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It did not come with the promise of 72 virgins, but newly released Guantanamo Bay detainees managed to make it to paradise after all. What the fawning media neglected to mention was that these supposedly friendly lads all trained at an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist camp in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Not that you’ll hear any such inconvenient facts from the mainstream media, of course. While many in the mainstream media are not-so-privately cheering Obama’s planned closure of Guantanamo Bay, does their fervor excuse them from meeting even minimal journalistic standards?/ ... Assuming that the facts are actually as they appear, though, paying...

KOROR, Palau (AP) — At the call to prayer, the men turn one-by-one down a narrow path through the jungle, marked only by a towering coconut tree. Hidden at the end of the dirt track stands the sole mosque in Koror, home to more than two-thirds of people in Palau, the tiny Pacific nation that has agreed to take in a group of Chinese Muslim detainees from Guantanamo Bay. The mosque is perched on bamboo stilts and held together by a patchwork of corrugated metal. For the small group of about 500 Muslims in this predominantly Christian nation, this is...

Gitmo vote proves a doozy for Dems @ 6:16 pm by Aaron Blake House Democrats have just taken one of their most difficult votes of the election cycle. And if you don't believe it, check out the roll call. The 213-212 vote against today's amendment from Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) seeking to stop funding the closing of Guantanamo Bay prison split Democrats in a painful way. In all, 39 Democrats voted with Republicans, and with just two exceptions, they are either Blue Dogs, vulnerable or eyeing higher office. A couple key notes: * The close nature of the vote cost...

House Republicans failed Thursday in their efforts to block President Obama's decision to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, but lawmakers still moved ahead with legislation that opposes the president's plans. While debating a bill to fund the Justice Department, lawmakers initially defeated an amendment by Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif. to ban the government from spending any money to close the prison by a vote of 216-212. After a rare legislative procedure triggered a recount, it was defeated again, 213-212.

So in a talk before a local business group, former President George W. Bush finally responded to all the mud thrown at him the previous five months. In the speech, Bush defended his policies regarding enhanced interrogation and rejected the idea of government-run health care. And to top it off, he said the new White House dog sucks. Well, that dog part isn’t true, but it doesn’t matter. Because I already know how this is going to be played by the media - a group who takes any criticism toward Obama as a personal insult. After all, Obama isn’t just...

The bill before the House Thursday prohibits the release of detainees into the United States during the 2010 budget year. It would allow the transfer to the United States of detainees for prosecution or detention only after Congress has had two months to read a White House report on how it plans to shut the detention facility and disperse the inmates. The House bill also requires the Obama administration to notify lawmakers of any plans to transfer detainees to other countries.

The ACLU has spoken out against Muslim prisoners being held in Gitmo. They have won that battle as President Obama is going to close the facility. But that is not enough, they are now fighting a transfer to an Indiana prison dubbed "Little Guantanamo". Apparently the ACLU is only happy when our enemies are released to island resorts.

Today I had the honor and privilege of joining other family members and victims of terrorism in meeting with members of the Guantanamo Review Task Force and the Detention Policy Task Force at the Department of Justice. I learned a lot about what our new President is doing and what he has the members of the task forces working on. After doing my own research and listening to the others present today I do not believe that there is a valid reason to close Guantanamo Bay. We are at WAR with TERRORISTS. OUR CONGRESS enacted the Military Commissions Act of...

KOROR, Palau (AP) — A group of Guantanamo detainees expected to be resettled in Palau may not want to move to the remote Pacific nation, a Palauan official said Wednesday. Last weekend, Palau sent a fact-finding team to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to meet with the 13 Uighurs — Turkic Muslims from China's far western Xinjiang region — and assess their needs. ... Sending them back to China was not an option because of U.S. concerns that Chinese authorities, who consider them separatists, would immediately arrest the men.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday there may be 50 or more trials of Guantanamo Bay detainees as the Obama administration works to shut the detention center by early next year. Holder discussed the plan before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the senior Republican called him "too soft" on terrorism while a second GOP lawmaker said he was on the right track in handling detainees. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., criticized Holder for the release of Bush administration memos that authorized harsh interrogation techniques. Sessions said the memos gave important information to America's enemies.

US lawmakers sought a review of the US listing of a Uighur Muslim group in northwestern China as "terrorist," accusing US authorities of relying on intelligence from Beijing. The call came after the United States, defying China, freed four Uighurs held for years at the controversial "war on terror" camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the Atlantic island of Bermuda took them in. Thirteen more Uighurs -- all cleared of wrongdoing by US authorities -- are awaiting release from Guantanamo. China demands them, saying they belong to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), charges they and US officials deny. Congressman...

Hundreds of demonstrators protesting against the transfer of four Guantanamo Bay inmates to Bermdua branded their prime minister Ewert Brown a "dictator" and demanded he step down after negotiating a secret deal witht he United States. About 600 people gathered outside Parliament in Hamilton, the island's capital, chanting "Brown must go" and waving banners as they marched to the Cabinet office. But Mr Brown was defiant. "As some of you might know, I grew up in the protest era," he shouted at the booing crowd. "This is nothing new to me. I have seen them larger and longer," he said....

HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) — Nearly 1,000 protesters demanded Tuesday that Bermuda's premier resign, saying he should have consulted with high-ranking officials before accepting four released Guantanamo inmates. . . . Britain has suggested that Bermuda accepted the Uighurs so the U.S. would go soft on their tax haven status, a charge local officials have denied. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he complained to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and feels the territory should not have agreed to the deal without consulting London.

Hundreds of protesters called for Bermudian Premier Ewert Brown to step down on Tuesday and accused him of acting like a dictator in allowing four Guantanamo prisoners from China to settle on the mid-Atlantic island. Some 600 people gathered outside Parliament in the island's capital Hamilton, waving banners and chanting "Brown must go" as they marched to the Cabinet office. Tuesday's protest was aimed not so much at the Uighurs as at Brown for his failure to consult the island's people or governor and his perceived snub of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, whom the governor represents. Bermuda, a banking centre and...

In Washington today and tomorrow, the DOJ's Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism (OVT) is briefing American family members of those murdered by terrorists, as well as those injured during terrorist attacks. The stated purpose of the briefing is to: ...[offer] those interested the opportunity to meet task force members, hear an overview of task force work, and express views about the policy questions the Detention Policy Task Force is studying. Please click on the link for the Detention Policy Task Force to see some of the questions that the task force is considering. ... For those unable...

This year Move America Forward, has come up with a great idea to help get more support for our brave troops. By posting banners, writing about the Troopathon, and encouraging readers to donate and sponsor care packages, you can help Move America Forward reach its goal of sending the largest shipment of care packages to the troops in HISTORY. At the same time, you can also earn bragging rights for out-raising other bloggers! If you would like to join the Anti-Jihadist team please do so HERE. So far the competition is comprised of four teams. 1.The Anti-Jihadists lead by Robert...

FNC's Catherine Herridge traveled to Bermuda to meet the four Chinese Muslim Uighurs just released from Guantanamo Bay and she elicited from them that living in China is worse than life at Guantanamo. Talking to them through an interpreter at their new home, a pink bungalow with a swimming pool, Herridge reported how she “asked which was worse: Life at Gitmo versus China?” The interpreter relayed, over the voices of all of the men talking: “Of course it's China. There's no guarantee for human rights there.” So, there's a new angle for the media: Guantanamo as a bastion of human...

Having notable difficulties in persuading foreign governments to take prisoners from Gitmo when it is closed, President Barack Obama is laying the groundwork for releasing some of them within the United States. “Look, it’s been years since any of these prisoners has killed anyone, how do we know they’re ‘too dangerous’ to go free?” the President asked. “These years of good behavior behind bars shouldn’t go unrewarded. Besides, maybe releasing them in the United States will be the gesture of reconciliation that will change the tenor of our relationship with the Muslim world.” The President is reported to be considering...

Compare their story to that of John McCain as a prisoner of war who WAS tortured!"It Don't Gitmo Better Than This!"Four of the Uighur terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay have been released in Bermuda. All expenses paid by the U.S. taxpayer. Life in paradise as Guantanamo Four take a dip, eat ice cream, and plan first Uighur restaurant in British territory of Bermuda The Daily Mail 15th June 2009 ...[The four men] have traded drab prison jumpsuits for comfortable cotton pants and knit shirts, and razor wire-encircled jail compounds for beach cottages, where they are staying at U.S. taxpayers' expense....

Diplomacy:Should the U.S. scrap its special relationship with the U.K. to fulfill an ill-considered campaign vow? That's the trade-off the Obama administration made by secretly foisting terrorists onto Bermuda. It's wrong.The British Foreign Office had a right to be angry at the U.S. transfer of four Uighur terrorists from Guantanamo detention to the U.K. colony of Bermuda without its knowledge. After all, Britain is a sovereign state and, like any nation, has a right to know who's on its territory. Instead, it got treated like some banana republic. It didn't learn of the move until after the four Gitmo detainees...