Free Republic

It nice to see that not all us are blinded with starry eyes over Obama. Gitmo Judge Refuses to Heed Obama Request for Delay in Terrorism Trials January 30, 2009 10:01 AM On Thursday Army Col. James L. Pohl, the chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court, said he would not heed President Obama's request for a 120-day continuance, or delay, in prosecutions of terrorism suspects. Supervising the trial of detainee Abd al-Rahim Hussein Mohammed Abdu Al-Nashiri, Pohl called the President's motion unreasonable and unjust.

The first problem at Guantanamo is not the food or the cages or the interrogations or any extrajudicial powers allegedly claimed by the Bush White House. The first problem at Guantanamo is that justice has been so long delayed. Had trials been held, verdicts handed down, cases closed, and punishment meted, we wouldn't need a debate over torture vs. "enhanced interrogation techniques." We wouldn't have a political feud unfolding from South Carolina to Fort Leavenworth to Washington to Brussels over where to imprison 60-80 of 245 remaining Gitmo inmates who according to the Pentagon should stand trial. We wouldn't have...

The former commander of the U.S.S. Cole — which was attacked by terrorists off the coast of Yemen in 2000 — has slammed President Obama's orders to close the Guantanamo detention center and re-evaluate its prisoners. Retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold says, "We shouldn't make policy decisions based on human rights and legal advocacy groups. We should consider what is best for the American people, which is not to jeopardize those who are fighting the War on Terror or even more adversely impact the families who have already suffered losses as a result of the war." Lippold also reacted to...

A military judge threw a wrench yesterday into the Obama administration's plan to suspend legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, denying the government's request to delay the case of a detainee accused of planning the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. To halt proceedings for 120 days -- as Obama wants in order to conduct a review -- the Pentagon may be forced to temporarily withdraw charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and possibly 20 other detainees facing trial in military commissions, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The administration, which expected military judges to...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration hit an unexpected rough patch on Thursday in its plan to give itself time to decide how to prosecute Guantánamo detainees. A military judge in the case of one of the best-known terrorism suspects declined an administration request to delay an arraignment scheduled for Feb. 9. The decision differed from rulings by two other military judges in the war crimes system at the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who last week granted requests filed by military prosecutors for four-month delays so the new administration could study detainees’ files and its legal options.

With the President ordering the closing of Guantanamo Bay, the question arises: what to do with the prisoners there?... For each Electoral Vote for Obama, a state gets just over 2/3 (0.671) of a prisoner. Here’s the breakdown:...

Executive Orders have consequences. Now the terrorists' American lawyers want the charges dropped. The judge, however, is hanging tough. After the Executive Order came down from the White House, one of the terrorist's attorney's move for a delay in the proceedings. The judge denied the motion. More . . .

The former commander of the USS Cole, the American war ship that was struck by a suicide boat in Yemeni waters more than eight years ago, on Thursday slammed President Barack Obama's orders to close the Guantanamo detention center and reassess the prisoners being held there.

HAVANA -- Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro demanded on Thursday that President Barack Obama return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo to Cuba without conditions, and he accused the new U.S. leader of supporting "Israeli genocide" against Palestinians. Castro, who had recently praised Obama as "honest" and "noble", lashed out at his administration for stating that Washington will not return Guantanamo if it has any military use for the United States and without concessions in return. "Maintaining a military base in Cuba against the will of the people violates the most elemental principles of international law," Castro wrote in a...

A thick fog hung over Remount Road Tuesday morning as cars and trucks sped in and out of the Naval Weapons Station. Beyond the base's fence, two stands of trees framed the beige outline of the Navy's brig, an installation that has made headlines in recent weeks and is poised to make more.

A military judge at the Guanatanamo Bay detention facility has rejected a request by US President Barack Obama to suspend the trial of a detainee.

Bernie Madoff is whining to anyone who'll listen that he's being held captive in his palatial penthouse and unable to traipse around the Big Apple as he did before being busted for running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, a source familiar with the scam artist told The Post. "I'm a prisoner in my own house!" Madoff fumed. "I can't go anywhere! I'm stuck here all day!" Madoff, who effectively is under house arrest as part of his $10 million bail, has been especially agitated that "he can't even go outside just to go to the corner, or get something to...

Back to the military judge; the military instinctively loathes Democrats because of their inherent reluctance to make decisions without gauging public preference on an issue. They also distrust Dems because they'll make a decision after long contemplation and then go back on that decision leaving the military to take the bad PR. This is one judge saying to The One that he's not going to play Obama's game, especially since the main case involved deals with the man who helped kill American sailors.

Legal scholar John Yoo writes in Thursday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal that Barack Obama’s executive order giving new rights to the illegal combatants housed at Guantanamo Bay is a dangerous threat to national security that has “opened the door to further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.” He continues, “It is naive to say, as Obama did in his inaugural speech, that we can reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. That high-flying rhetoric means that we must give al Qaeda — a hardened enemy committed to our destruction — the same rights as garden...

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday urged U.S. President Barack Obama to return the military base of Guantanamo to Cuba after applauding his decision to close the prison for terrorism suspects there. The anti-U.S. Cuba ally has tense relations with the United States and was been one of the most outspoken critics of former President George W. Bush, though he has kept open the possibility of improving ties with Obama. "Now he should return Guantanamo and Guantanamo Bay to the Cubans because that is Cuban territory," he said in a speech at the World Social Forum...

On Freedom Radio tonight, 8 to 10 PM EST, the "Operation Valentine: A Salute to Gitmo Heroes" series will continue. Tonight's show will feature well-known commentator and 9/11 family member Debra Buringame and retired Special Forces officer, Vietnam veteran, and author Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Cucullu. A "Salute to Gitmo Heroes" is part of Operation Valentine, being widely broadcast tonight across some of the best shows of Blog Talk Radio, for the purpose of honoring our men and women in uniform, giving their all and then sum, for our safety and security at our facility in Guantanamo Bay. This is a...

Havana - For more than a century, the United States has controlled the Guantanamo naval base in eastern Cuba for a measly $4,085 in lease fees per year. Cuba has long refused to cash the checks. Now, with President Barack Obama ordering the prison for terrorism suspects at the base closed within a year, Cuba is renewing demands that the U.S. hand over the entire base. "We have always said that Cuba expects to recover this territory," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Wednesday, after announcing that Cuba was inviting the U.N. special investigator on torture to visit the island...

Closing Gitmo Doesn't Make America Saferby Robert Maginnis (more by this author) Posted 01/28/2009 ETUpdated 01/28/2009 ET President Obama claims that closing the terrorist detention camp at Guantanamo Bay (GITMO) will make America safer. This view is incredibly naïve and dangerous for a nation at war. The potential consequences are unacceptable. Last week, Obama signed an executive order that calls for a task force to look at closing the detention center within a year. Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press secretary, explained, “The president believes that there’s no more important job that he has than to keep the American people safe”...

BREAKING: A military defense attorney says a Guantanamo judge has rejected an Obama administration request to suspend the war-crimes trial of the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing.

A military judge has refused the Obama administration's request to delay proceeding for 120 days in the case of a detainee held at the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who is accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship, an al-Qaeda strike that killed 17 service members and injured 50 others. The decision throws into some disarray the administration's plan to buy some time as it reviews individual detainee cases as part of its plan to close the prison. The Pentagon may now be forced to withdraw the charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a...