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BREAKING NEWS: Appeals court overturns ruling that would have transfered 17 Guantanamo Bay detainees to US.

An international group of judges and lawyers is warning that systemic torture and other abuses in the global "war on terror" have "undermined cherished values" of civil rights in the United States, Britain and other nations. "We have been shocked by the damage done over the past seven years by excessive or abusive counterterrorism measures in a wide range of countries around the world," said Arthur Chaskalson, a member of the International Commission of Jurists, in a statement announcing results of a three-year study of counterterrorism measures since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (snip) Although the jurists' report covers practices...

Party members in Congress introduce legislation seeking to prevent inmates from being held near their electorates Republicans in at least six states are seeking to block the White House from transferring Guantánamo Bay detainees to their districts, in what critics call an effort to stymie Barack Obama's efforts to close the prison. Congressional Republicans have introduced bills that would bar the government from moving any of the 250 inmates to some of the most prominent military and civilian detention centres in the US, including a "supermax" high-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado, which holds at least 16 convicted international terrorists,...

On December 4, 2008, Specialist Brandon Neely approached CSHRA with testimony he wished to contribute to the Guantánamo Testimonials Project. He believed that insufficient attention had been paid to "the hell that went on at Camp X-Ray." He would be in a position to know, as he arrived in Guantánamo while the cages of Camp X-Ray were still being welded, and escorted the second detainee to hit the prison grounds. In this interview, Specialist Neely provides testimony of the arrival of the detainees...

HonestConservative interviewed 'Inside Gitmo' author Gordon Cucullu last night during the premier edition of 'NiteCap'. Their discussion primarily focused on Yemen and the likelihood that, if released from Gitmo, most of the nearly 100 remaining Yemeni detainees would return to terrorism. In addition, they talked about the media buzz and lobbying efforts surrounding suspected ‘dirty bomber’ Binyam Mohammed; British "refugee" Binyam has reportedly been on a hunger strike since February 5. Here are the highlights from the show: On LTC Cucullu's web site, InsideGitmo.com, you will find more than 500 supporting sources for his book, a discussion group, ongoing news...

PHOENIX — Efforts are under way at the state and federal levels to prevent suspected terrorists housed at Guantanamo Bay from ever setting foot on Arizona soil when that facility shuts down. But both attempts could run into political and legal roadblocks as President Obama looks to close down the Cuban camp within the next year. And it's hard to know what the chances are of the detainees even landing in Arizona, because there's been little specificity about what will happen to its 245 prisoners when the facility closes. Still, the efforts by lawmakers here mirror those in other states,...

The headline on CNN was "Cheney Attacks!" Correspondent Tom Foreman commented that "even in the bare- knuckle world of Washington these days, this was a remarkably sharp attack by the former vice president just weeks into President Obama's term." And how had the former vice president expressed his fabled bellicosity this time? In an interview with Politico.com, he warned that there is a "high probability" that, in the years ahead, terrorists will attempt to use a nuclear or biological weapon to mass-murder Americans. Cheney said he was concerned that the Obama administration may discard some of the policies that have...

<p>President Obama is caught smack in the middle of a family feud among 9/11 relatives of a financier killed at Ground Zero, The Post has learned.</p> <p>The brothers of Adam Arias went ballistic when they learned that their aunt, Valerie Lucznikowska, was among the 9/11 relatives invited to last week's White House meeting with Obama. The brothers were not invited.</p>

Evidently the former editor of the Harvard Law Review seems to think that one of his powers as president is personally to pick and choose which constitutional rights apply to terror defendants and which do not. That's the very thing they were criticizing President Bush for. White House Counsel Greg Craig, often seen whispering in the president's ear during question periods, admitted later to Ms. Burlingame that the chief executive was getting the facts of the law wrong during the discussion with the families. Craig asked her if CIPA covers a case in which terrorists defend themselves, noting that "this...

Sen. Jim Inhofe joins group fighting to keep prisoners in Cuba BY CHRIS CASTEEL Published: February 11, 2009 Inhofe, R-Tulsa, praised the group, Move America Forward, and said he is pushing legislation that would prevent any of the prisoners from being moved to prisons in the United States. Inhofe, who recently returned from a visit to the prison in Cuba, said the detainees are treated well and that the prison is serving a valuable purpose. Asked whether the prisoners should remain at the prison indefinitely, Inhofe said, "I wish there were more choices. There really aren’t. I guess we could...

Just heard on the BBC that David Miliband will travel to Guantanamo Bay Prison to meet with Binyam Mohamed, the suspected terrorist that recently sued the UK for withholding evidence that would apparently prove his innocence. He apparently is in 'poor health' after being on a hunger strike. This is another angle on Anglo - USA relations, being strained by Binyam Mohamed's claims about torture, and the alleged pact between Anglo - US Governments on sharing sensitive intelligence data. Binyan Mohamed info here Link to recent development to follow.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Posted By:MAF Blogger DannyPermalinkAndrew McCarthy Writes A Special Analysis for MAF This blog post is really special. We were doing the presser for our Gitmo ad and we really wanted and expert opinion so we asked Andrew McCarthy of National Review and he wrote us this amazing piece which gives us another perspective - this one coming from a policy expert - on Guantanamo Bay. If the Guantanamo Detainees Are Transferred Into the U.S.By Andrew C. McCarthyAt the moment, alien enemy combatants are being held by the military outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. courts. ...

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Posted By:Catherine MoyPermalink9/11 Victims Families: Obama Must Visit Gitmo and Reverse Dangerous Order Debra Burlingame’s brother, Charles “Chick” Burlingame, died as he piloted the plane that was hijacked by terrorists on 9/11. She opposes the closure of Gitmo. Families of those killed on 9/11, a Gold Star mother, and Sen. James Inhofe, sent a strong message today at Move America Forward’s press conference at the National Press conference in Washington DC: Keep Gitmo open for the sake of Americans who will be endangered by President Obama’s order to close the facility for terrorists. MAF has the...

Last week, two British High Court judges ruled against releasing documents describing the treatment of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident who is currently being held at Guantanamo Bay. The judges said the Bush administration “had threatened to withhold intelligence cooperation with Britain if the information were made public.” But The Daily Telegraph reported over the weekend that the documents actually “contained details of how British intelligence officers supplied information to [Mohamed’s] captors and contributed questions while he was tortured.” In fact, it was British officials, not the Americans, who pressured Foreign Secretary David Miliband “to do nothing that would leave...

Criticizes Obama's Terrorism Policies http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/02/10/top_stories/doc49913ba1e7c0e951117995.txt

Reporting from Washington — Accused in a 2002 grenade blast that wounded two U.S. soldiers near an Afghan market, Mohammed Jawad was sent as a youth to Guantanamo Bay. Now, under orders by President Obama, he could one day be among detainees whose fate is finally decided by a U.S. court.But in a potential problem, Pentagon officials note that most of the evidence against Jawad comes from his own admissions. And neither he nor any other detainee at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was ever told about their rights against self-incrimination under U.S. law.The Miranda warning, a fixture...

Among our illustrious allies in the War on Terror, Yemen ranks right up there with Pakistan, whose government just released nuke-peddler A. Q. Kahn from house arrest. Yemen’s government says it is preparing a major combat operation to drain one of the many swamps where jihad festers. So what preparations is it making? Massing troops? Infiltrating terrorist strongholds to identify top targets? No, Yemen’s approach is a little different: They’re releasing al-Qaeda operatives from prison—more than 170 of them. It’s a development worth remembering as the Obama administration continues its hand-wringing over the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, where 245...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A cry of "not in my backyard" is growing louder over where to relocate terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay once the military-run prison is closed. "We're the new Guantanamo Bay if they move to Indiana and what does that mean for us?" said Republican state Senator Marlin Stutzman, who wants detainees kept away from the prison in Terre Haute, site of the federal execution chamber. "Does it make us a target? I don't know how their (terrorism) networks work but I'm sure they keep track of where their buddies are at," he said. Resolutions in a...

It started two days after Obama became the president. Obama directed the closing of the terrorist detention center in Guantanamo Bay, even though he has no clue what to do with the terrorists detained at Guantanamo. At the two-week mark of the Obama presidency, the president was asked in a television interview why he didn't use the phrase "war on terror." Obama's Carter-like naive response was to say he believes the U.S. can win over moderate Muslims if he chooses his words carefully: In meeting with families of September 11 terrorist attacks and the 17 sailors killed in the terrorist...

The decision to shut down the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay was a dream come true for many Europeans, including anti-terrorism officials who largely have condemned the facility. But European officials admit that dismantling Gitmo could be something of a nightmare. The foreign ministers of the European Union recently vowed to help President Barack Obama keep his promise to shutter the prison on the coast of Cuba in a year. They offered to provide refuge for as many as 60 inmates who could face persecution in their native lands.