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Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba) (AFP) - The United States is preparing to release more than a dozen Guantanamo detainees as President Barack Obama works towards his long-promised goal of closing the controversial military prison, an US defense official said Wednesday. The news comes the same day the Defense Department sent home one of two remaining detained Kuwaitis, bringing the total population at the jail on a US naval base in Cuba to 148. Fawzi al-Odah, 37 -- who spent nearly 13 years in US detention -- took off in a Kuwaiti government plane at 5:30 am (1030 GMT), Lieutenant...

Fellow Conservative, This is just disgusting. A few days removed from a complete shellacking in the midterm elections, Obama has decided to stick his nose up at the American people and release another dangerous terrorist from the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. Fawzi al-Odah was one of the longest-held terrorists in GITMO. Instead of keeping him in Guantanamo where we know he can be stopped, the Obama administration released him back to Kuwait. Once home, al-Odah will be forced to spend a year in a Kuwaiti “militant-rehabilitation center,” however after six months he will become eligible for ‘parole,’ specifically more time...

Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dealt a crushing blow to national defense. The three-judge panel’s ruling in al Odah v. United States has gotten scarce media attention. Perhaps that’s understandable: It’s a mind-numbing technical dispute over “discovery” in litigation, vying for attention against the socializing of our economy and the consequent collapse of the stock market. But the discovery in question is the most vital kind, namely, that of classified national-defense information. What is in dispute is how much sensitive intelligence we must share with enemies bent on annihilating Americans ... It is one...

The war is over. Our peerless armed forces took Tora Bora and, when we finally let them, Fallujah. But al-Qaeda won in Washington, and that has made all the difference. The War on Terror has radically altered the compact between the American people and their government by dramatically changing the nature of the U.S. courts. Until this new, unaccountable monster is caged, it will continue to devour our political community’s capacity to wage war and to defend itself. And that caging had better happen soon, because the word “war” in this context refers only to our nation’s forcible military response...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, reversing course, agreed Friday to review whether Guantanamo Bay detainees may go to federal court to challenge their indefinite confinement. The action, announced without comment along with other end-of-term orders, is a setback for the Bush administration. It had argued that a new law strips courts of their jurisdiction to hear detainee cases. In April, the court turned down an identical request, although several justices indicated they could be persuaded otherwise. The move is highly unusual. The court did not indicate what changed the justices' minds about considering the issue. But last week, lawyers for...

          Performing in purple underwear on MTV hardly seems like qualification for the toughest legal job on the planet: defending suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay. Then again, Kristine Huskey is not your typical lawyer       Gitmo's Girl  Gitmo's Girl Shortly before their first visit to Guantánamo Bay, on the day after Christmas in 2004, Kristine Huskey and her colleagues were told they could put together a special care package for their 12 Kuwaiti clients, none of whom they'd ever met. Stunned by this small act of grace — you can bring food down there? — the...