update

Al-Ghizzawi is now allowed to spend some time with his fellow prisoners, some time watching movies, and he can attend some language classes (English). My other client, Razak Ali, has always been in Camp 4-one of the “better” camps at Guantanamo and he has never had the serious health and psychological problems that come with being held in solitary confinement…for literally years. That being said…these years have been very hard for both men.

Their cases are slowly working through the system. Razak Ali’s case was delayed because his original judge had a heavier caseload of Guantanamo cases than the other judges. His case was moved to a different judge and despite the “justice” departments attempts to do everything it can to delay his case it is slowly moving ahead. In Al-Ghizzawi’s case I agreed to a temporary stay of his case so that the Obama Review Team could review his situation. Now that it is clear that the Obama administration is unwilling or unable to move the men that need diplomatic resettlement help I have asked the judge to lift the stay and set a hearing date for his Habeas petition.

Both men have now started their eighth year at Guantanamo. Neither man will ever be charged with wrongdoing. The same people who ran this litigation for the Bush administration are running things for the Obama administration. Those bright attorneys that Obama put into place and which gave some of us great hope for a change are standing like deer in the headlights. It reminds me of the old saying that being smart will only get you so far..or as the kids say “no guts, no glory.” There is definitely a shortage of guts.