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The Obama administration is considering the controversial release of several senior Taliban figures from Guantanamo Bay. Diplomatic sources say they would probably be relocated to Qatar in the Persian Gulf, where the Taliban is negotiating the establishment of a liaison office to facilitate dialogue with the U.S. James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence told the Senate Intelligence Committee this week that such transfers, though controversial, are not new when trying to end combat. "In almost every case where we've had hostilities, that at some point in time, there are negotiations. I don't think anyone in the administration harbors any illusions...

The White House received a letter last year purported to come directly from Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, asking the United States to deliver militant prisoners whose transfer is now at the heart of the Obama administration's bid to broker peace in Afghanistan. The message, conveyed through an intermediary and intended for President Barack Obama, reportedly expressed impatience that the White House had not yet transferred five former senior Taliban officials out of Guantanamo Bay military prison. U.S. officials have been considering moving the detainees to Afghan custody in the Gulf state of Qatar as one of...

The Obama administration has taken “operational steps” to move five Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay as part of a confidence-building measure to further peace talks with the Afghan Taliban – a development that comes in advance of a hearing Thursday where senior intelligence officials will testify on national security threats, a senior congressional official told Fox News. The five detainees were said to be "hand-picked" by the Taliban preparing for the talks. The Taliban transfer issue will be a significant focus of the hearing on worldwide threats. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said ahead of...

U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged Tuesday that the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an incentive to bring the Taliban to peace talks. Meanwhile, Afghan officials told The Associated Press that a plan to give Afghanistan a form of legal custody over the men if they are released satisfied their earlier objection to sending the prisoners to a third country. Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told Congress Tuesday that no decision had been made on whether to trade the five Taliban prisoners, now held at Guantanamo Bay as part...

Note: The following text is a quote: IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 917-09 November 20, 2009 DOD Announces Military Commissions Actions Today, prosecutors in the Office of Military Commissions announced they intend to ask the convening authority to refer new charges under the recently-enacted Military Commissions Act of 2009 against Abd al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Abdu al-Nashiri, in connection with the bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, in October 2000. The bombing resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors and injuries to many more. This announcement follows the attorney general's determination on Nov. 13, 2009, that a military...

A former staffer for Bay State Sen. John F. Kerry has been charged with leaking the names of CIA operatives, including one who was involved in the interrogation of terror suspects held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and Kerry’s office.

Classified U.S. government information was found in the cells of high-value detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison that houses the world’s most dangerous terrorists, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Constitutional defender and appellate attorney David Rivkin debates Vincent Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights on the tenth anniversary of Guantanamo, how the U.S. treats its terror suspects, the U.S. Justice paradigm, and current legislation. "For the first time Congress has explicitly put its stamp of approval on what here to for has been done either based upon indirect congressional support and authorization to use military force, executive branch practices and judicial decisions." - David Rivkin on not seeing the legislation as "new."

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...

Washington Post opinion writer Marc A. Theissen has published a list of the Taliban leaders President Obama is reportedly planning to release from Guantanamo Bay detention center — and their wrap sheets just might (or not) shock you. The Obama administration is allegedly considering the release of these senior Taliban leaders as part of a deal to bring the militant Islamist group to engage in peace talks. According to Theissen, if Obama does in fact proceed with the release, he will do “tremendous harm” to U.S. national security “and to his prospects for reelection this fall.” Theissen writes: To understand...

The United States has reportedly released three high-ranking Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay Prison in return for an American soldier held by the militant group. The move is also considered as a big concession by Washington to persuade the Taliban to the negotiating table. The three senior Taliban leaders are reportedly on their way to Qatar despite strong opposition from Afghanistan. According to media reports, the released prisoners include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan and maybe Mullah Fazl Akhund, a Taliban Army Chief of Staff. Kabul says the prisoners must...

It is as if the USA surrendered in installments and the caliph has been installed in the Oval office. Imagine reading the following on September 12, 2011. We would have stormed the capital. The Obama administration is set to release Taliban leaders with operational ties to Al Qaeda from Gitmo, even before the heinous Taliban has agreed to come to the table for "peace talks". The war criminals set for release are hardcore jihadist leaders who fought on the fields of Islamic imperialism and killed US and coalition troops. These Muslim leaders would return to the battlefield and serve to...

The Obama administration has agreed to release Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for the Taliban opening an office in Qatar to engage in peace talks. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, announced on Tuesday morning that the insurgent leadership had reached an agreement with the Qatar government and other “relevant parties” about the opening of the office but did not say when it would happen. Secret discussions between American and Taliban officials have been under way for months about taking confidence-building measures including the establishment of a political office outside the immediate region and the release of Taliban prisoners.

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan. More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody...

Per Fox, Obama is considering ordering the release of top terrorist Fasal being held at Gitmo "to facilitate the peace process" in Afghanistan. Fasal is known to be responsible for the murder of hundreds of Afghanis and is a proclaimed Al Quadda leader.

*snip* As part of the accelerating, high-stakes diplomacy, Reuters has learned, the United States is considering the transfer of an unspecified number of Taliban prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison into Afghan government custody. It has asked representatives of the Taliban to match that confidence-building measure with some of their own. Those could include a denunciation of international terrorism and a public willingness to enter formal political talks with the government headed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The officials acknowledged that the Afghanistan diplomacy, which has reached a delicate stage in recent weeks, remains a long shot. Among the...

We either kill them or we don’t, you can’t negotiate with these animals. (Reuters) — After 10 months of secret dialogue with Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents, senior U.S. officials say the talks have reached a critical juncture and they will soon know whether a breakthrough is possible, leading to peace talks whose ultimate goal is to end the Afghan war. As part of the accelerating, high-stakes diplomacy, Reuters has learned, the United States is considering the transfer of an unspecified number of Taliban prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison into Afghan government custody. It has asked representatives of the Taliban...

As our involvement in Iraq has wound down, a few loose ends remained. The most important was the status of Ali Mussa Daqduq. Daqduq is a Hezbollah operative, apparently directed by Iran, who was responsible for the capture, torture and murder of five American servicemen. Under the status of forces agreement, he was to be turned over to Iraqi authorities, and could only be removed from that country with the permission of its government. A number of conservative activists and politicians campaigned to retain custody of Daqduq and bring him to Guantanamo Bay or another suitable venue for trial. A...

President Barack Obama faced a civil liberties backlash today after he signed a law that will allow terror suspects to be held indefinitely- even raising the prospects of U.S. citizens being sent to Guantanamo Bay. The controversial move, revealed last night, effectively extends the laws of the battlefield to American soil. The move shows a clear hardening of Mr Obama’s anti-terror policies, and a major shift from the liberal stance that helped him sweep into power three years ago.

Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay. Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of "a war that appears to have no end". The law, contained in the defence authorisation bill that...

This is a critical step over the ‘stuck on stupid’ line to the traitorous and treasonous line by our Senate this week. They voted for our Military to detain American citizens as long as they want to, without charges, representation or trial……just because they are suspected of being a terrorist. Americans could be gathered up and placed at GITMO for a ‘mystery’ terrorist reason decided by the military front and directed by Obama or any other power hungry President. It is all kosher and approved by the Senate and President now. Naturally, Obama is threatening a veto, of course that...

The Arizona lawmaker—who was tortured himself while a prisoner of war in Vietnam — said the controversial practice was both illegal and ineffective. BY ALIYAH SHAHID Republican Sen. John McCain is ripping presidential candidates in his party who insist waterboarding is an effective technique for interrogating suspected terrorists. The Arizona lawmaker—who was tortured himself while a prisoner of war in Vietnam — said the controversial practice was both illegal and ineffective on Monday evening. “Very disappointed by statements at SC GOP debate supporting waterboarding,” he tweeted. “Waterboarding is torture.” McCain, who ran for President in 2008, elaborated on CNN later,...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that he does not believe that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay will close because the Obama administration has not found better options for holding enemy combatants. “I have tried to be as supportive as I know how to be in creating flexibility for the executive branch and not micromanage the war,” Graham told Attorney General Eric Holder, who was testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

In October of 2000, the Navy suffered a tremendous blow in the USS Cole attack. To this day, it greatly affects the way we execute force-protection. One of the ringleaders of the assault is finally facing a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay. As a former Gitmo Sailor, I wholeheartedly endorse the tribunal process as a vehicle to prosecute enemy combatants. It truly is the best option, after we extract the intel they carry:

Via Greg Hengler and Guy Benson, if this answer doesn’t destroy him, nothing will. I get the sense watching it that he’s so unsure of how to answer this exceedingly easy question that he defaults to Netanyahu’s position on the assumption that prisoner swaps must always be the wise, statesmanlike, conservative thing to do. The alternative, that he knows what he’s talking about yet is still sincerely inclined to release the guy who planned 9/11 plus dozens upon dozens of other jihadi fanatics in exchange for one G.I., is even worse. I’d bet 95 percent of people asked on the...

Afghan security police officers stand guard in front of the Pul-e Charkhi prison's gate in Kabul. Photograph: Musadeq Sadeq/AP WaPo: KABUL— Afghan officials used torture while investigating suspected militants kept in some detention centers, the United Nations said in a report Monday, weeks after NATO troops halted the transfer of prisoners to Afghan authorities because of alleged mistreatment of the inmates. The report found that detainees endured treatment that amounted to torture in 47 detention facilities, run by Afghan police and intelligence service, in 24 of the country’s 34 provinces. The 74-page report raised particular concerns about detention centers run...

Politicians fought Sunday to cast the ongoing Wall Street protests in a very different light, with two GOP presidential candidates calling them "class warfare" and prominent Democrats expressing support for the protesters' message. As lawmakers took to the political talk shows, a crowd of about 100 people protested outside the White House, part of a wave of protests spreading nationwide inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. The Secret Service said one person was arrested and will be charged with assault on a police officer after throwing a shoe at a uniformed officer. Lisa Simeone, one of the protest organizers,...

The Obama administration’s handpicked choice to run prosecutions at the Guantánamo war crimes court is pledging a new era of transparency from the remote base, complete with near simultaneous transmissions of the proceedings to victims and reporters on U.S. soil… Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins denounced military commissions system, which Barack Obama scorned as a candidate and senator then reformed with Congress as president. Gen Martins, Army lawyer starts the job of Chief Prosecutor for Military Commissions on Oct. 3, according to a Pentagon spokesman. The the war court where he prosecutes will “feature new measures to ensure transparency, including...

A Pentagon legal official has approved charges that carry a possible death penalty for a Guantanamo prisoner accused of planning the attack on the Navy destroyer Cole, the U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday. Abd al-Nashiri would face charges that include murder in violation of the law of war for allegedly planning the attack that killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 while the ship was stopping in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. The United States must now bring him before a judge within 30 days for his arraignment before a military judge at the U.S. base in Cuba. This would be...

Isn't Holders statement that we'll close Gitmo before the 2012 a blatant political statement which should be an anathema when dealing with both the affairs of the Justice Department and National Security? Can you imagine the response if Bush's Attorney General made such a blatant political move to help his President with his base? The media pitchforks would be out over how inappropriate and wrong that was. Second is closing Gitmo essentially a new version of Fast and Furious. Letting dangerous "weapons" lose on world to advance political goals (in the case of Fast and Furious it was gun control)....

Look, I understand the the Obama White House has decided to shift to the extreme Left on policy this month. They want to pander to their base, which has been demoralized in discovering that their agenda has as much chance of passing Congress as … well, as Obama’s tax-hikes bill. But at some point, the pander will devolve into self-parody — and Eric Holder’s promise to really, really close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay qualifies as the tipping point: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Obama administration will do its utmost to close the U.S....

Eric Holder: We aim to close Gitmo before Election Day By: MJ Lee September 20, 2011 09:46 AM EDT U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday the Obama administration is doing everything it can to shut down the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before the 2012 presidential elections. Speaking at the European Parliament, Holder said the administration is focused on closing the controversial facility “as quickly as possible, recognizing that we will face substantial pressure,” the Associated Press reports. He added that the effort to shutter the detention facility would continue even after the 2012 elections if they...

Sen. John McCain, a critic of President George W. Bush's use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the war on terror, reflected on the “issue of torture” a decade after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. “Abu Ghraib and the torture of prisoners hurt us a great deal and did provide a propaganda tool for our enemies including Al Qaeda,” the Arizona Republican said on "Fox News Sunday." Noting that on the 10th anniversary of those attacks he did not want to dwell on his differences with the current and previous administration, McCain applauded both Bush and President Barack Obama for...

Ex-Gitmo detainee killed in AfghanistanKey al-Qaida ally organized attacks By Heidi Vogt and Rahim Faiez THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sunday, September 4, 2011 KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO and Afghan forces have killed a former Guantanamo detainee who returned to Afghanistan to become a key al-Qaida ally, international officials said Saturday. The militant’s death was a reminder of the risks of trying to end a controversial detention system without letting loose people who will launch attacks on Americans. Sabar Lal Melma, who was released from Guantanamo in 2007, had been organizing attacks in eastern Kunar province and funding insurgent operations, NATO spokesman...

SmallBanner_050911JR_v1.jpg dss_lwj_ad2_final.jpg DVIDS: Accurate, Reliable Access 10th Anniversary of 9/11 Video, photos, and commentary from the US Military as they reflect upon and share the story of America's heroism, sacrifices and resilience. ADT Home Security LWJ Supports SoA.jpg Site Meter Link lwj-print-icon-2.jpg Comments (4) ShareThis AQAP releases biography for ex-Gitmo detainee turned 'martyr' By Thomas JoscelynSeptember 2, 2011 Salman-al-Sanaani.jpg Hani Abdo Shaalan. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. On Aug. 30, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a video celebrating former Guantanamo detainee Hani Abdo Shaalan as a "martyr." Shaalan was transferred from Guantanamo to Yemen on June...

The nominating process for the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, the hub for threat assessment within the U.S. government, is typically a routine affair. But for Matthew Olsen, President Obama's pick to lead the agency, the nomination is in jeopardy amid accusations that he misled a member of Congress when he was in charge of the administration's Guantanamo task force to close the military detention camp in 2009. Earlier this month, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va.,who represents the district where the center is located, wrote to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, objecting to the nomination. Wolf said he believes...

Say, anyone have any idea how to handle a captured terrorist? Apparently not anyone in the White House, even after more than two years of running the war on terror, according to Vice Admiral William McRaven’s confidence-builder in yesterday’s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee. While Leon Panetta told Congress a few months ago that the Obama administration had a process figured out, they seem to have kept it from the people doing the capturing: The top military official involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden said Tuesday that the Obama administration has no clear plan for handling...

(Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday defended the Obama administration's use of criminal courts to try terrorism suspects after a renewed call to send them to military trials at the naval base in Cuba. Republicans and even some of President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats have sought to keep open the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and forced the administration to use military courts for the most significant terrorism suspects, those accused of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Prosecutors filed charges against 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators, bringing the five a step closer to facing a Guantanamo military tribunal. The charges, which must now be approved by a tribunal official, set the stage for the highest-profile Al-Qaeda suspects in custody to finally face justice almost a decade after the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The Obama administration is urging Congress not to adopt legislation that would reaffirm and arguably expand the Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed just three days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In addition, for the first time, the administration is formally threatening a veto over Congress's efforts to limit his authority to release Guantanamo prisoners and to transfer war-on-terror prisoners held by the U.S. military to the U.S. for any reason. There is a belated quality to the veto threat since Obama previously objected to but ulitmately signed a series of bills which had provisions effectively...

FIELD TRIPS AND BIRTHDAY PARTIES CAN’T BE FAR BEHIND Just because the Obama Regime finally realized that closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison was a much better symbolic campaign promise to Bill Maher and Rosie O’Donnell than it was a responsible, big-boy executive decision made in the best interests of the United States doesn’t mean that we can’t have a kinder, gentler GITMO. After all, as our internationalist president says, America is different. During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama claimed that it was imperative for the United States to close GITMO because it was being used as a “recruiting tool”...

The Pentagon is considering allowing the families of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to visit them, an unprecedented step to ease the isolation of inmates who in some cases have been held at the U.S. facility for close to a decade, according to congressional aides. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which monitors conditions at the Guantanamo Bay military prison and facilitates videoconferences between detainees and their families, has been in serious discussions with the Pentagon about a visitation program, the aides said. Some Republicans, after hearing about the talks, appeared to balk at such access to the...

The Washington Post’s Outlook section just gave ex-jihadi Moazzem Begg a half-page this Sunday to lament the U.S. war on jihadis, and Begg repaid the Post by showcasing a photoshopped image of a dead President Barack Obama on his advocacy website. Washington Post editors did not return The Daily Caller’s phone calls. The Outlook section is edited by Carlos Lozada, who reports to Marcus Brauchli, the Post’s executive editor. The Investigative Project on Terrorism directed TheDC to the photo on Begg’s website. Begg’s action came just before Thursday, when shareholders are expected to protest financial losses by the newspaper’s parent...

Attorney General vows to close Guantanamo 2:30pm EDT PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the United States would close the Guantanamo Bay facility holding terrorism suspects in Cuba, despite missing a previous deadline to do so. On an official visit to Paris, Holder stressed what he called unprecedented intelligence-sharing ties between France and the United States against a united enemy, al Qaeda, that he said still held the two countries and its allies in its sights. The recent killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was unlikely to affect the timing of the closure of...

There have been a number of pieces written about why the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has remained open. I believe Rush Limbaugh was alone in predicting it would not be closed by the Obama administration, and he maintained that even after the Exective Order issued by President Obama on January 22, 2009. Many analysts have expounded on why this was never accomplished. Basically, the thinking is that the Democrats cannot afford to be seen as being weak on Defense. What I find fascinating is HOW this was never accomplished. Did the military and political leaders say, "Just ignore...

Some liberals are trying to give all of the credit for the death of Osama bin Laden to Barack Obama and his enlightened leadership. But if we had fought the war on terrorism the way liberals wanted us to fight it, bin Laden would still be alive today and we wouldn’t have the first clue of how to find him. The New York Times and MSNBC have confirmed that the nom de guerre of a key courier for bin Laden, “Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti,” was obtained by interrogating detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. If we had listened to the liberals, Guantanamo...

Is anyone except me bothered by the fact that the President, Mr. Panetta, et al, have repeatedly broken one of the primary rules of intel - namely that professionals never reveal the sources and methods by which they obtain information. On one level, it was good to know that enhanced interrogation techniques (previously reviled by Liberals as only being used by horrible people) have netted usable informaiton, and that we are clever and patient enough to track down the courier that was servicing the OBL compound. But at a higher level, letting the world know how we obtained sufficient detail...

In an especially well-timed release this week, Richard Miniter’s MASTERMIND: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed reveals Mohammed’s rise to the top of Al Qaeda and his planning of the jihadist attacks on America in 2001. More than that, though, Miniter’s book includes shocking new disclosures about how the US treats its detainees. Miniter tells Big Peace: I was stunned to learn while researching Mastermind that Guantanamo detainees succeeded in convincing prison officials to no longer raise the American flag anywhere they could see it. Each morning on every U.S. military base around the world, the...

RUSH: Now, let's review. Let's review, ladies and gentlemen, and let's do this with pure and total objectivity, exactly where we are today, just shortly after noon on the 3rd of May, 2011. An American president with admittedly incomplete intelligence, intelligence provided by people, techniques, and agencies reviled, ridiculed, and opposed by this American president, invades a foreign and supposedly friendly nation without its knowledge or consent, using information extracted from Guantanamo detainees, a place that the sitting president opposes, techniques to acquire this information opposed by this president and his regime. The information provided by waterboarding, it was said...

Obama in 2009: "Now- I know some have argued thatbrutal methods like waterboarding were necessary to keep this country safe... but I could not disagree more" who we ought to be thanking Fact 1: Waterboarding found Bin Laden Fact 2: The interrogation took place at Gitmo Fact 3: Obama banned waterboarding in 2009...   then issued an Executive Order to close Gitmo! Who in their right mind would give even one quark of credit for enabling the American intelligence services to succeed in dispatching Osama Bin Laden to this sanctimonious strategic moron Barack Obama? He's opposed almost everything that enabled the CIA/Pentagon to ever even get close to Bin...