Free Republic

More Afghan captives head for Cuba Security at the base has been massively beefed up Another 30 Taleban and al-Qaeda prisoners have left Afghanistan by plane for Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, it is reported. The prisoners, who were shackled and had white caps covering their faces, boarded a C-17 transport plane at trhe US base in Kandahar, the Associated Press reports. Each prisoner was flanked by two US soldiers as they walked across the tarmac to the aircraft. Most lights at the US base were switched off and security was tight. The first group of 20 detainees arrived in Guantanamo ...

<p>February 4, 2002 -- Some of the terror thugs being held at Camp X-Ray are having regrets about their actions, a Muslim Navy cleric said yesterday.</p> <p>Lt. Abuhena Saiful-Islam, who meets daily with the 158 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said that while many continue to maintain their innocence, others are having second thoughts.</p>

Detainees or POWs? Ancient distinctions. By Mackubin Thomas Owens is professor of strategy and force planning at the Naval War College in Newport. His views do no necessarily reflect those of any agency of the U.S. government. January 24, 2002 8:55 a.m. as President Bush's decision launch a "war against terrorism" in response to September 11 now hoisted the United States on its own petard? That would seem to be the case as international organizations and even officials of allied countries such as Great Britain have intensified criticism of the United States concerning its treatment of captured al Qaeda and ...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- Some of the detainees at this American base are not Muslim but Christian, U.S. military officials say, describing inmates as members of a "global community" who in some cases may be sympathetic to groups other than the Taliban or al-Qaida. "I personally did not expect . . . some of the nations that are represented in Camp X-Ray," Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a spokesman for the joint task force in charge of the detention camp, said Tuesday. Since the first prisoners arrived from Afghanistan just over a month ago, the number of nationalities represented ...

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 ...

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 ...

(Australian) FOREIGN Minister Alexander Downer says the United States has always treated terror suspect David Hicks and his fellow Guantanamo Bay detainees in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The Bush administration said overnight that all detainees in US military custody in Cuba and elsewhere would be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The new policy appears to reverse Washington's earlier insistence that Guantanamo detainees, including Mr Hicks, were not prisoners of war and therefore not subject to Geneva protections. It reflects the recent five to three US Supreme Court decision blocking military commissions set up by US President George...

Senators of both parties yesterday said Congress would provide President Bush with legislation to deal with the terror suspects detained at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following a Supreme Court decision that limited the White House's authority in dealing with the detainees. Some Republicans said they hoped to have legislation in place by September, with influential liberal Democrats saying they expected to give Mr. Bush the necessary tools for handling the issue and not obstruct the bills. "I would hope Congress would have hearings about what to do in light of this decision," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South...

Apparently celebrating its first major victory over the U.S. citizenry (SCOTUS’ Kelo decision to do away with the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and allow private developers to steal American citizens’ property was only a year ago), on Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the President of the United States cannot order terrorist enemy combatants to be tried before a military tribunal. The court wrongly cited the rules according to the Geneva Convention. This unfathomable reasoning, using the Geneva Convention as the basis for its decision, does not apply to this situation. The Geneva Convention applies to its...

THE Federal Government today rejected calls for David Hicks to be returned home after The United States' highest court found the military commissions set to try the Australian terror suspect were unlawful. Prime Minister John Howard urged US authorities to find another forum to try Hicks, saying he had no sympathy for the Adelaide-born man accused of training as a terrorist with al-Qaeda. Hicks' father, lawyers and politicians demanded Hicks be brought home after the US Supreme Court ruled overnight that the military commissions set up to try Guantanamo Bay detainees were unlawful. The Supreme Court justices voted five to...

US President George W Bush said that a US Supreme Court ruling on the fate of Guantanamo Bay detainees would not set any suspected terrorists free and that he still hoped to try them in military courts. "We will analyse the decision. To the extent that the Congress is given any latitude to develop a way forward using military tribunals, we will work with them," said Mr Bush. "I want to find a way forward." His remarks came during a joint appearance with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi following a US Supreme Court ruling that Bush overstepped his powers in...

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- On Sunday, the Tribune editorial page asked readers: What should the U.S. do with the Guantanamo Bay detention camp? Harry B. Harris Jr., the commander of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, offered this essay in response. I lead the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians responsible for the safe and humane care and custody of the unlawful enemy combatants held here at Guantanamo--a responsibility we take very seriously. The question of what to do with enemy combatants--committed jihadists and terrorists--is relevant and important. As the person responsible for the detention of our nation's enemies...

INMATES at Guantanamo Bay prison are treated better than in Belgian jails, an expert for Europe's biggest security organisation said today after a visit to the controversial US detention centre in Cuba. But Alain Grignard, deputy head of Brussels' federal police anti-terrorism unit, said holding people for many years without telling them what would happen to them is in itself "mental torture". "At the level of the detention facilities, it is a model prison, where people are better treated than in Belgian prisons," said Mr Grignard. He served as expert on a visit to Guantanamo Bay last week by a...

Confronting the defendants at the Guantanamo tribunals with the evidence against them will be like dragging vampires into the sunlight, the chief prosecutor said on Tuesday. The cases of two Guantanamo captives charged with conspiring with Al Qaeda to attack civilians, commit murder and destroy property will begin pre-trial hearings on Wednesday. A scheduled hearing for a third defendant was delayed at the request of his military lawyer, who sought more time to prepare his case. The tribunals are the first held by the United States since World War II and convened in August 2004, over two-and-a-half years after the...

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blasted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan Friday as "just flat wrong" in calling for the closure of the military-run detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "I know Kofi Annan and there are a lot of things you can agree with him on, but he's just flat wrong," Mr Rumsfeld told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations. "We shouldn't close Guantanamo," he said. "We have several hundred terrorists, bad people, people if they went back out on the field would try to kill Americans." "To close that place, and pretend there's no problem, just...

AMNESTY International has renewed its call for the US to close its Guantanamo Bay detention facility and try or release the prisoners held there. "The US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is condemning thousands across the world to a life of suffering, torment and stigmatisation," the London-based rights group said in a statement accompanying a report. "Five hundred men from around 35 nationalities are detained in Guantanamo. Dozens are currently on hunger strike and there have been numerous suicide attempts. "None of them have had the lawfulness of their detention reviewed in a court of law." Amnesty Americas Programme...

NEW US military rules mean that executions of condemned "war on terror" detainees could be carried out at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the US Army said today. The new rules authorise the army to set the location for executions "imposed by military courts-martial or military tribunals and authorized by the president of the United States." "Enemy combattants could be affected by this regulation," said Sheldon Smith, a spokesman for the US Army. Only 10 war-on-terror detainees have so far been charged and referred to special military commissions for trial, including Australian David Hicks. The United...

November 30, 2005: The prison camps at Guantanamo Bay have been the subject of controversy for over three years. The latest flap involves photos used by the media when reporting on the detainee camps. This has become the latest bone of contention between the military and the media. The images most commonly used are of Camp X-Ray, a temporary camp that was replaced by Camp Delta in April, 2002. The newer camps are going to be on the level of the latest correctional institutions anywhere in the world. This has not been the first time this sort of media deception...

U.S. NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Nov. 29, 2005 – Leaders at the U.S. detention facility for enemy combatants here wonder why media outlets continue to use outdated images of defunct facilities to accompany news reports about the base. Media stories about the detention facility or the men held here routinely are accompanied by photographs or video footage shot at Camp X-Ray, a temporary facility hastily erected to deal with enemy combatants captured in the first days of operations in Afghanistan. Images of orange-suited detainees blindfolded and handcuffed and kneeling in a line inside a chain-link enclosure have become iconic....

....Those pictures are accurate – circa 2002. The so-called “gulag,” as Illinois Senator Dick Durban has referred to Gitmo, was in operation for just four months, from January to April of 2002. At that time we were still trying to figure out what to do with these terrorists. Today Camp X-Ray, as the infamous section of Gitmo has been called, is abandoned and overgrown. So why are so many news outlets showing us photos that are more than three years old, when newer, accurate photos are available? Well, for one it makes for more interesting photos, but the truth is...

Inside the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay (search), where some 520 terror suspects are detained, the military prepared audio tapes in at least eight languages warning that a storm was coming and heavy steel shutters would be closed on some cell windows, Col. Mike Bumgarner said. He said the military had a contingency plan to move the prisoners if necessary. Military officials had no immediate plans to evacuate troops or detainees at Camp Delta, which is about 150 yards from the ocean but was built to withstand winds up to 90 mph, according to Navy Cmdr. Anne Reese, supervisor of...

Langley AFB, DC By taking time out of their busy congressional duties, several congressmen have been finding time to fly attack missions on the US Detention Center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as part of Operation Muslim Fury. The operation is part of a two-pronged effort to appease the Islamic world while at the same time attempting to scratch out the eyeballs of America. The offensive began last week when Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) launched into a scathing vindictive against the military's treatment of terrorists, comparing them to Nazi's and communists. But when the comments never had their desired effect, the...

Title and link only.

We worry a lot about image here in the United States. The old adage, “Keeping up with the Joneses” has exploded into the absurd. I suppose we – as a society – stepped through the doorway marked “shallow and innocuous” in the early Eighties when our gullibility only depleted our pocket books. Then we believed that blue jeans could actually be some sort of status symbol. The price for vanity in 1980-something was $65 for a pair of fake French designer jeans and $120 for a counterfeit Rolex. Today, the price for being “shallow and innocuous” may be a bit...

Judges and defense lawyers at Guantánamo tribunals argued over whether terrorism should be defined as a war crime. GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Arguing that the Nuremburg tribunals established genocide as an international crime 60 years ago, the colonel presiding over the first U.S. war-crimes court since World War II left open the possibility Tuesday that terrorism could debut as a valid war crime at Guantánamo Bay. Defense lawyers argued in pretrial hearings for Australian captive David Hicks, 29, that the Bush administration has retroactively and illegally invented terrorism as a catchall war crime for al Qaeda detainees held...

<p>LONDON — A Briton released from the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay (search), Cuba, said he was beaten, humiliated and interrogated for up to 12 hours at a time during two years' detention.</p> <p>In a newspaper interview headlined "My Hell in Camp X-Ray," Jamal al-Harith said guards known as the Extreme Reaction Force (search) "waded into inmates in full riot gear, raining blows on them" as punishment.</p>

MY HELL IN CAMP X-RAY A BRITISH captive freed from Guantanamo Bay today tells the world of its full horror - and reveals how prostitutes were taken into the camp to degrade Muslim inmates. Jamal al-Harith, 37, who arrived home three days ago after two years of confinement, is the first detainee to lift the lid on the US regime in Cuba's Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta. The father-of-three, from Manchester, told how he was assaulted with fists, feet and batons after refusing a mystery injection. He said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at a time in...

A BRITISH captive freed from Guantanamo Bay today tells the world of its full horror - and reveals how prostitutes were taken into the camp to degrade Muslim inmates.Jamal al-Harith, 37, who arrived home three days ago after two years of confinement, is the first detainee to lift the lid on the US regime in Cuba's Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta.The father-of-three, from Manchester, told how he was assaulted with fists, feet and batons after refusing a mystery injection. FREEDOM: Jamal yesterday... but he will never forget camp horrorHe said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at...

What on earth is Terry Waite doing campaigning for the release of the British prisoners at Guantanamo Bay? These are the same kind of people who kept the former church envoy chained to a radiator in Beirut for five years. I know Waite is one those who believes you should love your enemy. But you can take forgiveness too far. At long last the Americans have broken their silence and revealed details of exactly why four of the British detainees should not be freed. They all trained at al-Qa’ida camps in Afghanistan, learning bomb making, assassination and urban warfare. They...

A TERROR suspect freed from Guantanamo Bay has told of cruel and unusual punishment. Hamed Abderrahman Ahmad, a Spaniard who denies any links with terrorism, said he had to wrap his head in a damp towel to try to muffle loud tapes of Born in the USA. Mr Ahmad said he was confined to a small cell where the lights were always on and he was forced to listen endlessly to Bruce Springsteen. "First I spent a month in a cell two metres square that had a roof of sheet iron, with unbearable heat," he said. "All day they blared...

Springsteen torture at Camp X-Ray 01Mar04 A TERROR suspect freed from Guantanamo Bay has told of cruel and unusual punishment. Hamed Abderrahman Ahmad, a Spaniard who denies any links with terrorism, said he had to wrap his head in a damp towel to try to muffle loud tapes of Born in the USA. Mr Ahmad said he was confined to a small cell where the lights were always on and he was forced to listen endlessly to Bruce Springsteen. "First I spent a month in a cell two metres square that had a roof of sheet iron, with unbearable...

The US has bowed to international pressure by announcing a panel to review Afghan war suspects held in Guantanamo Bay. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the detainees will be allowed to appeal and the panel will decide if they are a threat to America. He defended the detention of the 650 prisoners at Camp Delta without charges or access to lawyers as a "security necessity" and "plain common sense". He explained that the prisoners held at the US naval base in Cuba are not "common criminals". "They're enemy combatants and terrorists who are being detained for acts of war...

An Afghan boy whose 14-month detention by US authorities as a terrorist suspect in Cuba prompted an outcry from human rights campaigners said yesterday that he enjoyed his time in the camp. Mohammed Ismail Agha, 15, who until last week was held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, said that he was treated very well and particularly enjoyed learning to speak English. His words will disappoint critics of the US policy of detaining "illegal combatants" in south-east Cuba indefinitely and without trial. In a first interview with any of the three juveniles held by the US at Guantanamo...

I had a good time at Guantanamo, says inmate By Rajeev Syal (Filed: 08/02/2004) An Afghan boy whose 14-month detention by US authorities as a terrorist suspect in Cuba prompted an outcry from human rights campaigners said yesterday that he enjoyed his time in the camp. Mohammed Ismail Agha, 15, who until last week was held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, said that he was treated very well and particularly enjoyed learning to speak English. His words will disappoint critics of the US policy of detaining "illegal combatants" in south-east Cuba indefinitely and without trial. In a...

X-Ray prisoners told of Iraq war From correspondents in Guantanamo Naval Base,Cuba January 9, 2004 DEPRIVED of most world news since their capture, some of the hundreds of prisoners at this US base expressed shock when told recently of the capture of Saddam Hussein, a US general said today. Interrogators told some detainees of the war in Iraq in June, and word of Saddam's capture reached others during interrogations in December, Major General Geoffrey Miller told reporters in an interview. The entire prison population was later informed of Saddam's capture by loudspeaker after officials determined there was no risk to...

Guantanamo guards embrace Islam uploaded 23 Oct 2003 Could contact with prisoners be having an effect? A number of the US troops guarding the 660 suspected al-Qaida and Taliban detainees in Guantanamo Bay have converted to Islam, according to an Algerian mediator. This file photo shows detainees as they prepare themselves for the evening prayer 04 March 2002 at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, CubaHasan Aribi, who chairs his country?s committee on the Guantanamo question, has negotiated the release of 18 detainees from the heavily-guarded detention camp at the eastern tip of Cuba. He claimed that the freed detainees told...

Two held over US fears of radical cell in forces By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 24/09/2003) The United States military is urgently investigating a potential radical Muslim cell among its own servicemen at the Guantanamo Bay prison as it emerged yesterday that two more members of the garrison are in custody. Senior Airman Ahmad I al-Halabi, an Arabic language translator, was secretly arrested a month ago, Pentagon officials said last night. He is being held at an air base in California and is charged with more than 30 counts of espionage, aiding the enemy, disobeying a lawful order and...

<p>SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A soldier who guarded suspected terrorists at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has disappeared, U.S. military officials said Thursday.</p> <p>Also Thursday, U.S. military officials announced that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller will assume control of the detention mission next month.</p>

Per CNN just now. He was taken into custody a month ago. No info on his identity past saying he has an arab sounding name.

British prisoners at Camp X-Ray will be tried by "fixed" secretive military tribunals where senior US soldiers will be judge and jury, it was revealed today.Detainees face the death penalty if they are found guilty and human rights campaigners have expressed outrage that an execution chamber is going to be built at the brutal prison camp.The planning of the death facility is a direct blow to the British government whose appeals to their American counterparts have fallen on deaf ears. BRUTAL: Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay in CubaLast month, Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien told MPs there was a "fundamental disagreement"...

Children held at Camp Xray, US admits The US military has revealed it is holding juveniles at its high-security prison for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, known as Camp Xray. The commander of the joint task force at Guantanamo, Major General Geoffrey Miller, says more than one child under the age of 16 is at the detention centre. However, Maj Gen Miller has revealed little more about their welfare. Maj Gen Miller says the US is holding "juvenile enemy combatants" at the centre, confirming rumours of children being held. He has refused to reveal how many there are, their...

No matter what your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming war, this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. Just a word of background for those of you who aren't familiar with the UK's Daily Mirror. This is a notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive of the Colonials across the Atlantic. Tony Parsons ... Daily Mirror ... September 11, 2002 One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting -- the mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with...

If this Be Treason, Make the Most of ItBy Farrukh DhondyFrontPageMagazine.com | November 18, 2002 The United States of America is holding seven British citizens in Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay. Feroz Abassi, Shafiq Rasul, Jamal Udeen, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed, Tarek Dergoul and Martin Mubanga have been held variously for a year without being charged or tried. The US administration maintains that they are all well trained, hard-boiled terrorists, combatants captured fighting for Al Qa-eda and the Taliban in Tora Bora, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Kunduz. They were voluntarily fighting the allied forces of the war against terror which President...

As flags flew nearby at half-staff to mark the Sept. 11 attacks, detainees at this isolated military base spent Wednesday as they have everyday since their capture — in a legal limbo that has brought international criticism. "We're not making any special announcements to them," said Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus, who heads the detention mission at the base in remote eastern Cuba, thousands of miles away from ground zero. Outside the prison camp, dozens of soldiers stood to attention as the strains of taps floated from a loudspeaker to mark the anniversary of the terror attacks. In the evening, people...

'Bremen Taliban' or Victim of Circumstance? Rabiye Kurnaz seldom looks at pictures of her son A year ago, Murat Kurnaz left Bremen to "see and experience the Koran" in Pakistan. Since then, he's been locked up at Guantanamo Bay, suspected of fighting for the Taliban. But German investigators say there's no proof. BREMEN, GERMANY -- Impersonal white post cards from Guantanamo Bay and a short letter are the only contact Rabiye Kurnaz has had with her son since he left Bremen last October on a spiritual journey to Pakistan, where he wanted to "see the Koran." Within two months, Murat...

AUSTRALIAN officials arrived at Camp X-ray in Cuba yesterday to interview two Australian terrorist suspects. The officials will question Adelaide man David Hicks and Sydneysider Mamdouh Habib, 46, to further the Australian investigation into the men's activities, Attorney-General Daryl Williams said. Both men are suspected of links with the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda. "The visiting team of ASIO and Australian Federal Police investigators and an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will see both David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib," Mr Williams said. "The visit will advance the Australian investigation into the activities of Mr Hicks and Mr Habib....

The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D. C. April 12, 2002 Dear Concerned Citizen: Thank you for your recent letter roundly criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. My administration takes these matters seriously, and your opinion was heard loud and clear here in Washington. You'll be pleased to learn that, thanks to the concerns of citizens like you, we are creating a new division of the Terrorist Retraining Program, to be called the "Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers" program, or LARK for short. In accordance with the guidelines...

Camp X-Ray captives to get new cells 26-04-2002By Jane Sutton U.S. NAVAL BASE, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Reuters) - The 300 Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners at the U.S. military's Camp X-Ray in Cuba will soon move out of the chain-link cells that prompted an outcry from human rights groups and into more solid structures, military officials say. The most obvious improvement at the new prison camp is indoor plumbing. Prison camp officials at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would not say when the captives from the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan will be moved into the new Camp...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) They pace like caged animals and stay awake all night under the glare of spotlights. They scream at the world when they’re not staring into space. Months of confinement in crude, chain-link cells at Camp X-ray have left its 300 detainees from the war on terrorism at best a little stir crazy, at worst, suicidal. “A couple have had those thoughts, but none have acted on it,” said Navy Lt. Pam Herbig, a psychiatric nurse at this remote U.S. outpost on Cuba’s eastern tip. So far, 13 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters have been...

Construction workers from India help assemble a new fence around the field hospital for some al-Qaida and Taliban detainees Thursday, April 4, 2002, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (AP Photo/Beth A. Keiser) Construction workers from India walk past the fence of Camp Delta, the new $16.4 million facility being built to house al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners, Thursday, April 5, 2002, at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The 300 al-Qaida and Taliban detainees currently being held at Camp X-Ray will be moved to Camp Delta in April. (AP Photo/Beth A. Keiser)