November 27, 2012
Brian Romanoff Nov 27, 2012 Nor Cal Truth
A spokesman for Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has declined the request of multiple defense attorneys to “broadcast all open proceedings” of the upcoming trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and four other men at Guantanamo.
The Defense lawyers reminded Panetta that the reputation of the US has been suffering substantially due to the worldwide perception that US officials are simply trying “to cover-up torture at Guantanamo and CIA black sites.”
The current approach to the trials are called “bare-minimum” by the defense counsel and if they are continued without any changes, including broadcasting the proceedings on air for the world to see, than, “it will loudly confirm the widely held perception that the United States is indeed trying to cover up their own wrongdoing.”
Currently, the open proceedings of the trial will be broadcast on CCTV to the public at one very little place of our very large country; Fort Meade, Maryland. Seven other locations have been selected for CCTV viewing of the trial, however these seven other sites will only be open to victim family members, survivors, first responders, their families and media.
Please read the letter below to be reminded that there are people in positions of power who care about the honesty and integrity of our collective future.
Unfortunately there are other people in higher positions that don’t.
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
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Posted by Brian
May 5, 2012
source: Jon Gold May 4, 2012
It would seem that the U.S. Government found itself in a conundrum when they allowed prisoners, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), to be tortured in secret prisons around the world. Once tortured, any confession or testimony from KSM, or others, could not be deemed reliable. Furthermore, the focus of the eventual proceedings would become a trial about the practice of torture, instead of being a trial about alleged terrorist crimes. That would have been untenable for the U.S. Government, which wants to avoid any and all accountability for their own crimes of torture.
In order to bypass potential discussion of torture, the latest Chief Prosecutor for the Military Commissions, Brig. General Mark Martins, found a willing witness in Majid Khan, a fellow GITMO inmate to KSM. Khan himself was not involved in the 9/11 plot. He supposedly got his information from time spent behind bars at GITMO with KSM. Kahn will be allowed to give this hearsay evidence against KSM in return for a reduced sentence. However, Khan’s sentencing won’t take place for four years. It seems the Prosecution is pinning their hopes and dreams on Khan’s upcoming performance. None of this lends credibility to an already suspect system.
Additionally, with campaigning for the upcoming Presidential elections heating up, the timing of this latest attempt at justice for 9/11 is exploitive at best.
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Patty Casazza
Monica Gabrielle
Mindy Kleinberg
Lorie Van Auken
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Posted by Brian
October 4, 2011
source: Miami Herald Oct 4, 2011
The trial of five Guantánamo captives accused of the Sept. 11 mass murder won’t begin until next year at the earliest under a timetable set out Monday by the legal authority in charge of the war court.
Retired Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald notified lawyers on both sides of the case that he will accept recommendations on whether the case should go forward as a death penalty prosecution until Jan 15, 2012. Moreover, he also set the same deadline for Pentagon-appointed lawyers to offer their opinions on whether all five men should be tried simultaneously.
Prosecutors swore out a capital case against confessed 9/11 plot mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators in May after Attorney General Eric Holder abandoned a plan to have a civilian judge and jury hear the case in a Manhattan federal court.
Since then, the case has been mired in delay while some members of the Pentagon-paid defense teams try to obtain security clearances to meet the accused at Guantánamo and start work on their cases.
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Posted by Brian
September 16, 2011
But there is plenty of paranoia! – Brian @ NCT
by Robert Taylor source: SF Examiner Sep 16, 2011
As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, many Americans have unfortunately had a casual disregard for infringements on our civil liberties that have occured since that fateful day.
The most glaring examples of government abuses include the TSA, warrantless wiretaps and searches, and the violations of financial and personal privacy by the PATRIOT Act.
But there are also smaller and creeping threats to civil liberties that have not surfaced, but threaten to radically change basic constitutional protections in America. The Department of Justice recently arrested and indicted Jubair Ahmad, a 24-year-old Pakistani legal resident living in Virginia, for the dangerously vague crime of “providing material support” to a designated terrorist organization. Ahmad uploaded a YouTube video showing Abu Ghraib photos, U.S. Iraqi war footage, and Islamic prayers. For this, he faces more than twenty years in prison.
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Posted by Brian
April 13, 2011
May I just preface this by reminding the readers that torture was used endlessly to obtain confessions by the alleged 9/11 suspects held at Guantanamo. – brian @NorCal
related: 9/11 Family Member on Obama and 9/11 Military Tribunals: The Sad Defeat of Our Constitution
by David Shipler source: Bellingham Herald April 13, 2011
The system of military commissions that will try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other alleged 9/11 plotters contains a dirty little secret. Hardly anybody talks about it, but it’s a key reason for concern as the apparatus becomes established.
It is this: The commissions can operate inside the United States, and they have jurisdiction over a broad range of crimes. Nothing in the Military Commissions Act limits the military trials to Guantanamo detainees, or to people captured and held abroad, or even to terrorism suspects. Nothing prevents the commissions from trying noncitizens, arrested inside the country, whom the president unilaterally designates as “unprivileged enemy belligerents.” In other words, the law permits military officers to try non-Americans from Alabama and Arkansas as well as Afghanistan.
The Obama administration’s decision last week to shift the high-profile 9/11 case from federal court is bound to move the military system toward legitimacy. The commissions lack the seasoned body of precedent that guides civilian courts, so their procedures will have to survive litigation by defense lawyers. But once the commissions gain stature and become the “new normal,” every future administration will have a ready instrument to arrest, judge and sentence wholly within the executive branch, evading the separation of powers carefully calibrated in the Constitution. The judicial branch has no role except on appeal, where only the federal court for the D.C. circuit may review a verdict and sentence after the trial.
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Posted by Brian
April 7, 2011
Kristen Breitweiser is one of the 4 “Jersey Girls” whose husband was murdered on 9/11. The Jersey Girls were the main reason why the U.S. Government was pressured into forming a 9/11 Commission, which became the mechanism for a U.S. Government cover-up about 9/11..
source: Common Dreams April 7, 2011
Today I was given two hours of “advance notice” regarding DOJ’s decision to not prosecute the remaining alleged 9/11 conspirators in an open court of law. According to DOJ’s statement, the remaining individuals will be sent to military tribunals.
I recognize that there are many, many other things for Americans to be upset with today, but I hope everyone can take a second to contemplate this decision and recognize what it says about President Obama, the Department of Justice, and the United States.
As for the Department of Justice, it shows their inability to prosecute individuals who are responsible for the death of 3,000 people on the morning of 9/11. Apparently our Constitution and judicial system — two of the very cornerstones that make America so great and used to set such a shining example to the rest of the world — are not adequately set up to respond to or deal with the aftermath of terrorism. To me, this is a startling and dismal acknowledgment that perhaps Osama Bin Laden did, in fact, win on the morning of 9/11. And chillingly, I wonder whether it wasn’t just the steel towers that were brought down and incinerated on 9/11, but the yellowed pages of our U.S. Constitution, as well.
And what does it say about the solemn capabilities of our Department of Justice if it is left to “subcontract out” its duties and responsibilities to the Department of Defense? We should all think about that scary notion for a bit. But, perhaps more disturbingly recognize that it is not occurring under the tutelage of Bush and Cheney, rather it is coming at the hands of Obama.
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Posted by Brian
April 4, 2011
source: Raw Story April 4, 2011
The Obama administration has decided against civilian trials for five men linked to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Attorney General Eric Holder will announce Monday that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators will be tried in military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, according to NBC News.
Holder’s press conference is expected at 2 p.m. ET.
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Posted by Brian
July 19, 2010
Why the Huffington Post will report the story below and not this story here, is no mystery. The left gate-keeping media don’t want you to know that there is good reason to question the official 9/11 story….with science, observation, and experiment.
And to all the Obama supporters- Guantanamo was supposed to be closed a half year ago. (Let alone, it should never have been built, used, or funded.)
source: Huffington Post July 19, 2010
Omar Khadr appeared before Military Judge Patrick Parrish in Guantanamo Bay this week to confirm his decision to fire his American legal team. He then stated that he plans to boycott the military commissions because he considers them “unfair” and “unjust.”
In explaining his decision, Khadr read from his own handwritten prepared statement that cited his objections to a proposed plea deal that would have had him admit guilt, saying that such a move would allow the U.S. government to use him to fulfill its goals and would provide the government with an excuse for torturing and abusing him as a child. Khadr asked how he could get justice from a process like the one found in the military commissions.
That’s a good question.
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Posted by Brian
July 4, 2010
source: Pittsburgh Live July 4, 2010
In February, as the Justice Department’s plan for civilian terrorism trials in Manhattan was collapsing, Obama administration officials said they soon would choose an alternative venue for the case that promised to secure justice for the Sept. 11 attacks.
In March, officials said that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, probably would be tried before a military tribunal and that a decision appeared to be imminent.
In April, Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress that the White House-led review of the case would be completed in “a number of weeks.”
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Posted by Brian
June 9, 2010
by Nor Cal Truth June 9, 2010
A group is calling for signers to its petition that would have the 9/11 Conspirators trial held in New York. This is from their website:
More than 2,600 people were murdered in New York City on 9/11. The five men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks have been in US custody for several years but have still not been brought to justice. Why? Because the Bush administration held the men for years in secret prisons, and then insisted on trying the men in an untested military commission.
Now the Obama administration is considering holding the trial in a commission, too . These military commissions are not only lacking in fundamental due process guarantees, they are extremely inefficient. Since 9/11, military commissions have tried only three terrorism suspects. US federal courts, by contrast, have successfully completed more than 400 terrorism cases in that time.
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Posted by Brian
May 18, 2010
Obama said everything he needed to say to have millions of people vote for his Presidency, none of it, absolutely none of it ever meant anything. I hope those who voted for him start taking their bumber stickers off soon, it makes me sick to see all of this false hope; it is as bad as seeing John McCain stickers or the occasional W’ 04 stickers.
source: Washinton Times May 18, 2010
The appointment of a well-respected ex-Navy lawyer to oversee war-crime trials is being seen in military legal circles as a sign the Obama administration might reverse its decision to bring Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to New York for a civilian trial.
At the same time, a pending speedy-trial ruling in a second terror case in New York could give Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. an escape route through which he could switch the trial of Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) from federal court back to a military system set up by former President George W. Bush and Congress.
In February, the White House and Mr. Holder left open the possibility of a war-crimes trial for Shaikh Mohammed, the admitted 9/11 attack mastermind. This would reverse Mr. Holder’s much-criticized decision in November to bring the al Qaeda heavyweight to the federal court system, where he would enjoy more rights and perhaps a media forum for anti-American propaganda.
A month after the administration signaled a reversal, the Pentagon, with significant White House input, named retired Navy Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald as the war-crimes convening authority. In that post, the Navy’s former top lawyer is the official who brings criminal charges, selects jury pools, approves defense- lawyer expenses and makes other rulings.
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Posted by Brian
May 13, 2010
Please see: Censorship: Journalists Banned from Guantanamo Hearings by Obama Dept. of Defense - which I posted last week , for more backround on this story.
source: McClatchy DC May 13, 2010
Arguing that a Pentagon order banning four journalists from covering military commissions at Guantanamo Bay was illegal and unconstitutional, The Miami Herald and two Canadian news outlets appealed on Wednesday.
While covering a hearing last week to determine the admissibility of confessions made by Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, four journalists from The Herald, which is owned by McClatchy, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and Can-West Newspapers of Canada printed the name of a witness who had been identified at the hearing as “Interrogator No. 1.” The witness, Joshua Claus, had been convicted by a U.S. military jury of detainee abuse in 2005 and sentenced to five months in prison. His role as Khadr’s interrogator had been known since 2008, when it was first revealed by a judge at Guantanamo. He later gave an on-the-record interview to the Toronto Star.
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Posted by Brian
May 9, 2010
“The public is deprived of the very skilled reporting of journalists who have been covering this story for a long time,” she said.
A story from McClatchy Newspapers, which owns the Miami Herald, said Rosenberg has covered every military commission hearing at Guantanamo Bay, with the exception of one week, since the proceedings began in 2004.
source: CNN May 9, 2010
The Pentagon has banned four reporters from covering court proceedings on the U.S. naval station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because they published the name of a former U.S. Army interrogator.
The journalists violated ground rules by reporting the name of a protected witness, Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said.
Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg, Globe and Mail reporter Paul Koring, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard and Canwest News Service reporter Steven Edwards were notified by Defense Department officials Thursday.
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Posted by Brian
April 9, 2010
This story belongs in the same folder as the following announcements made in the last 2 weeks:
- The documents obtained by the ACLU (page 26), which have the signature’s of Rumsfeld, Tenet, and Ashcroft telling the 9/11 Commission Chairs that they can’t interview the 9/11 detainees due to National Security.
- Last weeks report by Jason Leopold on another Gitmo detainee:
In a federal court filing, Justice backed away from the Bush administration’s statements that Zubaydah was the No. 2 or No. 3 official in al-Qaeda who had helped plan the 9/11 attacks, as well as even earlier claims from the Clinton administration that he was directly involved in planning the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa.
All of the above makes the below seem…..well, obvious.
By: Tim Reid Source: Times UK April 9, 2010
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.
The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.
Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.
General Powell, who left the Bush Administration in 2005, angry about the misinformation that he unwittingly (Nor Cal Edit) gave the world when he made the case for the invasion of Iraq at the UN, is understood to have backed Colonel Wilkerson’s declaration.
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Posted by Brian
