Terrorism Cases Are Unraveling All Over The World

El-Masri Testifies Before Spanish Judge Investigating Renditions

In addition to the Arar case out of Canada, the Hicks case in Autralia, and a couple of cases involving British citizens, the el-Masric case is unraveling the disinformation and dysfunctional approach being employed by the Bush administration in terms of detainees under the banner of the "war on Terrorism."

Khaled el-Masric wept Monday as he testified before a Spanish judge about his alleged extraordinary rendition to Afghanistan by US intelligence agents. El-Masri, a German citizen born in Kuwait, described how he was abducted in December 2003 while vacationing along the Serbian-Madedonian border, tortured for 23 days at a Skopje hotel, and then flown to Kabul, where he was imprisoned and tortured for five months before being released without charge in Albania. El-Masri believes the agents intended to seize a suspected terrorist with a similar name.

Hamdan Navy Lawyer Denied Promotion, Will Leave US Military

This case only demonstrates that anyone that dares to question the logic, evidence or legality of the Bush administration will suffer consequences. In this case the military career of a courageous defender of the Constitution is derailed while members of the Bush gang are wrapping themselves in the flag while violating the Constitution without a second thought.

The US Navy lawyer who successfully represented the plaintiff Guantanamo detainee in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and took his case all the way to the US Supreme Court has been denied a promotion and will leave the military by spring, the Miami Herald reports. Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who has worked in the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions since 2003, said he learned about two weeks after the Hamdan decision that he would not receive a promotion to commander. Because of the military's "up or out" promotion policy, Swift must retire, although he said he would continue to represent Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as Osama bin Laden's driver, as a civilian attorney. Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, chief defense counsel in the Office of Military Commissions, praised Swift's work as "really extraordinary" and said that the timing of the promotion decision was "quite a coincidence."

In the Hamdan case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration's military commissions for terrorism suspects lacked proper legal authorization as initially constituted, forcing the White House to win congressional approval of new legislation setting up the commissions and defining appropriate procedures.