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 post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181194/posts
170 Al Qaeda Suspects Released in Yemen
FoxNews.com ^ | Sunday, February 08, 2009
Posted on February 8, 2009 3:42:54 PM PST by Joiseydude
SAN’A, Yemen — Yemen released 170 men it had arrested on suspicion of having ties to Al Qaeda, security officials said Sunday, two weeks after the terror group announced that Yemen had become the base of its activities for the whole Arabian peninsula.
In the past, such releases have raised concern in the United States and increased its reluctance to release Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Yemen has said it expects most of the 100 remaining Yemenis at Guantanamo to be sent home after President Barack Obama ordered the prison shut within a year.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2182807/posts
“9/11 Victims Families: Obama Must Visit Gitmo and Reverse Dangerous Order”
Move America Forward ^ | Tuesday, February 10, 2009 | Catherine Moy
Posted on February 10, 2009 5:15:15 PM PST by Syncro
http://www.nefafoundation.org/reports.html#saudi11
http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/nefagitmoreturnees0209-1.pdf
BLOG:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/02/nefa_report_-_the_eleven_saudi.php
“NEFA Report - “’The Eleven’: Saudi Guantanamo Veterans Returning to the Fight””
By Evan Kohlmann
(February 12, 2009, 11:50 pm)
February 20, 2009
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/February/09-ag-148.html
Attorney General Appoints Executive Director to Lead New Task Force on Review of Guantanamo Bay Detainees
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today announced the appointment of an Executive Director to lead a new interagency task force charged with continued implementation of the President’s Jan. 22 Executive Order calling for an immediate review of the status of individuals currently detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
The Executive Director, Matthew G. Olsen, will lead the Guantanamo Detainee Review Task Force, which is responsible for assembling and examining relevant information and making recommendations regarding the proper disposition of each individual currently detained at Guantanamo Bay.
In accordance with the President’s Order, the Task Force will consider whether it is possible to transfer or release detained individuals consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States; evaluate whether the government should seek to prosecute detained individuals for crimes they may have committed; and, if none of those options are possible, the Task Force will recommend other lawful means for disposition of the detained individuals.
The Order provides that the Attorney General shall coordinate this review in conjunction with the Secretaries of Defense, State, and Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order for the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay to be closed within one year from the date of the Executive Order.
“As a leader of the Department’s National Security Division and 12-year career federal prosecutor, Mr. Olsen has the experience and judgment to lead the team’s evaluation of these individual cases,” said Attorney General Holder. “We’ve established a solid framework for the administration to make the right decision on each individual detainee — decisions that will most effectively serve the interests of justice and the national security and foreign policy objectives of the United States.”
As Executive Director for the detention review process, Mr. Olsen will be responsible for managing the consideration and disposition of individual detainee cases as set forth in the President’s Order. He will supervise review teams consisting of representatives from the Justice Department and the other agencies identified in the President’s Order.
These multi-agency teams will conduct the specific detainee reviews and develop options and recommendations for the Executive Director to present to a Review Panel consisting of senior-level officials from each of the relevant Departments and agencies who are authorized to make decisions as to the disposition of each detainee. Review Panel members will be responsible for ensuring that each department or agency devotes the necessary resources so that the Task Force can conduct this review and enable closure of the facility within the one-year time frame required under the Executive Order.
Until his appointment today, Mr. Olsen served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, where he managed the Justice Department’s National Security Division. Previously, as Deputy Assistant Attorney General, he helped establish the National Security Division in 2006 and supervised the Department’s intelligence operations and oversight.
###
09-148
BLOG:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/2009/02/recidivism_and_released_terror.php
“Recidivism and Released Terrorists Insights”
By Michael Kraft
(February 19, 2009)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/19/AR2009021903028.html
“Detainee Alleging Torture to Be Sent to Britain, Source Says”
By Peter Finn and Julie Tate
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 20, 2009; Page A07
SNIPPET: “A former British resident held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be flown home early next week, marking the first transfer of a Guantanamo detainee by the Obama administration, according to a source involved in the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on the subject.
The British government had pressed the new administration to make the case of Binyam Mohammed a priority.”
ADDING to post no. 67:
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=9E840746-EEAB-48F2-B894-7A30FEF7B1E0
“False Martyr”
By Thomas Joscelyn
Weekly Standard | Friday, February 20, 2009
ADDING to post no. 67:
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/newsroom/latest-news/?view=PressS&id=13834737
Agreement from US to return Mr Mohamed to the UK (20/02/2009)
Foreign Secretary David Miliband released a statement 20 February 2009 announcing an agreement from the US to return Mr Binyam Mohamed to the UK.
Read the statement
The UK and US Governments have reached agreement on the transfer of Mr Binyam Mohamed from Guantanamo Bay to the UK. He will be returned as soon as the practical arrangements can be made. This result follows recent discussions between the British and US Governments and a medical assessment, undertaken by a UK doctor, that Mr Mohamed is medically fit to return.
The UK Government requested the release and return of all former legal UK residents detained at Guantanamo Bay in August 2007. The Home Secretary and I took this decision in light of work by the US Government to reduce the number of those detained at Guantanamo with the aim of closing the facility and our wish to offer practical and concrete support to those efforts. In reaching this decision we gave full consideration to the need to maintain national security and the Government’s overriding responsibilities in this regard.
Mr Mohamed’s return does not constitute a commitment by the Home Secretary that he may remain permanently in the UK. His immigration status will be reviewed following his return and the same security considerations will apply to him as would apply to any other foreign national in this country. As always, all appropriate steps will be taken to protect national security.
Yes, that seems to be a common thought, these days.
#
http://osint.internet-haganah.com/archives/001548.html
ADDING to post no. 69:
February 23, 2009
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/February/09-opa-150.html
United States Transfers Binyam Mohammed to United Kingdom
WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice today announced the transfer to the United Kingdom of Binyam Mohammed, an Ethiopian national and former resident of the United Kingdom who had been held at the Guantanamo detention facility since 2004.
As directed by the Executive Order issued by President Obama on January 22, 2009, an interagency panel has reviewed Mohammed’s case and determined that his transfer, pursuant to an arrangement between the United States and the United Kingdom, is consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.
“The friendship and assistance of the international community is vitally important as we work to close Guantanamo, and we greatly appreciate the efforts of the British government to work with us on the transfer of Binyam Mohammed,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.
Mohammed is the first Guantanamo detainee to be transferred under the review of all Guantanamo detainees directed by the President. He departed Guantanamo aboard a United Kingdom aircraft Sunday night and arrived in the United Kingdom today.
###
09-150
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2192652/posts
Swenchonises seek justice in son’s death [2000 USS COLE ATTACK]
ROCKPORT PILOT.com ^ | Monday, February 23, 2009 7:03 PM CST | By: MIKE PROBST
Posted on February 24, 2009 12:23:35 AM PST by Cindy
“Swenchonises seek justice in son’s death Killed in terrorists’ 2000 bombing of USS Cole”
SNIPPET: “For more than eight years Gary and Debbie Swenchonis have mourned the loss of their son, Gary Graham Swenchonis Jr., who was killed Oct. 12, 2000, along with 16 other sailors, when terrorists attacked the USS Cole in Port Aden, Yemen.”
SNIPPET: “So how do the Swenchonises feel about Obama’s plans?
“We think Obama should be impeached if the terrorists are freed because of his intervention on their behalf,” said Swenchonis.
Should the local family give up its fight against the big government machine?
Would you?”
BTTT
Thank you Jet Jaguar.
Area Cole sailors’ kin skip Obama’s invite
caller times. ^ | Feb 8, 2009 | n/a
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2191731/posts
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2194377/posts
Uighurs’ lawyers to ask President Obama to disobey the law
911FamiliesForAmerica.org ^ | February 26, 2009 | Tim Sumner
Posted on February 26, 2009 2:25:31 AM PST by Sergeant Tim
While Presidents have the power to pardon, an Executive Order does not rise above existing federal statute or erase the records that show at least twenty (and perhaps all) of the original twenty-two Uighurs are inadmissible into the United States. As I recently pointed out, Section 103 of the Real ID Act of 2005 states that “any alien” who “has engaged in a terrorist activity” or “is a member of a terrorist organization” may not be admitted into the United States. In addition, last August the Long War Journal reported the results of its review of the twenty-two Uighurs originally held at Guantanamo:
All of the Uighurs at Gitmo have been associated with, or been members of, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (“ETIM”). ... 20 of the 22 Uighurs detained at Gitmo were allegedly trained in an ETIM training camp and/or other facilities. At least 15 of the Uighurs detained at Gitmo have admitted that they received weapons training. The main training camp at which the Uighurs trained was reportedly sponsored by al Qaeda and the Taliban. ... Some of the Uighur detainees are alleged to have fought in Afghanistan. ... At least several of the Uighur detainees have ties to the ETIM’s senior leadership, which is, in turn, tied to the senior leadership of al Qaeda. ... The ETIM, and Abdul Haq, remain a threat.
Five of the original twenty-two Uighurs have already been released abroad.
While a previous order by a District Court Judge to release the remaining seventeen within the United States was overruled last week, the New York Times reported this morning that their lawyers will ask President Barack Obama to disobey federal law:
“These are innocent men, held in a prison that has become a national shame,” the lawyers say in a letter to President Obama they are to release at a Washington news conference on Thursday. They ask that the president “restore liberty to these men” by sending them home, finding another country where they are willing to go, or permitting them into the United States [emphasis added mine].
As usual, their lawyers repeated detainee propaganda, their baseless allegations of abuse:
The detainees’ lawyers assert that at least 2 of the 20 men have been physically abused in recent weeks. A spokeswoman for the prison, Cmdr. Pauline Storum, said there had been no substantiated claims of abuse in recent weeks.
In a news conference in Washington, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that in a visit to Guantánamo on Monday he noted a “very conscious attempt” by guards to “conduct themselves in an appropriate way.”
Surely, President Obama will also conduct himself in an appropriate way by obeying the law.
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2199333/posts?page=17#17
ON THE INTERNET:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/abujihaad/index
#
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090304/ap_on_re_us/navy_terror
“Key terror conviction against ex-sailor is tossed”
Buzz UpSendSharePrint
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer – 6 mins ago
NEW HAVEN, Conn. –
SNIPPET: “Prosecutors say investigators discovered files on a computer disk recovered from a suspected terrorist supporter’s home in London that included the ship movements, as well as the number and type of personnel on each ship and the ships’ capabilities.
Abu-Jihaad was charged in the same case that led to the 2004 arrest of Babar Ahmad, a British computer specialist accused of running Web sites to raise money, appeal for fighters and provide equipment such as gas masks and night vision goggles to terrorists.”
17 posted on March 4, 2009 2:39:27 PM PST by Cindy
BLOG:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/03/the_talibans_surge_c.php
“The Taliban’s surge commander was Gitmo detainee”
By THOMAS JOSCELYN
March 11, 2009 8:46 AM
#
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025189.php
(AP)
March 11, 2009
“Afghanistan: Another ex-Guantanamo inmate turns up on the battlefield”
SNIPPET: “Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, formerly Guantanamo prisoner No. 008, was among 13 Afghan prisoners released to the Afghan government in December 2007.
Rasoul is now known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a nom de guerre that Pentagon and intelligence officials say is used by a Taliban leader who is in charge of operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan.
The officials, who spoke anonymously because they are not authorized to release the information, said Rasoul has joined a growing faction of former Guantanamo prisoners who have rejoined militant groups and taken action against U.S. interests. Pentagon officials have said that as many as 60 former detainees have resurfaced on foreign battlefields.”
“Attorney General Says Some Guantanamo Inmates May End Up in U.S.”
snippet: “Holder, in a briefing with reporters, said administration officials are still reviewing individual cases of the approximately 250 detainees to determine which will be put on trial and which may be released.”
Wall Street Journal
FOXNews.com
Thursday, March 19, 2009
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