Note: At NBC News we have something called the hot file where we file update news stories throughout the day that the entire news division has access to. I easily get 100-200 hot notes a day.  Here’s what I filed at the end of Omar Khadr’s hearing today:

Judge Pat Parish denied the defense’s motion to suppress the Omar Khadr “bombmaking ” video found at the sight of the 2002 firefight where Khadr was wounded.  Parish also denied the motion to suppress Khadr’s confessions made to various interrogators since he was apprehended in 2002.

This means, what some consider, a particularly damning video of Omar Khadr being instructed on how to make and plant IED’s by known members of Al Qaeda will be put into evidence. This is the video that CBS aired parts of in 2007.  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3518748n&tag=related;photovideo 

(Note:  We have put in a request for the DOD to release this video to the media.)

This also means that the judge will allow any statements or confessions Khadr made while in custody in Bagram or Guantanamo.

The military commissions case of United States of America v. Omar Ahmed Khadr will begin Tuesday morning at 9amET

SMALL GLIMPSE INSIDE GUANTANAMO BAY

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/04/29/2289691.aspx

Posted: Thursday, April 29, 2010 2:09 PM
Filed Under: On Assignment

Shawna Thomas is an NBC News producer on assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to cover a pre-trial military commission hearing for Omar Khadr.

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – At the end of Recreation Road in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are at least three detention facilities known as Camps 4, 5 and 6. The media is prohibited from visiting Camp 7, a maximum-security facility, and Camps 1, 2 and 3 are not in use.

Earlier this week, we were given a tour of Camp 4, where Omar Khadr is being held. We also got a tour of Camp 6.

Camp placement depends on the detainees’ level of compliance. Detainees are neither bad nor good, but compliant and non-compliant. Camp 4 is for the most compliant detainees.

But no matter how compliant detainees are, the prevailing image is of the leg restraints, which are found in all of the empty classrooms and communal locations. A guard explained that the leg restraints are for the protection of the guards.

Games of backgammon, checkers and the coveted Nintendo DS units are some of the comfort items offered to the detainees, along with copies of USA Today and Arabic-language newspapers. 

The games and newspapers were laid out in the classroom for the media to see and shoot, but all of the cameras kept drifting to the ground where the restraints lay waiting to be used inside classrooms surrounded by razor wire.

But of course, the shot everybody wants is of the detainees. We inched our cameras as close as possible to a chain link fence that allowed us to view detainee comings and goings in the yard of Camp 4.

We recorded men in white robes walking by, talking to each other and at times staring at our cameras. But, every time someone turned around and looked directly at us – it became another shot that was going to have to be removed from our tapes and media cards at the end of the day. 

The media are restricted from photographing faces or distinguishing features of detainees because it could be a violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

In addition to requiring that prisoners of war “must at all times be treated humanely,” Article 13 states prisoners must be protected against acts of violence and intimidation, but also “against insults and public curiosity.”

My friend and colleague Hilary sent this email about her time in Haiti to a bunch of us at work.  Please read it and then consider helping:

___________________________________________________________________

Hey guys….

As some of you may know, I just got back from Haiti. I was sent down the day after the earthquake, and stayed in Port au Prince for over two weeks. It was a life-changing experience. Now that I’m back, I’m finding it hard to get the images of devastation out of my head…I so easily packed up and returned to my comfortable, lucky life…while the people of Haiti will never be able to escape the everyday reality of tragic destruction. I was so struck by the Haitian people…their resilience, pride, and friendly curiosity…their willingness to stop and give us directions or help us make a 3-point turn as we drove through their decimated neighborhoods.

Back in the states, I now feel so helpless. Although a lot of money has been donated, I’ve seen firsthand that relief going into the country is like a tiny ripple in an ocean of need….i visited areas that hadn’t even been touched by the rescue/relief effort….where a crumbled school was left untouched, with 300 middle school students buried inside; some parents clinging onto the belief that their children were still alive inside, but there was nobody who had even driven through the neighborhood to help.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record…I’m sure many of you have already done your part. But I am so afraid that when I return to the county, it will look exactly the same. The collapse of the capital has left as many as 1 million people homeless, according to the UN. I saw children sleeping on the streets…and hundreds of thousands in tent cities…living under nothing more than a bed sheet and sticks, packed into any small patch of land, with no sanitation, water, or food supply. Disease is starting to run rampant, the heat is oppressive, there are mosquitoes…and the rainy season is quickly approaching, washing in new levels of desperation.

One tactile, urgent need— tents. The ability to give families more semblance of shelter…a bit more of a roof over their heads, a place to sleep, a temporary solution. I have researched the most direct way to get tents to those in need. I am asking you to donate a tent, used or unused….or send me money and I will purchase one for you. It is the most direct way to help.

Mark Richey is donating his warehouse near Boston to store the tents and then will ship them down to Florida. Once in Florida, the tents will be picked up and flown into Port au Prince, courtesy of Partners in Health, a very legit NGO that I saw all over the city while I was there. They are hoping to send the tents out by Feb. 12th. Please ship the tents to:

Mark Richey Woodworking
40 Parker Street
Newburyport, MA 01950-4056
978.499.3800 

Lemme know if you have any questions. Please pass this onto your friends. Thank you for your help and support—

hil

Something to think about:

Total U.S. military discharges under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell since 1997

FISCAL
YEAR    TOTAL     MALE    FEMALE
1997     997      773       224
1998    1145      828       317
1999    1034      718       316
2000    1212      921       291
2001    1227      854       373
2002     885      636       249
2003     770      516       254
2004     653      437       216
2005     726      507       219
2006     612      422       190
2007     627      388       239
2008     619      410       209
2009     428      259       169

(according to Department of Defense)

A group of about 30 protesters, who are part of the group Witness Against Torture, were arrested on the steps of the Capitol after unfurling three banners that said “Broken Promises.  Broken Laws.  Broken Lives.”

Witness Against Torture is an organization who opposes torture and is calling for the U.S. facility in Guantanamo to be closed.  Members have been fasting since January 11th and planned on concluding their fast tomorrow to coincide with the one year anniversary of President Obama signing an Executive Order to close Guantanamo.  According to one of the organizers, Matthew Daloisio, the group held today’s action in anticipation that the Obama administration would not “close Guantanamo within it’s self-proclaimed one-year timeline.”

About 75 people processed from the White House to the Department of Justice to the Supreme Court to the Capitol in orange jumpsuits, said Daloisio.  Those people unfurled the three banners on the steps and were warned by the Capitol police to leave the area.  The 30 who did not leave the area were arrested peacefully. 

Simultaneously, a group of about 6 to 8 people gathered in the Rotunda and kneeled quietly in the center.  Daloisio said the point was to call attention to the story of three men whose deaths were ruled a suicide at Gitmo in 2006.  An article published in Harper’s Magazine earlier this month calls into question whether the men committed suicide or were murdered.  (Article can be found here: http://harpers.org/archive/2010/01/hbc-90006368)  Those members of the organization were also peacefully arrested. 

Matthew Daloisio’s cell: 201-264-4424
Website for Witness Against Torture: www.witnesstorture.org
AP Article on the harper’s piece: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_guantanamo_suicides

Russia’s energy giant Gazprom has signed a $2.5bn (£1.53bn) deal with Nigeria’s state operated NNPC, to invest in a new joint venture.

The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria…