Australian David Hicks, one of the detainees at Guantanamo whom the military is set to try by tribunal on November 18, alleges he was sexually abused at Guantanamo.

Hicks' lawyers say they have witnesses relating to the abuse and that the United States has photographic evidence.

Digby has a great analysis.

Human Rights First has released a report finding serious flaws in the investigations conducted by the U.S. into the death of 27 detainees.

The details are staggering – for example, evidence, including a bag of body parts, left on an airport tarmac that exploded from the heat and investigations so vague that the date of death falls within a 5-month span.

This is of critical relevance given the White House’s and House of Representatives' attempts to kill or water down the McCain Anti-Torture Amendment.

The Sunday Times has a first person account by former Guantanamo chaplain James Yee on how he came to be arrested and branded a spy. It's a disturbing story and one you should all read.

by Last Night in Little Rock

JURIST's Paper Chase, a blog written by law students, has a heavily hyperlink annotated posting last night: Judge rejects Aschroft's claim that appeal rules are not applicable in emergencies. The government detained two Muslim men in the wake of 9/11, held them in solitary confinement, and then deported them, denying them all access to the courts while in the U.S. The court ruled that they could sue, rejecting former AG Ashcroft's defense that the rules just don't apply during national emergencies.

The Associated Press has obtained documents showing that the Navy secretly contracted for Gulfstream jets to fly detainees to other countries for interrogation. This means that the military, not just the CIA was involved in the secret rendition process:

A branch of the U.S. Navy secretly contracted a 33-plane fleet that included two Gulfstream jets reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice torture, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The Navy issued classified contracts to ten U.S. companies, including two that flew detainees to Egypt and other places:

The Minnesota Daily has an editorial today on the hunger strike at Guantanamo:

About a quarter of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay are engaged in a hunger strike, and 18 prisoners are being force-fed through tubes or intravenously after about a month of not eating. The prisoners are protesting the frightening reality that detainees have gone three years without trials.

....While morality and ethics are abstract ideas, justice is more concrete, hence why there are laws. Guantanamo and the actions that have been taken by our government against the detainees violate the Geneva convention, the Bill of Rights, and our Constitution. Justice is not merely a conditional idea.

The conclusion, which undoubtedly will fall on deaf ears:

About three weeks ago, we wrote about the 89 detainees on a hunger strike at Guantanamo. The strike continues and has grown to 98 prisoners. The military has begun forced tube-feeding of more than a dozen of them.

Some of the 89 striking detainees at Guantanamo have not eaten for a month, said Guantanamo detention mission spokesman Sgt. Justin Behrens. The others have refused at least nine consecutive meals, he said.

Fifteen have been hospitalized, and 13 of those were being fed through tubes, Behrens said. British lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, who represents one of the hunger strikers, said some of the inmates were willing to starve themselves to death.

"People are desperate. They have been there three years. They were promised that the Geneva Conventions would be respected and various changes would happen and, unfortunately, the [U.S.] government reneged on that," he said.

The Administration announced insignificant changes Wednesday to the rules for military tribunals at Guantanamo. The two changes being touted:

...the presiding officer, a military lawyer, will now decide questions of law. The other members, who will no longer play a role in most such decisions, will decide questions of fact including guilt or innocence; the presiding officer will no longer have a vote in these matters.

Among other changes is one altering the wording of a rule that during the proceedings, defendants "may be present to the extent consistent with the need to protect classified information." The new wording says defendants "shall be present to the extent consistent ... ."

The changes that were needed but not made include:

89 detainees at Guantanamo Bay have resumed a hunger strike. According to Guantanamo spokesman Colonel Brad Blackner, it resumed on August 8:

The prisoners, protesting against their living conditions and their continued detention without trial, had gone on a widespread hunger strike that ended in July. Word that the hunger strike had resumed was disclosed on Thursday by Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer who returned from visiting clients at the base a week ago. Mr Smith warned that many detainees have grown so desperate that they intend to starve themselves to death in an effort to create a public relations disaster for the US military.

The cause of the resumed hunger strike appears to be abuse-related:

The decision was sparked by rumours of a violent interrogation session and two rough extractions of detainees from their cells, as well as a new incident of alleged desecration of a copy of the Koran.

The Boston Globe has a must-read article today on Guantanamo detainees who are so frustrated with the delays of their lawsuits they are firing their lawyers, saying they are useless. In addition to the delays, some say the military is back-stabbing the lawyers.

Some lawyers say the military is also undermining their ability to maintain cordial relations with clients by harassing them on the base and by imposing sharp restrictions on their communications. Phone calls are not allowed. Officers assigned to chaperone the lawyers take a rigid attitude about scheduled meetings, refusing to allow them to go longer than planned, the lawyers said. Letter delivery, they added, is sometimes delayed for months.

Moreover, lawyers said, interrogators have ''manipulated" clients by saying that detainees with lawyers will not be released and that the lawyers cannot be trusted.

by TChris

Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a student from Qatar, was arrested in the US in December 2001. Shortly before his trial was to begin in 2003, the Bush administration declared him an enemy combatant. He has been detained without trial ever since at a naval brig in Charleston. Yesterday, he filed a lawsuit challenging the conditions of his confinement. (An earlier challenge to the fact of his detention is pending.)

The prisoner maintains that he has been regularly denied access to basic necessities like a toothbrush, toilet paper, adequate bedding, and medical and psychological care. He has been confined in isolation in a dark 6-by-9-foot cell round the clock, his suit says, except for brief periods of outside recreation three times a week when he is deemed to be in compliance with jail rules.

Military jailers have also subjected him to extreme cold, used the roar of a loud fan nearby to "harass and torment him" and denied him access to any books, newspapers, radio, television or religious material except for the Koran, he says.

Marri also contends that jailers have treated the Koran disrespectfully and that he’s been denied access to his wife and children. He complains of abusive interrogation techniques, including threats to send him to a country where he “would be tortured and sodomized and where his wife would be raped in front of him.”

The Guardian reports on the negotiations underway to send many Guantanamo detainees back to their home countries for continued incarceration. The countries include Afghanistan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

The principal issue is whether there will be, or even can be assurances that the returned detainees won't be tortured. These countries are known for human rights violations. The Washington Post has an editorial noting this today.

The New York Times reports:

The new transfers to Afghanistan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia would be explicitly for those countries to take over the detention and not release any individuals immediately.

Amnesty International has released this statement of concern.