Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton » Guantanamo

Marcy Wheeler

Scott Horton — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:05:40 +0000

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the DC Circuit court’s rejection of Guantanamo prisoner Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif‘s successful habeas corpus petition; the DOD’s 2006 determination that Latif should be released; the DC court’s assertion that government intelligence must be presumed valid, essentially gutting habeas rights and openly defying the SCOTUS Boumediene decision; the DOJ’s prosecution of former CIA officer John Kiriakou, building on Obama’s record setting witch-hunt of government whistleblowers; and the novel tactic of charging whistleblowers under the Espionage Act (it wasn’t done before because “it’s stupid”).

MP3 here. (19:55)

Blogger Marcy Wheeler, a.k.a. emptywheel, grew up bi-coastally, starting with every town in New York with an IBM. Then she moved to Poway, California, home of several participants in the Duke Cunningham scandal. Since then, she has lived in Western Massachusetts, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Ann Arbor, and — just recently — Western Michigan.

She got a BA from Amherst College, where she spent much of her time on the rugby pitch. A PhD program in Comparative Literature brought her to Michigan; she got the PhD but decided academics was not her thing. Her research, though, was on a cool journalistic form called the “feuilleton” — a kind of conversational essay that was important to the expansion of modern newspapers in much of the rest of the world. It was pretty good preparation to become a blogger, if a PhD can ever be considered training for blogging.

After leaving academics, Marcy consulted for the auto industry, much of it in Asia. But her contract moved to Asia, along with most of Michigan’s jobs, so she did what anyone else would do. Write a book, and keep blogging. (Oh, and I hear Amazon still has the book for sale.)

Marcy has been blogging full time since 2007. She’s known for her live-blogging of the Scooter Libby trial, her discovery of the number of times Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded, and generally for her weedy analysis of document dumps.

Marcy met her husband Mr. emptywheel playing Ultimate Frisbee, though she retired from the sport several years ago. Marcy, Mr. EW and their dog — McCaffrey the MilleniaLab — live in a loft in a lovely urban hellhole.

The Other Scott Horton

Scott Horton — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:09:14 +0000

The Other Scott Horton (no relation), international human rights lawyer and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine, discusses his article “Spanish Court Resumes Gitmo Prosecution;” the many other foreign courts, frustrated with the US’s refusal to act, restarting their own torture prosecutions; uncertainty of how high up the chain of command indictments will go, and whether the White House OLC lawyers enabling torture will be targeted; how WikiLeaks got the ball rolling again by exposing high-level US efforts to squash previous Spanish investigations of American political and military figures; the US’s repudiation of international law and universal jurisdiction, after helping establish them after WWII; and Ron Paul’s effort to repeal the NDAA’s indefinite detention provision.

MP3 here. (20:43)

The other Scott Horton is a Contributing Editor for Harper’s magazine where he writes the No Comment blog. A New York attorney known for his work in emerging markets and international law, especially human rights law and the law of armed conflict, Horton lectures at Columbia Law School. A life-long human rights advocate, Scott served as counsel to Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner, among other activists in the former Soviet Union.

He is a co-founder of the American University in Central Asia, and has been involved in some of the most significant foreign investment projects in the Central Eurasian region. Scott recently led a number of studies of abuse issues associated with the conduct of the war on terror for the New York City Bar Association, where he has chaired several committees, including, most recently, the Committee on International Law. He is also a member of the board of the National Institute of Military Justice, the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, the EurasiaGroup and the American Branch of the International Law Association.

Andy Worthington

Scott Horton — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:09:15 +0000

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses the ten-year-long miscarriage of justice at Guantanamo; why Obama hasn’t expended any political capital to close the prison or end military commissions; the mere six Guantanamo prisoners who have either accepted a plea deal or been convicted of a crime; and why the Obama administration won’t release USS Cole bombing suspect Abdul Rahim al-Nashiri even if he is acquitted, making a mockery of the “justice” system.

MP3 here. (19:47)

Andy Worthington writes regularly for newspapers and websites including the Guardian, Truthout, Cageprisoners, and the Future of Freedom Foundation. He writes occasionally for the Daily Star, Lebanon, the Huffington Post, Antiwar.com, CounterPunch, AlterNet, and ZNet. He is the author of The Guantanamo Files and writes an eponymous blog. He directed the documentary movie Outside the Law: Stories From Guantanamo.

Almerindo Ojeda

Scott Horton — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:34:13 +0000

Almerindo Ojeda, professor at UC Davis and director of the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, discusses his article “Death in Guantanamo: Suicide or Dryboarding;” continuing the investigation began by “the other” Scott Horton at Harper’s Magazine into the suspicious deaths of three Guantanamo prisoners at Camp “No;” the similarites between Ali Al-Marri’s “dryboarding” torture at a Naval brig in South Carolina and the treatment of the Guantanamo Three; and the need for an independent investigation not led by the Pentagon.

MP3 here. (19:59)

Almerindo E. Ojeda is the founding director of the University of California at Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas and the principal investigator for its flagship Guantánamo Testimonials Project.

Brandon Neely

Scott Horton — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:03:44 +0000

Former Guantanamo prison guard Brandon Neely discusses the first six months Guantanamo was open for business (covered here by CNN) when no guidelines existed for prisoner treatment; why the guards thought all Gitmo prisoners were 9/11 terrorists and treated them accordingly (as it turns out the vast majority were not guilty of anything); covering up brutal prisoner beatings by Initial Reaction Force (IRF) teams; how soldiers and prisoners alike are bullied into keeping quiet about their experiences at Guantanamo; and why Gitmo is a “black eye on America.”

MP3 here. (22:27)

Brandon Neely is a former Guantanamo prison guard and current Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) member.

Luc Côté

Scott Horton — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:43:27 +0000

Luc Côté, director of the film You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 days inside Guantanamo, discusses the interrogation videos of 16-year old prisoner Omar Khadr, taken by Canadian intelligence agents inside Guantanamo; how the same American interrogator who killed Dilawar the taxi driver at Bagram prison also interrogated the badly-injured Khadr about 50 times; and how sleep deprivation of prisoners (through the “frequent flyer program“) made extracting false confessions much easier for interrogators.

MP3 here. (20:06)

Luc Côté has been directing and producing films since the age of fourteen. For the past 35 years, he has traveled extensively around the world, making social documentaries that capture the human spirit. In the early eighties, he founded his first production company in New York, On Track Video. In 1986, he joined Robbie Hart in Montreal and launched Adobe Productions. Together, they produced and directed more than 30 films including two award winning documentary series: Turning 16 and Rainmakers.

Turning 16, a series about teenagers around the world produced in 1993, has been broadcasted in more than forty countries and got several national and international awards, including the prestigious Japan Prize, from The International Educational Program Contest sponsored by the NHK TV network and a Gémeaux Award from The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Most recently, Luc Côté has been directing films for other production companies: Macumba International, Virage, Erezi Productions and the Cirque du Soleil.

In 2005, he directed, Crash Landing, a film about post-traumatic stress disorder that was selected to be shown in many festivals around the world and won several awards including an Honorable Mention for best Canadian Documentary at the Hot Docs Toronto Festival in 2005. Along with his work as a filmmaker, Luc teaches documentary film making at the International Film School of Cuba.

Andy Worthington

Scott Horton — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:26:30 +0000

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses the film You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantánamo about child soldier and Canadian citizen Omar Khadr’s interrogation in Guantanamo; Khadr’s travails in Afghanistan, where he was nearly killed by a US airstrike then captured and accused of killing a medic; the US government’s decision to treat child soldiers as regular prisoners in contravention of international norms; and how military commissions have made it a war crime to fight against US invasions and occupations.

MP3 here. (20:19)

The Other Scott Horton

Scott Horton — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 10:30:54 +0000

The Other Scott Horton (no relation), international human rights lawyer, professor and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine, discusses his confidence in his Guantanamo “Suicides” expose in Harpers magazine despite a barrage of criticism; the Department of Justice giving a wink and a nod at the Bush torture program; how John Durham’s investigation of CIA torture was hamstrung by limitations imposed by the Obama administration; the CIA’s heavy redaction (to save face, not protect national security) of Glenn Carle’s book The Interrogator: An Education; and how the DOJ withheld crucial evidence during accused al-Qaeda financier Pacha Wazir’s habeas corpus hearing.

MP3 here. (18:51)

Andy Worthington

Scott Horton — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 05:32:57 +0000

Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, discusses his micro-fundraiser – give a few bucks to the world’s best Guantanamo reporter why dontcha? – Andy’s very brief employ with NYT in 2008; the unknown Gitmo prisoners, the travesty of military commissions instead of federal court trials for KSM et al; Obama’s tour of Britain where he was treated like a demigod while still holding Brits in Guantanamo, his refusal to deal with Bush “legacy” issues like Gitmo, trials, torture and law with the likely consequence that all will become established precedent.

MP3 here. (32:20)

Jeffrey Kaye

Scott Horton — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:30:05 +0000

Jeffrey Kaye, writer for Truthout and Firedoglake, discusses his article “Deconstructing the Campaign to Malign Award-Winning Article on Guantanamo ‘Suicides’” about (the other) Scott Horton’s exposé; the many half-truths and misrepresentations in Alex Koppelman’s Adweek hit piece; how Koppelman’s publication in Adweek sends a message to magazine publishers and advertisers about what is beyond the pale in mainstream media; the Seton Hall study on the botched NCIS investigation of the “suicides;” and the inconclusive autopsy – due to conspicuously missing body parts – done by Swiss pathologist Patrice Mangin (spun by Koppelman as an endorsement of the suicide theory).

MP3 here. (19:38)

Jeffrey Kaye, a psychologist living in Northern California, writes regularly on torture and other subjects for Truthout, The Public Record and Firedoglake. He also maintains a personal blog, Invictus.