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Peoria, Ill. - A federal judge sentenced an Al Qaeda "sleeper" agent to eight years in prison Thursday -- about half the time prosecutors had requested -- because the agent received what the judge called "unacceptable" treatment in a U.S. Navy brig. U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm could have sentenced Ali Marri to as much as 15 years. Prosecutors had endorsed that, presenting testimony that he remained a threat. But Mihm handed down the lighter sentence of eight years and four months in consideration of what he called "very severe" conditions under which Marri was kept during the almost six...

<p>The Pentagon will offer the H1N1 vaccination to detainees at the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, officials there said Friday.</p> <p>The Pentagon made the decision based on U.S. government assessments that people held in detention facilities are at high risk for the pandemic, said Maj. Diana R. Haynie, a spokeswoman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay, which is in charge of holding the suspected terrorists.</p>

From the FBI press release on last night’s Dearborn, MI raid-turned-shootout that left radical Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, aka Christopher Thomas dead: Abdullah was the leader of part of a group that calls themselves Ummah (“the brotherhood”), a group of mostly African-American converts to Islam, which seeks to establish a separate Sharia-law governed state within the United States. The Ummah is ruled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rapp Brown, who is serving a state sentence in USP Florence, CO, ADMAX, for the murder of two police officers in Georgia.Interesting to note the active tense used in the...

When it comes to the thorny issue of Guantanamo, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is the closest thing President Barack Obama has to an ally on the Republican side of the aisle. But with the White House’s drive for Congressional approval to close the prison stalled for nearly six months now, Graham is sounding increasingly restless and is even opening a battle with the administration that could be politically damaging to Democrats. “I’m a bit frustrated. The interaction I was hoping for has kind of come to a standstill,” Graham complained in an interview with POLITICO. “Some of the things being...

Even as some Americans await the arrival of their swine flu vaccines, the Pentagon has decided to vaccinate both soldiers and terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There was no word Wednesday on when the the first vaccines would reach the remote base in southeast Cuba. But U.S. military there were notified late last week that service members would get their H1N1 virus vaccinations first. Private contractors and sailors' wives and children could get theirs afterward ``as the supply permits.'' And that means the 221 war on terror captives would also be vaccinated first, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt,...

The word "fair" conjures up images of merry-go-rounds, fluffy, pink cones of spun sugar, candy apples and popcorn. Not if you are invited to the White House. Excited Washington DC school children, disembarking from yellow school buses on the South Lawn of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue were in for a big shock! The Obamas' idea of a kid's fair included sermons extolling the benefits of replacing cake and French fries with vegetables. Imagine finding out you have the afternoon off and are going to the White House for a "fair." When you get there you realize the festivities include Michelle doing...

If one were to believe what many on the Left in America say, the inmates at the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are nothing but innocent pilgrims and goat herders who all ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The latest is a distinguished gentleman named Yousef Mohammed al Shihri. This innocent shepherd (we’ll call him “Yo Mo” for short) was no doubt improperly incarcerated by the evil American empire after being snatched from his benevolent wanderings in beautiful, picturesque Afghanistan several years ago.

Some of those musicians -- Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine -- say their music has been played at ear-splitting level to torment terror suspects and coerce confessions at the detention facility. Other petitioners want to know whether their works have been used in such capacity, including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne and Billy Bragg. "The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me," said Tom Morello, former lead guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, an industrial rock band whose song "March of the Pigs" has been linked to torture tactics at...

And the winner for most torturous sounds to a jihadi's ears is..... Was the theme to "Sesame Street" really played to torture prisoners held at Guantanamo and other detention camps? What about Don McLean's "American Pie"? Or the Meow Mix jingle? Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."? A high-profile coalition of artists -- including the members of Pearl Jam, R.E.M. and the Roots -- demanded Thursday that the government release the names of all the songs that were blasted since 2002 at prisoners for hours, even days, on end, to try to coerce cooperation or as a method of punishment....

October 22, 2009, 0:00 a.m. The Kitty-Cat Who RoaredThe loud reformer Obama himself proves even emptier in his promises than Bush. By Victor Davis Hanson President Obama keeps roaring out deadlines like a lion — only later to meow like a little kitty. Remember, for example, how he bellowed to cheering partisan crowds that he would close down the detainment facility at Guantanamo within a year? The clock ticks — and Guantanamo isn’t close to being shut down. It once was easy for candidate Obama to deplore George W. Bush’s supposed gulag. Now it proves harder to decide between...

The US Supreme Court has said it will hear a case about the rights of Chinese Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Bay.The 17 have been in Guantanamo Bay for nearly eight years A number of ethnic Uighurs are still being held despite no longer being deemed a threat to the US, after the Pentagon cleared them in 2004. The court will decide whether federal judges have the right to order their release into the US when no other country can be found to take them. US President Barack Obama wants to close Guantanamo by early next year. An appeals court ruled...

Gitmo commander: I can empty the prison in 10 days By Jordan Fabian - 10/20/09 06:31 PM ET The U.S. military can comply with a White House order to clear the Guantanamo Bay prison camp of its prisoners within 10 days, said the prison's commanding officer on Tuesday. The base commander, Navy Rear Adm. Tom Copeman, told the Miami Herald and Fox News that if the Obama administration ends up calling for the prison's closure by its self-imposed Jan. 22 deadline, the base's staff can comply in a timely matter. "If they say on Jan. 12, 'move them out,' we...

AMHERST, Mass.—Amherst leaders are backing a resolution offering the Massachusetts college town as a possible resettlement home for two Guantanamo detainees if they are released from the military prison. The board voted 2-1 on Monday to endorse a warrant article filed on behalf of the two men by the group Pioneer Valley No More Guantanamos. The resolution would require approval from Town Meeting. It also calls on Congress to lift a ban on relocating former Guantanamo prisoners -- even those cleared of wrongdoing -- from resettling in the U.S.

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Is the Obama administration keeping America safe? DEBRA BURLINGAME: When Barack Obama was sworn in as president, I actually had a sliver of hope that he would surprise his worst critics and govern from the center — the smart pragmatist. That hope pretty much evaporated on January 22 when he signed a series of executive orders shutting the Guantanamo Bay detention center by a date certain and suspending the trial of 9/11 conspirators — who were at that moment sitting at Gitmo, crowing about their role in the murder of 3,000 of our fellow human beings. Surrounded...

US House backs Guantanamo prisoner transfer 15 Oct 2009 17:26:42 GMT Source: Reuters WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to allow the Obama administration to bring foreign terrorism suspects from the Guantanamo Bay prison to the United States to face trial. The 307 to 114 vote removes one of many roadblocks the administration faces as it tries to empty the internationally condemned prison by January.

Republicans in the House have lost a bid to block the transfer of any detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison to the United States. Instead, the House stood by a Democratic plan to allow suspected enemy combatants held at Guantanamo to be shipped to U.S. soil only to be prosecuted for their suspected crimes. President Obama has ordered the facility closed in January but has yet to offer a plan to accomplish that.

Handing President Barack Obama a partial victory in his effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, House Democrats on Thursday repelled a Republican effort to block transfer of any of the detainees to the U.S. Instead, by a 224-193 vote, the House stood by a Democratic plan to allow suspected enemy combatants held at the controversial facility in Cuba to be shipped to U.S. soil — but only to be prosecuted for their suspected crimes. The Guantanamo restrictions were attached by House-Senate negotiators on a $42.8 billion homeland security appropriations bill. The measure subsequently passed by a 307-114 vote.

Yesterday, 223 House Democrats (and Ron Paul) voted down a motion to recommit H.R. 2892. In effect, they voted: 1) to bring Guantanamo al Qaeda detainees into the U.S., 2) to delete the requirement that all detainees who once were or currently are being held at Gitmo be placed on the Department of Homeland Security's 'no-fly' list, and 3) to delete this additional requirement: "the Secretary of Homeland Security shall conduct a threat assessment for each such individual who is proposed to be transferred to the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, or the United States Territories."...

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 The White House is only now admitting to this? With little hope for meeting President Obama's deadline for closing the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay, a new message is emerging from the administration: Disregard our timetable. "We're not focused on whether or not the deadline will or won't be met on a particular day," said White House press secretary...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Here in the land of limbo, the news of President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize landed with more of a whimper than wild enthusiasm among those waging their part in the war on terror. Most troops interviewed this week reflected the surprise of their commander in chief on waking up to the news Friday morning. More than a few hadn't heard about the award for the president who pledged to empty the prison camps here until they were asked about it in an interview with The Miami Herald. ``I've been fishing,'' said Navy Petty...