Kevin Gosztola at FDL:

The United States government has disclosed the names of fifty-five of the eighty-six prisoners cleared for transfer from  Guantanamo Bay prison. All of the names made public were of prisoners President Barack Obama’s interagency  Guantanamo Bay Review Task Force approved for release from the prison. Previously, the US government had maintained the names of prisoners cleared could not be made public because it would get in the way of diplomatic efforts to repatriate or resettle prisoners in their home country or other countries.

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Two cheers for the Obama administration for committing sufficiently to their release to actually name their names. One cheer permanently withheld for holding these apparently not dangerous individuals for a total of eleven years without charge, trial, meaningful access to attorneys, etc. ad nauseam. I'm sorry, but that does not reflect a commitment to civil liberties and human rights on the part of the Obama administration.

Still, in these ghastly times, we take what positive news we can get. I wonder what kind of poo Rmoney will fling about this announcement...

What's classified in a Gitmo detainee's trial? No less than every word spoken by a detainee. Yep. Everything a defendant says is presumptively classified, notwithstanding the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a "speedy and public trial." So much for the "public" part! Read what Pro Publica's Cora Currier documents for us. Here's Currier on the ACLU's action:

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The ACLU filed a brief in May saying that the government’s order of presumptive classification and the forty-second delay [in the livecast of trials to American news agencies] violate the public’s right of access to the trial. The ACLU’s motion takes issue with the idea that the government has declared detainees’ “personal knowledge of their detention and treatment in U.S. custody” classified. Their exposure to classified information was forced upon them, the ACLU states, in CIA detention and interrogation programs that are now outlawed.

The ACLU argues that an executive order on classification signed by Obama in 2009 says in part that, in order to be properly classified, information must be “under the control of the United States Government.” The ACLU’s brief challenges whether that authority could be extended “categorically to human beings under the government’s control.” [emphasis in original]. The ACLU also argues that the detainees were not in any kind of contractual relationship which would make them liable for the classified information they were exposed to.

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It's just another battle in the bipartisan war on rights and liberties.

Once again, we need to remind our leaders that the Bill of Rights is written to apply to all persons, not just citizens. That fact and five bucks will get you a frappuccino at Starbucks...