If you're a law professor, lawyer or law student, the place to be October 5 is your local law school which likely is participating in the virtual National Guantanamo Teach-In. 200 law schools in 40 states are participating. If you're not near a law school, it will be live-streamed from the website.

On October 5th, Seton Hall will host an all-day conference available at academic institutions across the United States to study the national and international implications of indefinitely detaining hundreds of individuals deemed "enemy combatants."

The Guantanamo Teach-in will offer participants incisive analysis with diverse perspectives. Across America, from Maine to New Mexico, from Florida to Hawaii, and from Texas to Montana, law schools, colleges, universities, community colleges and seminaries will be linked in a national dialogue on the lessons of Guantanamo, sparked by, but not limited to, the broadcast presentations.

Great news on the military tribunal, torture and habeas restriction bill. A pre-emptive lawsuit to declare it unconstitutional was filed today by 25 prisoners at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.

Attorneys for 25 men being held in Afghanistan launched a pre-emptive strike Monday against President Bush's plan to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects.

Court documents filed Monday demand that the men be released or charged and allowed to meet with attorneys. Such a filing, known as a habeas corpus petition, is prohibited under the legislation approved by Congress last week.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, "who, in a Guantanamo Bay case last year, ruled that Congress had authorized the president to order the detention of "enemy combatants" for the duration of the war on terror. Leon did not set a hearing date in the new case."

The suit was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Via Crooks and Liars, Rolling Stone has a very long feature article on Omar Khadr, who as I wrote here, here and here, comes from a long line of al Qaeda fighters and has been imprisoned at Guantanamo since he was 15.

As Jeanne of Body and Soul wrote a few years ago:

The problem is, Omar Khadr is as much a victim of these people as a member of the family. He's eighteen years old. When he was captured in Afghanistan, he was fifteen -- a child turned into a soldier by parents from hell. And our government's response to this victim of child abuse was to abuse him further.

Mark your calendars. October 5 has been declared a day of "No Work. No School. Protest in the Streets."

On October 2 and 5, New York City will be the site of a protest against the military commissions/torture bill, organized by The World Can't Wait.

MONDAY October 2, 7:30PM Cooper Union Great Hall, 7th St and 3rd Ave.,
THURSDAY, October 5 - Rally at 12 noon to 47th & 1st Avenue, Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, March downtown on Second Ave, 4pm, RALLY at Union Square.

On Monday, Oct 2, there will be an emergency citywide meeting in NYC, responding to passage of the Military Commissions Bill. Speakers include OLYMPIA DUKAKIS, MARK RUFFALO (reading statement from SEAN PENN). RENO, MALACHY MCCOURT, CRAIG MURRAY, ex-British ambassador to Uzbekistan who exposed US and UK use torture, BILL GOODMAN, lawyer for Guantanamo prisoners will explain the dire implications of the passage the new TORTURE bill.

The meeting will prepare people for protests on Thursday, October 5 called by World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime. On that day, in over 150 cities and towns across the country, people will walk out of school, take off work, gather in town squares, and MARCH, declaring their intention to bring the Bush program to a halt.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

To a topic discussed here and here, now, ironically MYDD brings more evidence:

Among registered voters, President Bush's approval rating stands at 40 percent, with 50 percent disapproving. Among likely voters, his approval rating is the same but his disapproval rating is four points higher. But among the most likely voters, the President's approval rating is 47 percent, with 47 percent disapproving.

. . . If we are to glean anything from this poll it is this: If only the voters who go to the polls on November 7 are those who essentially need no prompting from either party, then the Democrats should be able to pull off a narrow victory in overall balloting. If, however, Democrats can turn out the category of voters who are highly interested but will need at least some cajoling, then they have the potential of scoring a profound victory in five and a half weeks.

These numbers just underscore the fact that we need to do everything we can to ensure that our voters get to the polls this year. . . . Because if we do, we could really upend Washington and begin to institute the change so desperately needed in the country today.

This post is ironic to me. On Thursday, the rogue Democrats did as much of a disservice to GOTV efforts as one could. An accountability project would note this. MYDD seems oblivious.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

Via Sully, a Right Wing torture "expert" named Dean Barnett writes:

So what does the actual scholarship say?

The key to gathering information is to disorient the subject. If you disorient the subject enough, he lets go of his secrets. Discomfort is actually much more useful than pain.

What's the best way to get information?

Unquestionably water-boarding.

But Amnesty International and the left say the information gleaned from this technique is unreliable. Is it?

Amnesty International is either confused, dishonest or both. Some people do say it's unreliable. but the undeniable consensus is that water-boarding is an extremely productive interrogation tool.

Cites to actual experts would be nice. I know Barnett is a Red Sox fan, and gawd knows that must be torture, but that stll doesn't make him an expert.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

In a short note, Chris Bowers takes umbrage at the charge, apparently leveled at him, that he has been "mollified," which I took to mean, coopted:

I'm not "mollified" because the majority of Democrats are with us on pretty much every issue. I just don't think it is fair to argue that Democratic Party in general was in favor of torture, or any other piece of legislation where the majority of Democratic elected officials voted against it. I hate that lazy thinking that because some Democrats voted for something, somehow it is OK to say that Democrats in general were complicit with it. And I stand by that.

Well, I think it is ridiculous to argue Chris has been "mollified"/ coopted. But it is not ridiculous to argue that Chris' reaction to the Democratic performance on the atrocity known as the Detainee Bill was wrong. Of course he was not alone. At the Daily Kos community, calls to "calm down" were rampant on Thursday. And those calls were wrong too. I'll explain why I think so on the flip.

Amnesty International has put together the nuts and bolts of the Military Commission bill passed by both Houses:

Among other things, the Act will:

• Strip the US courts of jurisdiction to hear or consider habeas corpus appeals challenging the lawfulness or conditions of detention of anyone held in US custody as an "enemy combatant". Judicial review of cases would be severely limited. The law would apply retroactively, and thus could result in more than 200 pending appeals filed on behalf of Guantánamo detainees being thrown out of court.

• Permit the executive to convene military commissions to try "alien unlawful enemy combatants", as determined by the executive under a dangerously broad definition, in trials that would provide foreign nationals so labeled with a lower standard of justice than US citizens accused of the same crimes. This would violate the prohibition on the discriminatory application of fair trial rights.

• Permit the use in military commission trials of evidence extracted under cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

• Give the military commissions the power to hand down death sentences after trials that did not meet international standards.

The Senate has passed the military tribunals bill. [Update: Roll Call vote here.]

McJoan at Daily Kos has the list of Democrat gutless wonders who voted for it. Shame on Colorado Senator Ken Salazar. Crooks and Liars has Harry Reid's statement that the bill is probably unconsitutional. Atrios has Hillary Clinton's statement. Here is Russ Feingold's statement. Glenn Greenwald and Digby weigh in. Also see: Bruce Ackerman in the LA Times on the White House Warden.

The ACLU says it all:

It's over in the House. They voted today, 253-168, to pass Bush's military commission bill. It's expected to pass the Senate tomorrow.

The mostly party-line 253-168 vote in the Republican-run House came shortly after senators agreed to limit debate on their own nearly identical bill, all but assuring its passage on Thursday.

Republican leaders are hoping to work out differences and send Bush a final version before leaving town this weekend to campaign for the Nov. 7 congressional elections.

What a blow for due process and justice. Shame on all who voted for it.

There are two horrible provisions in the military commissions bill. One would grant amnesty to Bush administration officials who authorized the use of torture techniques. The other would eliminate habeas for detainees.

While we've all focused a lot on the habeas provision, Sen. Dick Durbin points out in this long statement he delivered today in the Senate that the torture amnesty provision is not receiving nearly enough attention.

The Military Commissions bill must be rejected. There is no reason Congress has to pass it before it adjourns. Here is a sign-on letter for you to fax to your Senator. Some of the language is taken from a letter that 13 groups sent to Sen. McCain this weekend urging him to clarify ambiguities in the War Crimes definitions, but this letter addresses the overall bill and urges Members to vote "no" on final passage.

Please, flood your Senators' offices with objections to the bill moving forward.

Dear Senator:

We are writing to strongly encourage you to reject the "compromise" Military Commissions Act of 2006 and to vote no on final passage of the bill. More than anything else, the bill compromises America's commitment to fairness and the rule of law.

For the last five years the United States has repeatedly operated in a manner that betrays our nation's commitment to law. The US has held prisoners in secret prisons without any due process or even access to the Red Cross and has placed other prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in a transparent effort to avoid judicial oversight and the application of US treaty obligations.