The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 8 denied a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Guantánamo Bay detainee Adham Mohammed Ali Awad, allowing for continued incarceration of the Yemeni national by the US government. A three-judge panel unanimously upheld the district court's decision, which referred to Awad's role in armed conflict as "gossamer thin," but still denied the detainee's request for relief from indefinite incarceration.

From the Center for Constitutional Rights, June 7:

CCR Endorses New Report Showing Evidence of Bush Administration
Human Experimentation on Men in CIA Secret Detention
Violations of Nuremburg Code and Role of Health Professionals
In Secret Torture Program Require Criminal Investigation
Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement in response to a new report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Experiments in Torture: Human Subject Research and Evidence of Experimentation in the "Enhanced" Interrogation Program. Download the report at http://phrtorturepapers.org.

A lawyer from Spain's National Court Office of the Prosecutor on May 12 petitioned judge Ismael Moreno to issue arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents who allegedly kidnapped a German citizen of Lebanese descent in 2003 as part of the Bush administration's "extraordinary rendition" program. Khaled el-Masri claims that the CIA kidnapped him while he was traveling to Macedonia in 2003 and transported him to a secret detention facility in Afghanistan where he was held for four months. The Office of the Prosecutor alleges that the court has jurisdiction to issue the warrants because the agents made a stop in Spanish territory using hidden identities without official Spanish government authorization to do so.

From the Center for Constitutional Rights, May 13:

Obama Administration Sides with Bush DOJ,
Asks Supreme Court to Keep Canadian Rendition Victim Maher Arar from His Day in Court
NEW YORK – Late yesterday, the Obama Department of Justice chose to weigh in for the first time on the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) case on behalf of Canadian citizen Maher Arar against US officials for their role in sending him to Syria to be tortured and detained for a year.

Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that Nairobi is attempting to secure the release of Kenyan native Mohammed Abdumalik, who is currently detained at Guantánamo Bay. The news was revealed in a letter to Abdulmalik's family, informing them that the Kenyan government will ask the US to release the detainee. Abdulmalik's family filed a $30 million lawsuit against the Kenyan government last year, claiming that Abdulmalik was illegally detained, tortured, and renditioned to US authorities.

In a signal that the Obama administration is preparing a return to military tribunals for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the Pentagon last week appointed a retired three-star admiral with international law experience to run the war court. Retired Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald replaces Susan Crawford as Convening Authority for Military Commissions. MacDonald, formerly top legal counsel for the Navy, has repeatedly testified before Congress in support of the tribunal system. (Miami Herald, March 25)

A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on March 24 denied a Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee's habeas corpus petition on its merits, allowing the US government to prolong the detention indefinitely. Detainee Makhtar Yahia Naji al Warafi was captured during the 2001-2002 US campaign in Afghanistan and maintains that he was only a medical clinic worker at the time. The US alleges that Pentagon intelligence demonstrates Warafi was a trained jihadist. The order by judge Royce Lamberth cites a classified memorandum containing details of the reasoning, which was filed with the court security officer.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced March 23 that three Guantánamo Bay detainees had been transferred to the country of Georgia. The transfer was approved by unanimous consent of the Guantánamo Review Task Force, an inter-agency group that reviewed several factors regarding the detainees, including security. The identities of the released detainees are being withheld due to security and privacy concerns. The DoJ stated that the US "is grateful to Georgia for its willingness to support US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay facility." More than 580 detainees have been transferred from Guantánamo Bay since 2002. With the departure of these last three detainees, 183 detainees remain in the military prison.