Guantanamo // Current

U.S. admits it held 12 juveniles at Guantanamo

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. has revised its count of juveniles ever held at Guantanamo Bay to 12, up from the eight it... more

iloveravi
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U.S. Confirms: Gitmo Held 12 Juveniles

The U.S. has revised its count of juveniles ever held at Guantanamo Bay to 12, up from the eight it reported in May to the United... more

Apocalipstick
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Torturing Democracy

The film’s producer and writer, Sherry Jones, has done award-winning work for the PBS program “Frontline” and... more

covelogibbs
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Bin Laden aide convicted

Ali Hamza al-Bahlul, a 39-year-old from Yemen, was found guilty of 35 counts of conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder, and... more

nazbags
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UK to investigate Guantanamo Bay torture claims.

The attorney general has been asked to probe claims that the last remaining UK resident held at Guantanamo Bay was tortured into a... more

Beta_Boy
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Al Qaeda media man vows to wage jihad by pen

Al Qaeda's alleged former media director wrote letters from Guantanamo acknowledging he typed the wills of two September 11 hijackers and pledging to continue "jihad by word and pen," according to evidence in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal on Tuesday.

Yemeni captive Ali Hamza al Bahlul is on trial at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba, where a jury of nine U.S. military officers will have to decide whether creating propaganda is a war crime.

Prosecutors allege Bahlul was Osama bin Laden's media secretary and part of the al Qaeda leader's trusted inner circle. They accused him of scripting the videotaped wills of September 11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Ziad al Jarrah, who were his roommates in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1999.

Bahlul acknowledges in a 2005 letter to another Guantanamo captive that he arranged for the two hijackers to pledge loyalty to bin Laden, typed their wills on a computer and personally delivered them to the al Qaeda leader. He called them "courageous heroes."

Prosecutors introduced into evidence four letters Bahlul wrote to accused September 11 plotters and fellow Guantanamo detainees Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, whom he addressed as "my dear mentor."

In florid language, Bahlul predicts the death of democracy, professes continued loyalty to bin Laden and refers to the U.S. president as "the idiot Bush." He says that if he and his fellow captives are killed, their blood will nurture upcoming generations and Allah will deliver victory over America "and its Jewish hypocrite master."

"So blood, blood, destruction, destruction and let's revenge for the Muslim," he writes in one.

"If I were incapable of jihad with my hands, soul or money, only jihad by word and pen is left," he writes in another.

Journalists were given English translations of the letters, which were written in Arabic and never delivered. Frequently used by al Qaeda itself, counter-terrorism specialists and the media to denote "holy war" against the West, the word jihad signifies for most Muslims a spiritual struggle.

About 255 suspected members of al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated groups are now being kept at Guantanamo. A total of over 750 foreigners suspected of terrorism have been held without trial at the base in the seven years since President George W. Bush began a war against terrorism.Al Qaeda's alleged former media director wrote letters from Guantanamo acknowledging he typed the wills of two September 11... more

TravG73
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21 days ago

Canada Urged to Offer Refugee Resettlement to Detainee at Guantanamo

MONRTEAL - October 22 - Human rights groups today urged Canada to offer refugee resettlement without delay to Djamel Ameziane, an Algerian who has been unlawfully detained for more than six years at Guantanamo and who has strong ties to Canada. The Anglican Diocese of Montreal has applied to resettle Mr. Ameziane through the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program.

"The refugee sponsorship of Djamel Ameziane is part of the church's mission of justice and compassion in the world," said The Right Reverend Barry B. Clarke, Anglican Bishop of Montreal. "Having read what Djamel has suffered and the risk he would face if returned to Algeria, I am convinced that sponsoring him is the right thing to do."

The sponsorship is supported by the Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, who call on the Canadian government to process Mr. Ameziane's case on an urgent basis, given his ongoing arbitrary detention at Guantanamo.

"Canada can and should resettle Mr. Ameziane on an urgent basis, in order to free him from continued arbitrary imprisonment," said Janet Dench, Executive Director of the Canadian Council for Refugees. "Canadian law recognizes that refugees at risk of violence, torture and arbitrary imprisonment are in urgent need of protection: this is clearly Mr. Ameziane's case."

Mr. Ameziane was sent to Guantanamo after he was sold to the U.S. by bounty hunters in 2001. He has been imprisoned there without charge or a fair hearing for more than six and a half years. He has been subjected to various forms of torture and ill-treatment during his imprisonment, and was held in solitary confinement in a small windowless cell for over a year. He cannot be returned to Algeria because of a risk of serious human rights violations, based on the stigma of having been suspected of terrorism related activities and detained in Guantanamo.

"Amnesty International is calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and for lawful solutions to be found for all the detainees," said Anne Sainte-Marie, Amnesty International. "It is imperative that countries such as Canada be a part of the solution. Mr. Ameziane should be immediately released from detention and provided with protection in Canada."

Canada is the most appropriate country of resettlement for Mr. Ameziane because he previously lived and worked in Montreal for five years. He also has a brother in Canada.

"After seven long years of unjustified detention, we - I, his brother, his entire family, and his friends - are impatient to have him back with us," said Mr. Ameziane's brother. "Djamel, who is so precious to us, has never known what violence is in his whole life. He has never even hurt a fly. Unfortunately, bad luck put him on a path where people sold him for a few dollars. We so dearly hope that he is freed and finds his dignity again as a man who is very respectful of others."

Mr. Ameziane has never been alleged by the U.S. government to have engaged in any acts of terrorism or hostilities.

"Mr. Ameziane left Algeria 16 years ago in search of a safe haven and a better life," said Pardiss Kebriaei, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. "In conditions at Guantanamo that would break most of us, he remains hopeful of someday having the chance to build that life in Canada.

BACKGROUNDER October 2008 About Djamel Ameziane.....cont....on web site MONRTEAL - October 22 - Human rights groups today urged Canada to offer refugee resettlement without delay to Djamel Ameziane,... more

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22 days ago

U.S. Drops Charges for 5 Guantánamo Detainees

The Pentagon official in charge of military commissions at the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, dismissed war crimes... more

TravG73
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28 days ago

Lawyers Criticize Quality of Guantanamo Interpreters

Something was being lost in interpretation. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a Saudi national accused of war crimes and murder for his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was speaking in Arabic. Ralph H. Kohlmann, a Marine colonel and military judge at Guantanamo Bay, was listening to a simultaneous interpretation in English.

At a recent pretrial hearing, Hawsawi, according to his military lawyer, wanted to discuss the potential responsibilities of his attorneys and the implications of representing himself before the military commission. Those in the courtroom, however, often heard head-scratching sentences such as, "In the beginning of the timing of the laws, I said there is no difficulties base."

A linguist working with Hawsawi's team later estimated that half of what the defendant said was rendered incorrectly by court interpreters and that Hawsawi didn't understand at least 25 percent of what was said in English.

As five key defendants charged in the Sept. 11 attacks -- including self-described mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed -- move toward a trial by jury, defense lawyers and human rights advocates charge that the fairness of the most significant proceeding at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is routinely undermined by incompetent interpretation.

"Regular omissions, or mistranslations of key words or phrases often led to disjointed, incomprehensible or misleading translations into both English and Arabic," Hawsawi's attorneys wrote in a draft document supporting a motion they filed asking to halt the case until qualified interpreters are hired. The lawyers asked the court to order the government to produce an Arabic transcript of each hearing -- a motion military prosecutors are resisting.

The Pentagon rejected charges that interpreters at Guantanamo Bay are not qualified, but Defense Department officials said they were instituting new controls to address attorneys' concerns. Officials said that only native speakers or native-level speakers are hired and that they are equal to interpreters used in federal court. The interpreters are subject to in-house testing by the Pentagon's contractor, based on State Department standards, as well as testing by an outside firm, officials said.

"We work hard to provide the most qualified translators to do an important mission for our nation," Joseph DellaVedova, a spokesman for the Office of Military Commissions, said in an e-mail. "Nevertheless, because of concerns expressed by counsel -- particularly regarding their ability to speak at normal pacing -- OMC is instituting an additional quality control system which will enable us to pre-screen potential interpreters to assess their skill level."

Defense lawyers and court observers said the Guantanamo interpreters do not approach the standards for interpretation in federal courts or in forums such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. "There is no way someone who doesn't understand what's going on in court can get a fair trial," said Army Maj. Jon Jackson, military counsel to Hawsawi. "This is being done on the cheap."

Something was being lost in interpretation. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a Saudi national accused of war crimes and murder for his... more

starr111
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1 month ago

White House seeks to halt release of 17 detainees

Again, we see this administration that thinks it is above the law..even the Supreme Court. Why? They have much to hide..here is the article, and the rest at the link

This week could see a remarkable moment in American legal history, as 17 Guantanamo detainees are on the verge of being let out of prison. On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the men released into the U.S. and told the Bush administration to produce the men in his courtroom Friday morning.

The detainees are 17 Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, who have been held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for nearly seven years. In past decades, the U.S. government has treated the group as Chinese nationalists. But in 2003, in an effort to accommodate the Communist Chinese government, the Bush administration listed one of the Uighur groups as a terrorist organization, using the designation as a rationale for the Uighurs' continued detention at Guantanamo.

However, a largely conservative panel of the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled in June that the group is not hostile to the U.S. and that the administration had produced no reliable information to justify holding the Uighurs. The case was then sent back to a lower court for further action, including the possibility of release.

Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina said Tuesday that, in essence, enough is enough. Whatever authority the government may have had for detaining the Uighurs has ceased, he said.

The government now concedes these men are not enemy combatants, Urbina noted, and has provided no other justification for detention.

Uighurs living in the United States have arranged for 17 families to take the men until more permanent arrangements can be made. Urbina said he would hear from the Department of Homeland Security as to any conditions it would like imposed on the men after release — conditions that could include a ban on travel and requirements that the men report to authorities on a regular basis. The judge reacted angrily, however, when Bush administration lawyers suggested they could imprison the men in the U.S. once the Uighurs are transferred here. It is expected he will forbid that.

As luck would have it, one of the lawyers for the Uighurs was in Guantanamo on Tuesday and told the men of their court victory. The lawyer is not permitted to talk about the men's reaction by phone under classification rules.

The Chinese government on Tuesday again demanded that the men be returned, but the U.S. has refused because it concedes they would be tortured and possibly killed. The Chinese government sees the Uighurs as a threat because many of them want greater autonomy from Beijing.Again, we see this administration that thinks it is above the law..even the Supreme Court. Why? They have much to hide..here is... more

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1 month ago

Six years inside Gitmo: a journalist's tale

Al-Hajj survived Guantánamo, although he wrote his son a farewell letter from the prison camp and says he nearly went... more

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1 month ago

Guantanamo prosecutor quits post

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A U.S. military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay has quit because his office suppressed evidence that could clear a young Afghan detainee of war crimes charges, defense lawyers said Wednesday.

The prosecutor, Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, is now supporting a defense bid to dismiss war crimes charges against Mohammed Jawad because of the alleged misconduct, according to Michael Berrigan, the deputy chief defense counsel for the Guantanamo tribunals.

The chief prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, denied that his office withheld evidence and said Vandeveld told him he was leaving his post for "personal reasons."

"All you have is someone who is disappointed because his superiors didn't see the wisdom of his recommendation in a case," Morris said.

Jawad, who was captured in Afghanistan when he was 16 or 17, is facing trial for allegedly throwing a grenade that injured two U.S. soldiers and their Afghan interpreter in December 2002. He faces a maximum life sentence.

In a declaration submitted to the defense, Vandeveld said prosecutors knew Jawad may have been drugged before the attack and that the Afghan Interior Ministry said two other men had confessed to the same crime, Berrigan said. Pentagon officials refused to provide a copy of the declaration.

Vandeveld declined to comment through a tribunal spokeswoman.

"He decided he could no longer ethically serve either as a prosecutor in this case or for the Office of Military Commissions," said Jawad's Pentagon-appointed attorney, Air Force Maj. David Frakt. He said Vandeveld had endorsed settling the case and releasing Jawad after a short while.

Frakt said he has asked for Vandeveld to testify at Jawad's pretrial hearing Thursday but the former prosecutor was denied authorization to fly to the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

At least three other Guantanamo prosecutors have quit their posts over allegations of misconduct. The former chief prosecutor, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, resigned in October and accused his superiors of political meddling.

Jawad is one of about 20 detainees facing charges in the Pentagon's specially designed system for prosecuting alleged terrorists. Military prosecutors say they plan trials for about 80 of the 255 men held here on suspicion of links to al Qaeda or the Taliban. GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A U.S. military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay has quit because his office suppressed... more