Entries tagged with “Guantanamo Bay”

Military

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Apr 17, 2025

Guantanamo Judge Rules Government Cannot Use Confession Obtained Through Torture in 9/​11 Capital Case

On April 11, 2025, Judge Colonel Matthew McCall ruled that con­fes­sions elicit­ed from Ammar al-Baluchi, accused of con­spir­ing in the September 11th ter­ror­ism attacks, were the result of tor­ture car­ried out by the CIA and as a result can­not be used against Mr. al-Baluchi in any legal pro­ceed­ing. According to Col. McCall, Mr. al-Baluchi invol­un­tar­i­ly incrim­i­nat­ed him­self in 2007 after exten­sive​“psy­cho­log­i­cal con­di­tion­ing” through tor­ture and abuse during his…

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Jan 06, 2025

Military Appeals Court Rules 9/​11 Defendants Can Plead to Avoid Death Sentences

On December 30, 2024, a mil­i­tary appeals court upheld a low­er court rul­ing reject­ing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to throw out plea deals reached for three men charged in the September 11 ter­ror­ism attacks. The court affirmed Judge Colonel Matthew N. McCall’s rul­ing in November 2024 that the plea agree­ments reached in July 2024 are valid. Col. McCall stat­ed at the time that he would pro­ceed with the…

Military

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Victims' Families

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Nov 26, 2024

Article of Interest: 9/​11 Victim’s Daughter Writes Why She Supports Plea Deals for Perpetrators

In a Washington Post op-ed, Chanel Shum, a mem­ber of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, explains her sup­port of plea agree­ments that would end decades of legal uncer­tain­ty and sen­tence three of the accused 9/​11 defen­dants to life with­out parole. Ms. Shum was start­ing preschool when her father, See Wong Shum, was killed in the September 11 terrorist…

State & Federal Info

Military

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Aug 02, 2024

U.S. Military Reaches Plea Agreement to Avoid the Death Penalty with Three Men Accused of Plotting September 11 Attacks

UPDATE: On August 2nd, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revoked the July 31, 2024 plea agree­ment reached between mil­i­tary com­mis­sions pros­e­cu­tors and defense coun­sel for three of the 9/​11 defen­dants being held at Guantanamo. In a two-para­­graph memo, Secretary Austin revoked the author­i­ty of Susan Escallier, the head of the Military Commissions Convening Authority, to enter into the plea agree­ments and reserved that author­i­ty for him­self. This unexpected…

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Military

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Aug 22, 2023

Confessions of Guantanamo Detainee in Death Penalty Case Excluded as Product of Torture

On August 18, 2023, a mil­i­tary judge in Guantanamo Bay over­see­ing the pre­tri­al cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the Saudi nation­al accused of orga­niz­ing the October 2000 bomb­ing of the U.S.S. Cole, exclud­ed Mr. al-Nishiri’s con­fes­sions as the prod­uct of tor­ture.​“Exclusion of such evi­dence is not with­out soci­etal costs,” said the judge, Col. Lanny J. Acosta Jr., in a 50-page deci­sion.​“However, per­mit­ting the admis­sion of evi­dence obtained by or…

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New Voices

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Military

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Feb 14, 2023

NEW VOICES: Ted Olson, Solicitor General in the Bush Administration, Calls for End to Guantánamo Death Penalty Cases

In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Theodore B. Olson, for­mer U.S. Solicitor General from 2001 to 2004 dur­ing President George W. Bush’s admin­is­tra­tion, called for a halt to the use of the death penal­ty against those impli­cat­ed in the ter­ror­ist attacks of 9/​11. He rec­om­mend­ed that the cap­i­tal pro­ceed­ings against the defen­dants being held in Guantánamo Bay be brought​“to as rapid and just…

State & Federal Info

Federal Death Penalty

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Military

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Mar 18, 2022

Plea Talks Are Under Way in Guantánamo September 11 Case that Could Take Death Penalty Off the Table

Military pros­e­cu­tors and defense attor­neys are report­ed­ly dis­cussing plea deals that could take the death penal­ty off the table in the Guantánamo mil­i­tary com­mis­sion cas­es of five men accused of involve­ment in the September 11, 2001 ter­ror­ist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The nego­ti­a­tions, first report­ed by the New York Times on March 15, 2022 and sub­se­quent­ly con­firmed by defense coun­sel, would require alleged 9/​11 plan­ner Khalid…

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Military

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Jul 21, 2021

At Odds with Biden Administration’s Concern Over Use of Statements Obtained by Torture, Chief Guantánamo Prosecutor Retires

After clash­ing with Biden admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials over the pro­pri­ety of using state­ments obtained through tor­ture from Guantánamo detainees, Army Brigadier General Mark S. Martins (pic­tured), the chief pros­e­cu­tor in the Guantánamo Military Commissions tri­als, will retire from the mil­i­tary on September 30, 2021. Martins, who had served as the com­mis­sions’ chief pros­e­cu­tor through­out the Obama and Trump admin­is­tra­tions, abruptly…

State & Federal Info

Military

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Apr 17, 2019

Federal Appeals Court Strikes Two Years of Guantánamo Tribunal Decisions in USS Cole Case

A civil­ian fed­er­al appeals court has dealt anoth­er blow to the Guantánamo mil­i­tary com­mis­sion death-penal­­ty pro­ceed­ings, strik­ing more than two years of deci­sions in the USS Cole bomb­ing pros­e­cu­tion of Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Al-Nashiri because of a mil­i­tary judge’s undis­closed con­flict of inter­est. Al-Nashiri faces cap­i­tal charges for his alleged role in the sui­cide bomb­ing attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000 in which 17 U.S. Navy…

State & Federal Info

Military

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Jan 10, 2019

Chaos Continues in Guantánamo Death-Penalty Trial, As Another Military Judge Quits

The already chaot­ic Guantánamo death-penal­­ty tri­al of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, accused of orches­trat­ing the October 2000 attack on the U.S. Navy destroy­er USS Cole, hit anoth­er snag as the most recent judge assigned to pre­side over the con­tro­ver­sial pro­ceed­ings will be leav­ing the mil­i­tary and quit­ting the case. In a January 4, 2019 appel­late plead­ing recent­ly obtained by the McClatchy News Service, prosecutors advised…

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Military

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Aug 20, 2018

Military Commission Bars Guantánamo Death-Penalty Prosecutors From Using Statements by 9/​11 Detainees

A Guantánamo mil­i­tary com­mis­sion judge has barred pros­e­cu­tors from using state­ments five accused 9/​11 plot­ters made to the FBI after they had been sub­ject­ed to years of tor­ture in CIA black sites. On August 17, 2018, the mil­i­tary judge, Army Colonel James L. Pohl (pic­tured), sup­pressed all use of the state­ments, rul­ing that restric­tions pros­e­cu­tors had placed on the abil­i­ty of defense coun­sel to inter­view witnesses and…

State & Federal Info

Military

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Jul 16, 2018

Amid War-Court Turmoil, Guantánamo Death-Penalty Judge Retires From Military Service

The U.S. Air Force has announced that the Guantánamo mil­i­tary commission’s USS Cole death-penal­­ty judge, Air Force Colonel Vance Spath (pic­tured) is retir­ing, inject­ing new uncer­tain­ty into war court pro­ceed­ings already steeped in chaos. In a one-sen­­tence email to the McClatchey news ser­vice on July 5, an Air Force spokesper­son con­firmed that Spath​“has an approved retire­ment date of Nov. 1, 2018,” well before the controversial trial…

State & Federal Info

Federal Death Penalty

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Military

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May 02, 2018

Guantánamo Bay

Six detainees charged with cap­i­tal crimes are cur­rent­ly being held at the U.S. Naval Base mil­i­tary prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Much of the infor­ma­tion relat­ing to these cas­es is clas­si­fied and all the par­tic­i­pants in the cas­es — pros­e­cu­tors, defense lawyers, and court per­son­nel — are required to have top secret secu­ri­ty clear­ance. As a result, sig­nif­i­cant por­tions of the pro­ceed­ings — includ­ing court motions and deci­sions — are heavily…

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Military

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Feb 20, 2018

Lack of Death-Penalty Counsel Brings Guantánamo War Crimes Trial to a Halt

A Guantánamo mil­i­tary com­mis­sion judge has indef­i­nite­ly sus­pend­ed pro­ceed­ings in the death-penal­­ty tri­al of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, accused of plan­ning al-Qaida’s alleged 2000 bomb­ing of the Navy war­ship USS Cole off the coast of Yemen. Expressing exas­per­a­tion over his con­tin­u­ing inabil­i­ty to com­pel civil­ian death-penal­­ty lawyers to return to the case, Air Force Colonel Vance Spath (pic­tured) halted the…

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Military

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Feb 14, 2018

Pentagon Fires War Court Official Who Was Attempting to Negotiate End to Guantánamo Death-Penalty Trial

The sud­den fir­ing by U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis (left) of the Pentagon offi­cial who over­saw mil­i­tary com­mis­sion tri­als at Guantánamo Bay has raised con­cerns of polit­i­cal inter­fer­ence in the already tumul­tuous legal pro­ceed­ings in the death-penal­­ty tri­als of the five men charged with plot­ting the 9/​11 attacks on the…

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Foreign Nationals

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Federal Death Penalty

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Military

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Oct 16, 2017

USS Cole Lawyers Resign From Guantánamo Death-Penalty Defense, Say Government Spied on Client Communications

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied review of a peti­tion filed by lawyers on behalf of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri—accused of orches­trat­ing al-Qaida’s October 12, 2000 sui­cide bomb­ing of the USS Cole war­ship off the coast of Yemen—chal­leng­ing the legal­i­ty of his death penal­ty tri­al before a Guantánamo Bay mil­i­tary com­mis­sion. But in what has been described as​“a stun­ning set­back” to what would have been the first death-penalty…

State & Federal Info

Military

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Sep 11, 2017

Sixteen Years Later, No Date in Sight for Death-Penalty Trial of Alleged 9/​11 Conspirators

Sixteen years lat­er, the alleged per­pe­tra­tors of the September 11, 2001 hijack­ings and attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, and the down­ing of Flight 93, have yet to be tried, and issues relat­ing to the use of evi­dence obtained by tor­ture, the appro­pri­ate­ness and legal­i­ty of tri­als by mil­i­tary com­mis­sion, and where and how they should be tried raise ques­tions as to whether and when a tri­al may take place. The five men charged in the attack — alleged…

State & Federal Info

Military

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Aug 10, 2017

Federal Appeals Court Removes Military Judge From Case For Comments Prejudging 9/​11 Detainee’s Guilt

A fed­er­al appeals court in Washington has ordered the recusal of a mil­i­tary judge from hear­ing an appeal in the Guantánamo mil­i­tary com­mis­sion death penal­ty tri­al of five defen­dants accused of direct respon­si­bil­i­ty for the 9/​11 attacks. A unan­i­mous three-judge pan­el of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on August 8 that Judge Scott L. Silliman of the United States Court of Military…

State & Federal Info

Military

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Mar 22, 2017

Lawyers Seek Supreme Court Review Of Alleged Torture As Accused USS Cole Bomber Awaits Capital Trial

Lawyers for Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, the man accused of plot­ting the bomb­ing of the USS Cole in 2000, are seek­ing U.S. Supreme Court inter­ven­tion to pre­vent his tri­al before a mil­i­tary tri­bunal in which Nashiri faces the death penal­ty if con­vict­ed. The peti­tion for a writ of cer­tio­rari asks the Court to allow Nashiri’s lawyers to chal­lenge his mil­i­tary deten­tion — and efforts to try him in a mil­i­tary tri­bunal rather than a civilian…

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Federal Death Penalty

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Military

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Apr 04, 2008

Death Penalty Poses Problems for Military Commission Trials

After the Pentagon announced ear­li­er this year that it would seek the death penal­ty for six Guantánamo Bay detainees, lit­tle progress has been made in the case. According to The American Lawyer, the mil­i­tary com­mis­sions have had dif­fi­cul­ties in find­ing qual­i­fied and will­ing defense attor­neys to rep­re­sent the six men who are accused of plan­ning the September 11 attacks. Tom Fleener, a for­mer mil­i­tary lawyer, said,​“I don’t believe any [of the 15…

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Military

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Feb 11, 2008

U.S. to Seek Death Penalty under New Military Commissions

The U.S. gov­ern­ment has decid­ed to seek the death penal­ty against six Guantánamo detainees who are accused of hav­ing cen­tral roles in the ter­ror­ist attacks of September 11, 2001. The defen­dants will be tried before Military Commissions, which are nei­ther part of the fed­er­al crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem nor the mil­i­tary’s jus­tice sys­tem for its own mem­bers. The laws and pro­ce­dures under the Military Commission Act of 2006 have not been test­ed and had to be…