Free Republic

Now that the fighting in Afghanistan is largely over, the sophisticated have emerged, blinking into the new sunlight to explain — again — why America is bad. As is usually the case with such storms, the America-bashing wind blows in from the East, picking up speed in Western Europe before it reaches our shores. But, not surprisingly, there are plenty of people watching Europe and nodding their heads like Weather Channel addicts. I had to read about them while I was writing about this absurd controversy over our treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo yesterday. I don't want to spoil ...

Taleban and al-Qaeda prisoners now being sent from Afghanistan to an American naval base in Cuba will face harsh conditions of detention. Not all of them may be sent to the detention centre at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There have been reports that they were to be sedated during the long flight to Cuba aboard US military cargo planes. The aircraft carrying the prisoners may also be escorted by jet fighters at least some of the way. Prisoners are to be chained to their seats and may be hooded during the trip. They will also be ...

Guantanamo Detainees Said Plotting Sun Jan 27, 9:08 AM ET By TONY WINTON, Associated Press Writer GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Military guards at a detention camp at Guantanamo Bay say they have noticed a command structure emerging among the terrorist suspects being held there, camp leaders said Saturday. The leaders seem to surface during prayer sessions. Photos AP Photo Slideshows AP Photo Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Of the evolving leadership structure, Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert said, "We have indications that many have received training, and that they are observing actions such as security procedures." Lehnert, a ...

The National Post's Stewart Bell reported from Afghanistan during the U.S. bombing of al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. Yesterday he was the only Canadian among a group of foreign reporters granted access to the U.S. detention site at Guantanamo Bay. His report: The Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners held at the U.S. military base here on Cuba's southern coast are being guarded partly by female Military Police officers, a shocking role reversal for Afghan fighters unaccustomed to taking orders from women. During the Taliban's five years in power, women were banned from showing their faces, working or going to school. They were ...

Bound, masked and surrounded by heavily armed U.S. Marines, 20 of the most dangerous al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners arrived for indefinite incarceration at this remote Caribbean naval base. The prisoners' arrival Friday came four months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The prisoners face intense interrogation, especially concerning the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of orchestrating the attacks. "These are people who would gnaw through hydraulic lines in the back of a C-17 to bring it down," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, ...

Nation Welcome to Camp X-Ray When is a war prisoner not a POW? When the U.S. brings Afghan detainees to Guantanamo Bay BY MICHAEL ELLIOTT It's not going to be a country club," said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week, describing the new military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and nobody ever expected it would be. The 110 al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners admitted to "Gitmo" by the end of last week are, said Rumsfeld, "the hardest of the hard core," men who had killed "dozens and dozens of people." But though it may lack tennis courts and a putting ...

<p>GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (CNN) -- Twenty Afghan war detainees spent a "calm and peaceful" first night in a temporary detention center -- 6-by-8 chain-link cells on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the head of security for the detention center said Saturday.</p>

War in Afghanistan More captured fighters flown to Cuba amid US indifference to concern about their status The US pressed ahead yesterday with its controversial policy of flying al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners from Afghanistan to a US naval compound at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Another 30 detainees boarded a transport plane bound for the island last night. Guarded by American troops with attack dogs, the men, shackled and wearing taped-over ski goggles, shuffled in the darkness into a C-17 plane at Kandahar airport. They wore surgical masks over their mouths and noses, because some had tested positive for tuberculosis, a military ...

Democrats demand CIA detainee documents By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 53 minutes ago A Senate Democrat who will chair its Judiciary Committee next year asked the Justice Department to release newly acknowledged documents setting U.S. policy on how suspects in the war on terrorism are detained and interrogated. "The American people deserve to have detailed and accurate information about the role of the Bush administration in developing the interrogation policies and practices that have engendered such deep criticism and concern at home and around the world," Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., wrote Attorney General Alberto Gonzales....

Gibbs: indefinite detention of terrorists regrettable White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that it was unfortunate that some terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay need to be held indefinitely without trial. "Some would be tried in federal courts, as we've seen done in the past. Some would be tried in military commissions, likely spending the rest of their lives in a maximum security prison that nobody, including terrorists, have ever escaped from. Some, regrettably, will have to be indefinitely detained," Gibbs said on CNN's "State of the Union" as he described Obama's beleaguered plan for closing Guantanamo. The press...

What else is there to say?

The White House is preparing an Executive Order on indefinite detention that will provide periodic reviews of evidence against dozens of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, according to several administration officials. The draft order, a version of which was first considered nearly 18 months ago, is expected to be signed by President Obama early in the New Year. The order allows for the possibility that detainees from countries like Yemen might be released if circumstances there change. But the order establishes indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a...

President Obama's advisers have been drafting an executive order that would set up a system for periodically reviewing the cases of Guantanamo prisoners whom courts have approved for detention without trial, officials said. The proposal would replace the "annual review boards" that the Bush administration had used to revisit its decision to hold each prisoner. Under that system, which the Obama administration shut down, a panel of military officers periodically reviewed the accusations against and talked to each prisoner who wanted to participate. The prisoners were not represented by lawyers. Officers then decided whether a prisoner was still a threat...

(MEMRI)- Following are excerpts from an interview with Walid Muhammad Hajj a Sudanese released from Guantanamo Prison, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on December 12, 2010: Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes. The most common method to wear down the brothers was witchcraft. Interviewer: How did they do this? Walid Muhammad Hajj: There were, of course, Jews among the [staff of] the Guantanamo Base, and they would set traps for the guys. Interviewer: Give me an example of witchcraft. Walid Muhammad Hajj: Witchcraft was used on most of the guys. Interviewer: They would cast a spell on them? Walid Muhammad Hajj: Yes,...

      WASHINGTON — It's a tough time to be a member of the U.S. armed forces. Those serving in our all-volunteer military — and their families — are stretched and stressed by more than nine years of war. Unfortunately, our commander in chief — supposedly the champion of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines — isn't doing anything to make serving in uniform any easier. President Barack Obama — fresh from his 3 1/2-hour "visit" to Afghanistan — continues to insist that the U.S. Senate act immediately to allow active homosexuals to serve in the military....

If you needed any more proof of WikiLeaks’ extremist agenda, look no further than Israel Shamir, the Holocaust denier who is in charge of distributing the organization’s documents to the Russian media. The involvement of Shamir, who also supports Ahmadinejad and refers to Palestinian terrorists as “martyrs,” should put to rest any doubt that WikiLeaks’ rhetoric about transparency is just a cloak for its anti-American and anti-Western agenda. As Michael C. Moynihan exposed, Shamir has a long track record of anti-Semitism, including Holocaust denial. Shamir described Auschwitz as “an internment facility, attended by the Red Cross (as opposed to the...

On Dec 7, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released an unclassified a summary of a Congressional directed intelligence report assessing the recidivism of detainees formerly held at Guantanamo Bay (GITMO). The reports indicate that approximately 25% of released prisoners had returned to committing terrorist and insurgent activities against the United States and allies. According to the DNI, as of 1 October 2010, of the 598 terrorists released from GITMO and sent to other countries; 81 were confirmed and 69 are suspected of returning to terrorist and insurgent Organizations. The summary estimates 13 were dead, 54 in custody and 81...

The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has voted 212-206 to ban the Obama administration from spending any funds to try terrorism suspects in civilian court instead of military commissions. Attorney General Eric Holder is reportedly all miffed and vexed. Holder's knots will tighten if the Senate's continuing funding resolution also includes such a provision. The Democrats' $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill that was just killed included a section that prohibited expending any funds for transporting foreign terrorist detainees like KSM to the U.S. Since Congress failed to pass a new budget for 2011, the House passed a continuing resolution on...

Illinois Republicans were successful Friday in stripping a provision from a House defense bill that would have given permission for the transfer to the U.S. of detainees in the Guantanamo Bay military prison. The issue is of special importance to Illinois GOP lawmakers because earlier this year the Obama administration moved to buy an underutilized state prison in Thomson, Ill., in part to house Guantanamo detainees. Closing Guantanamo was a central Obama pledge that the president has not been able to keep — a promise made during his campaign and on his first day in office. Congress needs to give...

The omnibus spending bill that passed the House contained explicit language that prohibits funding for the closure of Gitmo and the transfer of detainees to U.S. soil. The provisions were roundly attacked by Eric Holder and the DOJ. But guess what? The Senate version of the omnibus includes a superseding provision that would allow the transfer of detainees to the U.S. for the purpose of conducting civilian trials.