Latest in Guantanamo Bay
Defense counsel on behalf of Guantanamo detainee Moath Hamza Ahmed Al-Alwi have filed a reply in further support of their petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court in Al-Alwi v. Trump. The government's brief opposing certiorari is available here.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday issued its opinion in In Re: Abd al-Rahim Muhammed al-Nashiri. The court held that Col. Vance Spath, the judge in the al-Nashiri case, should have been disqualified from his position while seeking a job as an immigration judge with the U.S. Department of Justice. The court vacated every order Spath has issued since Nov.
The military commission for Majid Shoukat Khan, who pleaded guilty to charges related to his role as a low-level al-Qaeda operative in 2012, reconvened on April 1, after a hiatus since July 2018.
In a session cut short by a stay from the Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR), the military commission in United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, et al. (i.e., the 9/11 military commission) reconvened on March 25-27. See here for previous Lawfare coverage.
The military commissions’ appellate body has affirmed the military judge’s rulings in United States v. Al-Nashiri and ordered that pre-trial proceedings resume for the first time since February.
The military commissions welcome a new judge to preside over the 9/11 case—and hear testimony from an investigator into why its former convening authority was fired.
Lawfare’s roundup of the July 23 and 25 sessions of military commissions hearings in the 9/11 case.
We are happy to report that Episode 7 of the National Security Law Podcast ("The Less Prep the Better") has just gone live. In about 42 minutes, we discuss:
- the Trump allegation about being wiretapped
- the Trump allegation about GTMO recidivism (and the Spicer follow-up about just when judges got involved in ordering GTMO releases)
- the Vault7/Wikileaks mess
It’s Wednesday morning and we’re back at Guantanamo Bay for more pre-trial hearings in the case of the five men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks.
The week in military commission procceedings continued on June 3.