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.....If one were to follow the logic of trying the Gitmo guys for trying to hurt us then why is it ok to fire back on them? Isn’t that wrong? In a Civil Court of law, what applies to one party, applies to the other. Aren’t the soldiers being fired on, taking justice into their own hands by firing back? I mean after all, according to the Civil Justice System that the Gitmo terrorists will be held to, isn’t a person considered innocent until proven guilty in ....

The local discussion group this morning was Gitmo. It wasn't too long ago - I believe when "W" was president - that the Left was having fits that our government was operating that "torturous" Camp Gitmo and demanding that Gitmo be closed. Then came "0" who campaigned that he would close that horrible Camp Gitmo within one year. Well, Gitmo is going great guns, doing the job it's supposed to do, totally ignored by the Teleprompter Reader, and the Left has disappeared. What's up? Where's the outrage?

The first civilian trial of a Guantánamo Bay detainee was delayed today after a Manhattan judge told prosecutors they could not call their star witness. Judge Lewis Kaplan blocked the government in Washington from calling a man whom authorities said sold explosives to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the defendant. Defence lawyers say investigators learned about the witness only after Ghailani underwent harsh interrogation at a secret CIA camp between 2004 and 2006. "The court has not reached this conclusion lightly," Kaplan wrote. "It is acutely aware of the perilous nature of the world in which we live. But the constitution is...

The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing. The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden. In...

MIAMI - A U.S. military judge has ruled there is no credible evidence that a Canadian prisoner on trial in Guantanamo on murder and terrorism conspiracy charges was tortured into confessing after his capture in Afghanistan. In a written ruling released by the Pentagon Friday, Army Colonel Patrick Parrish gave his arguments for rejecting a motion by lawyers of Omar Khadr requesting that confessions made by Khadr to U.S. interrogators should not used as evidence in his trial on grounds they were obtained through torture. A military tribunal trying Khadr opened proceedings last week at the Guantanamo Bay naval base...

In a move reflecting apparent frustration over stalled talks with the White House on Guantanamo and detainee issues, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is moving forward — without the Obama administration’s blessing — with legislation to address a series of thorny legal questions raised by the long-term detention of terrorism suspects. A bill Graham quietly introduced last week would set standards and rules for legal challenges brought by prisoners at Guantanamo as well as other suspected enemy fighters whom U.S. forces may capture in the future.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2010 – A military commission at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, sentenced a Sudanese man to 14 years’ confinement yesterday for material support he provided al-Qaida in the years leading up to its Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, military officials reported. Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, 50, pleaded guilty July 7 to two charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism and providing material support to al-Qaida from August 1996 until his capture in December 2001. Prosecutors presented evidence that al Qosi performed an important function in al-Qaida’s ability to recruit and train operatives and to...

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — A veteran U.S. Army officer who agreed with President Barack Obama that the Guantanamo Bay prison should be closed was excluded from the jury in a U.S. military commission trial Wednesday after prosecutors objected that he had "pre-conceived" views that might jeopardize their case. The move came as prosecutors and jurors selected a seven-person jury of military officers to hear the case of Omar Khadr, the so-called "child soldier" accused of hurling a hand grenade that killed an American soldier in a firefight in Afghanistan eight years ago. Khadr, now 23, has spent a third of...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A Guantanamo court on Wednesday sentenced Osama bin Laden's former cook to 14 years in prison. Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi of Sudan pleaded guilty last month to supporting terrorism, making him only the fourth Guantanamo detainee to be convicted since the prison, which has held nearly 800 men, was opened in 2002. Al-Qosi could be released much sooner under plea deal that remains sealed, Reuters reported. Al-Qosi avoided a possible life sentence at trial by pleading guilty July 7 to one count each of providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy. The jury of...

Four of the nation's most highly valued terrorist prisoners were secretly moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003, years earlier than has been disclosed, then were whisked back into overseas prisons before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers, The Associated Press has learned. The transfer allowed the U.S. to interrogate the detainees in CIA "black sites" for two more years without allowing them to speak with attorneys or human rights observers or challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Had they remained at the Guantanamo Bay prison for just three more months, they would have been afforded those...

SNIPPET: "A former Guantanamo detainee named Usama Abu Kabir led a terror cell in Jordan that was broken up in 2009, according to a new report by the US State Department. On Thursday, the State Department released its Country Reports on Terrorism for 2009. "In April [2009]," the report notes, "four men were arrested and charged with plotting attacks in Israel in retaliation for the Israeli incursion into Gaza." Kabir was one of the four. A fifth member of the cell was arrested in May 2009. Kabir’s arrest was previously reported in the Israeli and Jordanian press. But the State...

A white, unmarked Boeing 737 landed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before dawn on a CIA mission so secretive, many in the nation's war on terrorism were kept in the dark. Four of the nation's most highly valued terrorist prisoners were aboard. *snip* Then, months later, they were just as quietly whisked away before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers. *snip* It also shows how insistent the Bush administration was that terrorists must be held outside the U.S. court system.

Four of the nation's most highly valued terrorist prisoners were secretly moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003, years earlier than has been disclosed, then whisked back into overseas prisons before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers, The Associated Press has learned. The transfer allowed the U.S. to interrogate the detainees in CIA "black sites" for two more years without allowing them to speak with attorneys or human rights observers or challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Had they remained at the Guantanamo Bay prison for just three more months, they would have been afforded those rights....

Naji had fought his repatriation to Algeria, saying he feared he would be mistreated or killed there. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Naji lost his plea earlier this month, clearing the way for him and five other Algerian Guantanamo inmates to be repatriated.

NOTE The following text is a quote: IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 653-10 July 22, 2010 Detainee Transfer Announced The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of two detainees from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the Governments of Spain and Latvia. As directed by the President’s January 22, 2009 executive order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of these cases. As a result of that review, which examined a number of factors, including security issues, the detainees were approved for transfer by unanimous consent among all the agencies involved in the task force. In accordance...

SNIPPET: "The Department of Defense announced the transfer of two Guantanamo detainees today. Abdul Aziz Naji, a native of Algeria, was repatriated to his home country. Abd-al-Nisr Mohammed Khantumani, a Syrian, was resettled in Cape Verde, an island republic approximately 300 miles off the west coast of Africa." SNIPPET: "US military officials at Gitmo alleged that Abdul Aziz Naji (whose internment serial number at Gitmo was 744) was a member of Laskar-e-Taiba (LET), a Pakistani-based terrorist organization closely linked to al Qaeda. A senior intelligence official contacted by the Long War Journal explained that not only was Naji a member...

WASHINGTON - A federal appellate court has upheld the convictions and sentence of a Navy lawyer who, in January 2005, mailed the names of Guantanamo Bay detainees to a lawyer at the Center for Constitution Rights in a Valentine’s Day card. In U.S. v. Diaz, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on Thursday unanimously affirmed Lt. Commander Matthew Diaz’s convictions for conduct unbecoming an officer and for removing and communicating classified information. Diaz was sentenced to six months’ confinement and dismissal from the Navy. From July 6, 2004, to January 15, 2005, Diaz was assigned to Joint...

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the United States to return to Algeria two Guantanamo Bay prisoners who asked to remain at the prison camp because of fear they might be tortured at home. Justices on Saturday declined to hear the appeal of Aziz Abdul Naji, held at Guantanamo since 2002 after being captured in Pakistan. That ruling follows the high court's decision late Friday that allowed the U.S. government to proceed in sending another Algerian detainee home. The detainees had argued they would be harmed by the Algerian government or unaffiliated armed Islamic militants if they were...

President Obama has not fulfilled his pledge to close the detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay, but he has brought Skype, Playstation3 and "life skills" classes to the detainees at the island facility.

SNIPPET: "Germany agreed to accept two Guantanamo detainees last week. In justifying the decision, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere explained: “The United States has asked us to take three people who were cleared for release. We decided to take in two who we were almost certain would pose no threat to society. With the third we weren't sure.”" SNIPPET: "But in this case the press has reported the identity of the two detainees in question. The German newspaper Bild has named them: Ayman al Shurafa, a 34-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia, and Mahmud Salim al Ali, a 35-year-old Syrian....