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Senior administration officials insisted Monday that they have made substantial progress on closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, even though two task forces set up to plan for the closure have asked for extensions. The administration’s detention policy task force and the interrogation task force -- both created by executive order -- have asked for six-month and two-month extensions, respectively. A third task force set up to assess each detainee is “on track,” an official said. One official blamed the delays in the other two task forces on the Bush administration. “These are issues frankly that could have been...

An Obama administration task force set up to develop a plan for the closure of the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay will miss its first deadline this week—and put off a key report until the fall—amid continued divisions over how to resolve one of the president's thorniest policy dilemmas. The task force, set up on Obama's second day in office, was charged with preparing a report to the president by Tuesday, July 21, outlining a long-term detention plan for detainees captured in counterterrorism operations after Sept. 11. But continued debate within the task force over the legal basis for...

I'm feeling pretty badly for Obama. The poor guy is just getting slapped silly on the foreign front. His domestic plans are unraveling like a cheap sweater. The stimulus ain't stimulating, and the rumbles of withdrawing it are being heard. Congress is starting to vote against him. My word, the dude did that presser-nonpresser the other day about health-care and I thought he was going to go all Buckwheat on us. The lad needs a win. And I have just the idea for him.

A Pentagon official Thursday largely refused to answer lawmakers' questions about why members of Congress are prohibited from meeting with Guantanamo detainees, even as intelligence officials from China and elsewhere were allegedly allowed to visit Guantanamo and interrogate prisoners held there. "You allowed intelligence agents of a foreign country to interrogate [Uighur detainees], but you are concerned about their safety and that's why you don't allow United States members of Congress [to visit]?" pressed Rep. Jim Moran, D-VA, in a series of rhetorical questions. "You are concerned about 'public curiosity' -- apparently you're implying we'd be seeing them out of...

An al-Jazeera reporter who was imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay plans to launch a joint legal action with other detainees against former US president George Bush and other administration officials, for the illegal detention and torture he and others suffered at the hands of US authorities. The case will be initiated by the Guantánamo Justice Centre, a new organisation open to former prisoners at the US base, which will set up its international headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, later this month. ... Al-Haj, who is back at work for the Arabic satellite channel in Qatar, is in frequent contact with Guantánamo detainees,...

SNIPPET: "BEIJING - THREE Uighur men tried to incite other Muslims to launch a 'jihad' and attacked a mosque security guard before police shot and killed two of them, state media reported on Tuesday. The incident began when around 150 Muslims were praying in a mosque in Urumqi, the capital of the northwest Xinjiang region on Monday, Xinhua news agency said, citing an unnamed imam who was giving a service at the time. One man stood up and tried to take over the prayers but was stopped, the imam told Xinhua. A few minutes later the man reportedly stood up...

[caption id="attachment_709" align="aligncenter" width="562" caption="U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment"] [/caption] Freed to Kill More American Soldiers Taliban Thrives, Thanks to Obama Policy byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org A dog returneth to its vomit. So reads Proverbs 26:11. Any doubt of this truth should be put to rest by recent developments in southeastern Afghanistan where the US Marines have launched a massive offensive. The purpose of the mission - - dubbed Operation Khanjar or “Strike of the Sword” - - is to rout out the Taliban forces before the August 20 election to ensure the re-election of Afghan...

The beleaguered Guantanamo war court, hobbled by legal challenges and technical problems, creaked into session for only the second time since U.S. President Barack Obama cast it into limbo shortly after he took office in January. Obama has ordered the Guantanamo detention camp, which became a stain on America's human rights reputation and has been widely criticized by rights advocates, closed by next January. But Washington is still trying to determine what to do with the approximately 240 prisoners who remain. Only 11 have been charged with crimes and U.S. military prosecutors say they have viable cases against 66. Prosecutors...

(snip) "No. I fought against waterboarding," the Arizona Republican said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I have spoken out as forcibly as possible everywhere against what went on. It harms our image so much around the world when photographs come out. We all know bad things were done. We all know the operators were under orders to do so… I agree with the president of the United States it's time to move on, and not look back." (snip)

"Reformed" Gitmo inmate killing Americans in Afghanistan Rick Moran His name is Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul (nickname: Zakir) and he surrendered to the American forces in Afghanistan in late 2001. Taken to Guantanamo, he spent 6 years in our custody until he was turned over to the Afghan government in 2007 when they promised to make sure he didn't pick up arms against the US again. Promises are cheap: Now as the United States is pushing ahead with the massive Operation Khanjar in the southern province of Afghanistan, Zakir is coordinating the Taliban fighters. Some 4,000 U.S. Marines and hundreds of...

Will the left call him Obamahitler now? (h/t Ace of Spades HQ) Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department's chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy decision that officials would make based on their estimate of whether the prisoner posed a future threat. Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration argues that the legal basis for indefinite detention of aliens it considers dangerous is separate from war-crimes prosecutions. Officials say that the laws of war allow indefinite detention to prevent aliens from committing warlike acts in...

Note: The following text is a quote: News American Forces Press Service Top Defense Lawyer Calls for Military Commissions Reform By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, July 7, 2009 – Closing the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and reforming military commissions will enhance national security, the Defense Department’s chief legal advisor said today before Congress. Echoing President Barack Obama’s recent call to reform the Military Commissions Act of 2006, General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he welcomes the opportunity to help change military commissions into...

Fox News has this report. A former Guantanamo Bay inmate is leading the fight against U.S. Marines in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed to FOX News on Tuesday. Mullah Zakir, also known as Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, surrendered in Mazar-e-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan in 2001, and was transferred to Gitmo in 2006. He was released in late 2007 to Afghan custody.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- As Marine Corps forces roll into southern Afghanistan, they face an enemy familiar to US officials -- Mullah Zakir, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who now leads a reconstituted Taliban. Abdul Qayum Zakir, also known as Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, is from Helmand Province and has taken a circuitous route to become head of the radical Islamic group. Zakir was a senior fighter during the Taliban regime in the 1990s. In a memorandum prepared for his administrative review board at Guantanamo, Zakir apparently "felt it would be fine to wage jihad against Americans, Jews, or Israelis if they...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S. military said today that insurgents have capture an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan. Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the soldier went missing Tuesday.

Like his fellow prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Kuwaiti detainee Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed al-Kandari hoped that President Obama's election would finally bring justice. Judges, not political appointees, would prevail and restore the rule of law. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have changed. The Obama administration is reportedly considering an executive order that would "reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely," and the situation at the prison itself is worsening.... When international media attention on Guantanamo grew, such "enhanced" interrogation techniques stopped. But since Obama pledged to close the prison, cell extractions, slurs and petty persecutions have increased. In some cases, the...

  Editor's note: The following is Thomas Joscelyn's response to this letter from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.Let’s be clear about the extreme position Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has taken here: Al Qaeda-trained terrorists pose no threat to the American people. This is obviously a disturbing stance - especially for a sitting congressman.Now, of course Mr. Rohrabacher pretends that his defense of the Uighurs detained at Gitmo is not a defense of al Qaeda-trained terrorists at all. But it is, for at least two reasons. First, Mr. Rohrabacher offers no rebuttal to the facts and evidence I cited. This body of evidence conclusively...

    Editor's note: The following letter was submitted by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who serves as Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, in response to this blog post by Thomas Joscelyn.Despite the court rulings declaring the Uighurs continued detention in GITMO as unjust and the decision by the Obama administration to finally release them, there are still naysayers who refuse to believe the Uighurs pose no threat to the United States. They never have. Rather, the Uighurs are a Muslim ethnic minority from a remote section of China, who desired to...

Bermuda and Palau may not be the only beautiful tropical islands to host illegal Islamist combatants being released from US custody at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. If a Hawaii County Councilman and a Kauai County activist get their way, some would get a new home—and complete freedom--on two of Hawaii’s most beautiful islands. Robert Greenwell represents the North Kona district where activists recently protested against training US military personnel at Pohakuloa Training Area. They may not want US soldiers and marines, but al-Qaeda fighters are welcome.

On Friday evening, we received this from the administration. Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for 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.