IN RE: GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEE LITIGATION

Filing 486

MOTION to Compel by BASHIR GHALAAB (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 1)(jf, )

IN RE: GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEE LITIGATION

Doc. 486

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COT]RT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
IN RE:
$ $

Misc. No. 08-0442 (TFU)

GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEE LITIGATION

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$ $

Civil Action No. l:08-CV-01

104

(cKK)

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$

PETITIONER'S MOTION TO COMPEL
Petitioner Bashir Ghalaab files this motion
provide the fuIl CSRT record.

to compel Respondents to

1.

Petitioner (ISN 175) has been imprisoned at Guantanamo since May
legal

2002. He was, however, one of the last to decide that he wanted

representation. By the time that the undersigned counsel began representing
Petitioner, the Military Commissions Act had stripped the district courts of

jurisdiction to hear habeas cases from Guantanamo prisoners. We therefore initially filed
a

petition in the court of appeals under the Detainee Treatment Act to

challenge Petitioner's designation as an enemy combatant.

2.

Promptly after the Supreme Court's decision in Boumediene,In June

2008, we filed this habeas case on Petitioner's behalf. As evidenced by the cause number of this case. Petitioner's case is one of the last habeas cases filed on behalf

of

Guantanamo prisoners. The consequence

of this position is that, under the

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Dockets.Justia.com

Court's scheduling orders, Petitioner

will be among the very last prisoners

to

obtain a factual return on his habeas petition. Under the current schedule it will
take atleast three or four more months before a factual return is filed in this case.

3.

'We

were happy to learn that Respondents had volunteered to provide

a CSRT report for those cases in which afactual return had not been

filed.

Soon

after August 6,2008, we received"a copy of the unclassified paper record" of the

CSRT for Petitioner.

4.

UnfortunateLy, the "unclassified paper record" of the CSRT provides
was

no more information about the reasons for Petitioner's imprisonment than

already available on the internet. In fact, the "Unclassified Summary of Basis for

Tribunal Decision," which is attached as Exhibit

A (with

protected information
persuasive

redacted), concedes that the unclassified evidence

"is not

in that it

provides conclusory statements without supporting unclassified evidence." See p.
000007.

5.

The real evidence, apparently, was contained in classified exhibits,

numbered R-2 through R-11 and

D-a.

Those exhibits were not provided by

Respondents, even though they were part of the

csRT record.

6.

\Me sent

a letter to

Respondents' counsel

on August 15, 2008

(attached as Exhibit B), asking Respondents to advise us

if they had already placed

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the classified exhibits in the Secure

Facilū for our review, or if they would

agree

to do so. We received no response to our request.

7.

We are not attempting to circumvent the Court's schedule regarding

the providing of factual returns. We are simply requestingthat evidence akeady
gathered,marked as exhibits, and used in the CSRT for this Petitioner be provided

in advance of the factual returns. Otherwise, it will be at least three or four months before we receive any useful information about why Petitioner continues to be
detained.

Therefore, petitioner moves to compel Respondents to produce the classified

exhibits from the CSRT proceeding, by placing them in the Secure Facility subject

to the Protective Order, within 10 days of the entry of an order by this Court.
Petitioner prays for such other relief to which he may be justly entitled.

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Respectfully submitted,

Texas State Bar No. 07207300 One Houston Center l22t McKinneY Street, Suite 4500 Houston, Texas 77 010-2010 7t3.9s1.3700 7t3.95t.3720 (Fax)

OF COUNSEL:
Russell S.

Post
NO.

TEXAS StAtC BAr

00797258

ATTORNEY-IN.CHARGE FOR PETITIONER BASHIR GHALAAB

BECK, REDDEN & SECREST, LLP
One Houston Center 1,22I McKinney Street, Suite 4500 Houston, Texas 77 010-2010

713.95r.3700
713.951.3720 (Fax)

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
hereby certiff that a true and correct copy of the Petitioner's Motion to Compel was served upon the following on August 27,2008, as follows:

I

Terry M. HenrY Judry L. Subar U.S. DePartment of Justice Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch 20 Massachusetts Avenue, N.V/. Room 7342 Washington, D.C. 20530 Via E-Filing
/S/ Murray Fogler

MURRAY FOGLER
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