there has been a near black-out on this story. I am trying to get my in-depth piece published; in addition, I have interviews with key players: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, who gives the back-story to the creation and maintenance of Guantanamo; and the lead attorneys: Clive Stafford Smith, whose legal charity, "Reprieve," has represented more than 50 Guantanamo prisoners; and Joseph Margulies, the lead-attorney, in Rasul-v-Bush, which was affirmed by the Supreme Court in June 2004; in consequence, Guantanamo detainees--for the first time--were granted the accorded legal recognition. I would welcome the opportunity to chat with you. A lone voice in the wilderness.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

On December 23, the front page of the New York Times reported on Sami Al-Hajj, a journalist forMr. Hajj ‘one of the victims of the human rights atrocities committed by the ex-US administration.”

But in the first and second paragraphs, Stelter notes that Al-Hajj was the sole journalist among the 779 prisoners in the secret prison at Guantanamo, and that he was imprisoned for 7 years without charges being brought against him.

“Of the 779known detainees who have been held in Guantanamo, Cuba – terrorist suspects, sympathizers of Al Qaeda, people deemed enemy combatants by the United States military – only one was a journalist.”

“The journalist Sami Al-Hajj was working for Al-Jazeera as a cameraman when he was picked up by Pakistani forces on the border with Afghanistan in late 2001.The United States military accused Mr. Hajj of among other things, falsifying information and delivering money to