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The tiny Pacific island of Nauru has spent weeks completely cut off from the outside world after its telecommunications network collapsed. Its isolation is so complete that no one is even sure who the country's president is any more. Nauru, an isolated speck in the southwest Pacific with a population of 12,000, is in a "critical situation", according to the last message received by the outside world. That came via an address given three weeks ago by the man last believed to be running the country, President Bernard Dowiyogo, details of which were given on Friday by Radio Australia....

British spies will be cleared in a number of cases of alleged complicity in the torture of detainees abroad, the BBC understands. Scotland Yard and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are to issue a joint statement on Thursday. It follows an investigation into the conduct of officers from MI5 and MI6. Although it is expected that no charges will be brought in some cases it is understood the statement will contain other significant information. The BBC's home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw says the fact that the statement has been prepared by the DPP, together with Scotland Yard, is highly...

State Department: ‘Very Few’ Freed Gitmo Detainees Return to Terrorism David Rutz BY: August 16, 2016 5:02 pm State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday that “very few” released Guantanamo Bay detainees return to terrorism while addressing the transfer of 15 Gitmo prisoners by the Obama administration. President Obama, who has sought to close Gitmo since he took office, sent 15 detainees to the United Arab Emirates this week, the largest single transfer of prisoners from the detention facility of his presidency. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) said the 12 Yemenis and three Afghans in the transfer are “among the...

The U.S. transferred 15 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United Arab Emirates on Monday, the largest such movement yet in President Barack Obama’s push to remove most prisoners from the offshore prison before he leaves office in January. The transfer of 12 Yemenis and three Afghans from the Cuba facility to the U.A.E. leaves 61 detainees, a significant drop from the 242 men imprisoned there in 2009 when Mr. Obama took office but short of the president’s longtime goal of closing the lockup. The Obama administration has faced persistent resistance from Congress and the Pentagon to closing the prison.

A board reviewing the status of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has decided against releasing a Saudi who U.S. authorities believe narrowly avoided becoming one of the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Lawyers for prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani asked the Periodic Review Board last month to send the prisoner to a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia for treatment of severe mental illness. The board, made up of representatives of six government agencies, turned down the request in a statement released Wednesday. …

There are always long-shot candidates in any political race, but Democrat Scott Fenstermaker may take it to a whole new level, and I’m not talking about in a “the rent is too damn high” kind of way. Fenstermaker, a criminal defense and tax litigation attorney, made recent comments about 9/11 in a “Humans of New York” profile that has the New York Daily News referring to him as “deranged.” In the profile piece, Fenstermaker argued that the U.S. “got what it deserved” on September 11. "I think the people in those towers died as representatives for the rest of us,...

WASHINGTON -- GOP lawmakers are asking for a freeze on transfers from Guantanamo Bay and more information about past transfers after one detainee released to Uruguay went missing and another was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the State Department. As Congress blocks President Obama's efforts to close the prison facility, the White House is trying to quickly deplete Gitmo's population. The transfer of two detainees to Serbia was announced Monday, bringing the population down to 76. There were 242 terror suspects at Guantanamo when Obama took office. On Wednesday, the State Department issued the designations of Aslan Avgazarovich...

A Republican sends over this video of the State Department press briefing today, in which Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley calls Gitmo detainees "refugees" at about the 24-minute mark. QUESTION: Talk to us a little bit about response and talks and any commitments that you may have gotten from our European and other friends in the international community about taking in Guantanamo detainees as the camp in Guantanamo is expected to close at some point in the near future. Have you gotten any commitments from our European friends and anybody else? CROWLEY: Ambassador Dan Fried continues his efforts to resettle, you...

Federal immigration authorities plan to build a separate unit for transgender detainees in a new facility under construction in Alvarado, Texas .... One other facility in Santa Ana, California also has a separate unit for transgender women and gay men. The Human Rights Watch report notes that transgender women have previously faced violence and been subject to attacks when they were housed alongside men.

DALLAS (AP) -- A detention facility for immigrants set to open later this year in Texas will include a special unit for transgender people, the second of its kind in the federal system. The privately-run facility under construction in Alvarado, Texas, southwest of Dallas, will include 36 beds for transgender detainees, according to a statement Monday from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The facility is expected to open in November.

The man at the helm of the USS Cole when it was attacked by an Al Qaeda cell in 2000 said last month's release of a Guantanamo Bay detainee linked to the bombers denies justice to the 17 people killed aboard the ship. Kirk Lippold, who was commanding officer of the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer when suicide bombers aboard a small fishing boat blew a hole in the side of the ship, told FoxNews.com Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri's release was a mistake. "I would have liked to have seen him receive a military commission where he was tried,...

President Obama is desperate to empty the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay before the end of his presidency. In fact, he’s so desperate he’s decided to hand over 9 prisoners to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia even in the midst of several media reports suggesting the Saudis were either complicit or possibly even involved in the 9/11 terror attacks.More on the 9/11 angle in a moment. First, the details on the nine detainees.According to the Washington Post, they’re all Yemeni and include one Tariq Ba Odah, a detainee since 2002 who has gained media attention recently for a hunger...

Note: This could be a post I'll be referencing in the future — not just a thought for the day. I could be making changes periodically. Apologies in advance for the length.A guest of Bill Maher recently complained of Guantanamo, “people have not been charged, or tried, and what happened to rule of law? That’s the whole principle of the Constitution.” She apparently has been lied to, and it's about time we clear this up. We see a lot of articles about Guantanamo detainees being “released without charge” or “never charged with a crime.” They want us to believe we'd...

Seven years after the release of shocking images of tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the Supreme Court has turned back the appeal of 26 inmates from that infamous facility who wanted to sue two military contractors for damages. The military's official investigation revealed "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" committed by military personnel and civilian contractors who provided support services at the prison. More than two dozen soldiers were reprimanded or court-martialed for their conduct. But those who were tortured want to sue two firms that hired the civilians who helped the military with...

Talking to Republican Colorado Senator Cory Gardner during her MSNBC show on Tuesday, host Andrea Mitchell lectured the GOP lawmaker on opposing President Obama’s plan to shut down Guantanamo Bay and bring terrorist detainees to prisons inside the United States: “So we’re holding prisoners, paying for them, and arguably hurting our standing in the world because Guantanamo has become such a red flag everywhere in the world, when we could have them locked up in the U.S. and put away for life.” In response, Gardner completely ripped apart her argument: “Well, actually, again, if you are a terrorist you belong...

A selection of lunch meals offered to detainees are displayed in a food preparation area.Automobile magazines are among the reading material available at the detainee library, March 7, 2013.Harry Potter movies are among the titles available at the detainee library inside Camp Delta,

We all know the president wants to close Guantanamo Bay, the plans for which how that will be achieved are expected this month, but what happens if we continue to nab more Islamic extremists? For now, the interrogations occur on naval ships and the prisoners are transferred to other nations' legal systems, or they're brought here to be tried in our court system. That's including military commissions, according to the Associated Press. Yet, this lack of clarity on what to do if we see an uptick in captured terrorists has legal wonks and national security officials unnerved: "If you're going to...

President Obama, in his last State of the Union speech Tuesday, again called for closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, terrorist prison. According to U.S. defense officials, the Pentagon wants to build a new prison near the federal high-security prison outside Colorado Springs under a controversial plan to bring more than 50 Islamic terrorists from Cuba to the United States. The Pentagon has begun emptying the military prison as part of a White House push to close the Guantanamo Bay facility before Mr. Obama’s term ends. But Mr. Obama is facing several serious legal, political and financial hurdles. First, federal law...

The Defense Department announced Thursday that 10 Yemeni detainees have been set free from Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. All of them were sent to the Gulf state of Oman, the Pentagon said. Less than 100 detainees now remain at the military facility. “The Oman transfer of 10 is the single largest transfer to a single country at one time under the current administration,” A Pentagon spokesman told the media. Since the beginning of 2016, 14 detainees have been released from the detention facility. Previously released detainees include Al Qaeda terrorists and a man who pledged to kill Americans...

In President Obama's quest to shut down Guantanamo Bay, his administration is continuing apace in releasing detainees. We're only 13 days into the new year and four have already been released, including 40-year-old Muhammad al Rahman al-Shumrani. Al-Shumrani's transfer back to his home country of Saudi Arabia is particularly troublesome because he's already made it clear that killing Americans will be a top priority upon his release. According to his leaked confidential file, he reportedly told guards on October 14, 2007, the following: On 14 October 2007, detainee stated, "When I get out of here, I will go to...