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Rebuffed this month by skeptical lawmakers when it sought finances to buy a prison in rural Illinois, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with the money to replace the Guantánamo Bay prison. As a result, officials now believe that they are unlikely to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer its population of terrorism suspects until 2011 at the earliest... The administration appeared to take a major step forward last week when [Obama] directed subordinates to move “as expeditiously as possible” to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center, a nearly vacant maximum-security Illinois prison... But in interviews...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASES Sunday, December 20, 2009 United States Transfers 12 Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland Region Twelve detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including potential threat, mitigation measures and the likelihood of success in habeas litigation, the detainees were...

Showdown in Sterling on 12/22: rally against the jailhouse jihad moving north to Thomson No, al Qaeda will not break out of “beyond Supermax.” They’ll just wage jailhouse jihad at every opportunity and force guards to extract them from their cells when its feeding time. The slightest bruise will be dutifully reported to the press by their pro bono lawyers. Those indicted will have similar fun in lockups around the country for, in addition to Manhattan and Brooklyn, an additional 50 detainees will be farmed out for federal prosecution. Gitmo in the heartland Attorney General Eric Holder is, of course,...

The Obama administration is planning to repatriate six Yemenis held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a transfer that could be a prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen, according to sources with independent knowledge of the matter. The release is a significant first step toward dealing with the largest group of detainees at the prison -- there are currently 97 Yemenis there -- and toward meeting President Obama's goal of closing the facility. But Yemen's security problems and lack of resources have spawned fears about its ability to monitor and rehabilitate returnees. Critics...

Gitmo Does Not Cause Terrorism"Terrorism is caused, and terrorist recruitment is driven, by Islamist ideology and by American weakness in the face of terror attacks. In that sense, Senator Durbin causes more terrorism than Gitmo ever will. Terrorist organizations are encouraged when they come to believe they can win — when they come to believe they can outlast America because we lack resolve." -- Andy McCarthy 12/18/2009 Americans Oppose Closing Gitmo, Moving Prisoners to U.S."Americans remain opposed to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and moving some of the terrorist suspects being held there to U.S. prisons: 30% favor...

Sen Dick Durban (D-IL), a defender of the plan to bring terrorists into the heart of America, proved that he is more interested in pork than in the safety of his constituents: “We believe this is in service to our country,” said Durbin who noted that Obama was directing the prisoners to his home state. “This is a great opportunity. Our state unemployment numbers are 11%…People are desperate for good jobs.” In the smackdown heard ’round the world, Liz Cheney responded: “Americans did not elect President Obama to usher terrorists onto the homeland and call it a jobs program.” Indeed...

Note: The following text is a quote: Some Guantanamo Detainees to Move to Illinois Prison By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2009 – President Barack Obama’s administration plans to transfer a limited number of detainees held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in rural western Illinois, senior administration officials said here today. The federal government plans to acquire Thomson Correctional Center, a 10-year-old maximum security prison in Thomson, Ill., a farming community about 150 miles west of Chicago, officials said in a background briefing. The administration would need to work...

If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is clever he will turn his trial into an Obama birth certificate circus. The New York Post has an excellent piece by attorney Michael Schwartz, pointing out the difficulty of predicting a jury's verdict in the pending Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial in New York City. His article is entitled "Why the gov't could lose this case." But there is a complex, two-part possibility that Attorney Schwartz did not consider. KSM has said he wants to put the US government on trial and will probably bring up the Bush administration and mention waterboarding as torture in the...

Now for those in northern Illinois, welcome to the area becoming stigmatized for a very, very long time.

Justice: A leaked memo exposes the hypocrisy of those who opposed indefinite detention of terrorists without trial at Guantanamo. For the right price, they're willing to hold detainees without trial indefinitely in America's heartland. The plan to ship as many as 100 unidentified terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a little used prison in Thomson, Ill., a sleepy town of 450 people near the Mississippi River about 150 miles west of Chicago, is well under way, according to a Justice Department memo unearthed by Andrew Breitbart and biggovernment.com. The memo allegedly from Eric Holder's Department of Justice to Defense Secretary...

The United States has asked NATO member Bulgaria to house detainees from its prison camp at Guantanamo in Cuba, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on Saturday.

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it rejected an appeal by four former Guantanamo Bay prisoners arguing that they should be able to proceed with their lawsuit against top Pentagon officials for torture and religious abuse. The justices refused to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit by the four British citizens over their treatment at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on the grounds the officials enjoyed immunity. The four men -- Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal al-Harith -- were captured in late 2001 in Afghanistan and were...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, December 9, 2009 United States Transfers One Guantanamo Bay Detainee to Kuwait Fouad Mahmoud al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti national, has been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the government of Kuwait. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of this case. As a result of that review, the detainee was approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. In accordance with Congressionally-mandated reporting requirements, the Administration informed Congress of its intent to transfer...

Note: Photo included. SNIPPET: "A former Guantanamo detainee has emerged as a leading ideologue and theologian for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – one of the strongest al Qaeda affiliates in the world. Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish was captured by Pakistani authorities in late 2001 and then handed over to American officials who transferred him to Guantanamo. Rubaish was held there until Dec. 13, 2006, when he was transferred to Saudi Arabia and placed in the Saudi rehabilitation program for jihadists. At some point, Rubaish escaped from Saudi Arabia by fleeing south to Yemen. In February 2009, the Saudi...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-ag-1289.html Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, December 1, 2009 United States Transfers a Guantanamo Bay Detainee to France WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice today announced that a detainee has been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the government of France. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of this case. As a result of that review, the detainee was approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. In accordance...

SNIPPET: "Adel Ben Mabrouk, 39, and Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri, 43, are suspected of being members of a terror group with ties to al-Qaida. They were immediately taken into custody upon arrival in Milan and will be interrogated, a prosecutor told The Associated Press.

The glorious fruit of giving the 9/11 plotters civilian trials is already beginning to appear. Watch for these guys to walk—after wasting a few taxpayer millions, that is. “Mental State Cited in 9/11 Case,” by Jess Bravin in the Wall Street Journal, November 27 (thanks to Elisa): WASHINGTON—When five defendants are brought before a New York federal judge to face charges for the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the first question may be whether some of them are competent to stand trial at all. Military lawyers for Ramzi Binalshibh, an accused organizer of the 9/11 plot, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 10, 2009) — House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressing serious concerns regarding the consideration of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as a potential site for detainees transferred from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Skelton, a long-time advocate for Professional Military Education, raised concerns that a number of Muslim countries would stop sending students to the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth if Guantanamo detainees were transferred there. Skelton also noted that the United States Code precludes the proximate detention of American and foreign individuals, so any plan to...

Who gave this jihadi chasing lawyer the a-ok to speak for the Gitmo terrorists? Scott Fenstermaker has been on a publicity tour acting as though he is authorized to speak for the terrorists scheduled to make an appearance in federal criminal court. Fifteen months ago, Fenstermaker lost privileges and was removed from the military commissions civilian defense counsel pool. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has the exclusive story with information from a Pentagon source including a copy of the letter Fenstermaker received from Steven David, the chief defense council of the collection of attorneys who represented detainees at Camp Delta...

ALGIERS, Algeria -- An Algerian court on Sunday acquitted two former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were returned home to face charges of links to terrorism, their defense lawyer said. Abdelli Faghoul and Terari Mohamed had admitted in court to links with the illegal drug underworld, but denied any connection to foreign terrorist groups, defense lawyer Farid Abbache-Holder told The Associated Press. The two men were released from Guantanamo and handed over to Algerian authorities on Aug. 15, 2008 - nearly seven years after they were taken into custody and held without trial, the lawyer said. The defendants traveled...

Why the Greg Craig debacle matters By: Elizabeth Drew November 19, 2009 11:58 AM EST President Barack Obama is returning from his trek to Asia Thursday to a capital that is a considerably more dangerous place for him than when he departed. While he was abroad, there was a palpable sense at home of something gone wrong. A critical mass of influential people who once held big hopes for his presidency began to wonder whether they had misjudged the man. Most significant, these doubters now find themselves with a new reluctance to defend Obama at a phase of his presidency...

War On Terror: Sen. Dick Durbin calls a plan to transfer 100 Guantanamo detainees to northwest Illinois "a dream come true." It would paint a bull's-eye on America's heartland in time for the 2012 Iowa caucuses. It seems the question of where to put the Guantanamo detainees is being settled as we speak, with liberal Democrats in the very blue state of Illinois welcoming them with open arms and outstretched hands for the federal dollars that will come with them. Federal officials last Friday inspected the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., a town of 500 on the Iowa border,...

The Two Rivers Detention Facility in Hardin is still making national headlines as Sunday's CBS Evening News featured the controversial multi-million dollar jail that has sat empty since it was built. (cut) But, President Obama has yet to decide where the Guantanamo detainees will go and the folks in Hardin say "bring 'em on".

This morning on Fox & Friends, three 9/11 family members debated President Barack Obama's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other top attack conspirators in a federal court just six blocks away from the World Trade Center. The three were Debra Burlingame, James Riches Sr., and Charles Wolf. (See the video after the jump.)

Attorney General Eric Holder has pledged not to allow the release of dangerous detainees in the United States if they are found not guilty in federal court or if their case is thrown out on a technicality. Holder made the assurances in a written response to a question posed by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) obtained by The Hill. The 55-page document provided answers to questions from several senators on the Judiciary Committee in advance of a Wednesday oversight hearing on Justice Department policies and practices.

With the announcement of Guantanamo detainees being brought to NYC for trial, the news has shifted to that subject. I believe this is an intentional effort to distract the public from Health Care, Cap and Trade, and Global Warming bills. Public opinion clearly is against those actions by congress. Obama is trying to divert attention away from those subjects rather than have them be exposed to the light of day.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian courts grossly overreached when they ordered Ottawa to ask Washington to send a Canadian held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison back to Canada, a federal lawyer argued on Friday. The government wants the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn lower court decisions that it had to ask the Obama administration to repatriate Omar Khadr, accused of killing a U.S. soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan. The court heard oral arguments on Friday, and Khadr's legal team asked it to give a speedy ruling. The case coincided with an announcement from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder...

No Constitutional Rights For Red-Blooded Americans bythelastcrusade.org Welcome to the Islamic America of Barack Hussein Obama,Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees have been granted full rights and protection under the U.S. Constitution.They will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official announced today.Under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Mr. Mohammed and the other “alleged” terrorists will have the right to a speedy trial, the right to publicly paid counsel, the right to immediate access to all government evidence - - including...

Source: 9/11 Terror Detainees Face Trial in N.Y. Friday, November 13, 2009 WASHINGTON — Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday. The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning. The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the administration will decide in the next week the fate of the remaining Guantanamo Bay detainees. Holder, speaking to reporters at a conference in Doha, Qatar, said “We will by Nov the 16th make the determination as to who can be tried in the reformed military commissions, who can be tried in our article 3 federal courts.” More than 200 detainees including five of the September 11 plotters are still being held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba, which President Obama has vowed to close by the end of his first year...

We strongly object to the President creating a two-tier system of justice for terrorists in which those responsible for the death of thousands on 9/11 will be treated as common criminals and afforded the kind of platinum due process accorded American citizens, yet members of Al Qaeda who aspire to kill Americans but who do not yet have blood on their hands, will be treated as war criminals. The President offers no explanation or justification for this contradiction, even as he readily acknowledges that the 9/11 conspirators, now designated "unprivileged enemy belligerents," are appropriately accused of war crimes. We believe...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says detainees at Guantanamo Bay are not receiving vaccinations against the swine flu vaccine. Robert Gibbs on Tuesday said concern that terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base in Cuba were receiving vaccines was misplaced. Gibbs says no vaccines are at the naval base and none are on the way

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will soon get swine flu vaccines, despite complaints that American civilians should have priority, a military spokesman said Sunday. Army Maj. James Crabtree, a spokesman for the U.S. jail facility in southeast Cuba, said the doses should start arriving this month, with guards and then inmates scheduled for inoculations. He acknowledged there may be an "emotional response" from critics who argue that terror suspects should not be allocated swine-flu medications while members of the U.S. public are still waiting due to a vaccine shortage. But he...

Six Chinese Muslims who were held in the Guantánamo Bay prison camp for almost eight years have arrived on the tiny Pacific island of Palau. The detainees from the Turkic Uighur minority were arrested in Afghanistan during the opening days of military operations in 2001 and held as suspected militants until last year when a US military tribunal decided they were not 'enemy combatants'. The release of the men, who were greeted on arrival by Palau's President, Johnson Toribiong, is another small step in US President Barack Obama's struggle to close the controversial prison camp by January. Palau, situated 500...

Peoria, Ill. - A federal judge sentenced an Al Qaeda "sleeper" agent to eight years in prison Thursday -- about half the time prosecutors had requested -- because the agent received what the judge called "unacceptable" treatment in a U.S. Navy brig. U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm could have sentenced Ali Marri to as much as 15 years. Prosecutors had endorsed that, presenting testimony that he remained a threat. But Mihm handed down the lighter sentence of eight years and four months in consideration of what he called "very severe" conditions under which Marri was kept during the almost six...

Even as some Americans await the arrival of their swine flu vaccines, the Pentagon has decided to vaccinate both soldiers and terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There was no word Wednesday on when the the first vaccines would reach the remote base in southeast Cuba. But U.S. military there were notified late last week that service members would get their H1N1 virus vaccinations first. Private contractors and sailors' wives and children could get theirs afterward ``as the supply permits.'' And that means the 221 war on terror captives would also be vaccinated first, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt,...

Barack Obama threw many stones at George W. Bush, and now lives in a glass house.Over the last decade Barack Obama — in campaign mode for various state and federal offices — repeatedly denounced the Bush-era security protocols as either unlawful or of little utility. Indeed, few political figures made the case so unremittingly that the United States had gone rogue in its zealotry to fight terror. To perpetual candidate Obama, there were no tragic choices, no hazy areas of human frailty, no recognition that well-intentioned public servants were doing their best under trying circumstances to keep Americans safe, and...

A coalition of mega-bands and singers outraged that music — including theirs — was cranked up to help break uncooperative detainees at Guantanamo Bay is joining retired military officers and liberal activists to rally support for President Barack Obama's push to shutter the Navy-run prison for terrorist suspects in Cuba. Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails are among the musicians who have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, which launched Tuesday.. On behalf of the campaign, the National Security Archive in Washington is filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking classified records that detail...

Some of those musicians -- Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine -- say their music has been played at ear-splitting level to torment terror suspects and coerce confessions at the detention facility. Other petitioners want to know whether their works have been used in such capacity, including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne and Billy Bragg. "The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me," said Tom Morello, former lead guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, an industrial rock band whose song "March of the Pigs" has been linked to torture tactics at...

October 22, 2009, 0:00 a.m. The Kitty-Cat Who RoaredThe loud reformer Obama himself proves even emptier in his promises than Bush. By Victor Davis Hanson President Obama keeps roaring out deadlines like a lion — only later to meow like a little kitty. Remember, for example, how he bellowed to cheering partisan crowds that he would close down the detainment facility at Guantanamo within a year? The clock ticks — and Guantanamo isn’t close to being shut down. It once was easy for candidate Obama to deplore George W. Bush’s supposed gulag. Now it proves harder to decide between...

...Earlier this summer it was announced that Standish Max would close as part of a reorganization by the Michigan Department of Corrections. This would result in a loss of jobs for about 350 people. But questions are being asked as to whether bringing Gitmo detainees there is the best way to offset this economic quagmire. Many of the locals have safety concerns...Gordon Cuclullu and his terrorism expert looked at the security issues and found some points of concern: Under normal circumstances this would be a proper maximum security facility. Designed effectively to keep prisoners in, not focused on potential outside...

(English-language translation) RIYAHD - A Saudi woman has filed for divorce after casually discovering that her husband nicknamed her "Guantánamo" on his cellular telephone, the daily Al Watan reported. According to the newspaper, the 30-year-old woman who lives in the western city of Jeddah called her husband on his cell phone. He had left it at home, and that is how the woman discovered that, when identifying the call, the name "Guantánamo" appeared on the screen. The furious woman immediately began divorce proceedings assuming that, being given that nickname, her husband was considering her a tyrannical and oppressive person and,...

After dropping some popular immigration-enforcement measures, Congress on Tuesday passed the 2010 homeland security spending bill that gives President Obama the authority to transfer terrorism-suspect detainees to the United States for trial, though only after he submits a plan to Congress. The Senate voted 79-19 to pass the $44.1 billion bill, following the House's approval last week. Mr. Obama is expected to sign it. "It has been eight years, eight long years since the attacks of 9/11. There are some people in this country who have become complacent about the threat of another attack. Don't count me as one of...

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Is the Obama administration keeping America safe? DEBRA BURLINGAME: When Barack Obama was sworn in as president, I actually had a sliver of hope that he would surprise his worst critics and govern from the center — the smart pragmatist. That hope pretty much evaporated on January 22 when he signed a series of executive orders shutting the Guantanamo Bay detention center by a date certain and suspending the trial of 9/11 conspirators — who were at that moment sitting at Gitmo, crowing about their role in the murder of 3,000 of our fellow human beings. Surrounded...

Guantanamo (Gitmo) Bay detainees may soon be headed for a courtroom near you, according to a report on Sunday morning’s Fox and Friends. House Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, have passed a bill that would allow the inmates to be transferred to U.S. soil for prosecution and incarceration.

We tried the first World Trade Center bombers in civilian courts. In return we got 9/11 and the murder of nearly 3,000 innocents.The Obama administration has said it intends to try several of the prisoners now detained at Guantanamo Bay in civilian courts in this country. This would include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and other detainees allegedly involved. The Justice Department claims that our courts are well suited to the task. Based on my experience trying such cases, and what I saw as attorney general, they aren't. That is not to say...

The woman made the discovery while examining the list of contacts in her husband's phone when he left it at home one day, the Al-Watan newspaper reported. The Riyadh newspaper did not name the woman or her husband, whose comparison between life with his wife and life within the detention centre at the US naval base in Cuba may have proved ill judged. His wife has since decided to end their 17-year marriage and is seeking a divorce. But the newspaper suggested she might settle for "substantial" financial compensation from her husband and stay married to him.

Yesterday, 223 House Democrats (and Ron Paul) voted down a motion to recommit H.R. 2892. In effect, they voted: 1) to bring Guantanamo al Qaeda detainees into the U.S., 2) to delete the requirement that all detainees who once were or currently are being held at Gitmo be placed on the Department of Homeland Security's 'no-fly' list, and 3) to delete this additional requirement: "the Secretary of Homeland Security shall conduct a threat assessment for each such individual who is proposed to be transferred to the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, or the United States Territories."...

Handing President Barack Obama a partial victory in his effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, House Democrats on Thursday repelled a Republican effort to block transfer of any of the detainees to the U.S. Instead, by a 224-193 vote, the House stood by a Democratic plan to allow suspected enemy combatants held at the controversial Guantanamo facility to be shipped to U.S. soil — but only to be prosecuted for their suspected crimes. The Guantanamo restrictions were attached by House-Senate negotiators on a $42.8 billion homeland security appropriations bill.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Here in the land of limbo, the news of President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize landed with more of a whimper than wild enthusiasm among those waging their part in the war on terror. Most troops interviewed this week reflected the surprise of their commander in chief on waking up to the news Friday morning. More than a few hadn't heard about the award for the president who pledged to empty the prison camps here until they were asked about it in an interview with The Miami Herald. ``I've been fishing,'' said Navy Petty...