October 05, 2009

Tales from Guantanamo

Share: posted by Sara Haji at 02:08 PM

Almost as soon as he took office, President Obama set the January 22nd, 2010 deadline for the closure of the detainment facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In the last year, only 27 of the 250 prisoners have been relocated from the prison to other countries. Just last week, the House of Representatives voted to prevent detainees from being transferred to U.S. soil for prosecution; and, the president has faced criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike concerning his plan to move at least some detainees to the U.S. mainland upon closure of the Guantanamo facility. The funds required to close Gitmo--as it is lovingly referred to--have also been denied by lawmakers. 

But stories of prisoner abuse and legal loopholes continue to threaten relationships between the branches of government and between the people and our lawmakers. Kristine Huskey, UT law professor and former director of the National Security Clinic at UT Law School, has been embroiled in the necessary dramas of Guantanamo since its inception under Bush, Jr. in 2002. Huskey has represented detainees for years now, but her high-profile cases include Rasul v. Bush, where Gitmo detainees won the right to challenge their detentions on the federal circuit, and the defense of Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen detained at Guantanamo. She has been to the prison over a dozen times, and frequently tells tales of the horrific little restroom-less jet that transports lawyers to see their clients. On October 22nd, she'll be at Austin's BookPeople discussing her book, Justice at Guantanamo: One Woman's Odyssey and Her Crusade for Human Rights. 

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