Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, presiding over the case of former Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, barred the testimony of Hussein Abebe, a key government witness, because he was identified as a result of statements Ghailani made during secret CIA interrogation using harsh interrogation techniques.

Today the Government announced it won't appeal the decision and will proceed to trial Tuesday without Abebe's testimony. Ghailani is charged with conspiracy in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa:

Hussein Abebe, would have testified that he sold TNT to Mr. Ghailani that was used in one attack, the bombing of the embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, prosecutors have said. Without Mr. Abebe’s testimony, prosecutors had told the judge, they had “no way of putting such evidence in front of the jury at all.”

In 2001, the Government tried and convicted four other men in the Embassy bombings. All got life and are serving their sentences at Supermax in Colorado. Ghailani was captured in 2004 in Pakistan and moved to Gitmo in 2006.

U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, presiding over the case of former Guantanamo detainee, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, ruled today that Hussein Abebe, a key government witness, may not take the stand because he was identified as a result of statements Ghailani made during secret CIA interrogation using harsh interrogation techniques, alleged to be torture. The Government, to avoid litigating the legality of the CIA's action, previously assured the judge information obtained during the interrogation would not be used at trial. Jury selection has been postoned until next week to give the Government time to regroup or appeal.

"The court has not reached this conclusion lightly," Kaplan wrote. "It is acutely aware of the perilous nature of the world in which we live. But the Constitution is the rock upon which our nation rests. We must follow it not when it is convenient, but when fear and danger beckon in a different direction."

Ghailani is charged in federal court with the 1998 Africa embassy bombings. He was captured in 2004, transferred to a CIA secret prison overseas, where he allegedly was tortured. He was then transferred to Guantanamo, where he stayed for almost three years. In 2009, he was charged in federal court in New York and transferred.

We Muslims don't abide by human-made laws, because they are always corrupt. And I had a firsthand experience when on the second day of my arrest I asked for the Miranda. And the FBI denied it to me for two weeks, effecting harm to my kids and family, and I was forced to sign those Mirandas.

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Faisal Shahzad, who unsuccessfully attempted to set off a bomb in Times Square, was sentenced to six life terms today in federal court.

A defiant Shahzad said "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is great" -- after the judge sentenced him to the mandatory life imprisonment.

[More......]

The Government is seeking a life sentence against failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.

“The premeditated attempt to kill and maim scores of unsuspecting innocent men, women and children with a homemade bomb can only be described as utterly reprehensible,” the prosecutors said.

The Government also says Shahzad was financed by the Pakistani Taliban and planned another bomb two weeks later.

So no credit for his waiving his Miranda rights and talking to the feds.

[T]he government also revealed that during Mr. Shahzad’s cooperation with Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and police detectives after his arrest, he “never expressed any remorse for his conduct.” They said he spoke with pride about what he and his co-conspirators had done, much as he did in court when he pleaded guilty.

Shahzad will be sentenced October 5.

Really bad move by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit underpants bomber. He fired his public defenders today and told the court he will represent himself. The Court will appoint stand-by counsel.

Is he taking a page from the Zacarias Moussaoui playbook? If so, he should know it didn't work out too well for Moussaoui, who is serving life in prison.

Abdulmutallab asked the judge if he could plead guilty to just some counts. The answer, of course, is "no" (absent government agreement.) And aside from the issue of guilt, there's the issue of sentencing. Federal sentencing requires professionals to navigate the guidelines and advocate for a below-guidelines or non-guideline sentence. No way will he be able to effectively do that himself. [More...]

Carol Rosenberg of McClatchy has the latest on the abrupt cessation of the military commission proceeding against child soldier Omar Khadr due to his lawyer's collapse in court yesterday.

Lt. Col. Jackson, who had gall bladder surgery six weeks ago, is suffering from complications from the surgery. He is being airlifted back to the U.S. The trial has been postponed at least 30 days.

Jackson, who has been on the case for about a year, became Khadr's lone lawyer within a week of his surgery after the Toronto-born teen fired volunteer civilian attorneys Barry Coburn and Kobie Flowers from Washington D.C.

[Judge]Parrish ordered the Army defender to stay on the case, but the Pentagon Defense Office provided him no additional assistance beyond two enlisted paralegals who had already been on the case.

Via Daphne Eviatar and Carol Rosenberg on Twitter: Lt. Col. Jon Jackson, the sole defense attorney for child soldier Omar Khadr collapsed in court at Guantanamo today while cross examining a witness. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and is expected to be okay. But the trial has been postponed, at least until tomorrow.

The witness, Retired US Army "Sgt Major D", was part of the assault team that captured Omar Khadr on July 27, 2002. He's a DOD consultant now.

"SgtMajor D" testified he shot Khadr in the back during the fight in which the grenade was thrown.

According to one of Khadr's civilian lawyers (who is not trying the case) Omar was very upset.

I'll update with more details when available.

As someone who has spoken out in favor of the stated goals of the Obama Administration in 2009 with regard to the handling of accused enemy combatants and indefinite detention, I am very dismayed by what we are discovering about the Obama Administration's handling of these matters. Glenn Greenwald writes:

Military commissions were one of those Bush/Cheney policies which provoked virtually universal outrage among progressives and Democrats back in the day when executive power abuses and rule of law transgressions were a concern. The Obama administration's claim that the commissions are now improved to the point that they provide a forum of real justice is being put to the test -- and blatantly failing [. . .] The commission has already ruled that confessions made by Khadr which were clearly obtained through coercion, abuse and torture will be admitted as evidence against him.

This is outrageous and, in my view, a violation of the Laws of War and the Geneva Conventions. When I have a bit more time, I will write on this point at length. For now, I just want to register my disgust about this.

Speaking for me only

Two military commission proceedings are underway at Guantanamo Bay. The first is of Ibrahim al Qosi, who entered a plea deal last month, the terms of which are sealed. He is being sentenced today. Human Rights First has background on his case here.

The Judge in the Quosi case has just announced that Quosi's sentence will remain sealed until he's freed.

The second is the trial of child soldier Omar Khadr (background here.) Pre-trial motions will be heard first, likely to take all day, and trial will commence when they are done, probably tomorrow.

Two courtrooms are being used. McClatchy reporter Carol Rosenberg is already tweeting: Reports are that Omar Khadr has been brought to court and there are some serious tech problems with the video feed into the room where the print reporters are. You can follow her on Twitter here. [More...]

Bumped from Saturday: There are a several excellent journalists and writers now on the ground at Guantanamo, ready to report on the military commissions trial of child soldier Omar Khadr, now 23, which is set to begin Tuesday (Hearings on motions will be held Monday. Here is the list of motions scheduled to be heard. Motions could go past Monday.)

Carol Rosenberg of McClatchy has a summary today, with an article titled "Khadr trial will be a window into America's war on terror." [More...]

A federal judge in New York today resentenced criminal defense attorney Lynne Stewart to ten years in prison.

The sentence was the latest grim chapter in a long odyssey for Ms. Stewart, who was convicted in 2005 of assisting terrorism by smuggling information from an imprisoned client to violent followers in Egypt.

Ms. Stewart, 70, who has breast cancer and was given time to seek treatment before her first sentencing in 2006, said Thursday that incarceration was wearing her down. “It’s a death sentence,” her husband, Ralph Poynter, said outside the courtroom.

The Government had requested 15 to 30 years. 400 people wrote letters on Lynne's behalf. [More...]

A federal judge in New York has denied former Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Ghailani's motion to dismiss and ruled the case can proceed to trial in federal criminal court. The opinion is here.

Ghailani is charged with complicity in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings. He was captured in 2004, transferred to a CIA secret prison overseas, where he allegedly was tortured. He was then transferred to Guantanamo, where he stayed for almost three years. In 2009, he was charged in federal court in New York and transferred. He argued that the five years he was held in custody violated his right to a speedy trial. [More...]