Two of the Chinese Uighur Muslim detainees at Guantanamo, ordered freed three years ago by a federal judge in Washington, were finally able to leave Gtimo yesterday. They went to El Salvador. They have spent ten years at Gitmoo.

AThe freed men are Hamat Memet, who turns 34 next month, and Abdul Razzak, whose age is not known.

Two down, 169 to go, not counting the 5 9/11 detainees who will be tried in a military commission proceeding.

Thank you, El Salvador.

Afghanistan sent a delegation to Guantanamo to convince 5 detainees to transfer to Qatar. They agreed.

The five, allegedly Taliban leaders, won't be freed but transferred to less restrictive custody and their families will move there to be with them.

One may be Mullah Norullah Noori. Here's his detainee assessment file. Others who may be among the five: Mullah Khair Khowa (reportedly a former interior minister) and Mullah Fazl Akhund (reportedly a former army commander.)

Carole Rosenberg at the Miami Herald writes about Republican outrage over a $750,000 soccer field just completed at Guantanamo for the detainees. It opens in April. It cost $750,000.

One Republican, Rep. Dennis Ross (Lakeland, Fla.) has even introduced a bill called the “NO FIELD Act” which stands for " None of Our Funds for the Interest, Exercise, or Leisure of Detainees Act." It would reduce the Defense budget for 2013 by

The first-term Ross shows his lack of knowledge about who is being held at Gitmo with this comment: [More...]

Bump and Update: Majid Kahn pleaded guilty today at Guantanamo. The ACLU says his plea deal must be viewed through the lens of torture. Carole Rosenberg at the Miami Herald, who was at the hearing, reports that under the plea deal, he could be freed in four years when he's sentenced:

Under the plea deal, a military jury will hear the case and sentence Khan in 2016. The jury can order him to serve up to 40 years, after which a military judge would reduce it to at-most 25 years. A senior Pentagon official would then have the authority to suspend any or all of it. Once the sentence is over, it would be up to the Executive Branch to decide whether to keep him as a post 9/11 war-on-terror prisoner like the vast majority of the 171 captives here.

Here are the plea agreement and the Appendix, and the Statement of Facts. [More...]

President Obama today issued a Presidential Policy Directive setting out the procedures for determining whether terror detainees will face military or FBI custody. The rules implement Section 1022 of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.)

The FactSheet is here. The full directive is here.

Obama says Section 1022 does not apply to U.S. citizens, and the he has decided to waive its application to lawful permanent residents arrested in the United States: [More...]

The DC Appeals Court today upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by surviving relatives of detainees who committed suicide at Guantanamo. While the district court cited failure to state a claim as a basis for the dismissal, the Appeals Court cites the Military Commissions Act(Section 7(a) and 28 USC 2241 (e)) as depriving federal courts of jurisdiction to hear claims regarding conditions of confinement (as opposed to habeas claims regarding lawfulness of detention.)

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 results in no remedy being available. The Court (opinion here) says tough luck.

“Not every violation of a right yields a remedy, even when the right is constitutional.”

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Mohammed al Qahtani, from Saudi Arabia, has been detained at Guantanamo for 10 years. This week the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit on his behalf seeking public release of his videotaped abusive interrogations.

Mr. al Qahtani’s treatment – which included a litany of abusive techniques ranging from severe sleep deprivation, 20-hour interrogations, isolation, threats by military dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures and religious and sexual humiliation - was partially detailed in a military interrogation log leaked to Time Magazine on March 2, 2006. As a result of this treatment, the senior U.S. official in charge of military commissions determined that U.S. personnel tortured Mr. al Qahtani. Mr. al Qahtani’s attorneys have viewed some of the tapes but are not allowed to discuss the contents. The lawsuit argues it is crucial for the public interest that the tapes be publicly released.

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The ACLU today published this handy graphic after crunching the numbers on Guatanamo detainees.

Among the stats:

• 92% of the detainees were never al-Qaeda fighters. 86% were turned over to coalition forces for a bounty. Only 5% were captured by U.S. soldiers.
• Number of children detained at Gitmo: 21 (the youngest was 13.)
• The oldest detainee was 98.
• More than 200 FBI agents reported abusive treatment of detainees
• At least 16 were tortured in overseas secret prisons before getting to Gitmo
• 8 detainees have died. 6 were suicides, including a detainee who arrived at Gitmo at age 16 and killed himself at age 21.

There are 171 detainees still at Guantanamo. 89 have been cleared for release. The amount it costs per year to keep the 89 detained at Gitmo: $70 million.

Guantanamo will turn 10 years old Wednesday -- it was January 11, 2002 that the first 20 detainees arrived. In the New York Times, Akhdar Boumediene, imprisoned there for 7 years, now living in Provence, France with his wife and children, tells his story.

Boumediene has left his mark on Supreme Court jurisprudence. In his case (opinion here), the Supreme Court ruled that those imprisoned at Gitmo are entitled to their day in court.

Petitioners have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus. They are not barred from seeking the writ or invoking the Suspension Clause’s protections because they have been designated as enemy combatants or because of their presence at Guantanamo.

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President Obama today signed into the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains the controversial and objectionable provisions on indefinite detention and restrictions on transfers of detainees from Guantanamo. He issued a signing statement with it that doesn't ameliorate the damage.

The ACLU says:

While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations.

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Here is the final conference report of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012, with slight changes to the detainee provisions, which were made in response to objections by the Obama Administration. A version with just Subtitle D, entitled “Counterterrorism,” is here. The section continues to page 685. The explanation for the changes is here.

Shorter version: Indefinite detention is here to stay and Guantanamo is not closing anytime soon.

The press release from the Armed Services Committee is here. Here is the old version if you want to track the latest changes. The Detainee provisions begin on page 364.

Sen. Carl Levin puts his spin on the changes here.

Check out the Lawfare Blog for technical analysis and Human Rights Watch's statement saying the bill is fundamentally flawed and Obama should veto the newest version. (Don't count on it.) [More...]

The Associated Press and German ARD TV have located the CIA's secret prison in Romania where terror detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Abd al-Nashiri and Abu Faraj al-Libi were held and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques. You can view the building here.

Air transportation was provided by CIA contractor Richmor Aviation Inc., which also operated flights to Guantanamo and Morocco. The prison was closed in 2006. Porter Goss was the CIA Chief during the time it was used to hold the detainees.

A few months ago Reprieve published some of Richmor's billing records for its flights, which had been revealed in a civil lawsuit.

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