Free Republic

NEW YORK - The sweeping immigration bills in Congress would add many thousands of beds to the patchwork network of detention facilities that hold illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers — places that critics say are over-costly and under-regulated. Already, activists say, far too many nonthreatening people are held for too long in demoralizing conditions. "I'm not against homeland security," said Edward Neepaye, a pastor and human-rights campaigner from Liberia who was detained in New Jersey for four months. "But the greatest nation on earth must come up with a remedy that accords immigrants some respect, rather than throwing them in jail...

by Mark Finkelstein June 16, 2006 As this op-ed column from today's Los Angeles Times illustrates, the MSM and the left-dominated American academy continue to side, in the name of 'human rights', against measures designed to protect us from another 9/11 and with those who might potentially do us harm. Author David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University and volunteer attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, was co-counsel to the plaintiffs in Turkmen vs. Ashcroft. He condemns the district court ruling in that case, which, as described in this article from Jurist, held: "The US government can detain...

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 27, 2006 – The presiding officer in the military commissions case of a suspected Algerian terrorist here yesterday denied a defense motion to move the detainee back to a medium-security facility from the maximum-security facility he was moved to a month ago. Navy Capt. Daniel O'Toole ruled that the movement of Sufyian Barhoumi was not done as punishment, but was part of a larger plan to reorganize the entire prison camp and was done for the safety and security of the detainee. Barhoumi, who is accused of being an explosives trainer for al Qaeda,...

As more non-Mexicans cross border, agency changes release rules PEARSALL, Texas – Except for the 10-foot-high security fence topped with barbed wire and the concrete barriers at the front door, the institutional gray complex in a former farm field along Interstate 35 could pass for a new high school. It's not. To immigration officials, South Texas Detention Center is simply a part of the nation's effort to efficiently detain illegal immigrants pending deportation. To critics, it's a prison by another name and an example of increasing erosion of civil rights for immigrants. At the heart of the debate is the...

March 17, 2006 Sane Chinese Put in Asylum, Doctors Find By JOSEPH KAHN BEIJING, March 16 — Dutch psychiatrists have determined that a prominent Chinese dissident who spent 13 years in a police-run psychiatric institution in Beijing did not have mental problems that would justify his incarceration, two human rights groups said Thursday. The psychiatrists spent two days testing the dissident, Wang Wanxing, in Germany five months after China released him and sent him abroad. They said in a statement that their examination "did not reveal any form of mental disorder." The report could add fuel to charges that the...

In an effort to "be informed," I've been collecting various source documents relating to enemy combatant cases. Not making a serious study of it, by any stretch, but the following collection may be a "heads up" about a news story that will probably come out when SCOTUS reports the results of their February 17th Conference. Summary of Hamdan Case Quick Facts about Hamdan Citizen of Yemen Captured in Afgahnistan by Afghanis Classified as "enemy combatant" Held at Gitmo Asserted entitlement to prisoner of war status From Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 415 F.3d 33 ... Afghani militia forces captured Salim Ahmed Hamdan...

Former Vice President Al Gore gave another one of his famous anti-Bush speeches(1) last week before an enthusiastic audience of left-wing extremists called the 'Liberty Coalition' at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., and a more annoying compilation of unsubstantiated accusations I've not heard in recent times.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2006 – The detention of hundreds of terrorist suspects at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is helping to keep Americans and other peace-loving peoples safe, a senior Defense Department official said here today. "If released, many of them would return to the battlefield," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The detainees held at Guantanamo, he said, have sworn to kill Americans and other perceived enemies of al Qaeda and radical Islam. "They should not be back out on the street," Whitman said. Nine detainees among Guantanamo's 500-prisoner population are charged with war crimes, he noted. Defense attorneys'...

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq, Oct. 21, 2005 – Take a design engineer, a project manager and a construction company. Drop them into Iraq's mountainous north and hand them a "mission, impossible": Turn a relic of an old military fort into an internment facility ready to receive 1,000 detainees within eight weeks. That's the task that faced the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence and contractor ECC International. "We and our contract partner were up to the challenge," said Tom Russell, AFCEE's director of worldwide installation support. The team got the order to proceed in August, but the challenge began months earlier, when...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Oct. 18, 2005) -- Discipline can come in many forms for Marines in a combat area. For the Detention Company Marines and Sailors from 5th Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, discipline means putting aside personal feelings to safeguard and house detainees who could have recently killed or injured fellow service members. The Detention Co. serves as a lock and key holder for detainees at a remote detention facility at Al Asad, Iraq. Many of the Marines are reservists, ranging in MOSs from communications specialists and artillerymen to motor transport operators and administration clerks. “It is something new and...

ENSAAF today released its report, Punjab Police: Fabricating Terrorism through Illegal Detention and Torture (June 2005 to August 2005) (http://www.ensaaf.org/ft-report.html). This report details human rights violations committed by Indian security forces in recent militancy-related arrests. From June 2005 to August 2005, Indian police claim to have arrested several dozen individuals intent on reviving or supporting militancy in Punjab. These arrests center around the apprehension of Jagtar Singh Hawara, the main accused in the 1995 assassination of Punjab’s chief minister. In August and September 2005, ENSAAF documented 28 cases of detention of Punjabis accused of militancy-related activities. Its study reveals that,...

U.S. citizen held for months in China returns home By Lindsay Beck Mon Sep 12, 5:42 AM ET A U.S. citizen freed after being held in China for almost 100 days on suspicion of spying said his release was probably due to Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to the United States. China-born Xie Chunren, 56, was arrested on May 31 while on honeymoon in Sichuan province in the country's southwest. Police told him they suspected him of involvement in activities endangering national security, allegations he denied in repeated interrogations. "They asked me so many questions. I just said, 'no,...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A judge rejected a U.S. request that a Canadian marijuana activist be held without bail on Tuesday in a case that is likely to ignite debate over the countries' diverging drug policies. U.S. officials say Marc Emery illegally sold millions of dollars worth of marijuana seeds, but Emery's supporters say his business activities were well known for years and tolerated by groups that included Canada's federal health ministry. Emery is a founder of the pro-legalization B.C. Marijuana Party and his arrest comes as the Canadian government is pushing a measure to decriminalize possession of small...

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter on Saturday said the detention of terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base was an embarrassment and had given extremists an excuse to attack the United States. Speaking at the Baptist World Alliance's centenary conference in Birmingham, central England, Carter also criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq and said it was "unnecessary and unjust." "I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A.," he told a news conference. "I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses...

Army Regulation 15-6: Final Report Investigation into FBI Allegations of Detainee Abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Detention Facility EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Detention and interrogation operations at Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) cover a three-year period and over 24,000 interrogations. This AR 15-6 investigation found only three interrogation acts in violation of interrogation techniques authorized by Army Field Manual 34-52 and DoD guidance. The AR 15-6 also found that the Commander of JTF-GTMO failed to monitor the interrogation of one high value detainee in late 2002. The AR 15-6 found that the interrogation of this same high value detainee resulted in degrading...

It is perhaps not as widely known as it ought to be—in light of the hyperventilating criticism of our alleged treatment of detainees at the U.S. military’s detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba—that there has never been a single death recorded at the center known by the military as “GTMO” (pronounced gitmo). It is perhaps also not as widely known that many of the detainees at GTMO do not complain of their treatment. In fact, many detainees report that conditions at GTMO are better than those they suffered fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq prior to their being captured:...

or all the grief America is suffering over Guantanamo Bay, U.S. soldiers there might as well have flushed 1,001 Korans down 1,001 toilets — live on Al-Jazeera TV. Newsweek's May 15 retraction of its false and deadly Koran-in-the-can story has worked as well as a severed brake line in slowing calls by Democrats (and some wobbly Republicans) to padlock the terrorist detention facility. Illinois's Dick Durbin, the U.S. Senate's No. 2 Democrat, infamously compared Gitmo to the Soviet Gulag, Nazi concentration camps, and the Khmer Rouge's killing fields, despite the base's paucity of firing squads, gas chambers, or neatly stacked...

MIAMI - The commanding officer of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was relieved of his duties Saturday after he was accused of inappropriate management practices, a Navy spokesman said. Capt. Leslie J. McCoy, who had commanded Guantanamo since March 2003, was the subject of an investigation into inappropriate personnel and administrative practices unrelated to the base's detention camp for suspected terrorists. "His release and reassignment are in no way related to the detainee operations taking place in Guantanamo," said C. Patrick Dooling, spokesman for Navy Southeast Region based in Jacksonville. Dooling would not elaborate on the allegations...

S. Korea: Stopping Late Night Suicide Attempt Early morning on July 6th, an unidentified man(left) carrying a knife made a scene attempting to take his own life on the southern end of Young-dong Bridge (in Seoul.) A cop(right) was handing out a cigarette to him, while trying to persuade him to stop. After 8 hours of standoff, police was able to detain him without any incident.

/begin my translationChina: Thousands of Residents Clash with Police over Land Appropriation  (Hong Kong, Yonhap News) correspondent Kwon Young-suk --  In China, 2,000 residents clashed with thousands of policemen over land appropriation. About 20 residents were hurt due to police beatings and many were detained. Hong Kong's Ming-bao reported on its July 4th issue that 2,000 or so residents clashed with police over land appropriation in Nanhai District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China. Residents complained, "The local government did not consult with residents at all in appropriating land, and the compensation for the appropriated land was too little, which was paid afterwards."   They said, "200...