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ISLAMABAD (AP) — An Afghan prisoner held in U.S. custody for nearly 15 years has been released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center after a federal court ruled that he was unlawfully detained, the U.S. Department of Defense said Friday. Asadullah Haroon Gul’s release was first announced earlier in the day by the Taliban in Afghanistan and an international human rights group. From Kabul, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-appointed deputy culture and information minister, tweeted that Gul was one of the last two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Photographs of Gul being greeted by senior Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar,...

Ketanji Brown Jackson's defense of Gitmo detainees and criticism of U.S. government likely to be spotlighted in confirmation process. 0:00 / 0:00 By Aaron Kliegman Updated: February 25, 2022 - 11:37pm Article Dig In President Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court represented suspected terrorists when she was a federal public defender, going well beyond a bare-bones defense to lambaste the U.S. government for some if its counterterrorism policies and broader approach to the War on Terror. Biden on Friday nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, currently a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to...

Former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General (retd) Hamid Gul passed away in Murree on Saturday evening due to brain haemorrhage, Express News reported. According to his daughter, Uzma Gul, the former spy master had been taken to the Combined Military hospital in Murree on Saturday after he suffered brain haemorrhage.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Eight NATO service members and a contractor are dead after an Afghan military pilot opened fire on the foreign troops following a dispute at the airport in Kabul. Wednesday's shooting was the deadliest incident in which a member of the Afghan security forces turned against coalition forces.

A 21-year-old loner from Armstrong County had an arsenal in his bedroom, a radical Islamist online persona and videos suggesting paramilitary training before his arrest last week for biting two FBI agents, federal prosecutors charged in court Thursday. As a result, Emerson W. Begolly will remain in jail pending trial, U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill decided, over the strenuous objections of a defense attorney who said his client was nonviolent. A magistrate judge's decision last week to ship him to a halfway house, which was stayed during its appeal, was shelved. Mr. Begolly "has a strong desire to kill...

First exploded a car at the busy shopping street Drottninggatan in central Stockholm. Then came another explosion some distance away and one man died. According to news agency TT, the man had blown himself to death. There was a bag on the ground filled with nails, according to newspaper Expressen. Alarm calls poured in to the Emergency Services from concerned residents about the explosions in central Stockholm on Saturday afternoon. But the initial info from the police was extremely unclear. First there was talk of two cars that exploded, later it proved to be just one... At Bryggargatan a man...

MIAMI -- Joint Task Force-Guantanamo announced today that a detainee died of apparent natural causes late Tuesday evening. The detainee is identified as Awal Gul, a 48-year-old Afghan. He arrived at Guantanamo in October 2002. Gul was housed in Camp 6, which provides communal living areas for up to 20 detainees. He collapsed in the shower after exercising on an elliptical machine. Other detainees in his cell block then assisted Gul to the guard station for medical attention. The guards immediately alerted medical personnel, who upon arriving at the cell block found him unresponsive. He was immediately transported to the...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs Europe October 3, 2010 The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe. Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions. Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation...

It’s not mentioned much now, but in the late summer of 2008, a major hurricane, Gustav, was in the Gulf of Mexico and headed toward New Orleans, threatening a replay of the disastrous Katrina experience. On September 1, 2008, Barack Obama, fresh from his Roman-colonnade speech on the final night of the Democratic convention in Denver, talked to CNN’s Anderson Cooper about Gustav and the Gulf. The question: As president, could he handle an emergency like that? Obama pointed to the size of his campaign and its multi-million dollar budget as evidence of his executive abilities. “Our ability to manage...

BULLETIN -- NEW YORK POLICE AND FBI RAID HOMES IN QUEENS IN TERRORISM INVESTIGATION.6 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters

Turkish President Abdullah Gul is interested in making an official visit to Israel in the coming months to put an end to the crisis in relations between his country and Israel. If he does come, Gul is expected to be here during the second half of the year. Jak Kamhi, a leader in the Turkish Jewish community who is considered close to the Turkish president, was in Israel about a week ago and met with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. The Turkish Jewish community and the crisis in relations with Turkey were discussed...

ISTANBUL - Russia considers ties with Turkey a foreign policy priority, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with President Abdullah Gül late Friday. "Russia is Turkey's number one partner in trade turnover," Putin told Gül, who wrapped up his four-day official visit to Russia yesterday. He said the trade volume between Russia and Turkey totaled $32 billion in 2008. Gül also praised relations between the countries and invited Putin to visit Turkey. Putin applauded the emergence of Russia as Turkey's number one trade partner, AFP news agency reported. "You are the author of these relations. You have...

The Pakistan government has blocked a resolution moved in the UN Security Council for imposing sanctions against former Inter-Services-Intelligence chief retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul over his alleged links with al-Qaeda and Taliban, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday. If any action is to be taken against Gul, it will be done under the Pakistani law, Gilani told reporters in his hometown of Multan. "Soon after our government was formed, a resolution was moved in the Security Council but we got it put on hold," Gilani said. Gul is a Pakistani citizen and he would not be handed...

The presidents of Armenia and Turkey pledged Saturday to overcome decades of enmity between their two nations during the first visit to Yerevan by a Turkish head of state. Abdullah Gul held talks with Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian after which the two agreed there was now the "political will" to improve relations frozen for decades by lingering bitterness over 1915-1917 massacres. Gul's visit was hailed by French and EU President Nicolas Sarkozy as "courageous and historic" at a time when the Caucasus region is in turmoil following the conflict in Armenia's northern neighbour Georgia. The two countries -- which have...

Days after Russia scored a stunning geopolitical victory in the Caucasus, President Abdullah Gül of Turkey said he saw a new multipolar world emerging from the wreckage of war. The conflict in Georgia, Gül asserted, showed that the United States could no longer shape global politics on its own, and should begin sharing power with other countries. "I don't think you can control all the world from one centre," Gül told the Guardian.

ANKARA (AFP) - President Abdullah Gul sent a reconciliatory message to neighbouring Armenia on Saturday, saying Turkey is "no enemy" to any country in its region, as he mulled a possible landmark trip to Yerevan. The conflict between Georgia and Russia shows the need for "early measures to resolve frozen problems in the region and... prevent instability in the future," said Gul in televised remarks in the central city of Nevsehir.

Excerpt - The plane crash that killed President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan has spawned myriad conspiracy theories since his C-130 plunged into the Bahawalpur Desert with his top generals and the US Ambassador on board exactly 20 years ago tomorrow. The despot’s death changed Pakistan’s political landscape in an instant, ushering the Muslim state into a period of shaky civilian rule, similar to the situation the country finds itself in today. American, Soviet, Pakistani, Indian and even Israeli intelligence agents are among those blamed for sabotaging the plane. But now, two decades on, the The Times has reviewed the...

In the latest example of MSM groupthink, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other major papers hailed the election of Abdullah Gul - a devout Muslim whose wife wears a headscarf – as president of Turkey "a victory for democracy" (in fact, both the WaPo and The Times used this very phrase).So what if Gul was elected? So were Adolph Hitler and Hugo Chavez. "Democratic" elections do not ensure "a victory for democracy."In a presumptuous editorial, The Times even goes so far to advise Turkey’s military, which has overthrown four governments (in 1960, 1971,...

The Turkish parliament on Tuesday elected Abdullah Gul, foreign minister, as the secular country’s first president with an Islamist background. The election of Mr Gul, the candidate of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) which has its roots in political Islam and has ruled Turkey for the past five years, follows a protracted political crisis over his nomination. The party’s previous attempt at electing him to the largely ceremonial but still influential post back in April provoked an angry response from Turkey’s fiercely secular military. It expressed fears that Mr Gul, whose wife wears a headscarf – Islamic headgear that...

Ankara - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says that Turks who do not want to accept Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül as their next president "must renounce their citizenship" and leave the country. The prime minister was responding to an article in Hurriyet newspaper by columnist Bekir Coskun, who wrote that Mr Gül would "not be my president". According to the columnist, the election of Mr Gül, who is the candidate of the ruling Muslim AK Party, would mean the end of Turkey's secular traditions and a victory for political Islam. Turkish newspapers and opposition parties have described the prime minister's...