Guantanamo Bay News Archives

WASHINGTON. May 29. KAZINFORM. Here's a good example of a 'sticky wicket.' Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate committee the search for a way to close the Guantanamo detainee prison has stalled because ...

The military judge presiding over the case of a Canadian detainee at Guantanamo Bay has been abruptly dismissed without explanation.

A British resident held in Guantanamo has been charged with terrorism offences, a legal charity said today.

PENTAGON prosecutors filed new charges today against three prisoners accused of operating an al-Qaeda bomb-making cell, the latest in a flurry of cases pending in the Guantanamo war crimes court.

Defence lawyers accused the U.S. government of rushing defendants in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to trial to influence the presidential elections and asked the military judge to dismiss the case in a ...

By MATTHEW LEE The Associated Press Friday, May 30, 2008; 9:38 AM REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday rejected allegations that terror detainees held at Guantanamo Bay are being ...

A British resident detained in Guantanamo Bay has written to Gordon Brown to plead for his release.

The Associated Press Thursday, May 29, 2008; 5:29 PM SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- U.S. military prosecutors filed identical charges Thursday against three Guantanamo Bay detainees, including a U.S.-educated Saudi ...

The military judge in the Omar Khadr trial in Guantanamo Bay has been relieved of his duties, a move that Mr.

At the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military guards called their sleep-disruption efforts for detainees the "frequent-flier program." This involved constant cell changes meant to disrupt prisoners' rest and lower their resistance to interrogations.

Detainees routinely are blasted with loud music at many US holding sites. Songs used include the one in Meow Mix cat-food commercials and "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by the heavy-metal band Drowning Pool.

US interrogators have also threatened to send detainees to countries thought to use torture. One Guantanamo prisoner was taken on a long boat ride meant to trick him into believing he'd been handed over to another government.

For years, there has been a public argument about the use of torture in the terror war.

An Afghan detainee at Guantanamo Bay was the alleged victim of an abusive tactic meant to decrease his resistance to interrogation, a Pentagon-appointed defence attorney said Wednesday in a motion to dismiss ...

Almost seven years after 9/11, Guantanamo Bay remains a shameful symbol of the War on Terror.

The United States is shirking its duty to provide the world with moral leadership and China is letting its business interests trump human rights concerns in Myanmar and Sudan, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Amnesty International's annual report on the state of the world's human rights accused the U.S. of failing to provide a moral compass for its international peers, a long-standing complaint the London-based group has against the North American superpower.

This year it also criticized the U.S. for supporting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last November when he imposed a state of emergency, clamped down on the media and sacked judges.

An A-list Seattle law firm with a list of big corporations as clients will represent Osama bin Laden's former driver at his trial this summer, the firm said.

A former Army Muslim chaplain who was once accused of spying at Guantanamo Bay is now a Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Barack Obama.

Mohammed Prepares For 9/11 Trial by Staff The case of the self-described leader of the Sept.

Friday, May 23, 2008 :: infoZine Staff By Jared J. Council - Murat Kurnaz told a House committee Tuesday about what he went through during five years as a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

FBI reports about alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other U.S. military sites were ignored by Bush administration leaders, a federal audit said.

David Hicks' family and lawyer say they know nothing of a reported $1 million offer to the former Guantanamo Bay detainee to tell his story.

Reuters Friday, May 23, 2008; 6:14 PM WASHINGTON - The Pentagon on Friday charged an accused al Qaeda training camp instructor with conspiracy and support of terrorism.

If his cell were at Guantanamo Bay, the prisoner would be just one of hundreds of suspected terrorists detained offshore, where the U.S. says the Constitution does not apply.

A handful of US lawmakers gave only half an ear to the testimony on Tuesday of a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who spent nearly five years in prison before being released without charge.

Military prosecutors filed charges Friday against a Sudanese detainee at Guantanamo Bay who is accused of running a training camp for terrorists in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

THE family and lawyer of David Hicks say they know nothing of a reported $1 million offer to the former Guantanamo Bay detainee to tell his story.

Canada's top court will release a ruling on Friday that could find the United States is violating international norms by holding a Canadian former child soldier at Guantanamo Bay.

AP has more . AFP has additional coverage . Kurnaz spent almost five years at Guantanamo Bay before being returned to Germany in August 2006 after German authorities pressed for his release [JURIST reports]. He ...

Excerpts from the Justice Department audit of terror interrogations at overseas military bases: ___ 'Our report found that after FBI agents in GTMO and other military zones were confronted with interrogators ...

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Saudi citizen who allegedly intended to be the "20th hijacker" on September 11 tried to kill himself last month at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, ...

Biting and spitting at guards, an Afghan prisoner was forced into the Guantanamo war court on Wednesday to face charges of planting explosives and launching missiles toward a U.S.-occupied area in Afghanistan ...

Iceland is the world's most peaceful nation while the United States is ranked among the bottom third, according to a study released on Tuesday.

Murat Kurnaz, a young Turkish citizen born and raised in Germany, traveled to Pakistan to learn more about Islam in October 2001, weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

An FBI agent watched Australian detainee Mamdouh Habib repeatedly vomit during a marathon interrogation session at Guantanamo Bay in 2004, according to a long-awaited US Justice Department report released ...

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Bush administration security officials ignored FBI concerns over abusive treatment of terrorism suspects, which one agent called "borderline torture," a four-year Justice Department probe found.

The FBI, alarmed by interrogation techniques such as the use of snarling dogs, sexual provocation and forced nudity, clashed with the Defense Department and CIA over their use, said the 370-page report, released on Tuesday by the Justice Department's inspector general.

Efforts to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are at "a standstill," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.

A Justice Department audit of terror interrogations at three military bases overseas concluded Tuesday that FBI agents refused to participate when detainees were questioned under harsh and potentially illegal ...

A man who was held for years at the Guantanamo Bay prison will testify on Capitol Hill today.

In a May 19 story about the U.S. military holding approximately 500 juveniles in detention centers in Afghanistan and Iraq, The Associated Press erroneously reported that a U.S. government report said those ...

A military lawyer sought Monday to delay the arraignment of a suspect in the Sept.

“Juveniles and former child soldiers should be treated first and foremost as candidates for rehabilitation and reintegration into society, not subjected to further victimization.”

The U.S. military is holding about 500 juveniles suspected of being "unlawful enemy combatants" in detention centres in Iraq and has about 10 detained at the U.S. base at Bagram, Afghanistan, the United States ... via The Victoria Star

Dozens of protesters, some donning black hoods and orange prisoner jumpsuits, demanded that the University of California, Berkeley's law school fire a professor whose they said devised the legal basis for the ... via KTVU

“It was difficult to tell agents what the rules were because we didn't know ourselves”

A new Justice Department report praises FBI agents for refusing to join in the U.S. military's abusive questioning of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, but faults the bureau's for responding ... via News-Times

“The accused has been in confinement for six years, and another month's wait will not prejudice any party to the case”

A military judge Friday postponed the first war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, saying he wants to wait until the Supreme Court makes its highly anticipated ruling on the right of detainees to challenge ... via WSVN-TV Miami Beach

“In 'Hunger' there is no simplistic notion of 'hero' or 'martyr' or 'victim'”

The director of a powerful film about the final days of Bobby Sands said he had not made a hero of the IRA prisoner whose death in a 1981 hunger strike made him one of the most prominent symbols of opposition ... via XtraMSN Real Estate

“All you can do is report what's in the picture”

On the set of Standard Operating Procedure Errol Morris isn't interested in amassing evidence of orchestrated human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, as Alex Gibney's "Taxi to the Dark Side" does with prisons ... via Danville Weekly

“By late November, the detainee was evidencing behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma (talking to nonexistent people, reporting hearing voices, crouching in a corner of the cell covered with a sheet for hours on end)”

For weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when images of twisted metal and smoldering debris still filled television screens and the wail of bagpipes at firefighters' funerals sounded day after day, there ... via Truthdig

Yes, she'll fight like a junkyard dog What do Yucca Mountain and Guantanamo Bay have in common? Well, there's the obvious stuff. via Hugh Hewitt

“As of April 2008, US forces held approximately 500 juveniles”

Around 500 minors are currently detained by the US army in Iraq, as well as nearly a dozen juveniles in Afghanistan, a US civil liberties group revealed on Wednesday. via Raw Story

“The government is finally admitting what we have been saying all along: that the government's claims against our client were based on unreliable evidence obtained through torture at Guantanamo”

One judge in the Guantanamo Bay military tribunal has threatened to suspend the case against a Canadian terrorism suspect if Pentagon prosecutors continue withholding evidence from the defense. via Los Angeles Times

“Important to remember that heritage can invite anyone to present and that we don't really have an opinion on anyone”

It's been nearly a month since the New York Times first reported on a Pentagon program in which retired military officers, who've since become lobbyists or consultants for military contractors, were recruited ... via The Carpetbagger Report

“I feel the Americans are just waiting for one single word or move from the Canadian government to send this boy back home”

Canada's silence about how the United States deals with Canadian citizens on terror-related issues amounts to tacit approval of widely condemned practices such as rendition to torture and illegal detention, ... via CFRB

The Pentagon has dropped charges against a Saudi at Guantanamo who was alleged to have been the so-called '20th hijacker' in the Sept. 11 attacks, his U.S. military defense lawyer said Monday.

Mohammed al-Qahtani was one of six men charged by the military in February with murder and war crimes for their alleged roles in the 2001 attacks. Authorities say al-Qahtani missed out on taking part in the attacks because he was denied entry to the U.S. by an immigration agent.

But in reviewing the case, the convening authority for military commissions, Susan Crawford, decided to dismiss the charges against al-Qahtani and proceed with the arraignment for the other five, said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, the Saudi's military lawyer. Read more

“No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture.”

Testimony of Marjorie Cohn "From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules" Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties ... via Legal Activists of Color

A military judge conducting a war crimes tribunal for Guantanamo prisoners has barred a general who set up the tribunals, The New York Times reported Saturday. via Daily India

“Rats are treated with more humanity”

By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News Published: May 06, 2008, 00:12 Sami Al Haj, the Al Jazeera cameraman thrown into Guantanamo six years ago where he remained until last week without charge or trial, is ... via Gulfnews

“It's being withheld not for legitimate security reasons, but in order to protect high-level government officials from embarrassment, criticism, and possibly even criminal prosecution.”

NEW YORK: With human rights groups demanding the release of a report on a long-running investigation of the role of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the unlawful interrogations of detainees in Iraq, ... via The Daily Star

Gitmo judge threatens to suspend trial for Canadian detainee over evidence delay Eds: APNewsNow GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba A military judge at Guantanamo Bay is threatening to suspend the trial of a ... via KXMA-TV Dickinson

“I am not going to say I'm not from al Qaeda”

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Osama bin Laden's suspected "media director" rejected U.S. terrorism court proceedings against him and renewed his allegiance to the al Qaeda leader on ... via Reuters

Lawyers for a Guantanamo Bay detainee said Wednesday they have filed a lawsuit seeking to force the British government to hand over documents that they claim prove the prisoner was tortured before being sent to ... via Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“We were shocked by the painful news we received this afternoon ... through a call from one of the friend's of martyr Abdallah in Iraq”

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday May 07 2008. It was last updated at 19:35 on May 07 2008. via Guardian Unlimited

“I think it's a near-impossibility that these cases will be in court before the end of the (Bush) administration”

It is unlikely that the roughly 775 detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility will face a jury trial before the end of the year, U.S. officials say. via The Post Chronicle

“The panel is wrestling with the privacy interests over the public's right to know”

An appeals court panel heard arguments Monday on whether to release the identities of some detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp who suffered mistreatment by their handlers or other prisoners.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Wolstein told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Judge Jed S. Rakoff in Manhattan erred in 2006 when he ordered the names released, finding in favor of a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press.

Wolstein said the privacy interests of detainees who were mistreated were important to protect them from 'a genuine possibility of harm' if their identities were revealed and their enemies suspected they cooperated with U.S. authorities. Read more

“His transfer to Sudan indicates our belief that the government of Sudan can effectively mitigate the threat posed by Mr. al-Haj. "Information both classified and publicly available supported the decision to detain him”

Nine detainees at the US war-on-terror prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba, were transferred out, including an Al-Jazeera cameraman, a US spokesman said Friday. via Raw Story

“If the Supreme Court concludes that the detainees have constitutional rights, then there would be little legal difference between holding them in Guantanamo or holding them on the (U.S.) mainland”

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration could announce plans by the end of its term in January to close Guantanamo prison and an upcoming Supreme Court ruling might be the impetus for this, senior U.S. officials and experts say.

The government is under international and domestic pressure to close the prison, which opened at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba in January 2002 to house terrorism suspects caught after the invasion of Afghanistan.

"A decision could be made in this administration to announce the closure of Guantanamo. It is unlikely in the next nine months that Guantanamo could be physically (closed) but it is possible the policy decision could be taken to close it," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition he was not identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Read more

“Conditions are asphalt, excrement and worse”

Next month, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who was once a driver for Osama bin Laden, could become the first detainee to be tried for war crimes in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. via International Herald Tribune

“Mr Hamdan cannot be tried in a system where politicians hold the final say over who is charged and what the charges will be”

A PENTAGON legal adviser accused of improperly influencing Guantanamo Bay prosecutions dictated which cases would be tried, based on the possibility that they would pique US public interest. via The Age

“Sami is a poster child for everything that is wrong about Guantanamo Bay: No charges, no trial, constantly shifting allegations, brutal treatment, no visits with family, not even a phone call home”

Egyptian journalists hold a banner supporting Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese national who was arrested by the US military while working for Al Jazeera during the US invasion of Afghanistan in ... via The Macon Telegraph

“The relatively widespread use of these techniques supports our finding that the policy documents were not always received or thoroughly understood.”

The military continued to use abusive interrogation methods on detainees after a 2003 directive meant to end such practices, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday after reviewing newly released documents.

The Department of Defense documents shed light on the use of psychologists in military interrogations and the failure of medical workers to report abuse of detainees, the ACLU said.

'The documents reveal that psychologists and medical personnel played a key role in sustaining prisoner abuse _ a clear violation of their ethical and legal obligations,' ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said. Read more

“We were shocked by the painful news we received this afternoon ... through a call from one of the friend's of martyr Abdullah in Iraq”

A Kuwaiti man released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay in 2005 has carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq, his cousin told Al Arabiya television on Thursday. via WZZO

“I sense this might make him feel he's doing something in his defense, that he's involved in the process.”

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Osama bin Laden's former driver can ask senior Al Qaeda suspects imprisoned at the detention center for help in his war-crimes tribunal, a military judge said Wednesday, ... via Chicago Tribune

“They're specifically entitled to a preponderance review in the D.C. Circuit”

The Bush administration assured the Supreme Court last December that Guantanamo Bay prisoners who felt they were unfairly being detained could have their cases thoroughly reviewed by a federal appeals court. via Ann Arbor News