Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr has a new Judge. The Pentagon replaced his old one, Col. Peter Brownback, apparently displeased at some of his rulings favorable to Khadr.

At a May 7 hearing, Col. Brownback threatened to suspend the entire case over the prosecution's failure to hand over Mr. Khadr's Guantanamo confinement records.

Navy Lieutenant-Commander Bill Kuebler, Mr. Khadr's chief military lawyer, sought the so-called Detainee Information Management System records, or DIMS, to develop a detailed picture of Mr. Khadr's treatment during detention.

Khadr's lawyer says the records would support Omar's claim he was subjected to torture or abuse while being interrogated. [More...]

Big news today in the case of "child soldier" Canadian Omar Khadr, who was seized in Afghanistan at age 15 and has been held ever since at Guantanamo. He and his lawyers have been preparing for trial by military commission.

The Canadian Supreme Court today ruled Omar is entitled to reports on his detention and interrogation. The Supreme Court of Canada has ordered the federal government to hand over information to alleged terrorist Omar Khadr that it gleaned from interrogation sessions that Canadian agents held with him in 2003.

The ACLU issued this press release (no link yet, received by e-mail):

The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruled today that Canadian officials violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – analogous to the U.S. Bill of Rights – by turning over interrogation records of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr to the United States. The court reached this result after finding that, at the time Canadian officials interrogated him, Khadr was being detained and prosecuted at Guantánamo in violation of U.S. and international law.

More...

Buried in the DOJ's Inspector General Report yesterday: The Pentagon allowed Chinese officials to visit and interrogate Gitmo prisoners. It even softened them up for the interrogation.

Buried in a Department of Justice report released Tuesday are new allegations about a 2002 arrangement between the United States and China, which allowed Chinese intelligence to visit Guantanamo and interrogate Chinese Uighurs held there.

According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, an FBI agent reported a detainee belonging to China's ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator told him Uighur detainees were kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced to endure cold for hours on end, just prior to questioning by Chinese interrogators.

Susan Manning, a lawyer who represents several Uighurs still held at Guantanamo, said Tuesday the allegations are all too familiar. U.S. personnel "are engaging in abusive tactics on behalf of the Chinese," she said Tuesday. When Uighur detainees refused to talk to Chinese interrogators in 2002, U.S. military personnel put them in solitary confinement as punishment, she said.

Attaturk at Firedoglake has more.

President Bush says the United States does not engage in torture. A new report by the DOJ Inspector General today does not agree. The full report is here.

Some of the techniques used violated Defense Department policy at the time.

F.B.I. agents complained repeatedly, beginning in 2002, about the harsh interrogation tactics that military and C.I.A. interrogators were using in questioning terrorism suspects, like making them do dog tricks and parade in the nude in front of female soldiers, but their complaints appear to have had little effect, according to an exhaustive report released Tuesday by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The report for the most part praises the FBI.

“In sum, while our report concluded that the F.B.I. could have provided clearer guidance earlier, and while the F.B.I. and DoJ could have pressed harder for resolution of F.B.I. concerns about detainee treatment, we believe the F.B.I. should be credited for its conduct and professionalism in detainee interrogations in the military zones in Afghanistan,” in Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, the report said. DoJ refers to the Justice Department, the bureau’s parent agency.

The ACLU sees it differently: [more...]

Mohammed al-Qahtani, the Guantanamo detainee the Pentagon alleges was to be the "20th hijacker" attempted suicide in April, according to his lawyer, who was not allowed to reveal it until today due to the need for the Pentagon to clear her notes.

Mohammed al-Qahtani cut himself at least three times and had to be hospitalized at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez said. Al-Qahtani made the suicide attempt after learning military prosecutors filed capital charges against him and five other Guantanamo prisoners for their alleged roles in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I cannot accept this injustice," the lawyer quoted him as saying. "If I have to stay in this jail, I want to put an end to this suffering."

The Center for Constitutional Rights represents al-Qahtani and has much more information on his case and newly disclosed documents. Their press release today is here.

The torture techniques approved against al-Qahtani are below the fold:

President Bush says the U.S. does not engage in torture. The ACLU has new evidence from documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that it does.

These documents provide further evidence that the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational, but was widespread and systemic," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU. "They only underscore the need for an independent investigation into high-level responsibility for prisoner abuse."

The newly obtained documents are available here.

A military judge today dismissed the charges against Guantanamo detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani. The Pentagon had claimed al-Qahtani was the "20th hijacker" for 9/11. He had been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques.

The charges against five other detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were approved. They face a possible death penalty.

Here are some of the techniques used on al-Qahtani, from the interrogators' log : [More...]

The House Judiciary Committee today voted to subpoena Dick Cheney aide David Addington in its probe into the Bush Adminstration's interrogation practices.

Addington refused to testify without a subpoena. John Yoo has agreed to testify without a subpoena.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin have also agreed to give testimony at a future hearing. Former CIA Director George Tenet is still in negotiations with the committee, according to House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Melanie Roussell.

The Judiciary Committee hearings are meant to determine what role administration lawyers played in creating and approving interrogation procedures that went far beyond those traditionally used by U.S. forces, and whether any of them violated their legal or ethical obligations, said Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.

In related news, the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a new lawsuit alleging torture at Abu Ghraib by military contractors. [More...]

The Washington Post reports that the Bush Administration says it is unlikely that trials of any of the Guantanamo detainees will take place before Bush leaves office.

Nearly seven years later, however, not one of the approximately 775 terrorism suspects who have been held on this island has faced a jury trial inside the new complex, and U.S. officials think it is highly unlikely that any of the Sept. 11 suspects will before the Bush administration ends.

Though men such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, are expected to be arraigned in coming months -- appearing publicly for the first time after years of secret detention and harsh interrogations -- officials say it could be a year or longer before worldwide audiences will see even the first piece of evidence or testimony against them.

All three presidential candidates, Hillary, Obama and McCain have promised to close Guantanamo. [More...]

BBC News cites an al-Jazeera report that Sami al-Hajj, an al-Jazeera cameraman, has been released from Guantanamo. No explanation has yet been given for the decision to release Hajj after more than six years of captivity. More here.

All three presidential hopefuls have said they will close Guantanamo. The LA Times examines how it could be done.

Officially, Pentagon officials say there are no plans in hand to move suspected terrorists to the United States if the new president orders it. No official orders have been given to Southern Command, which oversees the prison, to prepare for its shutdown. Such orders would trigger a formal planning process.

But unofficially, midlevel officials watching the campaign pronouncements have begun working on plans -- including examining other sites and estimating the work that would be involved in moving detainees -- in case the next president orders a shutdown.

Possibilities: The military prison at Leavenworth, KS and the South Carolina naval brig.

The detainees would gain greater legal rights if moved to the U.S. [more...]

ABC News and the Associated Press report Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, George Tenet, John Ashcroft, Colin Powell and others held high level meetings about harsh interrogation techniques and ultimately approved them.

The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room in the years immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. Attending the sessions were Cheney, then-Bush aides Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

[A] former intelligence official described Cheney and the top national security officials as deeply immersed in developing the CIA's interrogation program during months of discussions over which methods should be used and when.

More...