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Got a firm-wide email a couple minutes ago. This may or may not interest you.. (Getting out of Guantanamo Bay is a huge fucking deal folks)
Also, it's been discussed that Barack wants to close down Guantanamo Bay, read a little article about that a while ago.. I'll try and find a link for that.
As for the B!ng story,
(Pictured from left to right): Susan Baker Manning, Catherine Murphy, Jason Pinney, Rheba Rutkowski, Sabin Willett, Francesca Miceli and Erika Tillery were honored in November 2008 with Bingham’s John J. Curtin Jr. Public Service Award for their pro bono work on behalf of Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay.
Four Uighurs Freed From Guantanamo
By Claire Papanastasiou
Ending seven years of captivity and four years of legal challenges, four Bingham clients — imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center after being cleared by the U.S. government as enemy combatants — were freed in Bermuda this morning with Bingham partners Sabin Willett and Susan Baker Manning at their side.
Huzaifa Parhat, Abdul Semet, Abdul Nasser and Jalal Jalaladin are ethnic Uighurs who fled Western China before the Afghanistan war. They were sold to U.S. forces by bounty hunters and transferred to the Guantanamo prison. Military authorities soon recognized the mistake, but fears of persecution prevented release to their home. Three of the four were cleared for release by military review six years ago; the fourth in 2005. In 2008 they won legal challenges before U.S. courts. When the press reported that some of the 17 Uighurs might be released to the United States earlier this year, a political firestorm erupted in Congress, and release plans were stalled.
Accompanied by Sabin and Susan, the four disembarked from a charter aircraft at Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport at about 6:00 am today. They will participate in Bermuda’s foreign guest worker program.
“We are deeply grateful to the government and the people of Bermuda for this act of grace,” Sabin said. “Nations need good friends."
"These men should never have been at Guantanamo,” Susan added. “We are grateful to Bermuda for this humanitarian act."
Bingham chairman Jay Zimmerman applauded the Bingham Gitmo team for its dedication. “This outstanding development epitomizes the dedication by our lawyers and staff, who devoted several years to helping these detainees,” said Jay. “This accomplishment confirms the strength of our constitutional principles and Bingham’s abiding commitment to the due process of law.”
In addition to Sabin and Susan, the Gitmo team includes partner Neil McGaraghan, of counsel Rheba Rutkowski, associates Jason Pinney, Catherine Murphy, Samuel Rowley and Francesca Lucia Micelli, and legal secretary Erika Tillery.
Speaking for the four Uighurs, Nasser thanked the Bermudan government and people. “Growing up under Communism,” he said, “we always dreamed of living in peace and working in free society like this one. Today you have let freedom ring.”
Bingham first filed pro bono legal challenges for the men in 2005. Parhat won a release order from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2008. In October 2008, District Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered Parhat and his Uighur companions released into the Washington, D.C., area. The order was stayed, and in February 2009 reversed. All 17 Uighurs have sought review of this order in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Today’s release brings to seven the number of men whose release Bingham has procured from the Guantanamo prison. Of the 13 Uighur men who remain, two are Bingham clients.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++
(May 20, 2009)
Obama & Guantanamo Bay,
You can read the article here.
Also, it's been discussed that Barack wants to close down Guantanamo Bay, read a little article about that a while ago.. I'll try and find a link for that.
As for the B!ng story,
(Pictured from left to right): Susan Baker Manning, Catherine Murphy, Jason Pinney, Rheba Rutkowski, Sabin Willett, Francesca Miceli and Erika Tillery were honored in November 2008 with Bingham’s John J. Curtin Jr. Public Service Award for their pro bono work on behalf of Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay.
Four Uighurs Freed From Guantanamo
By Claire Papanastasiou
Ending seven years of captivity and four years of legal challenges, four Bingham clients — imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center after being cleared by the U.S. government as enemy combatants — were freed in Bermuda this morning with Bingham partners Sabin Willett and Susan Baker Manning at their side.
Huzaifa Parhat, Abdul Semet, Abdul Nasser and Jalal Jalaladin are ethnic Uighurs who fled Western China before the Afghanistan war. They were sold to U.S. forces by bounty hunters and transferred to the Guantanamo prison. Military authorities soon recognized the mistake, but fears of persecution prevented release to their home. Three of the four were cleared for release by military review six years ago; the fourth in 2005. In 2008 they won legal challenges before U.S. courts. When the press reported that some of the 17 Uighurs might be released to the United States earlier this year, a political firestorm erupted in Congress, and release plans were stalled.
Accompanied by Sabin and Susan, the four disembarked from a charter aircraft at Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport at about 6:00 am today. They will participate in Bermuda’s foreign guest worker program.
“We are deeply grateful to the government and the people of Bermuda for this act of grace,” Sabin said. “Nations need good friends."
"These men should never have been at Guantanamo,” Susan added. “We are grateful to Bermuda for this humanitarian act."
Bingham chairman Jay Zimmerman applauded the Bingham Gitmo team for its dedication. “This outstanding development epitomizes the dedication by our lawyers and staff, who devoted several years to helping these detainees,” said Jay. “This accomplishment confirms the strength of our constitutional principles and Bingham’s abiding commitment to the due process of law.”
In addition to Sabin and Susan, the Gitmo team includes partner Neil McGaraghan, of counsel Rheba Rutkowski, associates Jason Pinney, Catherine Murphy, Samuel Rowley and Francesca Lucia Micelli, and legal secretary Erika Tillery.
Speaking for the four Uighurs, Nasser thanked the Bermudan government and people. “Growing up under Communism,” he said, “we always dreamed of living in peace and working in free society like this one. Today you have let freedom ring.”
Bingham first filed pro bono legal challenges for the men in 2005. Parhat won a release order from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2008. In October 2008, District Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered Parhat and his Uighur companions released into the Washington, D.C., area. The order was stayed, and in February 2009 reversed. All 17 Uighurs have sought review of this order in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Today’s release brings to seven the number of men whose release Bingham has procured from the Guantanamo prison. Of the 13 Uighur men who remain, two are Bingham clients.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++
(May 20, 2009)
Obama & Guantanamo Bay,
President Obama’s high-profile pledge to shut Guantánamo Bay was shot down by his own party today when Senate Democrats voted to block the transfer of detainees and refused to pay for the closure.
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