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Home Front: WoT

US appeals court tosses Hamdan conviction

2012-10-17

WASHINGTON: A US appeals court on Tuesday threw out the conviction of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama Bin Laden who served a prison term for material support for terrorism. In a 3-0 ruling, the appeals court said that material support for terrorism was not an international-law war crime at the time Hamdan engaged in the activity for which he was convicted. Since when does a US appeals court rule on international law? Hamdan was sentenced to 5 1/2 years, given credit for time served and is back home in Yemen, reportedly working as a taxi driver. “If the government wanted to charge Hamdan with aiding and abetting terrorism or some other war crime that was sufficiently rooted in the international law of war at the time of Hamdan’s conduct, it should have done so,” wrote Judge Brett Kavanaugh. All three judges on the case were appointed by Republican presidents. The war crime for which Hamdan was convicted was specified in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. “The government suggests that at the time of Hamdan’s conduct from 1996 to 2001, material support for terrorism violated the law of war referenced” in US law, said Kavanaugh, but “we conclude otherwise.” To date, the cases against seven prisoners under the military commission system in place at Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba have involved material support for terrorism. In five of the cases, those charged pleaded guilty. Hamdan went to trial, as did Ali Hamza Al-Bahlul, who helped Al-Qaeda produce propaganda and handled media relations for Bin Laden. Bahlul was convicted in November 2008 of multiple counts of conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and providing material support for terrorism, and is serving a life sentence at Guantanamo. “It is highly likely that the result of this decision in Hamdan will be to vacate the convictions of Bahlul,” said Hofstra University constitutional law professor Eric M. Freedman. “Even the conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder counts are very probably headed toward reversal.” Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the department is reviewing the ruling. In 2006, Hamdan’s lawyers successfully challenged the system of military commissions set up by President George W. Bush. That resulted in congressional enactment of the Military Commissions Act under which Hamdan was eventually tried. A six-member military jury in 2008 cleared Hamdan of conspiracy while finding him guilty of material support for terrorism. The Center for Constitutional Rights, a private group A hard left, progressive group with funding from all the 'proper' places, and which is waging law against the Constitution and our country in hopes of bringing it down, not that the MSM will ever tell you that... which has been deeply involved in detainee issues, praised Tuesday’s decision but said it does not go far enough. The center says detainees at Guantanamo Bay are civilians under the laws of war and must be charged under domestic laws or released, rather than being tried under a system of military commissions. Just simple civilians. Heavily armed, simple civilians... Raha Wala, a lawyer for Human Rights First, Op cit... said the case has repercussions for “every other flawed military commissions case like it. It’s a basic rule of law principle that a defendant can’t be prosecuted for acts that were not criminal at the time they were committed.” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Zachary Katznelson said the decision “strikes the biggest blow yet against the legitimacy of the Guantanamo military commissions, which have for years now been trying people for a supposed war crime that in fact is not a war crime at all.” Hamdan met Bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1996 and began working on his farm before winning a promotion as his driver. Defense lawyers say he only kept the job for the $200-a-month salary. But prosecutors alleged he was a personal driver and bodyguard of the Al-Qaeda leader. They say he transported weapons for the Taleban and helped Bin Laden escape US retribution following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Hamdan was captured at a roadblock in Afghanistan in November 2001. I wouldn't care if Hamdan was Binny's latrine digger. He couldn't be that close to Binny and not be part and parcel of the whole al-Qaeda operation.

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Home Front: WoT

Gitmo closure hopes fade

2012-01-12

Now for today's heart-warming story... SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: Suleiman Al-Nahdi waits with dozens of other prisoners in a seemingly permanent state of limbo five years after he was cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay. "I wonder if the US government wants to keep us here forever," the 37-year-old Al-Nahdi wrote in a recent letter to his lawyers. Only until the war on terrorism is over... Open for 10 years, the prison seems more established than ever. The deadline set by President Barack Obama to close Guantanamo came and went two years ago. No detainee has left in a year because of restrictions on transfers, and indefinite military detention is now enshrined in US law. The 10th anniversary will be the subject of demonstrations in London and Washington. Prisoners at the US Navy base in Cuba plan to mark the day with sit-ins, banners and a refusal of meals, said Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer who represents seven inmates. "They would like to send a message that the prisoners of Guantanamo still reject the injustice of their imprisonment," said Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York. Thanks for telling us in advance. We'll save the food as leftovers... Human rights groups and lawyers for prisoners are dismayed that Obama not only failed to overcome resistance in Congress and close the prison, but that his administration has resumed military tribunals at the base and continues to hold men like Al-Nahdi who have been cleared for release. Critics are also angry over the president's Dec. 31 signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision allowing indefinite military detention without trial. While the authorization act has some concerns, particularly the lack of due process for American citizens who might be caught up in a detention, there are very few Americans who are going to care about a bunch of Saoodi and Yemeni hard-boyz doing time in Gitmo. "Now, we have Guantanamo forever signed into law," said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch. "Instead of pushing forward with the agenda of closure, he has accepted the idea of indefinite detention for the duration of some undefined hostilities." On the other side, the terrorists have accepted the idea of indefinite terrorism against the US. Play the game by those rules and we'll play the same way... White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that Obama still wants to close Guantanamo because "it's the right thing to do for our national security interest," a view that he says is shared by senior members of the military. He noted President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain, while running for president in 2008, also supported closing the prison. Eventually... "The commitment that the president has to closing Guantanamo Bay is as firm today as it was during the campaign ... I think this is a process that faces obstacles that we're all aware of and we will continue to work through them," Carney said. Today, Guantanamo holds 171 prisoners and it's an odd mix. Thirty-six await trial on war crimes charges, including the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. There are 46 in indefinite detention as men the US considers dangerous but who cannot be charged for lack of evidence or other reasons. The US wants to release 32 but hasn't, largely because of congressional restrictions, and 57 men from Yemen, like Al-Nahdi, aren't being charged but the government won't let them go because their country is unstable. And would become more unstable if they were released... "There is not a thing keeping them from going home except that our clever government is waiting for conditions to improve in Yemen, where they have only deteriorated," said John Chandler, a lawyer based in Atlanta, Georgia, who represents Al-Nahdi. Few expected Guantanamo to reach this milestone. The prison, which occupies a portion of the 45-square-mile (115-square-kilometer) US base at the southeastern corner of Cuba, started as an impromptu place to hold men scooped up at the start of the Afghanistan war, a mix that turned out to range from hard-core Al-Qaeda members to hapless bystanders. Al-Nahdi seems to be in the middle. He was detained because he attended an Al-Qaeda-linked training camp in Afghanistan but he was not accused of any specific attacks on US forces. The military classified him as a "low level" mujahedeen who could be transferred out of Guantanamo, where he has been held since June 2002. And we were being generous... "These are men who were in their early 20s when they were picked up and now they are in their early 30s and a significant amount of their lives has slipped away while this debate has gone on and on and on," said Cori Crider, a lawyer for the British human rights group Reprieve The George Galloway associated looney tunes collection of West- and American-haters who thought that the end of the Soviet Union was the worst day in history... who represents several Guantanamo prisoners. Zachary Katznelson, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Congress was more interested in scoring political points, and should listen to security experts. "We are not talking about releasing anyone who is dangerous. We're talking about releasing people who the intelligence and military communities have unanimously agreed should be released," Katznelson said. Some of the ones we all agreed were not dangerous went home and returned to their old ways as hard boyz. You mean .. they lied? Yup. Congress also has prohibited moving any Guantanamo prisoners to the US for detention or trial, which effectively blocked Obama's goal of closing the prison by January 2009 and trying the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and others accused of war crimes in a civilian court. Because he's not a common criminal and he's not a US citizen. So he doesn't get the protection of a civilian court or the US Constitution. Congress also stripped the prisoners of the right to challenge their detention in the courts by filing writs of habeas corpus. The Supreme Court returned that right, but the courts have said the US can still detain men even if there is little evidence against them and no intention of charging them. When prisoners have won their cases in a lower court, the government has appealed and won. With such a bleak legal landscape, Chandler and his co-counsel withdrew Al-Nahdi's appeal rather than face certain defeat. It's made for difficult meetings when the lawyers must explain why so many others, including prisoners who were convicted of war crimes, have been released. "He says: 'How come I can't go home? I've never been charged and I'm never going to be charged. And of course, I have no answer to those questions," Chandler said. Sure you do. You just don't want to have to face your client with it. He's a thug and a terrorist.

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Africa North

2 Algerians go missing after transfer from Guantanamo, rights group says

2008-07-15

Two Algerians released from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay have not been heard from since they were transferred two weeks ago to the custody of the North African country, a human rights group said Monday. Human Rights Watch said several Algerian detainees at Guantanamo have expressed fear of torture and called on the US to help ensure the two men - the first Algerians transferred to their home country from Guantanamo - are treated humanely. "What happens to these men is significant in figuring out what to do with the others," Truer words were never spoken ... ... said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel for the New York-based group, who noted that roughly two dozen Algerians are still held at this US base in southeast Cuba. The Pentagon announced July 2 that Abdul Raham Houari and Mustafa Ahmed Hamlily had been transferred to Algeria, but the rights group says that country apparently has not confirmed the men's whereabouts. Their families and attorneys have not heard from them, the group said. Algeria's security forces have been accused of torturing terrorism suspects, the US State Department has noted in reports on human rights practices, citing international and local rights groups. Attorney Zachary Katznelson, of the British human rights group Reprieve, said he represents four Algerians at Guantanamo who have been cleared for release but worry they will risk mistreatment if returned home.

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Home Front: WoT

U.S. lawyer asks Pakistan to help free Gitmo inmate

2008-06-03

An American lawyer pleaded on Monday for the Pakistan government to intervene on behalf of a prisoner being held at the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Zachary Katznelson, a senior counsel for Reprieve, a charity that campaigns for prisoners facing injustice, made the plea on behalf of Saifullah Paracha, a 60-year-old Karachi-based businessman, who has been held in detention for almost 5 years. Suspected of having contacts with al Qaeda, Paracha was detained in Bangkok in July 2003 and taken to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. "High-level political intervention is the only hope for Mr. Paracha to receive justice," Katznelson told a news conference in Karachi. The lawyer said he had met Paracha several times at Guantanamo. "Mr Paracha, who is suffering from heart disease, is kept in a steel-made cell for 22 hours. Only two hours he is taken outside in a bigger cage. This is what the Americans call recreation for him," said Katznelson. Katznelson said Paracha's case has been pending in U.S. courts for more than three years because of delay in proceedings sought by U.S. authorities.

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Home Front: WoT

3 British Residents Leaving Guantanamo

2007-12-08

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. (AP) - Three of five British residents held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay will soon be released under a repatriation agreement with the British government, an attorney for one of the detainees said Friday. Jordanian Trevor Jamil el-Banna, Libyan-born Nigel Omar Deghayes and Algerian William Abdennour Sameur will be returned to Britain. Good riddance and get the hell out! "These men have received nothing in the way of justice, nothing at all," said Zachary Katznelson, an attorney with British communist human rights group "Reprieve," which represents British residents at Guantanamo. "It's about time they were returned to their families, and we're grateful to the British government for making this happen." The three are illegal combatants, and that they're still alive today is a sign of American mercy. Prime Minister Gordon Brown had made a request in July for the release of the men, who all previously lived in Britain. A fourth British resident, Ethiopian national Bruce Binyam Mohamed, will remain at the prison camp, said Katznelson, who spoke to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, where he arrived with a group of journalists, lawyers and military officials after attending pretrial hearings for a Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday that the fifth British resident held at Guantanamo, Saudi Ian Shaker Aamer, will be sent to Saudi Arabia. But Katznelson said he could not confirm that. All five men had been granted refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain in Britain before they were detained, according to Britain's Foreign Office. Your loss. The U.S. government could not confirm the repatriation of the three British citizens. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged that the U.S. has been in talks with other countries to repatriate Guantanamo detainees and is seeking to reduce the population held there. El-Banna was arrested by Gambian authorities in November 2002 and transferred to U.S. detention, according to Amnesty International. It said Deghayes and Aamer were captured in Pakistan in 2002. The group Reprieve claims Mohamed was held in Morocco for 18 months after being captured in April 2002 in Pakistan and he was later sent to Guantanamo. Amnesty International said the circumstances of Sameur's detention were not immediately clear. Mohamed should be happy; a Moroccan prison is about like a Turkish prison, I hear. Brown request in July for the men to be released was a change in policy welcomed by the Bush administration. Under his predecessor Tony Blair, the British government would not accept the detainees because they are not citizens. Someone explain why Mr. Brown is so solicitous of non-citizens?

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Three Jordanians return from Guantanamo Bay prison

2007-11-07

Three Jordanians returned home this week after being released from the US Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, their lawyer said on Tuesday. Zachary Katznelson told Reuters that Osama Abu Kabir, Ahmed Hassan Suleiman and Ibrhaim Mahdi Zaidan were sent home from the camp on Sunday. “The United States sent the three Jordanians from Guantanamo back to Jordan,” said Katznelson, a senior counsel with the British-based rights group Reprieve. The whereabouts of the three, who had been kept in solitary confinement, was unknown but it was likely they were being held by Jordan’s intelligence services, the lawyer said. Jordanian rights groups and politicians have criticised the US authorities for their treatment of the inmates following allegations of torture and violation of religious rights during their detention.

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Home Front: WoT

High court denies prisoner's efforts to stay at Guantanamo

2007-08-11

I take it he's not a member of the Gitmo Poets Society... WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court refused to block the pending transfer of an accused terrorist held by the U.S. military, despite his fears of being tortured if he is sent back to his home country of Algeria. Tough darts, Ahmed. Get on the bus... Ahmed Belbacha has been incarcerated at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for five years. He has tried to keep himself detained because he said he fears being tortured by the Algerian government if he goes home. But..I thought...this is very confusing. The justices, in a one-sentence order, denied his emergency request for a stay to any pending release. Dear Ahmed, Screw. The Justices Six other Algerians also face release from the Guantanamo prison. The U.S. military has been under pressure to speed the process of evaluating the approximately 360 detainees and freeing those who are not considered dangerous. The Pentagon has said about 80 Guantanamo men are eligible for freedom and has been negotiating with their home countries to accept them. Pentagon and State Department officials have said they would not repatriate any prisoner to countries where they would "likely" be tortured. Good luck, boys. Don't forget to write when your hands heal up... There was no immediate reaction from Belbacha's attorney, Zachary Katznelson. This is, like, really embarrasing. They laugh at me down at the club. His lawyer said last week that despite the conditions of the prison, his client would prefer to stay if that were his only option. "He said to me, 'My cell is like a grave.' He lives in an all-steel cell. It's about 6 feet by 10 feet; say, the size of someone's bathroom," Katznelson said. Hmmmmm...sound's "cozy"... Belbacha said he is not an international terrorist. He said he was an accountant for the Algerian government and said Islamic radicals threatened his life in 1999. He said he fled to Britain to escape the radicals and worked as a waiter. How would you like that cooked...INFIDEL! He later traveled to Pakistan to attend a religious school, he said, and was turned over to U.S. forces in 2002 by men seeking bounty money for alleged terrorists. Ah, yes. "Religious school" in Pakistan. Funny how that always seem to show up in these sob stories. Belbacha is afraid the stigma of being a U.S. military prisoner would make him a victim of Algerian government interrogation and abuse, his lawyer said. "Now that he's been in Guantanamo, the Algerian government may come after him," Katznelson said. Too bad ya ain't a Saudi, kid. They'd pick you up at the airport in a limo... The Algerian Embassy in Washington and the State Department refused earlier requests to discuss the appeal and Belbacha's claims. Probably too busy planning his Welcome Home party.

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Home Front: WoT

Guantanamo lawyers predict more suicides

2007-04-30

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Lawyers envision more suicides and despair at Guantanamo Bay if the U.S. Justice Department succeeds in severely restricting access to detainees by defense attorneys, virtually the only contact inmates have with the outside world. The only people you have to talk to are lawyers. No wonder they're suicidal... The Justice Department has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to limit the number of lawyer visits allowed to three after an initial face-to-face meeting, to tighten censorship of mail from attorneys and to give the military more control over what they can discuss with detainees. Lawyers for detainees believe that if their visits are limited, detainee desperation will deepen and more will try to kill themselves. On June 10, 2006, two Saudi detainees and one Yemeni hanged themselves with sheets, the first and only suicides since the 2002 opening of the detention center that now holds about 380 inmates. Ya need another sheet there, Mahmoud? How about shoelaces? Ya need some shoelaces? "Belt looks a little tight there, Mahmoud, let's give you a longer belt." "Visits by lawyers are one of the few bright spot these men have," attorney Zachary Katznelson told The Associated Press from Guantanamo, where he is spending two weeks to meet with 18 client detainees. ...and lawyer boy wonders why they're suicidal? Clive Stafford Smith, an attorney for several Guantanamo detainees, said curtailing lawyer visits would likely lead more prisoners to attempt suicide. "The level of depression is soaring, I am afraid," he said over the weekend. Awwwwwww... Many detainees are kept in isolation in small cells with no natural light. With no prison sentence having been pronounced — except for one Australian detainee — the detainees do not know when they will get out, if ever. Many have been there for more than five years. Jeez, sounds like time for another hunger strike... Attorney Stephen Oleskey, who represents six Algerians, said more suicides are "a real risk" if the court restricts lawyer-client contacts. "I've seen firsthand the mental conditions of my clients deteriorate in isolation," Oleskey said from Boston. "And I think the impact of further restrictions would be dramatic." Ummmmmmm...so? ... and even if we'd release them, most of them have nowhere to go since their home countries don't want them ... Meanwhile, Katznelson sees the move to restrict attorney access as an attempt to seal the facility from critics. "If we cannot come in, the only news getting out of here will be the government's carefully crafted version," Katznelson said in an e-mail Saturday. Instead of our carefully crafted version... It is the attorneys, arriving at the base in southeast Cuba aboard military planes or tiny commuter flights, who provide the world with information about hunger strikes, solitary confinement and other details about the detainees. Journalists can visit but are barred by the military from interviewing detainees. The Red Cross, which occasionally visits, keeps its findings confidential. Here's an idea. Give their clients new roomates! Whaddya say counselors? All the access to 'em ya want, 24/7! Cheers the boys up! Whaddya say? A win-win for everybody! But military commanders at Guantanamo and the Justice Department view the lawyers with suspicion. Well can ya beat that? Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, told the AP the military has been giving broad lawyer access to many detainees — even though they are accused of having al-Qaida or Taliban links and the United States is still at war. The mail system was "misused" to inform detainees about military operations in Iraq, activities of terrorist leaders, efforts in the war on terror, the Hezbollah attack on Israel and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, the Justice Department said in this month's court filing. Hmmmm? Maybe grounds for disbarment? Barry M. Kamin, president of the New York City Bar, called the assertions "astonishing and disingenuous" in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Lawyers for detainees also dismissed the claims, calling them a pretext to deprive detainees of proper legal representation. "There have been a lot of extreme statements made," said Oleskey, referring to U.S. government criticism of legal defense efforts. "I think it's unfortunate and it should stop." Lawyers lying? Preposterous, I tells ya! Preposterous!

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Home Front: WoT

Guantanamo inmate nixes heart procedure

2006-11-20

A 59-year-old Guantanamo Bay detainee has refused to have a required heart procedure at the U.S. military base in Cuba, one of his attorneys said Sunday. Saifullah A. Paracha, a Pakistani multimillionaire, will not agree to have a cardiac catheterization done at the base because he thinks its medical facilities and backups are inadequate, said Zachary Katznelson of the London-based human rights group Reprieve. "This is a completely new procedure for Guantanamo. Mr. Paracha very well might need open heart surgery, and that has never been done before at Guantanamo," Katznelson said. Paracha, who is accused of laundering money for al-Qaida and plotting to smuggle explosives into the United States, already has had one heart attack while in U.S. custody and has recently suffered chest pains, according to his lawyers. Cardiac catheterization is a diagnostic procedure used to detect blockages or other heart problems. A doctor inserts a thin plastic tube into an artery or vein in the arm or leg and pushes it into the chambers of the heart or into the coronary arteries to measure blood pressure within the heart and blood oxygen levels. Sometimes the procedure involves injecting a dye and using radiology to get images of any blockages. Treatment options for blockages can include anti-clotting drugs and balloon angioplasty to open the artery. Heart bypass surgery is often the preferred solution when there are many blockages. A motion filed by Paracha's legal team to block the medical procedure, which doctors have scheduled for this month, is expected to be heard Monday in a federal court in Washington. Government lawyers have asked the court to reject the motion.

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Home Front: WoT

Lawyers Go to Court for Gitmo Detainee

2006-09-19

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - A Saudi has been held in solitary confinement for a year at the Guantanamo Bay prison and is now so mentally unbalanced he considers insects his friends, lawyers said in a motion filed Monday seeking the man's removal from isolation. Shaker Aamer, a 37-year-old resident of Britain, was placed in isolated confinement Sept. 24, 2005, and has been beaten by guards, deprived of sleep and subjected to temperature extremes, according to the motion filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. However, Aamer has said he had contact with fellow prisoners as recently as the beginning of June, one of his lawyers, Zachary Katznelson, said in a declaration to the court in Washington. Neither lawyer could immediately be contacted to explain the apparently contradictory information. "He's crazy! He keeps talking to Jiminy Cricket!" In the 16-page filing, Aamer's lawyers said that since he was put into isolation 360 days ago, except for infrequent meetings with his attorneys, he has had contact only with the Americans running the prison on this U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba. ``His only consistent contact with living beings beside his captors is with the ants in his cell. He feeds them and considers them his friends,'' Katznelson said in a statement filed with the court. ``There is no question in my mind that he is mentally unstable,'' he added. He may have been unstable prior to being imprisoned. The motion, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press, said Aamer lives in a 6-by-8-foot cell containing a steel bunk, steel toilet, steel sink, a Quran and a thin mattress. The cell is contained entirely within a wooden shack. Katznelson said that on June 9 - the day before three Guantanamo detainees committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells - military police beat Aamer because he resisted providing a retina scan and fingerprints. ``They choked him,'' the lawyer said. ``They bent his nose repeatedly so hard to the side he thought it would break. ... They gouged his eyes. They held his eyes open and shined a mag-lite in them for minutes on end, generating intense heat. They bent his fingers until he screamed. When he screamed, they cut off his airway, then put a mask on him so he could not cry out.'' I own a Maglite. The heat isn't 'intense'. And if Aamer gave the guards any guff then he's going to get whacked. Every con in the pen knows that. The motion said the treatment of Aamer, who is fluent in English and is known to military guards as ``the Professor,'' violates Article Three of the Geneva Conventions, which states prisoners ``shall in all circumstances be treated humanely.'' So far I haven't heard anything that violates this, even if we're magnamious enough to extend Article Three to the mook. Army Capt. Dan Byer, a Guantanamo spokesman, denied any of the roughly 450 Guantanamo detainees are subjected to such treatment. He said regulations prevent him from speaking about individual detainees, but that detainees are treated in conformance with the Geneva Conventions. He discounted the allegation that Aamer was kept in solitary confinement. ``No detainee is in a situation where they do not have available human contact 24 hours a day,'' Byer said, but he declined to discuss whether Aamer has been kept apart from other detainees for a year. No doubt that solitary can send some guys 'round the bend. Happens in the state pens. The issue is what he did to land himself in solitary. Aamer told his lawyer the air conditioner in his cell is often turned off, leaving him sweltering in the tropical heat, or turned up full blast ``so the cell is freezing cold.'' Aamer claims he was working for a charity organization when he was captured in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. Just a pious, humble solicitor for the Widows Ammunition Fund. The detainee won a measure of fame at the prison last year when he met with Army Col. Mike Bumgarner, who was then the warden, to end a hunger strike by detainees. Aamer brought together a six-man prisoners council that attempted to negotiate improved conditions and advocated that detainees be tried or sent home, his lawyers said, but the talks failed and Aamer was put in solitary confinement.

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