The Declaration represents the largest collection of policy experts yet to lend their voices to a responsible plan to process the cases of suspected terrorist detainees held at the Guantanamo detention facility.
I am drawing together here the stories of six men who, nearly eight years after their wrongful and mistaken capture, are finally free from Guantánamo, even if an uncertain future awaits them.
he administration's efforts to close the facility have been hampered by another more cynical reality: Congressional Republicans have turned the debate over closing Guantánamo into a partisan game of "gotcha."
Rosanne Cash appeared on the Colbert Report last night on the use of music to torture at Guantanamo, and she made it clear: using music as torture is wrong and there's no gray area.
Recently I have been in touch with Binyam Mohamed, who was released from Guantánamo in February -- after seven years' captivity without charges.
Once a prison guard purchases a copy of his favorite Nine Inch Nails CD, he is free to play it on his boombox. He is free to put a particular song on "repeat" and to play it as loud as he wants to.
Phase III: Obama Strikes Back. The Republicans are still leaderless and teabaggers have hung up their Lipton for the winter. Meanwhile, two-thirds of Americans still want health care reform.
Mr. Vice-President, you and your President had eight full years to chart a direction for this nation. That direction was soundly rejected by the voters in the most recent national election.
Is a school entitled to discipline a student? Of course -- if a crime is committed. But let's get real here. We're talking about freedom of speech on the Internet.
The real head-scratcher for serious media-watchers right now is what the "war" between the White House and Fox News was meant to distract us from this week. The "war" itself is laughable, for a number of reasons.
Call me a socialist, but I have believed for decades that the Department of Justice should actively monitor Top 40 Hits because certain songs could lead upstanding citizens to confess to crimes that they did not commit.
Yesterday's announcement by acclaimed musicians that they were signing onto our National Campaign to Close Guantanamo Bay generated a harsh response from Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol.
By lobbying to keep Guantanamo Bay open, Liz Cheney's group is helping keep alive one of the greatest recruiting posters that al Qaeda ever had.
Music is perhaps the freest expression of art in an open society. In my travels to more than 50 countries, a sense of pride has always emerged for American culture abroad in the form of music.
Those who focus solely on the closing of Gitmo merely invite the US government to move any detainees still in need of further 'care' to Bagram, which is in a similarly lawless situation, if not more so.
Common Cause recently sponsored a compelling session at the National Press Club on prisoner abuse, military commissions trying detainees, and who is responsible for torturous interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In briefs, the battle lines have been drawn. On the one hand is the government, endorsing Bush-era policies. And for the Uighurs, there is a Boston-based attorney and his team.
The military commissions, which will continue to be tainted by the dark legacy of Guantánamo, will always be doubted and cannot achieve the justice that 9/11 family members and all Americans deserve.
It is not cliche or radical to demand the U.S. hold our own torturers (at all levels) to the same level of accountability as British mining corporations.
In the end, Liz Cheney and Keep America Safe are just a re-run of what was already tried and failed in 2008. Namely, using the veil of fear to mask an un-informed, false, and weak position.
I think there's a message in Chicago losing the Olympics. I also think there's a message in the moon invasion despite its alleged success. The message is a simple one: It's time to focus on home.
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