Posted on 01/20/2009 2:48:21 AM PST by Cindy
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026256.php
May 24, 2009
Belgium to accept Gitmo inmates
Who will surely assimilate there about as well as their counterparts in DC. “Belgium still ready to take in Guantanamo inmates,” from GEO, May 22:
BRUSSELS: Belgium’s foreign minister says his government remains committed to taking in several detainees from Guantanamo Bay when the U.S. military prison closes down.
Speaking to La Premiere radio during his current trip to Washington, D.C., Karel De Gucht says it remains to be seen how many former inmates may be taken in.
De Gucht says in Friday’s broadcast that he spoke to the White House’s national security adviser Gen. James Jones about the issue. He says the matter is complicated by the free travel regulations within the European Union, which would allow the former prisoners to change their country of residence without informing the authorities.
Belgium first offered to accept ``a certain number’’ of prisoners freed from Guantanamo when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Brussels in March.
Posted by Raymond at May 24, 2009 12:00 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/05/25/italy.guantanamo/index.html
“PM: Italy will consider accepting Guantanamo detainees”
updated 7:39 p.m. EDT, Mon May 25, 2009
From Paula Newton
CNN
SNIPPET: “ROME, Italy (CNN) — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Monday his country will consider accepting an unspecified number of detainees from the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said it was too soon to tell how many detainees his country may accept.”
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54507
Gates Decries ‘Fear-Mongering’ in Guantanamo Debate
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2009 – ‘Fear-mongering’ is clouding the national debate about closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.
During an NBC-TV interview that aired Memorial Day, Gates spoke about the closing of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility, the Taliban’s presence in Afghanistan and relations with Iran. He also expressed confidence that Americans recognize the sacrifice of U.S. servicemembers.
Speaking about President Barack Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo Bay, Gates underscored the issue of the fates of current detainees.
“One of the main points the president made was that he had no interest whatsoever in releasing publicly detainees who might come back to harm Americans,” Gates said. “The real issue is, do you close Guantanamo and put them in a prison in the United States...or are you forced to keep Guantanamo open because all the other possibilities are closed off legislatively?”
Gates said that Guantanamo is “probably one of the finest prisons in the world today, but it has a taint. The name itself is a condemnation. What the president was saying is [Guantanamo] will be an advertisement for al-Qaida as long as it’s open.”
“We have many terrorists in U.S. prisons today. I mean, this started 20 years ago when I was at CIA, and we captured a Hezbollah terrorist who had been involved in killing an American sailor on an aircraft that had been taken hostage in Beirut. We brought him to the United States, put him on trial and put him in prison.
He said that fear-mongering has stirred an emotional debate about the merits of trying and potentially holding terrorism suspects on American soil, as the United States did during Gates’ tenure at the CIA.
“The truth is, there’s a lot of fear-mongering about this,” he continued. “We’ve never had an escape from a Supermax prison, and that’s where these guys will go — and if not one of the existing ones, we’ll create a new one.”
About 240 detainees are currently held at Guantanamo. According to an unclassified fact sheet released today by the Pentagon, the Defense Intelligence Agency reported 14 percent of former Guantanamo detainees confirmed or suspected of reengaging in terrorist activities.
“Of the more than 530 Guantanamo detainees transferred from Department of Defense custody at Guantanamo Bay, 27 were confirmed and 47 were suspected of reengaging in terrorist activity,” the fact sheet states. The report is based on information available as of mid-March.
Some former Guantanamo detainees, the report said, “are known to have reengaged in terrorist activity associated with the al-Qaida network, and have been arrested for reengaging in terrorist activities including facilitating the travel of terrorists into war zones, providing funds to al-Qaida, and supporting and associating with known terrorists.”
On Afghanistan, Gates expressed doubt that Taliban leaders would be willing to reconcile with the government on Kabul’s terms – at least until the momentum shifts in favor of Afghanistan.
“The end of all such wars involves some measure of reconciliation,” he said. “We’ve seen it in Iraq. And so the real issue is, will these guys reconcile on the terms of the Afghan government, or are they dictating terms to the Afghan government?
“I think the view of most of us is that until the momentum of the battle turns against the Taliban, … that the likelihood of any kind of reconciliation on the part of the leadership of the Taliban is very small,” he said.
Asked about Obama’s approach to Iran, Gates revealed little, saying only that it’s common that presidents ask their military planners to have a range of contingencies available.
“All I would say is that, as a result of our dialogue with the president, we’ve refreshed our plans and all options are on the table,” he said.
On the issue of troop support, Gates said in the Memorial Day interview that he believes Americans sincerely appreciate the sacrifices servicemembers make.
“Americans really appreciate our men and women in uniform,” he said. “I think there is a total recognition in this country of the sacrifice these men and women in uniform make.”
The Defense secretary said American support is on full display in ceremonies honoring the nation’s fallen. He added that the personalized letters he sends to the surviving family members is the hardest part of his job.
“You really see it — tragically, but also in a heartwarming way — when our fallen heroes are brought home to be buried, and you’ve got whole towns turning out,” he said. “It’s extraordinary.”
(American Forces Press Service reporter Gerry J. Gilmore contributed to this report).
Biographies:
Robert M. Gates
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54525
Petraeus: Detainee Reforms Help, But Insurgent Financing, Meddling Problematic
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 27, 2009 – Closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and abandoning so-called enhanced interrogations helps U.S. efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq that continue to be vexed by insurgents, the commander of U.S. Central Command said.
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told Radio Free Europe in a wide-ranging interview May 24 that the moves would advance American-led military operations abroad. But he acknowledged that terrorist financing in Afghanistan, internal strife within Pakistan’s borders and isolated, yet “spectacular,” attacks in Iraq still pose problems.
“I think, on balance, that those moves help it,” he said. “[Closing Guantanamo] in a responsible manner, I think, sends an important message to the world, as does the commitment of the United States to observe the Geneva Convention when it comes to the treatment of detainees.”
Petraeus said he has a long history of endorsing interrogation policies that are in line with 1949’s Third Geneva Convention, which resulted from prisoner-of-war abuses in World War II.
“As a division commander in Iraq in the early days, we put out guidance very early on to make sure that our soldiers, in fact, knew that we needed to stay within those guidelines,” said Petraeus, who commanded the 101st Airborne Division in the first year of operations in Iraq, and subsequently led the effort to train Iraqi forces. He later commanded all coalition forces in Iraq before taking Centcom’s reins.
In addition to weighing in on the domestic debate over detainee treatment, the general described conditions that hamper U.S. efforts to secure and stabilize the Afghan-Pakistan region and Iraq.
The Taliban in Afghanistan, Petraeus said, have diverse financial coffers and are difficult to rein in. The group receives funding from its “illegal narcotics industry,” a variety of mafia-like extortion schemes, from neighboring countries and perhaps from Persian Gulf states, the general said.
Finances travel through a back-channel system of grassroots loans and debt transfers in many Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries, Petraeus explained. Saudi Arabia and other countries have tried to crack down on such disbursement practices, he added, though oversight of the shadowy transfers is inherently difficult.
“It is not computerized, needless to say. It is relatively clandestine in nature,” the general said. “And it is somewhat impervious to the kinds of financial forensics that we can use with transfers that work through actual banking systems.”
Petreaus cited the need for the Afghan government in Kabul to institute its own reforms if it is to be seen by Afghans as legitimate.
“Certainly, there’s no question that the Afghan government needs to do a better job in terms of achieving the support of its own people to be seen as legitimate and serving those people,” he said. “Some of the predatory practices by some elements or individuals of the greater Afghan government indeed need to be curtailed and stopped. It is hugely important that they carry out those actions.”
Also on Afghanistan, Petraeus acknowledged that civilian casualties are an ongoing problem that the United States continues to address. He cited a May 4 battle between coalition troops and Taliban insurgents in which a significant number of civilians died – with U.S. estimates ranging from 20 to 30, but the Afghan government’s as high as 140.
The United States sent a brigadier general to join Afghan counterparts in investigating the Farah province battle.
“We won’t debate the numbers,” Petraeus said. “What we need to do is figure out how to move forward and how to avoid such cases and to keep them to an absolute minimum in the future.”
Speaking about recent Pakistani military action against Taliban strongholds in the country’s Northwest Frontier province, Petraeus expressed optimism in the ability of the government in Islamabad and the Pakistani population to confront the insurgent group.
In parts of the Pakistan-Afghan border region, the Taliban had been welcomed by residents as who saw the militants as being capable of providing justice and order where Islamabad had failed. Clashes between the Pakistani army and Taliban escalated last week in the Swat Valley area on the heels of fighting in the Buner and Dir districts.
“There was some hope, I think, at one time, that perhaps the Taliban could provide something that the government was not providing: speedy justice, swift justice, as they say, in the Northwest Frontier province,” Petraeus said. “That now has been shown to be a myth and, in fact, the oppressive practices that the Taliban brought into Swat and then into Buner and Lower Dir, for example, showed what the rest of Pakistan would have if, in fact, the Taliban was allowed to expand its oppressive practices further.”
Speaking about Iraq, Petraeus said violence remains at historic lows despite “sensational attacks” involving suicide bombers and other militant tactics. He also expressed hope that Iraq’s national forces would be prepared to handle security as U.S. combat forces depart from the country’s major cities in June.
“We believe that the Iraqi forces, indeed, can take this forward. They are in considerably better shape, much more capable and certainly more numerous than they were at the beginning of the surge,” the general said, referring to the increase of some 33,000 U.S. troops in 2007 who since have departed.
“There are over 600,000 Iraqi soldiers [and] Iraq police who are helping to take on the security burdens of their country, and we believe that they can do that,” he said.
Biographies:
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus
Related Sites:
U.S. Central Command
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2260113/posts
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http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18074.xml
“CSP Announces Release of Occasional Paper ‘Keep Gitmo Going’”
Center for Security Policy | May 28, 2009
#
“KEEP GITMO
GOING
The case for retaining the vital detention
and interrogation facility at Guantánamo Bay”
E.J. Kimball, ESQ.
Benjamin Lerner, ESQ.
MAY 28, 2009
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026335.php
May 29, 2009
Jordan arrests four jihadists — including a Gitmo recidivist — plotting terror attacks against Israel
Close down Gitmo! Bring the prisoners stateside!
“Jordan: Four arrested for terror plots,” from the Jerusalem Post, May 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Four Jordanians arrested in Jordan in April had planned to perpetrate terror attacks in Israel in retaliation for Operation Cast Lead, DPA reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, judicial sources told the news organization that the four were expected to be charged with illegal possession of arms.
The suspects were named as Sakhr Abu Zaid, Hassan Talaq, Mohammad Abu Ourah and Osama Abu Kabir, the report continued, adding that Abu Kabir had been incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay prison for several years.
The IDF launched Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 in an effort to stop incessant Palestinian rocket fire against southern Israel. Over 1,000 Palestinians - many of them gunmen - were killed during the operation. Ten IDF soldiers and three Israeli civilians were also killed....
Posted by Robert at May 29, 2009 8:42 AM
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2261138/posts
Uighurs: Sometimes, the Obama Friday Night Bad News Dump Is Bad for the Left
NRO’s Corner ^ | May 29, 2009 | Andrew C. McCarthy
Posted on May 30, 2009 5:43:48 AM PDT by Sergeant Tim
Of course, it’s one thing to say that they are not enemy combatants and should therefore be released. It is quite another thing, though, to say that they should be released into the United States (which, because of their terrorist affiliations, would violate federal immigration law). But as Cliff noted earlier today, alluding to the stellar work of Tom Joscelyn at the Standard, federal judge Richard Urbina did try to order their release into the U.S. (Here at NRO, the editors weighed in on Judge Urbina’s absurd decision, here.) Fortunately, in a well reasoned decision authored by Judge Raymond Randolph (which I discussed here), the DC Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Judge Urbina, holding that just because courts have the power to review whether a prisoner is properly designated an enemy combatant does not mean they have the power to order the release into the United States of those found not to be enemy combatants.
The Uighurs appealed, and today the Justice Department filed its responsive brief. Solicitor General Elena Kagan argued — consistent with the Bush administration position — that the Uighurs have no right to be released into the U.S. As Lyle Denniston recaps at SCOTUSblog:
(Excerpt) Read more at corner.nationalreview.com ...
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2261855/posts
EXCLUSIVE: Behind-the-Scenes Photos of Guantanamo Bay
FOX NEWS ^ | May 30, 2009 | staff
Posted on May 31, 2009 6:19:40 PM PDT by kellynla
FOX News’ Catherine Herridge is the only American network TV correspondent at Guantanamo Bay for the first session of the “Obama Commissions.”
The closed door session is the case of Omar Khadr, who was picked up on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2002, at the age of 15. Khadr is accused of killing a U.S. soldier.
During Herridge’s trip, she will be staying in what’s known as “tent city,” a cluster of tents where journalists share sleeping accommodations. Journalists bunk together away from the military, with separate tents for men and women.
All photos Herridge and her photographer Geoff Doyle took were reviewed by the military. News outlets are not allowed to photograph any of the security — the barbed wire, the barricades, cameras, fencing, guard towers as well as the antennas that dot the landscape.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,7356,00.html
“Behind-the-Scenes Photos of Guantanamo”
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/begg/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/boycottxbox360/index
#
Note: Photo included.
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2261937/posts
Brit freed from Guantanamo cashes in on Xbox
thesun.co.uk ^ | May 31, 2009 | ANDREW PARKER
Posted on May 31, 2009 9:18:18 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
A BRIT who spent two years in Guantanamo Bay as a terror suspect is cashing in with a computer game based on the US detention camp.
Moazzam Begg, 41, will appear as himself in the Xbox 360 game, which could rake in £3million.
Rendition: Guantanamo, due to go on sale in October, lets players control a detainee trying to shoot his way out.
Begg, of Sparkhill, Birmingham, is shown in the game as head of an organisation helping the suspect to escape.
Human rights activist Begg was thrown into the camp on Cuba in 2003 after the CIA held him in Pakistan. He claims he was tortured before being freed without charge in 2005.
Begg said any money he is paid will go to a charity fighting for detainees’ rights.
He said: “The software firm approached me with the idea for a Guantanamo game. I’m involved to make sure it is as true to life as possible.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2261684/posts
Posted on Sunday, 05.31.09
“http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/1073991.html";;
The Miami Herald > News > Nation
Nation
GUANTANAMO BAY PRISON CAMPS
“Some Guantánamo detainees to get laptops”
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
SNIPPET: “GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — These captives already get to order fast-food takeout from the base and have access to a phone booth for weekly calls. Now some 17 Uighur Muslims awaiting a nation to grant them asylum are about to go high-tech, with laptops and web training.”
SNIPPET: “Attorney General Eric Holder said some could come to the United States for resettlement, triggering protests from members of Congress around Virginia, where other Uighurs live and have offered to settle them.
Nury Turkel, a Washington, D.C.-based Uighur rights activist, hailed the computer training development. Internet access could allow the men to listen to Uighur broadcasts of Radio Free Asia, he said.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49226
“Canada to Obama: We Won’t Take Any of Your Guantanamo Prisoners
Canada Refuses US Guantanamo Request”
Friday, June 05, 2009
By Rob Gillies, Associated Press
Toronto
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026488.php
(NEW YORK POST)
June 7, 2009
“Pentagon: 74 Gitmo recidivists and counting — and jihadist books are readily available there”
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267469/posts
Germany Seeks to Avoid Taking Uighurs
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,629299,00.html | 06/08/09 | cgh — SPIEGEL
Posted on June 8, 2009 2:08:44 PM PDT by greatplains
US President Barack Obama had been hoping that Germany would take nine Guantanamo detainees deemed ready for release. But Berlin has presented a list of conditions — which likely can’t be met.
During his brief visit to Germany last week, US President Barack Obama told the gathered press in Dresden that, when it came to the possibility of Germany accepting some of the Guantanamo prisoners due to be released, concrete demands were not yet on the table.
DPA German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is opposed to accepting Uighur detainees from Guantanamo. “We have not asked (Chancellor Angela Merkel) for hard commitments, and she has not given us any hard commitments beyond having a serious discussion about (whether there are) ways that we can solve this problem” Obama declared.
Strictly speaking, that may be true. But according to information obtained by SPIEGEL, Germany has long since blocked the idea of accepting Guantanamo detainees — and has done so without having to issue an outright rejection.
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267840/posts
Qaeda suspect taken from Guantanamo to New York
Yahoo ^
Posted on June 9, 2009 3:50:08 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Qaeda suspect taken from Guantanamo to New York 11 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An al Qaeda suspect accused in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa was transferred from Guantanamo Bay to appear in a New York court on Tuesday, the Justice Department said.
Ahmed Ghailani will become the first Guantanamo detainee to go on trial in a civilian U.S. court. He was to make an appearance in federal court in Manhattan later in the day, the department said in a statement.
Ghailani, a Tanzanian who had been held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba since September 2006, arrived in New York early Tuesday under escort from the U.S. Marshals Service.
The Justice Department said he faced 286 counts, including conspiring with Osama bin Laden and other members of al Qaeda to kill Americans anywhere in the world, and separate charges of murder for the deaths of each of the 224 people killed in the August 7, 1998, U.S. Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2268221/posts
Gitmo prisoner becomes first to go to US court
ZIMBIO ^ | June 9, 2009
Posted on June 9, 2009 1:00:32 PM PDT by yoe
The first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be transferred to US soil was due in court in New York Tuesday in a politically charged test for President Barack Obama’s plan to close the controversial prison. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national who had been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility since September 2006, was to be arraigned in a federal court in New York at 4:00 pm (2000 GMT).
He is charged with taking part in the August 7, 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya.
This is a first test for White House plans to shut down Guantanamo and bring inmates to trial or send them to their countries of origin.
The pledge was a major element in Obama’s presidential campaign last year, along with an order to end officially sanctioned torture. Republicans have attacked the Democrat for what they say is a dangerous priority on human rights over national security.
But Attorney General Eric Holder said the transfer of Ghailani served justice and posed no threat to the United States.
“With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people,” Holder said in a statement.
“The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case,” Holder said. Ghailani faces 286 counts of murder, conspiracy to murder, bomb and maim, and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against US nationals, charges for which he could receive the death penalty.
(Excerpt) Read more at zimbio.com ...
Blog:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/06/08/did-obama-fib-about-merkel-and-the-uighers/
“Did Obama fib about Merkel and the Uighers?”
POSTED AT 4:08 PM ON JUNE 8, 2009 BY ED MORRISSEY
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1059/9-11-families-obama-favors-saudi-terror
“9/11 Families: Obama Favors Saudi Terror Financiers Over Victims”
IPT News
June 9, 2009
June 11, 2009
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-ag-580.html
Note: The following text is a quote:
United States Transfers Two Guantanamo Detainees to Foreign Nations
The Department today announced that one national of Iraq and one national of Chad have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to their home countries.
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, these detainees were approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. The transfers were carried out pursuant to arrangements between the United States and the governments of Iraq and Chad.
Last night, Iraqi national Jawad Jabber Sadkhan was transferred to Iraq. Chadian national Mohammed El Gharani was transferred to Chad earlier today. On Jan. 14, 2009, a federal court ordered the U.S. government to take all necessary and appropriate steps to facilitate El Gharani’s release from Guantanamo Bay.
“As our review of detainees continues, the support of the international community is critical to the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and the security of our country,” said Matthew Olsen, Executive Director of the Guantanamo Review Task Force. “We are grateful for the cooperation of the Governments of Iraq and Chad and for their assistance on the successful transfer of these individuals.”
Since 2002, more than 540 detainees have departed Guantanamo for other countries including Albania, Algeria, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Great Britain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom and Yemen.
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09-580
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