Former child soldier, Canadian Omar Khadr, told the judge at his Guantanamo military proceeding he wanted to fire his lawyers. His request was refused. Now, he will boycott the proceedings.

“The unfairness of the rules will make a person so depressed that he will admit to any allegations or take a plea offer that will satisfy the U.S. government.”

...I will not willingly let the U.S. government use me to fulfill its goal,” Mr. Khadr said. “I have been used too many times when I was a child, and that's why I'm here – taking blame for things I didn't have a choice in doing, but was forced to do by elders.”

He called the process a "sham" and denounced the plea bargain that had been offered to him. The deal was:[More...]

The Government of Nigeria this week filed this unusual pleading seeking to enter an appearance in the criminal case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , the alleged "underpants bomber" and asked that it be provided copies of all filings and allowed to be present at hearings and trial.

The pleading states the request is made to insure the integrity of Nigeria is preserved during the proceedings. And,

To ensure that the Defendant who is a citizen of Nigeria is accorded a fair trial, due process of law , effective assistance of counsel and that his trial is in accordance with acceptable international standards without compromising the official position of the government of Nigeria on the nature of crime committed by the defendant which is a total denunciation of the alleged acts committed by the Defendant.

The request was denied. The next status conference is September 13. No trial date has been set.

Sounds to me like this was a public relations move since they can get the non-sealed pleadings off of PACER and court hearings are open to the public. But I hope someone in the Netherlands or Aruba picks up on it and files a similar request for Joran in Peru.

Faisal Shahzad, the defendant in the failed Times Square car bomb plot, pleaded guilty to all charges today, apparently without a plea deal. A Government source says prosecutors will be requesting the maximum sentence, despite his two weeks of voluntarily answering questions.

A source familiar with the case told CNN that prosecutors will ask for the maximum sentence on the charges during sentencing, which is scheduled for October 5.

The source said there was no plea deal and no cooperation deal. That means that, despite the fact that Shahzad cooperated with prosecutors for two weeks after his arrest, they will not request any preferential treatment for him.

He faces a mandatory life sentence on one of the counts. [More...]

As we wrote last month, Ahmed Ghailani, who was moved from Guantanamo to New York to face trial on charges related to the 1988 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, has refused to attend court because he objects to the visual cavity searches of his rectum. The Court's May 4 ruling is here.

After hearing expert testimony on how the procedure causes Ghailani PTSD flashbacks and renders him unable to assist in his defense, in violation of the Sixth Amendment, the Judge has now issued another order denying relief to Ghailani (available here.) It describes the visual cavity search and the digital cavity search, probably with more detail than you care to know. [More...]

Shahzad Faisal, accused of planning to explode a car bomb in Times Square, has been indicted on terror charges. The Indictment is here.

The Indictment alleges Faisal conspired with a Pakistani Taliban group called Tehrik-e-Taliban. It says someone Faisal knew in Pakistan, who worked for that group, wired money that ended up with Faisal. (It's not clear whether the money was wired directly to Faisal or whether it was wired to a third person who then gave Faisal the cash.)

[The Indictment] said Shahzad received approximately $5,000 in cash in Massachusetts on Feb. 25 from a co-conspirator in Pakistan whom Shahzad understood worked for Tehrik-e-Taliban.

Approximately six weeks later, on April 10, 2010, Shahzad received an $7,000 more in cash in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., which also was sent at the co-conspirator's direction, the indictment said.

While the Indictment alleges a conspiracy, and says Faisal received terror training in various places, and he and "others known and unknown" intended to cause destruction here, I don't see any allegation that any another specific individual knew what he had planned or when. [More...]

Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, pleaded guilty in New York yesterday to charges arising from the hijacking of the U.S.S. Maersk Alabama in Apri l 2009.

As part of the agreement, prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of at least 27 years but no more than 33 years and 9 months. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 19.

What about his age? His lawyers expect he'll get a break from it at sentencing.

Although he agreed to be judged as an adult as part of the agreement, one of his court-appointed lawyers, Philip L. Weinstein, made clear in court on Tuesday that his age could be used as a mitigating factor at sentencing.

Muse's reward for pleading guilty was the Government's agreement to drop the most serious charge against him which would have brought a mandatory life sentence: “the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations,”

U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled yesterday that a defendant accused of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, alleged al Qaeda member Ahmed Ghailani, is not entitled to have his criminal case dismissed over allegations he was tortured during CIA questioning in a secret black hole prison. (He was later transferred to Guantanamo and ordered tried in federal court.)

Although details of his treatment while in C.I.A. custody are classified, he has said in court papers that he was subjected to cruel “enhanced interrogation techniques.” His lawyers say that his treatment was unquestionably “torture,” and argued that the techniques were so “shocking to our traditional sense of justice” that charges should be dismissed on grounds of “outrageous governmental conduct.” “Indeed, while it is rare to find a case that is ‘so outrageous’ to warrant the ultimate sanction of dismissal,” his lawyers wrote, “if this is not such a case, then what is?”

The Government has stated it won't use Ghailani's statements at trial so the Judge ruled they were irrelevant. [More...]

Four reporters, including Michelle Shepphard of the Toronto Star, who has done ground-breaking reporting on Omar Khadr, have been banned from attending the hearings underway in his case.

Their violation: Publishing the name of one of his interrogators. The interrogator's name has previously been published in news articles, and he gave on on-the-record interview to Michelle Shepphard in 2008. The ACLU responds:

“That reporters are being punished for disclosing information that has been publicly available for years is nothing short of absurd – any gag order that covers this kind of information is not just overbroad but nonsensical. Plainly, no legitimate government interest is served by suppressing information that is already well known.

We strongly urge the Defense Department to reconsider its rash, draconian and unconstitutional decision to bar these four reporters from future tribunals. If allowed to stand, this decision will discourage legitimate reporting and add yet another entry to the long list of reasons why the military commissions ought to be shut down for good.”

A headline reads: "Faisal Shahzad confesses to Times Square terror plot; admits he trained for 5 months in Pakistan

Memo to Attorney General Eric Holder:
Re: U.S. v. Faisal Shahzad
From : TalkLeft.com

Dear Mr. Holder:

You and law enforcement agents investigating the Times Square failed car bomb attempt have released information about the content of post-arrest incriminating statements Mr.Faisal Shahzad made to authorities. Your statements are improper extrajudicial comments that fail to comport with both the mandatory ethical rules professional conduct and the suggested ABA Standards on Prosecution Functions and Criminal Justice.

Example 1:

Shahzad, 30, confessed to the Saturday night plot to ignite a fireball in crowded Times Square after he was arrested late Monday at JFK Airport, said Attorney General Eric Holder.

Example II: [More...]

The military commission proceedings against Canadian child soldier Omar Khadr continued this week. At issue is the voluntariness of the statements the then 15 year old made after being found in a pile of rubble, shot three times and blinded in one eye.

Was he provided pain medication? Apparently not. (More on that here.) Yet the CIA agent who "interviewed" him (after the military and the FBI got their turn) testified:

CIA agent, Robert Fuller, testified that he treated Khadr very well, brought him water and snacks, and that Khadr "appeared happy - as happy as he could be." Khadr never complained to him of abuse, Fuller says.

The information Khadr provided turned out to be false. And to have grave consequences. Remember Maher Arar, grabbed at JFK airport and shipped to Syria where he was tortured for a year? [More...]

Canadian Omar Khadr was 15 when captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan. The child of Jihad was blinded in one eye and shot three times by U.S. soldiers. A very gruesome picture of him laying injured on the ground is here. Then he was questioned. He has vision problems in his other eye, and is in pain from the leftover shrapnel remaining in his eyes. Guantanamo doesn't have an opthamologist. Treatment, consisting of eye drops, is dispensed by an optometrist.

He was abused and subjected to torture during his confinement. He was used as a "human mop." He was threatened with rape and extradition to Egypt.

The U.S. is trying him in a military commission proceeding. This week, hearings are underway to determine if his post-capture statements were obtained via impermissible coercive techniques.
[More...]

Accused al-Qaeda terror suspect Fahad Hashmi, extradited from the UK in 2007 and held in solitary at MCC in Manhattan for three years pleaded guilty today to one count of providing material support to terrorists. Both sides agreed to a sentence of 15 years. three other counts were dropped. Hashmim would have faced a maximum of 70 years if convicted on all counts.

Hashmi is a 30-year-old U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan; grew up in Flushing, Queens, where his family still lives; and received his B.A. from Brooklyn College and his master's from London Metropolitan University. At Brooklyn College, in 2002, Hashmi was a student of mine in a seminar on civil rights. [More...]