Tag: Guantanamo (page 8)

Dan Froomkin weighs in on the faulty claims perpetuated by the media that 1 in 7 released Guantanamo detainees have returned to the battlefield.

Here's the Pentagon's April 7 report entitled "Fact Sheet: Former Guantanamo Detainee Terrorism Trends" (which they uploaded as "return to the fight.") As we've reported before, the report has been debunked and criticized by a study directed by Seton Hall Law Professor Mark Denbeaux.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed the denial of a habeas petition by a Yemeni detainee, held since 2002. The case is Al-Bihani v. Obama (Circuit docket 09-5051). The opinion is here. Al-Bihani was a cook who went from Saudi Arabia, through Pakistan, to Afghanistan to help the Taliban fight the Northern Alliance. Along the way, he stayed at guest houses he says were Taliban-affiliated and the Government says were al-Qaeda affiliated

He accompanied and cooked for a paramilitary group allied with the Taliban, known as the 55th Arab Brigade, which the Court says included Al Qaeda members. After the U.S. entered the war in Afghanistan, the group was forced to retreat and surrendered to the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance held him until 2002 then turned him over to U.S. forces who sent him to Guantanamo.

ScotusBlog dissects the opinion and what it may mean for other detainees. Essentially, it holds that the President's power to detain non-U.S. citizens is not limited by international law, including the law of war. [More...]

Below is the CNN transcript (received from CNN by e-mail, no link yet) of National Security Adviser John Brennan on its program State of the Union as to whether the Administration will continue to send Guantanamo detainees back to Yemen.

It seems to me he's confirming we're going to be holding some in indefinite custody without charges, probably at Illinois if that goes through. More will be slated for military trials.

As to those it decides on a case-by-case basis to send back to Yemen, "at the right time and the right pace and in the right way," I'm wondering whether he's signaling that the only ones who will be sent back are those the Yemenis agree to put in custody through their repatriation program. (See this Human Rights Watch report, No Direction Home, on how that's worked so far.) The complete transcript is below: [More...]

Criminal defense attorney Gerry Shargel makes the argument today at Daily Beast that isolating Guantanamo detainees in a new Supermax facility may be a worse fate and unnecessary.

Do the untried and unconvicted Guantanamo inmates require this level of security? Absent a particularized showing of need, locking up a "detainee" in virtual isolation—unearned suffering—is abject cruelty.

He does a good job of summarizing the draconian conditions at a supermax facility: [more...]

Closing Guantanamo may not happen until 2011 -- at the earliest. There's no money to buy Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois, and funding possibilities are a long-shot and won't come up for months.

Even once the money is obtained, it will take another 8 to 10 months to turn it into a Supermax, which is a requirement before any transfers take place.

It's obvious Republicans oppose the plan, but some Democrats who support closing Gitmo are uncomfortable with the idea that Obama may hold people at Thomson indefinitely without charges.

The answer: Send them all home or to third countries, except for those against whom criminal charges are filed. Trial here or release. If the Administration only plans to charge 10 to 20 detainees, Thomson is an extravagance. The Southern District and Eastern Districts of New York are up to the task of prosecuting terror cases, as are numerous other districts (including Colorado, where Supermax is located.) Then we'd save a lot of money, Gitmo could be closed soon and there would be no indefinite detention without charges down the pike.

In addition to the six detainees who arrived back in their home country of Yemen yesterday, six others were sent to Afhanistan and the Somali region:

Those released are:

* Afghans Abdul Hafiz, Sharifullah, Mohamed Rahim and Mohammed Hashim.
* Somali detainees Mohammed Soliman Barre and Ismael Arale.
* Yemenis Jamal Muhammad Alawi Mari, Farouq Ali Ahmed, Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi, Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher, Fayad Yahya Ahmed al Rami and Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al Haf.

A Tunisian detainee, Moez Ben Abdelkader Fezzani, also known as Abou Nassim, was sent to Italy where he will be tried on terror charges for recruiting Afghan fighters.

198 detainees remain. About 100 will be sent to Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois, some of whom will be tried by military commission. [More...]

A logjam of sorts has broken, and six Yemenis and four Afghans will be released from Guantanamo and sent home or to other countries within the next several days.

There are 97 Yemenis at Gitmo, comprising 46% of the remaining 210 detainees, 34 of whom have been ordered released. Andy Worthington writes about their dilemma today at Huffpo.

The New York Times takes President Obama and Congress to task for refusing funding to close Gitmo. [More...]

Earlier we reported on President Obama's decision to move the Guantanamo detainees to Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois.

Also today, a senior administration official told the Chicago Tribune and others on a conference call the administration plans to conduct the military tribunals of the detainees at that facility.

So those going to Thomson will be those tried by military commissions -- and those who, like at Gitmo, are being held indefinitely without charges or trials. (The others will be released to their home or other countries.)

Is this any more than a change in zip code? The ACLU has more on Gitmo, Illinois.

President Obama will announce today that the Guantanamo detainees will be moved to Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois. (Background here.)

That's a good thing. As the Constitution Project reminds us though, the move must not be used as an excuse for indefinite definitions without charges.

“There is broad bipartisan support for the use of federal prisons to hold Guantanamo detainees who are facing charges or have been convicted in federal court,” said Virginia Sloan, president of the Constitution Project. “Former members of Congress and U.S. Attorneys from Illinois, a former federal judge and influential conservatives all agree that U.S. prisons have the proven track record to successfully hold these men and protect the surrounding communities.

But that support quickly evaporates if the administration’s plan is to hold suspected terrorists under a ‘prolonged detention’ policy that runs counter to our most basic constitutional principles.”

Here is a bi-partisan declaration supporting the trial of Gitmo detainees in federal court and opposing indefinite detention without charges. [Update below..]

Conservative Andrew Breitbart has launched a series of new sites called Big Government. Today, the site published this leaked memo which suggests that President Obama is going to order the detainees at Guantanamo to be moved to the Thomson Correctional Facility in Illinois.

Key portions are below:

Faghoul Abdelli and Mohamed Terari spent six years at Guantanamo, were ordered released in 2006 and returned to Algeria in 2008.

They were charged with crimes in Algeria and acquitted this week. More background here and here.

They aren't the first detainees sent home to Algeria and charged with crimes. Amnesty International has this report on what happens to them once returned to Algeria. Here's another report.

On Friday, Judge Gladys Kessler ordered Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed to be released. Not surprisingly, he doesn't want to return to Algeria. Current results of Guantanamo habeas challenges: Federal courts have ordered 31 detainees released and upheld detention for 8.

Time Magazine reports on The Fall of Greg Craig:

Obama quietly killed the Gitmo plan in the second week of May; Craig never got a chance to argue the case to the President. "It was a political decision, to put it bluntly," says an aide.

...The White House realized it had to start over on a signature issue....First to go was the release of the pictures of detainee abuse. Days later, Obama sided against Craig again, ending the suspension of Bush's extrajudicial military commissions. The following week, Obama pre-empted an ongoing debate among his national-security team and embraced one of the most controversial of Bush's positions: the holding of detainees without charges or trial, something he had promised during the campaign to reject.

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