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U.S. President Barack Obama while signing executive orders about the closing of the military prison at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, in the Oval Office on second official day at White House in Washington, January 22, 2009. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)Well, this can't make the Code Pink crowd and ACLU militants very happy: The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White...

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.....

White House Drafts Executive Order to Allow Indefinite Detention of Terror Suspects (Dafna Linzer and Peter Finn, 6/26/09, Washington Post) The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations. Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war.

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

A recent thread on the Al-Falluja jihadist forum discussed the case of whether a Muslim who has nothing else to eat may kill an infidel in order to eat him. The discussion was prompted by a recently published book by Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi, one of the most influential jihadist sheikhs active today"Is It Permitted To Eat The Flesh of American Soldiers?" On June 13, 2009, a member of the Al-Falluja forum who uses the moniker "Al-Maqdisi's Student" wrote a post based on this passage [in full report] titled "Is it permitted to eat the flesh of American soldiers? A quote...

Remember Obama's Cairo speech when he talked about the aftermath of 9/11: The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year. Ever wonder about what the other side thinks? Well we know about the beading of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg among others. But that is Kindness compared to what some Jihadists talk...

Kamaaina and malihini have long described Hawaii in the most glowing of terms: a cultural melting pot, a paradise resplendent with diversity or a land of aloha. North Kona Councilman Kelly Greenwell wants to take that image, embrace it and enhance it. Greenwell recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama, asking the Hawaii-born commander-in-chief to consider sending prisoners to be released from the prison at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay to the Big Island. The idea isn't to incarcerate the prisoners here, the councilman said, but to release them and begin a process of healing and forgiveness.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief said on Wednesday the United States still had much to do to close the chapter of its Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects and should itself accept detainees for resettlement. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also warned against "half-measures" and said the role of lawyers and doctors implicated in torture should be examined. In a statement on Wednesday marking an international day to support torture victims, she again praised Obama for upholding a U.N. ban on torture but said "there is still much to do before the Guantanamo chapter...

MELEKEOK, Palau (AP) — Some Chinese Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay are hesitant about accepting this tiny Pacific nation's offer to take them in because they fear it cannot shield them from China, Palau's president said Tuesday. An American official in Palau described the concerns as unwarranted, pointing out that Beijing has no political influence over the island country. It was also unclear whether the detainees even have a say in where they will be resettled.

A best-selling author and critic of Islam says he can't understand why U.S. President Barack Obama and the United Nations are not expressing more outrage over the execution-style murder of three Christian missionaries in Yemen, apparently by al Qaeda. According to a spokesman from the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, nine foreign nationals -- four German adults, three small German children, a British man, and a South Korean woman -- were abducted on June 12 after they ventured outside the city of Saada without their required police escorts. Days later the bodies of German nurses Rita Stumpp and Anita Gruenwald, and...

Senior al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leaders are reported to have met with Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud to advise him to move his group's operations into Afghanistan and halt attacks against the Pakistani state. Several meetings were said to have been held last week after an 11-man delegation of al Qaeda and Taliban heavy hitters arrived in Waziristan to deliver a request from Mullah Omar, the Amir al Mumineen, or the leader of the faithful in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to a report in The Nation. The Taliban dispatched Sirajuddin Haqqani, the powerful military commander of the Haqqani Network,...

[L]ast week, after more delays in the process, the administration called victims of the Cole, Bali and Sept. 11 attacks together again to receive an update about the work of the Detainee Review Task Force. The meeting was emotional and heart-wrenching. Each person was given the opportunity to speak about the impact the president's decisions were having on him or her and loved ones. The brave families of our heroes showed true courage in that room. Once again, they had traveled to Washington to express their frustration at seeing justice delayed. If they were truly involved, and the administration were...

Executive Order 13493 on Jan. 22 appointed Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. co-chairman of the Special Task Force on Detainee Disposition, the interagency group charged with determining the status of persons captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations. But according to Justice Department regulations, Mr. Holder is required to recuse himself from certain detainee matters because his law firm represented the detainees.

To be fair, I predicted Obama would be viewed as a hack within a 100 days once. So, maybe, I am not the best person to predict this. That said, in front of our eyes, President Obama's entire agenda is nearing disintegration. A couple days back, negotiations between top Democrats broke down over cap and trade. The situation was characterized as going back to the drawing board. Cap and trade always had a dubious chance of passing. It's not something that just about any Republican would ever support. It would also not enjoy support of any legislator in any state...

Portugal will take in two or three Guantanamo detainees once they are released by the U.S. detention center, the foreign minister said. President Barack Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center by early next year, and has asked European nations to accept some of the camp's 229 detainees. The EU, which long argued for the prison's closure, agreed last week to "turn the page" on Guantanamo, but said it was up to individual EU members to decide whether to take in detainees from the camp. Few have agreed. The Portuguese government is now working out the legal...

The fate of three of nine foreigners abducted in Yemen last week is known — their bodies were found, shot execution style. The whereabouts of the other six — including three children under the age of 6 — remain a mystery. But terrorism experts say their abductors and killers are almost certainly not a mystery. They say the crimes bear the mark of Al Qaeda, and they fear they are the handiwork of the international terror organization's No. 2 man in the Arabian Peninsula: Said Ali al-Shihri, an Islamic extremist who once was in American custody — but who was...

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.