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Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the administration will decide in the next week the fate of the remaining Guantanamo Bay detainees. Holder, speaking to reporters at a conference in Doha, Qatar, said “We will by Nov the 16th make the determination as to who can be tried in the reformed military commissions, who can be tried in our article 3 federal courts.” More than 200 detainees including five of the September 11 plotters are still being held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba, which President Obama has vowed to close by the end of his first year...

We strongly object to the President creating a two-tier system of justice for terrorists in which those responsible for the death of thousands on 9/11 will be treated as common criminals and afforded the kind of platinum due process accorded American citizens, yet members of Al Qaeda who aspire to kill Americans but who do not yet have blood on their hands, will be treated as war criminals. The President offers no explanation or justification for this contradiction, even as he readily acknowledges that the 9/11 conspirators, now designated "unprivileged enemy belligerents," are appropriately accused of war crimes. We believe...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says detainees at Guantanamo Bay are not receiving vaccinations against the swine flu vaccine. Robert Gibbs on Tuesday said concern that terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base in Cuba were receiving vaccines was misplaced. Gibbs says no vaccines are at the naval base and none are on the way

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will soon get swine flu vaccines, despite complaints that American civilians should have priority, a military spokesman said Sunday. Army Maj. James Crabtree, a spokesman for the U.S. jail facility in southeast Cuba, said the doses should start arriving this month, with guards and then inmates scheduled for inoculations. He acknowledged there may be an "emotional response" from critics who argue that terror suspects should not be allocated swine-flu medications while members of the U.S. public are still waiting due to a vaccine shortage. But he...

Six Chinese Muslims who were held in the Guantánamo Bay prison camp for almost eight years have arrived on the tiny Pacific island of Palau. The detainees from the Turkic Uighur minority were arrested in Afghanistan during the opening days of military operations in 2001 and held as suspected militants until last year when a US military tribunal decided they were not 'enemy combatants'. The release of the men, who were greeted on arrival by Palau's President, Johnson Toribiong, is another small step in US President Barack Obama's struggle to close the controversial prison camp by January. Palau, situated 500...

Peoria, Ill. - A federal judge sentenced an Al Qaeda "sleeper" agent to eight years in prison Thursday -- about half the time prosecutors had requested -- because the agent received what the judge called "unacceptable" treatment in a U.S. Navy brig. U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm could have sentenced Ali Marri to as much as 15 years. Prosecutors had endorsed that, presenting testimony that he remained a threat. But Mihm handed down the lighter sentence of eight years and four months in consideration of what he called "very severe" conditions under which Marri was kept during the almost six...

Even as some Americans await the arrival of their swine flu vaccines, the Pentagon has decided to vaccinate both soldiers and terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There was no word Wednesday on when the the first vaccines would reach the remote base in southeast Cuba. But U.S. military there were notified late last week that service members would get their H1N1 virus vaccinations first. Private contractors and sailors' wives and children could get theirs afterward ``as the supply permits.'' And that means the 221 war on terror captives would also be vaccinated first, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt,...

Barack Obama threw many stones at George W. Bush, and now lives in a glass house.Over the last decade Barack Obama — in campaign mode for various state and federal offices — repeatedly denounced the Bush-era security protocols as either unlawful or of little utility. Indeed, few political figures made the case so unremittingly that the United States had gone rogue in its zealotry to fight terror. To perpetual candidate Obama, there were no tragic choices, no hazy areas of human frailty, no recognition that well-intentioned public servants were doing their best under trying circumstances to keep Americans safe, and...

A coalition of mega-bands and singers outraged that music — including theirs — was cranked up to help break uncooperative detainees at Guantanamo Bay is joining retired military officers and liberal activists to rally support for President Barack Obama's push to shutter the Navy-run prison for terrorist suspects in Cuba. Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails are among the musicians who have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, which launched Tuesday.. On behalf of the campaign, the National Security Archive in Washington is filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking classified records that detail...

Some of those musicians -- Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine -- say their music has been played at ear-splitting level to torment terror suspects and coerce confessions at the detention facility. Other petitioners want to know whether their works have been used in such capacity, including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne and Billy Bragg. "The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me," said Tom Morello, former lead guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, an industrial rock band whose song "March of the Pigs" has been linked to torture tactics at...

October 22, 2009, 0:00 a.m. The Kitty-Cat Who RoaredThe loud reformer Obama himself proves even emptier in his promises than Bush. By Victor Davis Hanson President Obama keeps roaring out deadlines like a lion — only later to meow like a little kitty. Remember, for example, how he bellowed to cheering partisan crowds that he would close down the detainment facility at Guantanamo within a year? The clock ticks — and Guantanamo isn’t close to being shut down. It once was easy for candidate Obama to deplore George W. Bush’s supposed gulag. Now it proves harder to decide between...

...Earlier this summer it was announced that Standish Max would close as part of a reorganization by the Michigan Department of Corrections. This would result in a loss of jobs for about 350 people. But questions are being asked as to whether bringing Gitmo detainees there is the best way to offset this economic quagmire. Many of the locals have safety concerns...Gordon Cuclullu and his terrorism expert looked at the security issues and found some points of concern: Under normal circumstances this would be a proper maximum security facility. Designed effectively to keep prisoners in, not focused on potential outside...

(English-language translation) RIYAHD - A Saudi woman has filed for divorce after casually discovering that her husband nicknamed her "Guantánamo" on his cellular telephone, the daily Al Watan reported. According to the newspaper, the 30-year-old woman who lives in the western city of Jeddah called her husband on his cell phone. He had left it at home, and that is how the woman discovered that, when identifying the call, the name "Guantánamo" appeared on the screen. The furious woman immediately began divorce proceedings assuming that, being given that nickname, her husband was considering her a tyrannical and oppressive person and,...

After dropping some popular immigration-enforcement measures, Congress on Tuesday passed the 2010 homeland security spending bill that gives President Obama the authority to transfer terrorism-suspect detainees to the United States for trial, though only after he submits a plan to Congress. The Senate voted 79-19 to pass the $44.1 billion bill, following the House's approval last week. Mr. Obama is expected to sign it. "It has been eight years, eight long years since the attacks of 9/11. There are some people in this country who have become complacent about the threat of another attack. Don't count me as one of...

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Is the Obama administration keeping America safe? DEBRA BURLINGAME: When Barack Obama was sworn in as president, I actually had a sliver of hope that he would surprise his worst critics and govern from the center — the smart pragmatist. That hope pretty much evaporated on January 22 when he signed a series of executive orders shutting the Guantanamo Bay detention center by a date certain and suspending the trial of 9/11 conspirators — who were at that moment sitting at Gitmo, crowing about their role in the murder of 3,000 of our fellow human beings. Surrounded...

Guantanamo (Gitmo) Bay detainees may soon be headed for a courtroom near you, according to a report on Sunday morning’s Fox and Friends. House Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, have passed a bill that would allow the inmates to be transferred to U.S. soil for prosecution and incarceration.

We tried the first World Trade Center bombers in civilian courts. In return we got 9/11 and the murder of nearly 3,000 innocents.The Obama administration has said it intends to try several of the prisoners now detained at Guantanamo Bay in civilian courts in this country. This would include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and other detainees allegedly involved. The Justice Department claims that our courts are well suited to the task. Based on my experience trying such cases, and what I saw as attorney general, they aren't. That is not to say...

The woman made the discovery while examining the list of contacts in her husband's phone when he left it at home one day, the Al-Watan newspaper reported. The Riyadh newspaper did not name the woman or her husband, whose comparison between life with his wife and life within the detention centre at the US naval base in Cuba may have proved ill judged. His wife has since decided to end their 17-year marriage and is seeking a divorce. But the newspaper suggested she might settle for "substantial" financial compensation from her husband and stay married to him.

Yesterday, 223 House Democrats (and Ron Paul) voted down a motion to recommit H.R. 2892. In effect, they voted: 1) to bring Guantanamo al Qaeda detainees into the U.S., 2) to delete the requirement that all detainees who once were or currently are being held at Gitmo be placed on the Department of Homeland Security's 'no-fly' list, and 3) to delete this additional requirement: "the Secretary of Homeland Security shall conduct a threat assessment for each such individual who is proposed to be transferred to the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, or the United States Territories."...

Handing President Barack Obama a partial victory in his effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, House Democrats on Thursday repelled a Republican effort to block transfer of any of the detainees to the U.S. Instead, by a 224-193 vote, the House stood by a Democratic plan to allow suspected enemy combatants held at the controversial Guantanamo facility to be shipped to U.S. soil — but only to be prosecuted for their suspected crimes. The Guantanamo restrictions were attached by House-Senate negotiators on a $42.8 billion homeland security appropriations bill.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Here in the land of limbo, the news of President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize landed with more of a whimper than wild enthusiasm among those waging their part in the war on terror. Most troops interviewed this week reflected the surprise of their commander in chief on waking up to the news Friday morning. More than a few hadn't heard about the award for the president who pledged to empty the prison camps here until they were asked about it in an interview with The Miami Herald. ``I've been fishing,'' said Navy Petty...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Four years after Khalid al-Jehani's release from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the 34-year-old Saudi lives a peaceful life in this sprawling coastal city. He has a car, a job and a well-furnished apartment -- courtesy of the Saudi government. The rehabilitation of militants such as Jehani has convinced the Obama administration that Saudi Arabia is the ideal place to send dozens of Yemenis being held at Guantanamo. For months, U.S. officials have applied pressure on Riyadh. But Saudi officials say their success with former detainees such as Jehani lies in members of...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, October 9, 2009 United States Transfers Two Guantanamo Bay Detainees to Kuwait and Belgium WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice today announced that two detainees have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the governments of Kuwait and Belgium. As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, these detainees were approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay. In accordance with Congressionally-mandated...

  Democrats pushed ahead Wednesday with a $42.8 billion homeland security budget that keeps alive the goal of closing Guantanamo someday while preserving President Barack Obama’s discretion — in the interim — to bring detainees into the United States for short periods to stand trial. Little else of consequence is permitted until the president comes up with a plan acceptable to lawmakers for the future of the detention facility, but going even this far could be risky, given the given political nervousness in Congress. Just last week, 88 Democrats joined House Republicans in flatly opposing any Guantanamo prisoners coming into...

Think things in America can't get any more unsettling? Well, you're wrong. Meet the American Police Force, which will soon take over a Montana jail that once asked to house Guantanamo inmates. And, shocker, they're shady as hell. Let's look... Unorganized militia's played quite the role in America's revolution, and they've been experiencing a bit of a revival in the scary recent past. The anti-immigrant Minute Men are out in full force down Arizona way, while the once-defunct Michigan Militia seems to have revived itself: they just had a training exercise called Operation Pita Storm. But those groups are small...

Democrats abruptly postponed agreement on an estimated $42.8 billion Homeland Security budget Thursday after a House vote betrayed continued nervousness among rank-and-file lawmakers over the transfer of any Guantanamo detainees into the U.S., even for the purpose of prosecution. A June war funding bill already bars the administration from relocating prisoners permanently into the U.S. but the White House and Justice Department have sought to retain the discretion to bring detainees in and out of the U.S. and hold them in American prison facilities during trails. The precise language in the Homeland bill—covering the new fiscal year that began Thursday—has...

About a dozen retired generals and admirals, trying to add momentum to President Barack Obama’s effort to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, are accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz of scaremongering about the dangers of closing it. “It’s up to all of us to say these arguments advanced by Cheney and his acolytes are nonsense and that really what they’re doing is undermining our national security by delaying the date at which Guantanamo is closed,” retired Brig. Gen. James Cullen, a former chief judge of the Army’s Court of Criminal Appeals, told POLITICO Tuesday. “Some...

Yesterday State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley referred to Gitmo terrorists as “refugees.�  During the daily State Department briefing, the Assistant Secretary of State unveiled the new terminology (Video here at 24:10 minutes): REPORTER 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? ASSISTANT SECRETARY PHILIP J. CROWLEY:  Ambassador...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is close to selecting a location on U.S. soil to house some detainees from the controversial American military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an administration official said on Saturday. President Barack Obama has pledged to close the facility, which has been the target of international condemnation, by January 2010 but has faced legal, political and diplomatic difficulties that could make it hard to meet that deadline.

The Washington Post reports today that Greg Craig has been replaced as the point man on Guantanamo and will likely leave the White House. The story places the blame for crafting the Guantanamo strategy for a date certain shutdown, of convincing The One of its wisdom and the failure to follow through, squarely on Craig’s shoulders. It hinted that Obama may now not be able to meet his January 22 deadline.

Remember President Obama's first full day in office: "The record is clear: Rather than keep us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security," Obama said during an address on national security at the National Archives in Washington. "It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries. By any measure, the costs of keeping it open far exceed the complications involved in closing it." At the time the President was roundly criticized for announcing the closing without...

My Op-ed in The Australian By Leah Farrall, Australia I have an op-ed piece out in today’s edition of The Australian called “Detentions come back to bite” It’s about Guantanamo blowback now having very real strategic consequences: the formation of a new strategy to kidnap civilians in Afghanistan in order to secure the release of prisoners taken by America. Sally Neighbour has a front page piece derived from my op-ed here “Afghan foreigner kidnap order by al Qaeda leader Mustafa Hamid”. I haven’t seen the broadsheet yet, so I’m not sure if the photos I provided of Hamid are on...

War On Terror: Charges against the mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole are dismissed. He will be retried, but not by a military commission that would have given him the death penalty he deserves.Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell announced on Thursday that Susan Crawford, the convening authority for military tribunals at Guantanamo, has made the decision to withdraw charges against Abd al-Rahim Hussain Mohammed al-Nashiri. This is the Saudi man believed to be the architect of the bombing of the guided missile destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 American sailors, as it sat in the Yemeni port of Aden. The...

Apparently one of the three Swedish men who were caught in Pakistan last week, is according to information received by SvT Rapport, Mehdi Ghezali, who for several years was kept imprisoned on the Guantanamo base. According to Pakistani authorities the Swedes were apprehended together with seven Turks and and one Russian, and are suspected of collaboration with al-Qaida. According to informants the prisoners have been transferred to Islamabad. The 30 year old Mehdi Ghezali was caught near the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan in December 2001, and was shortly thereafter handed over to the US military. He was released from...

SNIPPET: "How Did the Posting of the Photos Actually Play Out? 1. At some point in July 2009, International Red Cross delegates photographed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his nephew, Ammar al-Baluchi. These photos were taken as part of a service that the ICRC has provided to at least the 107 detainees at Guantanamo who opted in. The service includes provide their families with photographed evidence that the detainee is alive and not being mistreated. 2. Specifically, each detainee selects their two favorite poses and print copies of those photographs along with a note from the ICRC are transmitted by the...

This week on "Take AIM," Accuracy in Media's Thursday morning show on BlogTalkRadio, Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI) discusses health care reform. Commander Kirk Lippold, senior military fellow with Military Families United, discusses the Obama administration's release of Guantanamo Bay detainees, as well as his experiences as commanding officer of the USS Cole when it was attacked. AIM chairman Don Irvine and media analyst Roger Aronoff host. Listen live on Thursday, September 10, at 11:00 am Eastern here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Accuracy-In-Media/2009/09/10/Take-AIM For more information about our guests, see www.mikerogers.house.gov and www.militaryfamiliesunited.org. Take AIM airs every Thursday at 11:00 am Eastern on BlogTalkRadio. Can't...

A former Guantánamo guard who had flown to the UK to address a support group for inmates of the camp is to be deported back to the US this morning after being denied entry on arrival at Heathrow airport yesterday. Terry Holdbrooks, who has been an outspoken critic of the US government over the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo, said that immigration officials told him he was being refused entry because he was unemployed and living in rented accommodation in the US, raising suspicions he would not leave the UK. The former soldier, who converted to Islam after discussions with...

President Barack Obama said, "Nobody has ever escaped from one of our federal, supermax prisons, which hold hundreds of convicted terrorists," during his May 21, 2009 speech at the National Archives. In this morning's Washington Post, they report a 2006 Department of Justice memo states that convicted al Qaeda prisoners in Supermax at Florence, Colorado "coordinated the beginning of a hunger strike" and developed "a sophisticated method to resist compulsory feeding" by communicated via "tapping on the pipes." (Has no one at the Bureau of Prisons ever heard of the Hanoi Hilton and how John McCain et al communicated by...

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One of the youngest detainees held at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay will sue the United States for compensation, his lawyers say. Mohammed Jawad was released and arrived in his native Afghanistan earlier this week. His family says he was 12 at the time of his detention in 2002. He was in custody for seven years. The Pentagon, however, disputes his age. Mr Jawad had been accused of injuring two US soldiers and their interpreter by throwing a grenade at their vehicle. Much of the case against him had been ruled inadmissible by a US military judge in...

SNIPPET: "From the days of Prophet Muhammad, sexual terror has been an integral part of Islamic Jihad. The siege of the Beslan School by Islamic Jihadis in 2004 was no exception as reveals Dr. Schurman-Kauflin. -- Editor, MA Khan Excerpt from Chapter 1, “Disturbed: Terrorist Behavioral Profiles” (2008) On September 1, 2004, terrorists stormed a school in Beslan, Russia, and perpetrated one of the most heinous terror attacks in history. Though many people may have heard of this attack, it is very likely that most do not know what really happened there. The reality is so dark that few dare...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Yemeni prisoner held since 2002 in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay must be freed because there is no evidence he belonged to al Qaeda or was a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, a U.S. judge said in a decision published on Friday. Mohammed Adahi is one of 29 detainees who have been ordered released from Guantanamo, a controversial prison on a U.S. Navy base in Cuba that has housed suspected militants since the September 11 attacks on the United States by al Qaeda in 2001. "There is no reliable evidence in the record that (Adahi)...

So we’re hearing that ACLU attorneys allegedly showed photos of CIA agents to Guantanamo Prison terrorist detainees (Ed Morrissey, “ACLU, Gitmo Lawyers, exposed CIA agent identities to terrorists,” August 21, 2009, http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/21/aclu-gitmo-lawyers-exposed-cia-agent-identities-to-terrorists/). If they did, it’s one of the most blatant examples of protecting the criminal instead of the innocent. It’s also an act of treason. Morrissey reports that some photographs of CIA agents were shown in front of their homes. It’s hard enough to fathom a hostile world, but to know that Americans who possess a warped version of liberalism are threatening our country’s safety is especially disheartening –...

Many of the 300 people who attended today's meeting in Standish, Michigan were already against moving Gitmo's detainees there; the rest left with more questions than they came with, according to town hall organizer and long-time Standish resident Dave Munson. I spoke with Mr. Munson this afternoon, after the meeting. He said, "The Department of Defense needs to come up here and be honest with us about how this would effect our community." ...U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland and a candidate of Michigan governor in 2010, took the podium first and urged the people to push for transparency. Hoekstra has...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration plans to transfer six prisoners abroad from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, part of the effort to close the controversial facility by early 2010. The detainees include those previously ordered released by U.S. courts or whose release has been approved through the Obama administration's review process, a Justice Department official said, declining to give further details. The administration notified Congress around August 6-7 of the planned moves, starting a 15-day waiting period before the transfers can begin. One, Mohammed Jawad, could be sent back to Afghanistan as...

As a former Marine, I know that the men and women of our armed forces, including those at Fort Leavenworth, are more than capable of securing these terrorists. In fact, they already secure them very well at Guantanamo. The real threat lies beyond the terrorists themselves. For places like Leavenworth, there is a virtual top 10 list of external threats ... 2. Security experts estimate that Fort Leavenworth would need to acquire 2,000 privately owned acres of land by eminent domain to establish a stand-off zone around the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, which is situated near the perimeter. Imagine the lawsuits,...

If it takes shutting down the Senate to block the Obama administration from moving prisoners from Guantánamo Bay to U.S. soil, that's exactly what some Republican senators plan to do. Following several reports Aug. 3 that the White House was debating two distinct proposals for dealing with more than 250 prisoners still housed at the detention facility at the U.S. military base in Cuba, senators from various parts of the country pledged to fight any attempt to move the terrorism suspects to the United States, severely complicating President Obama's plan to close the prison by January. One proposal, according to...

For some service members, serving at Joint Task Force Guantanamo is one more chapter in the book they call life. For others, the significance of the mission holds a deeper meaning -- more personal -- especially for service members who have lost friends, loved ones or know someone affected by the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. For the Soldiers of the 189th Military Police Co., the mission became more personal when family members of September 11 attack victims, visiting Guantanamo during the recent military commissions proceedings, made a special effort to say “thank you,” and convey gratitude, face to face,...

President Obama’s pledge to shut Guantánamo Bay appeared beset by confusion last night with the emergence of conflicting plans over how to close the prison. Under one leaked proposal the Administration is considering a transfer of all 229 detainees to a single complex on the US mainland. Officials said two sites being looked at for such a military-civilian prison, where terror suspects would be tried, were the military jail at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and a soon-to-be-closed maximum security facility in Standish, Michigan. However, officials at the US Justice Department said last night that dozens of detainees had been referred to...

Today, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled 'Revenge of the ‘Shoe Bomber’: The terrorist sues to resume his jihad from prison. The Obama administration caves in,' Debra Burlingame writes: On June 17, at the Administrative Maximum (ADX) penitentiary in Florence, Colo., one of those albatrosses, inmate number 24079-038, began his day with a whole new range of possibilities. Eight days earlier [June 9, 2007 pdf file at link], the U.S. Attorney’s office in Denver filed notice in federal court that the Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) which applied to that prisoner -- Richard C. Reid, a.k.a. the “Shoe Bomber” --...