Military ‘terror’ trials condemned as unfair

Compiled by Eamon Martin

Aug. 25 (AGR) — For the first time since World War II, the United States began a series of military tribunals this week to prosecute four of the 600 prisoners it is holding in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The trials are being conducted under a barrage of doubts about their fairness, voiced by human rights groups, foreign governments and, most strikingly, US military defense lawyers who are making scathing speeches asserting that the trials are stacked in favor of the prosecution.

On Aug. 24 Salim Admed Hamdan, a 34-year-old former driver and alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden made legal history as the first defendant to stand before US President George W. Bush’s military commission to try suspected terrorists. Hamdan heard the military prosecutors read the charges against him, accusing him of attacking civilians, murder, terrorism and destroying property as an “unprivileged belligerent.” However, Hamdan is not accused of participating in any specific acts of violence or operational planning of attacks.

Hamdan’s military-appointed lawyer, Navy Lt. Comdr. Charlie Swift, has been one of the leading critics of the commission process. Swift and other defense attorneys have complained that they have been given severely limited access to their clients, with some having only been given interpreters in the past few days. “We just have not been given enough information and access to proceed with hearings as important as these,” Swift said. “I’ve never gone into a hearing with so little information.”

Swift said his client was a low-level driver who cooperated fully with interrogators and had nothing to do with the planning or execution of any terrorist acts.

Nearly all of the Guantanamo detainees have been kept for more than two and a half years without access to a lawyer or being informed of charges against them. Defendants and their lawyers have no right to see evidence used by prosecutors, conversations between defendants and their lawyers will be monitored, there will be no jury, just a panel of military judges, and the legal standard required for a conviction is lower than in normal civilian courts. Information obtained through torture or coercive interrogations will be permitted. Hearsay evidence will be allowed. And appeals will go to a panel selected by the same government official who helped establish the commissions: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

On the first day of hearings, Swift challenged the military court, arguing it is unconstitutional and violates the Geneva Conventions. Before entering the hearings, Commander Swift gave a statement to reporters saying: “Never in American history has a President or a Defense Department asserted this raw power and certainly not after the revolution in International Law heralded by the 1949 Geneva Conventions which the United States signed and ratified in 1955. The Current Military Commission flatly violates not only the United States Constitution, but the very Laws of War the administration claims to be upholding.”

The judicial panel includes a presiding officer who is a lawyer, Army Colonel Pete Brownback, and four military officers who have no legal training. Human rights groups have opposed the tribunals in part because the trials and the appellate reviews will all be conducted within the military, subject to the same chain of command that captured and charged the defendants.

Swift questioned the tribunal’s impartiality, demanding that the presiding judge and nearly all of the officers judging the case be replaced.

A Marine lieutenant colonel on the judicial panel had been involved in the transportation of prisoners from Afghanistan to Guantanamo. Another, an Air Force colonel, was a senior intelligence officer who operated in Afghanistan from November 2001 to February 2002.

Swift said the United States “appears to be meting out victor’s justice” by letting the officers stay on the panel.

The defense has also filed motions saying the tribunals should wait until US civilian courts have had a chance to rule on the legality of the commissions.

Asked whether he thought the proceedings were lawful, Brownback chose not to answer.

Swift said it was wrong for the commission to go ahead when no review had been held to decide whether Hamdan had been properly classified as an “enemy combatant.” He also pointed out that the Supreme Court had ruled this summer that the prisoners had a right to challenge their detention in US civilian courts.

The rulings amounted to an almost total rebuff of the Bush administration’s assertions that the president, as commander-in-chief, had the right to indefinitely detain individuals whom it designated “enemy combatants” without charges and without access to counsel or the right to review their status before an independent court.

In June, the military lawyers also complained to two US Senate committees about possible coercion. “It is likely that evidence obtained from prisoners abused while in US custody will be introduced as evidence in these military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, and that neither defense counsel nor the members of the commissions would ever be told about the circumstances under which such evidence was obtained,” the lawyers wrote the Senate Armed Services and Judiciary committees.

In an affidavit filed earlier this year, Hamdan said his incarceration in solitary confinement was affecting him psychologically. “I have not been permitted to see the sun or hear other people outside...or talk with other people. I am alone except for a guard,” he said. “One month is like a year here, and I have considered pleading guilty in order to get out of here.”

Several detainees who were recently released from Guantanamo have reported making false confessions during marathon interrogation sessions, some of which were reported to run as long as 15 hours.

Strict reporting rules have also been imposed on journalists covering the hearings. Only eight will be allowed inside the tribunal room at one time while others will watch from a monitoring room where events will be shown with a five minute delay. Photographs and videos of the participants are banned. Military authorities on Monday said they would take pages from reporters’ notebooks if classified information was mentioned in an open session of the hearings.

“The tone for this week was set at our very first security briefing” when a navy official, “laying down the rules, snapped ‘Gitmo’ means ‘git, no,’” remarked Australian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Leigh Sales. “Some of the regulations are bizarre and have no parallel. If you get up to go to the toilet, you are then barred from the courtroom for the rest of the day.”

“Most people are extremely hostile toward terrorists and I understand that, but people should worry about this,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel, another attorney for the defense. “These commissions are a lie behind the claim that all men are created equal, that we are innocent until proven guilty, that we as a society believe in the rule of law above all else.”

“It’s brand new, it’s broken and it’s flawed,” said Neal Sonnett, an observer for the American Bar Association.

Sources: Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Australian Broadcasting Corp., Boston Globe, Guardian (UK), Independent (UK), Inter Press Service, New York Times, Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald, Washington Post

Najaf, Fallujah attacks could lead to ‘volcano of anger’

Compiled by Shane Perlowin

Aug. 25 (AGR) — On Aug. 19, a mortar shell hit the roof of the US embassy in Baghdad, lightly injuring two employees, an embassy spokesman has said. The roof was slightly damaged.

On Aug. 20, in a 24-hour period, 77 people were killed and another 70 wounded in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf, where US forces pounded Shiite Muslim militia bastions overnight, the health ministry said.

The department draws up tolls for 24-hour periods, but the official confirmed that most of the casualties were brought in overnight, when heavy shelling pounded militia positions around the Old City.

Police said eight people were killed and 30 wounded when mortar bombs smashed into the Najaf provincial police headquarters.

At least 3,800 US and Iraqi government troops have been deployed in Najaf against an estimated 1,000-strong militia.

Also, in the southern town of Nasiriya, a blast ripped through a police station, killing three police and wounding others, police said. It was not clear what caused the blast, but a policeman on the scene said it appeared that a rocket hit the building.

Italian troops, who control the Shi’ite city, helped police in cordoning off the station as ambulances ferried casualties to hospitals.

Insurgents have attacked many police stations across Iraq, sometimes using suicide car bombs, killing hundreds.

On Aug. 21, insurgents bombed an oil pipeline in southern Iraq that had not been in use for several days, setting it ablaze, security forces in the area said. The pipeline, which connects the Rumeila oilfields with export storage tanks in the Faw peninsula, had been shut down for a week due to threats from insurgents.

Also, a pipeline linking the main northern oilfields of Kirkuk to the Baiji refinery was damaged when a makeshift bomb exploded early in the day on Aug. 21, hampering oil distribution.

And, the headquarters of the Southern Oil Company in the port city of Basra was torched.

All this fighting has disrupted Iraq’s oil exports and unnerved world oil markets.

A US bombing raid on the Iraqi town of Falluja has left five people dead and six wounded. Four Iraqi women were among the wounded when US warplanes bombed a milk factory in the town west of Baghdad in an overnight raid.

Thirteen Iraqis were killed and 107 others wounded after US forces stormed the mainly Shia suburb of Sadr City in Baghdad, calling on al-Mahdi Army fighters to surrender.

Two US soldiers were killed and another three wounded when their patrol was attacked near the restive Sunni Muslim bastion of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Two US marines were also killed in Iraq’s Anbar province.

According to the latest figures, 966 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. About 37,000 Iraqis are reported to have been killed in the same period.

At least two Iraqi civilians were killed and five others wounded in a blast in Baquba. A roadside bomb detonated as a US convoy passed through the town northeast of Baghdad. An Iraqi street hawker and a child were reportedly among the dead and five rubbish collectors were wounded in the blast. There were no reported casualties among the US troops.

“The peddler was selling gas cylinders and the others were dustmen. As far as we know, a US convoy was the target but the bomb exploded before it arrived,” said a police spokesman, first lieutenant Ali Husayn.

Meanwhile, two US soldiers were killed and three injured by a roadside bomb near the Iraqi city of Samarra.

By Sunday, Aug. 22, there was much confusion surrounding the situation at the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, where the Mahdi Army fighters of radical Shi’ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have holed up in defiance of the US-backed interim government.

Leading Shia cleric Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani’s aides at first confirmed then denied reports that the al-Mahdi Army relinquished control of the mosque to religious authorities.

Earlier, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said police had entered the revered site and taken about 400 al-Mahdi Army militiamen into custody after al-Sadr’s aides symbolically handed control of the site to Iraq’s senior Shia religious authorities.

“The Iraqi police are now in control of the shrine, along with the religious authorities,” senior Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim had said. But in an interview with Aljazeera, al-Sadr aide Ahmad al-Shaibani denied police had entered the site and said Kadhim’s statement was “laughable.”

“There were no al-Mahdi Army men in the holy shrine as of this morning — they are all in the old sector of the city and there is intense fighting with US troops there,” he said.

A US defense official also denied Iraqi government claims that Iraqi police had entered the shrine. “Not a lick of truth to it,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We are still outside of the shrine, and so are the Iraqi police.”

A leading Egyptian Islamic leader has warned that a “volcano of anger” could explode in response to US-led military action in Najaf and Falluja. In a statement, Ali Gumaa, Egypt’s thighest authority on Islamic law, condemned the “continuing aggression by US-led forces on the Imam Ali shrine and Islamic holy places” in Iraq.

“After the attack on the shrines of the Prophet’s noble companions, after the humiliations and the terrorizing and killing of civilians, the world cannot expect… that a volcano of anger and indignation will not explode,” Gumaa said. He asserted that since occupation forces claimed to have saved Iraq from dictatorship, “the Dar al-Ifta cannot accept any justification… that enables them to play this ugly role, rejected by the world’s reasonable people and lovers of peace.”

On Aug. 23, at least 15 explosions, many sounding like artillery shells, rocked the area near the mosque. Gunfire echoed through the alleyways near the shrine while US tanks kept up their encirclement around the city’s heart. Shrapnel landed in the courtyard of the gold-domed mosque, whose outer walls have already been slightly damaged in the fighting that has killed hundreds.

Overnight, a US AC-130 gunship blasted rebel positions after a weekend of fruitless talks between Sadr’s aides and religious authorities to end the siege.

There appeared to be fewer militia along the alleys leading to the shrine on Aug. 23 than on previous days. But Sheibani, a Sadr aide, said fighters were being rotated. Militants said they had enough food, water and ammunition to last for weeks, maybe months.

“We are here to kill and we have enough stamina,” said Hamed Khudayir, 54, referring to himself and his 10-year-old son Ali.

In fresh attempts to force foreign firms to leave Iraq, a Turkish contractor and two Iraqis who worked for a construction company were killed when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in the northern city of Tikrit, the US military said.

Also, an Indonesian worker was killed and a Filipino wounded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most powerful Shiite Muslim cleric, called on Iraqis to march to Najaf on Aug. 26 to help rescue the holy city with him. In response, al-Sadr ordered the al-Mahdi army to suspend fighting in every region al-Sistani would pass through on his way. It was not clear whether this applied to Najaf itself.

A new round of explosions hit the area around the Imam Ali Mosque early in the day for the fifth consecutive night of airstrikes on central Najaf by US forces. A large column of smoke could be seen rising from one of the buildings struck. The airstrikes came on what several Mehdi Army members called the “worst day” of violence since the conflict reignited around the mosque.

Sources: Agence France Presse, Aljazeera, AP, BBC, CNN, Financial Times, Guardian (UK), Knight Ridder, Reuters

Republican National Convention: surveillance and resistance escalates

By Liz Allen

New York, New York, Aug. 24 (AGR) — Barricades are going up around Penn Station and lining the streets in Madison Square Garden, where the Republican National Convention (RNC) is to be held beginning on Aug. 30 and lasting until Sept. 2.

Over 36,000 law enforcement officers working in 12 hour shifts will guard the convention but on the streets one does not have to look hard for anti-GOP graffiti, stickers or posters.

Up to one million people are expected to demonstrate against the RNC to show their disapproval of the war in Iraq, protest Bush’s assault on civil liberties at home, and remind the world that they still remember how Bush stole the last presidential election through a judicial coup. Organizers against the convention are encountering many government initiated obstacles in planning and holding events to counter the RNC. Meanwhile, law enforcement has been expanding it’s reach to track and discourage activists.

In an apparent follow up to the FBI questioning of protest organizers across the country prior to the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the New York Police Department (NYPD) has targeted 56 “primary anarchists” around the country they are putting under 24 hour surveillance and tracking closely until they reach New York.

Each activist is assigned one supervisor and six police officers who have been sent to Boston, Washington DC, North Carolina and California. According to ABC news, sources say that around 20 NYPD officers have been infiltrating activist groups for the last two years.

The FBI questioned political activists in Denver, Kansas and other states in June, prior to the DNC. Three Democratic Congressional representatives have written a letter asking the Justice Department to investigate the effects the interviews have had on the free speech and assembly rights of the protesters.

The American Civil Liberties Union has denounced the actions. Anthony D. Romero, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) executive director, said: “The FBI’s intimidation and interrogation of peaceful protesters brings back the eerie echoes of the days of J. Edgar Hoover. Resources and funds established to fight terrorism should not be misused to target innocent Americans who have done nothing more than engage in lawful protest and dissent.”

Police have been preparing for protesters in other ways as well. They have purchased two $35,000 Long Range Acoustic Devices, which are to be mounted to Humvees and are capable

of blasting orders at an ear-shattering 150 decibels, for 300 yards or more. It will be the first time that the device has been used by non-military personnel.

Police have also been training to detect and disarm bombs and plan to use mobile barrier units around the convention center area. According to IPS, “surges” are being practiced by the NYPD in which groups of up to 80 police cars charge down a road in rows and stop suddenly, swinging into curbs.

Those arrested for demonstrating may have their previously dismissed charges concerning acts of civil disobedience opened by prosecutors, since a rare decision was made by the State Supreme Court in April. Prosecutors are expecting up to 1,000 arrests a day.

In the mainstream media New Yorkers have been encouraged to stay inside and away from what the NYPD predicts to be “violent protests, bent on destruction.”

Counter-RNC events are taking place throughout the city leading up to the convention.

On Aug. 14 a benefit for NYC Indymedia, a film screening of The Miami Model — a documentary about the police repression at the FTAA talks that took place last November in Miami — was raided and shut down just before midnight by the NYPD, the Department of Buildings, and the Department of Health.

According to Indymedia, the event — held at Volume, a renovated warehouse — was shut down because of lack of an emergency lighting system, and a stage mounted on cinder blocks. Additionally a summons was given for not posting a sign warning pregnant women not to consume alcohol.

“They came in the middle of the party with flashlights and started pointing at holes in the ceiling and a ramp they said shouldn’t be there,” Democracy Now! producer and NYC IMC member Ana Nogueira told Indymedia. “They could have come and inspected this at any time of day. They could have checked it months ago.”

New York City officials maintain the actions were not politically motivated.

The first arrests made in connection to RNC protests took place on Aug. 17 when four CODEPINK: Women for Peace group members were arrested in the Sheraton New York Towers Hotel for unfurling a 40 foot pink banner that read, “You Say Welcome, We Say Where — 8/29 Central Park?”

The activists were responding to a press conference held by Mayor Michael Bloomberg who has refused to give protesters a permit to use Central Park. At the press conference Bloomberg announced a discount program at some New York businesses for those who register as “peaceful protesters,” and agree to display a blue button on their person identifying them as such.

“By presenting a pink slip to Mayor Bloomberg, CODEPINK wanted to draw attention to the discrepancy between the Mayor’s words in front of TV cameras and his actions behind closed doors,” Jodie Evans, one of the organization’s founders explained. “Requests for permits to rally peacefully in the park have been categorically denied. We do not need discounts at Applebee’s; we need an administration that sets a course for peace and respects our rights to speak.”

So far, what is anticipated as the largest march, entitled “The world says no to the Bush agenda,” will take place on Aug. 29 and has no end destination.

United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), a coalition of grassroots groups, have been denied a permit to have the march end in Central Park with a rally. UFPJ did accept a fenced in location on West Side Highway, which is close to Madison Square Garden, but when member groups began to voice that they felt demonstrators were only being penned in, and when officials did not cooperate in organizing how to provide water and restroom facilities, the permit was abandoned by the group.

The group has continued to push to be located in Central Park. UFPJ brought a lawsuit to the NY State Supreme Court, which they lost. The judge for the case said the group had waited too long to take the issue to court.

Organizers say Central Park is the only location that can safely contain the numbers that are expected to turn out for the march. The reason the New York City’s Republican Mayor gave for a permit for the march not being granted is that he was concerned about what would happen to the grass in the park if a large rally was held there.

Even the normally conservative tabloid newspaper The New York Post has run three editorials in favor of the rally being held in Central Park.

Other groups have run into difficulties locating a place for their organizations during the RNC. It was early August before the NYC Grassroots Media Coalition, was able to secure a space for the Independent Media Center, where grassroots journalists doing audio, video and print will be able to work.

Other groups remain without any operating space.