused in 9/11 Plot Is Not Fit to Face Trial, Board Says

Duh, they've known that since at least 2008.

... It is not clear what military medical staff at the prison can do to restore his competency. Among other things, the defendants want assurances as part of the plea deal that the prison will establish a civilian-run trauma care program for them.

According to their lawyers, at least four of the defendants have sleep disorders, brain injuries, gastrointestinal damage or other health problems they attribute to the agency’s brutal interrogation methods during their three to four years in C.I.A. custody before their transfer to Guantánamo Bay in 2006.

It's not that I have sympathy for actual terrorists, but the Cheney/Shrub torture program is a stain on America that can never be scrubbed away and the inefficiency of the military tribunals compared to our terrorism-proficient federal courts is astounding.

Close Gitmo yesterday!

[O Really]

Close Gitmo yesterday!

Noooo, keep it open for Trump and his merry band.

However, regarding the guy incompetent to stand trial: The guy's a terrorist that doesn't like barbeque or women - you expect sanity? Anyway, he's locked up for the rest of his life - what's the problem?

[Vrede too]

Close Gitmo yesterday!

Noooo, keep it open for Trump and his merry band.

However, regarding the guy incompetent to stand trial: The guy's a terrorist that doesn't like barbeque or women - you expect sanity? Anyway, he's locked up for the rest of his life - what's the problem?

I'm not pleading for mercy for him (or for future inmates Trump and his merry band ). I just think it's stupid that they're still debating his sanity 15 years or more after knowing that he's nuts. That doesn't happen in our federal courts. Then, this whole "judicial" fiasco is only made worse by being the result in whole or part of the tragedy of American torture.

Ftr, I think the Fulton County Jail and GA prisons may be worse than Gitmo. It should be closed on principle and for US diplomatic reputational reasons, not because today's prisoners necessarily fare worse there than they would stateside.

[neoplacebo]

Tragic; a love story blooming among torture and legal black holes that ends in an unexpected way. Should be a movie.

You are a poetic describer of sleaze.



It's not that I have sympathy for actual terrorists, but the Cheney/Shrub torture program is a stain on America that can never be scrubbed away and the inefficiency of the military tribunals compared to our terrorism-proficient federal courts is astounding.

Close Gitmo yesterday!

Ah, a compliment of the highest order.....

[Vrede too]

Tragic; a love story blooming among torture and legal black holes that ends in an unexpected way. Should be a movie.

You are a poetic describer of sleaze.


It's not that I have sympathy for actual terrorists, but the Cheney/Shrub torture program is a stain on America that can never be scrubbed away and the inefficiency of the military tribunals compared to our terrorism-proficient federal courts is astounding.

Close Gitmo yesterday!

Ah, a compliment of the highest order.....

9/11 defendant ruled unfit for trial after panel finds torture left him psychotic
A military judge at Guantanamo Bay has ruled one of the 9/11 defendants too mentally ill to stand trial

Even if they're not psychotic, you can bet that lawyers for Ramzi bin al-Shibh's 4 co-defendants will attempt to raise the issue of military tribunal-proven devastating torture at the long-delayed trials.

Cheney/Shrub war criminality, the gift that keeps on giving.

[O Really]

I'm no fan of Cheney/Shrub, but really, I don't care what they do with these guys as long as they don't ever turn them loose. Or go ahead and turn them loose and tell all the 9/11 survivors and family of non-survivors where they are.

[Vrede too]

I'm no fan of Cheney/Shrub, but really, I don't care what they do with these guys as long as they don't ever turn them loose. Or go ahead and turn them loose and tell all the 9/11 survivors and family of non-survivors where they are.

You assume that they're guilty just because Cheney/Shrub and the torturing CIA said so.

The article states that if Ramzi bin al-Shibh is ever deemed sane enough for theoretical release he will first be tried.

... (Defense attorney David) Bruck told McCall in Tuesday's hearing PTSD treatment would offer the best hope of al-Shibh ever regaining competency to stand trial. He said the forced sidelining of the U.S. case against the man would be “an opportunity for the country to come to account on the harm” done by what he called the CIA's “program of human experimentation.”

Reached by phone Friday, Bruck said the judge's ruling was the first time the U.S. government had acknowledged that “the CIA torture program did profound and prolonged psychological harm to one of the people subjected to it.”

The five 9/11 defendants were variously subjected to repeated waterboarding, beatings, violent repeated searches of their rectal cavities, sleep deprivation and other abuse while at so-called CIA black sites.

The CIA says it stopped its detention and interrogation program in 2009. A Senate investigation concluded the abuse had been ineffective in obtaining useful information.

President Joe Biden this month declined to approve post-trauma care when defense lawyers presented it as a condition in plea negotiations. The administration said the president was unsettled by the thought of providing care and ruling out solitary confinement for the 9/11 defendants, given the historic scale of the attacks.

“Of course it's not popular" among Americans, Bruck said Friday. “Enforcing human rights, the most fundamental human rights, is often not popular. But we should do it.”

Is their extreme punishment already sufficient?

[O Really]

Well I don't assume them to be guilty just because Bush/Cheney say so, but I don't assume them innocent, either. That "innocent until proven guilty" applies in court in that it is the government's job to prove guilt, rather than the defendant's job to prove innocence. Unless I want to believe that the torturing CIA just rounded up random Muslim-looking guys, then I'd have to believe that there's some basis or probable cause for believing these guys are guilty. So for non-US citizens who were probably involved in 9/11 or some other terrorism, a bit of abuse doesn't keep me awake at night.

I don't know if their extreme punishment is already sufficient. That event changed America permanently and not in a good way. It led to ill-fated and ill-advised wars, thousands of lives lost and even more messed up, billions of dollars spent and people thinking that for some reason walking around half undressed at airport check would make us safer. I'm not sure there is a "sufficient."