Guantanamo Bay

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Freed Gitmo Inmates: 'We'd Never Heard of al-Qaeda'

(Newser) - The Chinese Muslims freed from Guantanamo last week had never heard of al-Qaeda before arriving in Cuba, one of them tells the Royal Gazette of Bermuda. "From what we have heard about them, they are an extremely radical group, with totally different ideals from ours," said Salahidin Abdulahad,...

Obama's Cell Phone Plea Helps Clear War Funds

Last-minute tensions healed; measure set to pass next week

(Newser) - Congressional leaders settled on a $106 billion spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan last night, but it took a last-minute intervention by President Obama via Rahm Emanuel's cell phone. When talks got bogged down over the release of detainee photos, Emanuel rushed to the Capitol and had...

Obama Gives Up On Resettling Detainees in US

Plans abandoned after Uighur deals, congressional opposition

(Newser) - The administration has largely abandoned plans to allow Guantanano detainees cleared for release to settle in the US, the Washington Post reports. Plans to allow Uighur detainees who said their only enemy was the Chinese government to live in the US met firm opposition from Congress. Four Uighurs were sent...

Britain Bashes Bermuda for Taking Gitmo Inmates

Overseas territory told it's getting too big for its britches with resettlement deal

(Newser) - Britain has berated its oldest remaining colony for taking in former Guantanamo detainees without asking London's permission first, the BBC reports. American officials say they dealt directly with Bermuda on the issue, through its British-appointed governor, as they arranged to release four Chinese Muslim Uighurs to Bermuda.

Youngest Gitmo Detainee, Captured at 14, Goes Free

(Newser) - The youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay has been freed to his native Chad, Reuters reports. Mohammed El Gharani was seized in Pakistan in 2001 at 14, and accused variously of being an al-Qaeda operative, messenger, and combatant. Five months ago a judge found the evidence against him insufficient. “That...

4 Chinese Gitmo Detainees Freed to Bermuda

Beijing opposes sending other Muslim inmates to Palau

(Newser) - Four Chinese Muslims inmates from Guantanamo have been released in Bermuda in the first successful US resettlement of Uighurs since 2006, the AP reports. The disposition of 13 others is unclear, according to the Miami Herald, but Palau has offered to accept them, a move China opposes. Beijing has called...

Palau to Take Gitmo's Chinese Detainees

Island nation's move resolves key camp-closing concern

(Newser) - Palau agreed to accept 17 Chinese Muslims who have languished in legal limbo at Guantanamo Bay, indicating a resolution to one of the thorniest issues facing the Obama administration's decision to close the prison camp. The announcement, which would clear the last of the Uighurs from the camp, was a...

First Gitmo Detainee to Face Trial Pleads Not Guilty

Denies role in 1998 embassy bombings

(Newser) - The first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be brought to the US for trial has pleaded not guilty in two embassy bombings. Ahmed Ghailani entered the plea today in federal court in Manhattan. Ghailani is charged with participating in the bombing of embassies in Africa in August 1998, attacks that killed...

US Offers $200M to Send Gitmo Inmates to South Pacific

(Newser) - The US wants to resettle Uighur detainees held at Guantanamo Bay on the Pacific island nation of Palau, the AP reports. Palau, whose eight main islands lie 500 miles east of the Philippines, has strong ties to the US and depends on it for aid and protection. Daniel Fried, the...

First Gitmo Detainee Arrives in US for Trial

Ahmed Ghailani to be tried for bombing US embassies

(Newser) - The first Guantanamo Bay detainee has landed on US soil, landing in New York to face trial on charges of bombing US embassies, the Justice Department said today. Ahmed Ghailani arrived in the early morning, to be held in law enforcement custody until his trial in federal court in lower...

Gitmo Detainee: I Was Tortured
 Gitmo Detainee: I Was Tortured 
Interview
Jun 8, 2009 11:33 AM CDT

Gitmo Detainee: I Was Tortured

(Newser) - In 2002, Lakhdar Boumediene was a relief worker who cared for orphans. “I’m a normal man,” he says. So when the US shackled him and flew him to Guantanamo Bay, he thought he’d be freed soon. “They have CIA, FBI. Maybe one week, two weeks,...

Never Mind Gitmo—the Real Prison Problem Is Here

(Newser) - The collective freak-out over closing Guantanamo proves that Americans do care about prisons and prisoners, but Gitmo “is a mere speck in the eye of America’s larger prison program,” writes Dahlia Lithwick in Newsweek. That’s why Sen. Jim Webb of the “lock ‘em up”...

Obama, Sarko Oppose Nuclear Iran, New Israeli Settlements

(Newser) - Barack Obama and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, stood together today on thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions and furthering a Mideast peace that provides for separate Israeli and Palestinian states. "We want peace. We want dialogue. We want to help them develop. But we do not want military nuclear weapons...

Chinese Muslims at Gitmo Press Supreme Court to Act

(Newser) - The 17 Uighurs being held at Guantanamo issued a challenge to the Supreme Court today in petitioning for their release, the Miami Herald reports. "The historic role of the Judicial Branch is to demand the release of prisoners precisely when the political branches find release inconvenient," their petition...

Governors Unwilling to Take Gitmo Detainees

(Newser) - Governors are more than a little reluctant to house Guantanamo Bay detainees in their state prisons, the Washington Times reports. The paper asked a variety of governors’ offices if they’d be willing to take the prisoners, including those from states whose congressmen support the idea of shutting Gitmo. Almost...

Merkel Backs Obama on Mideast

(Newser) - Angela Merkel got behind Barack Obama’s Middle East peace push today, calling his Cairo speech the “ideal basis” for renewed efforts. Obama called for “difficult compromises,” adding, “The United States cannot force peace upon the parties.” The two leaders met and spoke at a...

Rendition: Gitmo Joins Shunned Video Games

Many games have been met with outrage

(Newser) - A storm of bad publicity about Rendition: Guantanamo—a video game about falsely-accused Gitmo detainees trying to escape—forced the game makers to can it this week. It's far from the only game to test the boundaries, ABC reports:
  • Atomic Games dumped development of Six Days in Fallujah amid protests
...

Colorado Town Would Welcome Gitmo Inmates

Supermax is already home to Unabomber, '20th hijacker'

(Newser) - Members of Congress have protested President Obama's efforts to move Guantanamo inmates to US prisons, but residents of Florence, Colo., say they wouldn't mind taking in a few enemy combatants. The supermax prison near town already holds some of the world's most infamous terrorists: a 1993 World Trade Center assailant,...

Gitmo Prisoner Commits Suicide

Yemeni detainee held since 2002 with no charges

(Newser) - A Yemeni man was found dead in his Guantanamo Bay cell last night in the fifth apparent prisoner suicide at the facility, reports the Los Angeles Times. Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, 31, was imprisoned at Guantanamo since February 2002 on accusations he trained with the Taliban in Afghanistan, although no...

Judge: US Must Reveal Charges Vs. Gitmo Prisoners

(Newser) - A federal judge today ordered the US to publicly reveal unclassified versions of its allegations and evidence justifying the continued imprisonment of more than 100 detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay. The Justice Department had been filing unclassified versions of its legal documents under seal, so that they could only...

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