Young Afghan Freed From Gitmo to sue US Govt

With the help of a US military lawyer a newly released Afghan Gitmo detainee will be suing the US government for his detention. Since the US has foolish started releasing the names of terror suspects being held in Afghanistan and Iraq, expect a flood of lawsuits to be filed soon. The destruction from within continues.


Young Afghan freed from Guantanamo to sue US gov't

KABUL – The family of one of the youngest prisoners ever held at Guantanamo plans to sue the U.S. government to compensate him for mistreatment and an adolescence lost to nearly seven years in a cell, his lawyers said Thursday.

Mohammed Jawad returned to Afghanistan this week after a military judge ruled that he was coerced into confessing that he threw a grenade at an unmarked vehicle in the capital in 2002. The attack wounded two American soldiers and their interpreter.

Afghan police delivered Jawad into U.S. custody and about a month later he was sent to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Jawad and his family say he was 12 when he was arrested, and that he is now 19 years old. The Pentagon has said a bone scan showed he was about 17 when taken into custody. His defense lawyers decline to give an exact age for Jawad, who does not have a birth certificate, but say photos taken in Guantanamo showed that he had not gone through puberty.

"I was an innocent child when they put me in prison," Jawad told The Associated Press in an interview at the offices of an Afghan lawyer association. A round-cheeked man with a scraggly beard, Jawad spoke tentatively, glancing at his lawyer.

He wore a white robe and a traditional beaded cap as he sat stiffly on an office couch.

Lawyers and family members say Jawad was submitted to various types of torture while imprisoned, including sleep deprivation and beatings.

The family plans to sue for compensation in U.S. courts, said Maj. Eric Montalvo, one of the military lawyers who was defending Jawad. Montalvo, who finishes his military service this month and has already joined a private firm, said he will aid in the process but will not necessarily file the suit.

"I will not allow him not to be assisted," Montalvo said, explaining that Jawad needs intensive psychological counseling and tutoring to make up for his lack of schooling. Jawad said he wants to become a doctor because he was impressed by the way doctors at Guantanamo helped people.

Justice Department officials have said the criminal investigation of Jawad is still open but his transfer back to Afghanistan makes prosecution unlikely. The judge who ordered him released said the government's case was an "outrage" and "full of holes."


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4 Gitmo Guys Working on Bermuda Golf Course

This is an update on the "4 Gitmo Guys Living it up in Bermuda" article. While more and more Americans are losing their jobs we don't have to worry about the Gitmo guys, they are doing just fine. Join the jihad against the coalition troops and President Obama makes sure that you are well taken care of.

Former Gitmo detainees work on Bermuda golf course

HAMILTON, Bermuda — Four Chinese Muslims once confined to small prison cells as suspected terrorists at Guantanamo are now helping prepare the wide-open spaces of an oceanside golf course for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

The Uighurs who moved to the British island territory in June have joined crews working toward the October tournament, said Wendall Brown, chairman of the board of trustees for Bermuda's public golf courses.

They were hired on a temporary basis after five Filipino workers quit ahead of schedule, Brown said Tuesday.

Steve Johnson, who oversees landscaping and land cultivation for the golf courses, said the new hires are doing "very well" in their jobs.

"They have only just started, but they are doing what everyone else does, starting at the bottom and fitting in," he said Tuesday.

The Uighurs — Turkic Muslims from far western China — were held in Guantanamo Bay for roughly seven years following their capture in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001.

The Pentagon determined they did not pose a threat, but their release was delayed because they could not be sent back to China, where they face persecution for their separatist beliefs, and other countries refused to accept them.

In June, Bermudian Premier Ewart Brown announced he had agreed to take the refugees, surprising many local officials and angering the British government, which said he should have consulted with it first.

The Uighurs will continue working on the Port Royal Golf Course until the start of the tournament, which offers a $1.35 million dollar purse and will draw winners of the sport's four major championships.

The Uighurs' attorney, Richard Horseman, recently said that his clients were eager to find jobs and "become productive citizens."

Brown said he does not know if the Uighurs are being paid for their work or if they will be kept on staff after the tournament ends.

Separately, a deal is close to send some of the 13 Uighurs still at Guantanamo to the remote Pacific nation of Palau, according to a lawyer for two of them.

Uighur detainees met with U.S. State Department officials on Monday and told diplomats they are now willing to move to Palau, said lawyer George Clarke, who took part in the talks. Once a deal is struck, it is expected to take weeks to organize their transfer.

Several of the men at the U.S. base in Cuba pleaded with President Barack Obama to secure their release in a letter released Wednesday by lawyers for the men. "We need freedom," the translated letter signed by nine Uighurs says. "We need a country who can guarantee our safety ... Seven years of the beautiful times of our lives have been spent in prison cell blocks, wire and cement cages."

Lawyers for the men said the letter was written March 8 but only recently cleared for public release by government security officials.

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ACLU:Against Gitmo Detainee Transfer to "Little Gitmo"

The ACLU has spoken out against Muslim prisoners being held in Gitmo. They have won that battle as President Obama is going to close the facility. But that is not enough, they are now fighting a transfer to an Indiana prison dubbed "Little Guantanamo". Apparently the ACLU is only happy when our enemies are released to island resorts.

ACLU to fight prisoner’s transfer to Terre Haute facility
Dean Kuipers Los Angeles Times

Civil rights activists plan to file a lawsuit Thursday contesting the transfer of a Tunisian-American prisoner to a federal prison facility in Indiana that some inmates have dubbed “Little Guantanamo.”

The suit by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Sabri Benkahla could be the first of many challenging the secretive units, which drastically restrict outside contact.

Benkahla was transferred to the Communications Management Unit in Terre Haute in 2007, eight months after his conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges in a terrorism case.

Prosecutors contended that he lied to a grand jury about his contact with an alleged al-Qaida fundraiser and other terrorism suspects.

The Terre Haute unit was opened in 2006. Another CMU began operations last year at the federal prison in Marion, Ill.

The suit charges that the federal Bureau of Prisons violated Benkahla’s right to due process by pulling him out the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center with no transfer paperwork, no hearing, and no opportunity to contest his transfer beforehand. It also questions the legality of the CMUs.

Similar suits are being prepared by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and by attorneys representing other CMU inmates, calling the specialized units an unwarranted expansion of the war on terror.

Inmates housed in the CMUs are allowed only one 15-minute phone call a week and two 2-hour visits a month. While the CMU rules are more restrictive than those of most federal prisons, they are not as strict as the “supermax” facility in Florence, Colo., which houses terrorists such as unibomber Theodore Kaczynski. Inmates at the CMUs have access to computers, a library, a basketball court and a religious library.

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Gitmo Terrorists Trigger Public Backlash in Palau

While the released Gitmo terrorists might be doing their best Beach Boy impressions, the locals are not happy. But hey, all that matters is that Obama is happy.

Chinese Muslims trigger public backlash in Palau
By TOMOKO HOSAKA

KOROR, Palau (AP) — The tiny Pacific nation of Palau's decision to allow 13 Chinese Muslims from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to resettle there has sparked anger among islanders who fear for the safety of the tranquil tourist haven.

The U.S. government determined last year that the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, were not enemy combatants and should be released from the U.S. military prison in Cuba. China has objected to their resettlement, calling the men "terrorist suspects" and demanding they be sent home.

The U.S. has said it fears the men would be executed if they were returned to China.
Palau President Johnson Toribiong explained his decision to grant the Uighurs entry as traditional hospitality, but public opinion has appeared overwhelmingly negative. Some complained Friday that the government failed to consult the people.

"I totally disagree" with allowing the Uighurs onto Palau, Natalia Baulis, a 30-year-old mother of two, told The Associated Press by telephone.

"It's good to be humanitarian and all, but still these people ... to me are scary," she said.

The Uighurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs) have been in custody since they were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001.

Fermin Nariang, editor of the Palau newspaper Island Times, said he had been stopped in the streets of the capital, Koror, by residents venting their anger.

"This is a very small country ... and some are saying if the whole world doesn't want these folks, why are we taking them?" Nariang said.

The newspaper quoted islander Debedebk Mongami as saying, "I'm also afraid this news is going to scare the tourists who plan to come to Palau."

The Palau Chamber of Commerce, which represents the country's multimillion dollar hotel industry, did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

Toribiong has denied the move was influenced by any massive aid package from Washington, saying instead that the Uighurs had become "international vagabonds" who deserved a fresh start.

"Palau's people are always on the side of the U.S. government," Toribiong said.
He said Palau would send a delegation to Guantanamo to assess the Uighur detainees. It was unclear when this would happen or when the Uighurs would arrive in the island nation.

Four other Uighurs left Guantanamo Bay for a new home in Bermuda on Thursday. Some residents of the North Atlantic island were also unhappy, with dozens unleashing their anger on the Facebook page of a local newspaper, The Royal Gazette.

Even Britain, which handles Bermuda's defense, security and foreign affairs, expressed displeasure at the deal.

The British Foreign Office complained that Bermuda's leaders failed to consult "whether this falls within their competence or is a security issue for which the Bermuda government do not have delegated responsibility."

Although the Pentagon said the 17 Uighurs were not enemy combatants, the Obama administration has faced fierce congressional opposition to allowing them into the U.S. as free men. China says no other country should take them.

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference that the U.S. should "stop handing over terrorist suspects to any third country, so as to expatriate them to China at an early date." He did not say if China would take any action in response.

Toribiong said Palau did not consider China's reaction when it accepted the U.S. request to temporarily resettle the detainees.

Palau has eight main islands and more than 250 islets, and is a former U.S. trust territory that has retained close ties with the United States since independence in 1994.

Some 20,000 people live in Palau, a predominantly Christian nation.

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4 Gitmo Guys Living it up in Bermuda

Four Chinese Islamic terrorists have been released to the beautiful vacation islands of Bermuda. While the other 13 are going to be sent to the Pacific island of Palau. Boy Mr.Obama don't you think that you are being too tough on them?

Bermuda takes 4 Uighur detainees from Gitmo
By DEVLIN BARRETT and MATTHEW LEE

WASHINGTON – Four Chinese Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay prison were freed Thursday and resettled in Bermuda, sparking complaints from China and Britain even as the Obama administration tried to iron out details for sending more detainees to the Pacific island of Palau.

The four were among 17 Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, picked up in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. They remained at the military detention center in Cuba even after the U.S. government had determined they weren't enemy combatants and should be released. Their fate was in limbo for months while courts and nations debated their future.

Their release comes as the administration scrambles to meet President Barack Obama's pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by early next year.

Bermuda Premier Ewart Brown said the men will be allowed to live in Bermuda, a British territory in the Atlantic, initially as refugees but they would be permitted to pursue citizenship and would have the right to work, travel and "potentially settle elsewhere."

Brown said negotiations with Washington over settling the Uighurs began last month and he had no security concerns because the men had been cleared by U.S. courts. But Britain, which handles Bermuda's defense, security and foreign affairs expressed displeasure at the move.

In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy, said Bermuda considered the resettlement an internal immigration matter, but added that Britain should have been consulted.

"We've underlined to the Bermuda government that it should have consulted (Britain) on whether this falls within their competence or is a security issue for which the Bermuda government do not have delegated responsibility," she said.

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Chinese Gitmo Guys Find new Home

Usually I have mostly bad to news to post about President Obama or Islam, but not this time. Even though Obama was dying to release his jihadist buddies here in America he did not get is way. Thankfully they will be taken in by the Pacific island of Palau.

Palau Accepts Chinese Muslims Held at Guantanamo Bay
By Richard Green
Washington
10 June 2009
After months of legal uncertainty, a group of Chinese Muslims who have been held for years at the detention camp for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will be resettled in the remote Pacific island nation of Palau.

Palau President Johnson Toribiong announced Wednesday his government would be "honored and proud" to temporarily resettle the 17 Uighurs being held at the controversial U.S. detention center.

Mr. Toribiong agreed to Washington's request to accept the Uighurs after talks with U.S. diplomat Daniel Fried, who is leading the U.S. State Department's effort to resettle the Guantanamo detainees. U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered Guantanamo to be shut down by January of next year.

The Bush administration refused to designate the Uighurs as "enemy combatants." It was in late 2008 when a U.S. federal judge ordered the men to be released into the United States. That ruling was eventually overturned by an appeals court.

Sandra Pierantozzi, Palau's minister of state, in an interview with VOA, says her nation is glad to have the Uighurs.

"If they want to settle in Palau we would welcome them," Pierantozzi said. "This is very much in line with the culture of Palau, where people who drift in and who needs settlement and place are welcome to our shores and our tradition will take care of them and insert them into our society."

The Uighurs are from China's western Xinjiang province. Beijing has accused the Uighurs, who dominate the province, as separatists who want to create an independent "East Turkestan." Washington is refusing to send the Uighurs back to China, fearing they would be persecuted.

Palau, a former U.S. trust territory until achieving independence in 1994, maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan, China's longtime rival, rather than Beijing. Pierantozzi says her nation is not concerned over China's likely displeasure over the resettlement of the Uighurs.

"We continue to conduct business as usual, we are a free sovereign country, we are free to make decisions for us, as we believe and see for our benefit," Pierantozzi said. "and also we are a small country but we are a part of the United Nations and the world community of nations, so we try to do our part."

Although they would finally be free, Pierantozzi says the Uighurs may face some unexpected challenges living in Palau, a lightly populated chain of islands located 800 kilometers east of the Philippines.

"We'd like to think it is paradise, but you have to also remember the Uighurs come from a landlocked country in China, and for all intents and purposes, they make not like living in a small island surrounded by water," Pierantozzi said. "So we're not really sure they will want to come our not."

Pierantozzi denies reports her government agreed to accept $200 million in aid from the U.S. in exchange for accepting the Uighurs.

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1st. Gitmo Detainee in US Pleads Not Guilty

This is an update to the "First Gitmo Detainee is in NYC" article.

1st Gitmo detainee brought to US pleads not guilty

By TOM HAYS and DEVLIN BARRETT
NEW YORK – The first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be brought to the United States for trial has pleaded not guilty in two embassy bombings. Ahmed Ghailani entered the plea Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. He was brought to the United States under heavy guard earlier in the day.
Ghailani is charged with participating in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa in August 1998. The bombings killed more than 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Authorities say he helped build one of the bombs.

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First Gitmo Detainee is in NYC

Even the President Obama was warned by the FBI and the DHS not to bring any Gitmo detainees to America, control freak Obama has brought the first one here today.

Gitmo Detainee Brought to NYC for Trial
June 09, 2009

Early this morning a plane landed in New York containing US Marshals and Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national held at Guantanamo Bay since September 2006.

Ghailani, currently being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, faces 286 separate criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in the Aug. 7, 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, including conspiring with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to kill Americans, and a separate charges of murder for each of the 224 people killed embassy bombings.

He is the first Guantanamo detainee transferred to the US to stand trial in federal court and will appear in a federal court in Manhattan later today.

“With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. “The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case.”

Ghailani is an expert document forger and travel facilitator, the US government says. Known within al Qaeda circles as "Haytham al-Kini," Ghailani worked for al Qaeda's former chief of external operations, Hamza Rabi'a -- forging passports for al Qaeda members. Press accounts say he is also referred to as "Foopie" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian."

Placed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2001, Ghailani was identified by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in May 2004 as one of seven terrorists planning an attack on the US, based on "credible intelligence from multiple sources." Ashcroft said Ghailani had "the wherewithal, the skill, the ability, to undertake attacks both against American interests overseas as well as in the United States….Each of these seven individuals is known to have a desire and the ability to undertake planning, facilitation and attack against the United States whether it be within the United States itself or overseas."

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Obama Overrides FBI and DHS on Gitmo Release

A US federal appeals court, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security have all come out against the release of the Chinese Muslim Gitmo detainees due to obvious security concerns. But that does not matter to President Obama as he is more concerned with bringing our enemies here, than he is with protecting us.

Hat tip to the Munz at Munz's Place.

BREAKING: White House Overrides FBI and DHS on Gitmo Release
by Jed Babbin
04/30/2009

Moving quickly to release Chinese Uighur terrorists into the United States, Obama administration officials have -- for the second time -- overridden objections of federal agencies responsible for national security.

The first time -- as I reported on April 20 -- the White House overrode the inter-agency panel it created from all the national security agencies to review all the cases of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. That panel found that the seventeen Uighurs -- members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement captured at an al-Queda training camp in Pakistan -- were too dangerous to release in the United States.

Now -- according to a federal agency source who requested anonymity -- the White House has also overridden opposition to the release from both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Beginning yesterday and continuing today, Obama administration officials are briefing key members of Congress on the release, which may happen as early as next week. There apparently has been no decision on where the Uighurs will be turned loose. Earlier reports suggested they could be released in Alexandria, Virginia or Washington, D.C.

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Obama to Allow Gitmo Terrorists to Walk our Streets

First President Obama pledges up to $20 million dollars to help Hamas loving Gazans resettle in America. Now he is getting ready to release seven Chinese Muslims who are being held at Gitmo onto our streets. Please keep in mind that these Muslims have admitted to attending a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

U.S. plans to accept several Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo
The Uighurs would be the first detainees from the prison to settle in America. Challenges are expected from China and within the U.S.


By Julian E. Barnes
April 24, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration is preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in the first release of any of the detainees into this country, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Their release is seen as a crucial step to plans, announced by President Obama during his first week in office, to close the prison and relocate the detainees. Administration officials also believe that settling some of them in American communities will set an example, helping to persuade other nations to accept Guantanamo detainees too.

But the decision to release the Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, is not final and faces challenges from within the government, as well as likely public opposition. Among government agencies, the Homeland Security Department has registered concerns about the plan.

The move would also incense Chinese officials, who consider the Uighurs domestic terrorists and want those held at Guantanamo handed over for investigation. U.S. officials no longer consider the Chinese Muslims to be enemy combatants and fear they would be mistreated in China.

There are 17 Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) at Guantanamo. A U.S. official familiar with the discussions over their release said that as many as seven could be resettled in the U.S., possibly in two or more small groups.

Officials have not said where in the United States they might live. But many Uighur immigrants from China live in Washington's Virginia suburbs, and advocates have urged that the detainees be resettled near people who speak their language and are familiar with their customs.

The release would mark a dramatic turn in the history of the Guantanamo Bay facility, set up in Cuba by the Bush administration as an offshore prison beyond the reach of American law. Intended to hold alleged terrorists captured during the "war on terror," Guantanamo turned into an international symbol of U.S. overreach. At its peak, it held nearly 800 prisoners; about 250 remain.

The Uighurs are primarily from the northwestern steppes of China in a region officially called the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region but known to Uighurs as Turkestan. Beijing, which controls the area, has been criticized by Washington and others for repressing Uighur religious rights and freedoms.

The Uighurs were sent to Guantanamo in 2002 after being captured in Pakistan. Before that, they had gravitated to Afghanistan, where they received firearms training at a camp apparently run by a Uighur separatist.

Some former U.S. officials have said government information indicates that the Uighurs may pose a danger if released. But other officials and human rights organizations insist they pose no threat to Americans.

"It is kind of hard to tell other countries you would like them to accept some of these guys from Guantanamo if you are not willing to accept them," said the U.S. official, who described the internal discussions on condition of anonymity.

The release is a slap in the face to Beijing, which has requested that the Uighur prisoners be repatriated to China to stand trial for separatist activities. In their testimony before the Guantanamo tribunal, the Uighurs admitted that their purpose in going to Afghanistan was to receive military training to fight Chinese rule over Xinjiang.

"If these people are terrorists, they should be punished. If they are not terrorists, the United States should apologize to China for holding them so long and make compensation," said Zhang Jiadong, an expert in terrorism at Fudan University's Center for American Studies. Zhang said, however, that he did not expect the Chinese government to retaliate because it was already widely anticipated in Beijing that the United States would not return the Uighurs to China.

"The [Chinese] foreign ministry will criticize the decision, but there is nothing they can do about it. We're used to the United States being tough with us," Zhang said.

In captivity, the Uighurs filed suit to win their freedom. A U.S. district court in 2008 ordered their release. The decision, appealed by the Bush administration, was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Lawyers for the Uighurs appealed to the Supreme Court.

U.S. officials did not detail what supervision the Uighurs might receive once they are living on their own. But they said the Uighurs would be allowed to live freely.

In 2006, the U.S. released five Uighurs into Albania. After pressure from Beijing, which also urged other countries with Uighur communities not to accept the released detainees, Albania declined to take any more.

The Uighurs oppose the Chinese government but do not consider the U.S. government a direct enemy. Still, many of the Uighurs hold strict views of what is permitted under Islam.

Within the prison, Uighurs are not considered a grave threat and are allowed greater freedom, such as television privileges, than other detainees.

But the TV privileges underscored potential difficulties to come, according to one current and one former U.S. official. Not long after being granted access to TV, some of the Uighurs were watching a soccer game. When a woman with bare arms was shown on the screen, one of the group grabbed the television and threw it to the ground, according to the officials.

Since then, officials at Guantanamo have bolted down the TVs and shown pre-taped programs, editing out any images they thought Uighurs might find offensive.

U.S. officials said they expected any release of former Guantanamo Bay prisoners into the U.S. to generate opposition among Americans.

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King to Obama:Keep Gitmo Prisoners out of NY

NY Republican Peter King who in the past has said that there are "too many Mosques here", continues to show us that he is one of the few politicians who understands the Islamic threat.

King: Keep terrorism detainees out of NY
As first reported recently in this space by Newsday courts reporter Anthony M. DeStefano, defendants in terrorism cases sent out of Guantanamo could be held instead in detention centers pending trial in NYC. Now potential Senate candidate and Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) says he opposes such a change. Here is an AP dispatch:

April 1, 2009 Associated Press WASHINGTON A New York congressman says Guantanamo prisoners shouldn't be put on trial in New York near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rep. Peter King, the senior Republican on the Homeland Security
Committee, said Wednesday that it would pose an unnecessary security
risk. He's opposed to President Barack Obama's plan to empty the
Guantanamo detention center within a year.

There's been speculation that some of the 240 detainees could be tried
in a federal courthouse blocks from ground zero.

A task force is trying to determine the best option for each Guantanamo
detainee. Because the review is ongoing, a Justice Department spokesman
says the department can't speculate on potential prosecution venues.

Other members of Congress also oppose housing the detainees on their
home turf.

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Obama Criticizes Some Gitmo Release Decisions

Naive Obama who cannot even figure out that talking to the Mullah's of Iran or the Taliban will change nothing, is now pointing fingers at other U.S. officials for releasing prisoners from Gitmo who have returned to being Islamic terrorists.

Obama criticizes some Guantanamo release decisions
By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the U.S. hasn't done a good job sorting out who should be released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

Obama says in a broadcast interview that some of the people released from the facility in Cuba have rejoined terrorist groups. He also says U.S. officials have not always been effective in determining which prisoners will be a danger once they are let go.

But he says the Bush administration's policy of holding detainees for years on end with no trials is "unsustainable,' and has only fueled anti-American sentiments.

In a taped interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," he also disputes former Vice President Dick Cheney's claim that plans to close Guantanamo will make America less safe.

CBS released excerpts Saturday from the interview. The show will air Sunday evening.

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Gitmo Guys:We are Islamic Terrorists!!

This has been quite a day for our naive President Obama. First the Taliban tells him that negotiations are meaningless, because they a have goal that they will not waver from. Now five Guantanomo Bay detainees have told our government that they are hardcore Islamic terrorists and that Islam itself breeds terrorism. Please remember that Obama wants to close Gitmo and bring these people into our country. No thanks Obama, this is strike two of the day.

9/11 defendants: 'We are terrorists to the bone'
By BEN FOX

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks mock U.S. authorities and proclaim themselves "terrorists to the bone" in a war crimes court filing released Tuesday.

The five Guantanamo prisoners use the six-page document to try to justify the killing of nearly 3,000 people, portraying the attack as a response to U.S. actions in Israel, Iraq and elsewhere that is supported by their Muslim faith.

"We fight you over defending Muslims, their land, their holy sites, and their religion as a whole," they write in the document, which was submitted to the Guantanamo war crimes court and released by the Pentagon, in English, over the objections of attorneys for two of the men.

The five had previously said they wanted to plead guilty to the charges against them, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind, had expressed pride in the attacks. But this is their most detailed response yet.
All five were charged with murder and other crimes at the Guantanamo war crimes court, which was suspended by President Barack Obama in January while his administration considers new strategies for prosecuting terrorists.

The charges, which carry a potential death sentence, "are badges of honor, which we carry with pride," they write.

The charge of conspiracy is "laughable," they write, because the planning was intended to be secret.

"Your intelligence apparatus, with all its abilities ... failed to discover our military attack plans before the blessed 11 September operation ... Why then should you blame us, holding us accountable and putting us on trial?"

They criticize the U.S. for fighting "from behind roadblocks, trenches and warplanes" rather than face-to-face and describe Islam as "a religion of fear" for Jews, Christians and pagans.

"We are terrorists to the bone. So, many thanks to God," they write.

Obama has ordered the closure of Guantanamo, so if and when the trials resume, they will be held somewhere else. and most likely under a different legal system than the widely criticized military commissions created by Congress and President George W. Bush.

Three of the men are acting as their own lawyers but two of the men, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, still have Pentagon-appointed military attorneys pending a court ruling on whether they are mentally competent to represent themselves.

Their lawyers, Army Maj. Jon Jackson and Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, said they had not met with their clients to discuss the document and cannot say what may have motivated the men to sign it — or even vouch for its authenticity.

"Based on our review of the unsigned, English and typed document there is no evidence that either Mr. Binalshibh or Mr. al-Hawsawi knew about, read, or signed this document," they said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon called the filing "merely another attempt by these detainees to garner publicity."

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Gitmo:Obama Frees one, UK Opens its Nest

Over the last month I have read on numerous message boards about how Obama will take us down the same leftist road as the Labour Party did with the UK. Unfortunately it appears that these worries are becoming a reality. Obama has freed his first Gitmo prisoner and the UK has agreed to take him in. I am sure that he will make such an upstanding citizen.

Guantanamo detainee freed after 7 years of prison
By PAISLEY DODDS

LONDON – A Guantanamo prisoner who claims he was tortured at a covert CIA site in Morocco returned to Britain a free man Monday after nearly seven years in U.S. captivity — the first inmate from the U.S. prison camp freed since President Barack Obama took office.

Binyam Mohamed flew into a British military base and was expected to be out of custody within hours.

Mohamed's claims of torture, abuse and extraordinary rendition are at the heart of several lawsuits. Lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic are suing for secret documents they say prove the United States sent Mohamed to Morocco and that Britain knew of the mistreatment — a violation under the 1994 U.N. Convention Against Torture.

"I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares," Mohamed said in a statement released by his attorneys.

"Before this ordeal, "torture" was an abstract word to me ... It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways all orchestrated by the United States government."

He said he wasn't yet "physically nor mentally capable of facing the media."

British authorities said he would undergo interviews Monday with the police, border control agents and immigration officials, who would help him apply for temporary residency.

His lawyers said they would provide money for his accommodations and living expenses.

Mohamed's case could have far-reaching legal implications for the Obama administration and Britain, America's closest partner during its war on terror.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected at the Guantanamo detention center Monday as the Obama administration weighs what is needed to shut the facility down.

"The friendship and assistance of the international community is vitally important as we work to close Guantanamo, and we greatly appreciate the efforts of the British government to work with us on the transfer of Binyam Mohammed," Holder said in a statement.

Britain's Attorney General has opened an investigation into whether there was criminal wrongdoing on the part of Britain or a British security agent from MI5 who interrogated Mohamed in Pakistan, where he was arrested in 2002.

Two senior British judges, meanwhile, have reopened a case into whether 42 secret U.S. intelligence documents shared with Britain should be made public.

Several other lawsuits are under way in the United States against a Boeing subsidiary that allegedly supplied planes for rendition flights to Morocco and for the disclosure of Bush-era legal memos on renditions and interrogation tactics.

The United States has refused to account for the 18 months Mohamed says he was in Morocco.

"I am so glad and so happy, more than words can express," Mohamed's sister, Zuhra Mohamed, said Monday.

The 30-year-old Ethiopian refugee has few remaining links to Britain. His brother and sister live in the United States. His parents are said to be back in Ethiopia. And his British residency that he obtained when he was teenager has since expired.

Snip

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain has been asking for the return of former UK residents since 2007.

"We very much welcome President Obama's commitment to close Guantanamo Bay and I see today's return of Binyam Mohamed as the first step toward that shared goal," Miliband said.

Mohamed's family came to London from Ethiopia in 1994. They applied for asylum following the ouster of Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam's ouster but they were only given temporary residency.

Schooled in West London, Mohamed worked as a janitor and later became a student of electrical engineering before converting to Islam in 2001.

Snip

In May of 2008, Mohamed was charged with conspiring with al-Qaida members to murder and commit terrorism. He was also accused in a "dirty bomb" plot to fill U.S. apartments with natural gas and blow them up.

But then in October all charges were dropped — only months after his lawyers filed a lawsuit in Britain for the disclosure of the 42 secret documents.

Two other former British residents remain in Guantanamo: Saudi-born Shaker Aamer, 37, and Algerian Ahmed Belbacha, 39.

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Gitmo Judge To Obama: No!!

It nice to see that not all us are blinded with starry eyes over Obama.

Gitmo Judge Refuses to Heed Obama Request for Delay in Terrorism Trials
January 30, 2009 10:01 AM

On Thursday Army Col. James L. Pohl, the chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court, said he would not heed President Obama's request for a 120-day continuance, or delay, in prosecutions of terrorism suspects.

Supervising the trial of detainee Abd al-Rahim Hussein Mohammed Abdu Al-Nashiri, Pohl called the President's motion unreasonable and unjust.

"We are consulting with the Pentagon and the Department of Justice to explore our options," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters. "I believe that all the other trials were stayed, which I think continues to give us what we need to evaluate who is at Gitmo and make the decisions commensurate with the executive order that the President signed."

Al-Nashiri has been identified as the former Persian Gulf Operations Chief for al Qaeda and the mastermind of the attack on the U.S.S. Cole. In March 2007 he testified in military court that he only confessed to certain crimes because he has been tortured for the past five years.

In his ruling, Pohl wrote that "On its face, the request to delay the arraignment is not reasonable," that "The public interest in a speedy trial will be harmed by the delay in the arraignment," "Granting the continuance do (sic) not serve the interests of justice" and therefore "The government request for a continuance in the arraignment until after 22 May 2009 is DENIED."

Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon said that "the Department of Defense is currently reviewing Judge Pohl's ruling. We will be in compliance with the president's orders regarding Guantanamo."

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Ex-Gitmo Detainee Joins al-Qaeda in Yemen

Just as President Obama announced that he will close Guantanamo Bay and bring the prisoners to the USA. Al-Qaeda has announced that a previously released Gitmo prisoner is now the No. 2 al-Qaeda terrorist in Yemen. I feel so much safer knowing that people like this will be brought into our country. Thanks Obama.

Report: Ex-Gitmo detainee joins al-Qaida in Yemen
The Associated Press Published: January 23, 2009

CAIRO, Egypt: A Saudi man released from Guantanamo after spending nearly six years inside the U.S. prison camp is now the No. 2 of Yemen's al-Qaida branch, according to a purported Internet statement from the terror network.

The announcement, made this week on a Web site commonly used by militants, came as President Barack Obama ordered the detention facility closed within a year. Many of the remaining detainees are from Yemen, which has long posed a vexing terrorism problem for the U.S.

The terror group's Yemen branch — known as "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula" — said the man, identified as Said Ali al-Shihri, returned to his home in Saudi Arabia after his release from Guantanamo about a year ago and from there went to Yemen, which is Osama bin Laden's ancestral home.

The Internet statement, which could not immediately be verified, said al-Shihri was the group's second-in-command in Yemen, and his prisoner number at Guantanamo was 372.

"He managed to leave the land of the two shrines (Saudi Arabia) and join his brothers in al-Qaida," the statement said.

Documents released by the U.S. Defense Department show that al-Shihri was released from the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in November 2007 and transferred to his homeland. The documents confirmed his prisoner number was 372.

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U.S. Court Blocks Judge's Order to Release Chinese Muslim Prisoners

This is a follow up to yesterday's story "U.S. Judge Allows 17 Muslim Prisoners to Roam Free on our Streets". Which can be read here. With a show of common sense the White House and the Justice Department have come out against having them from being released here. The prisoners are pro-Sharia detainees, who have even admitted that they under went weapon training in Afghanistan. I have just one question for the judge who ordered the prisoners to be released in our backyard. What where you thinking? Apparently you were not.

U.S. court blocks judge's order to release Chinese Muslims
Wednesday, October 8, 2008Associated Press


A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judge's order to immediately free 17 Chinese Muslims imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay and allow them to settle in the U.S.

In a one-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued the emergency stay at the request of the Bush administration.

The three-judge panel said it would postpone release of the detainees for at least another week to give the government more time to make arguments in the case.

The appeals court set a deadline of next Thursday for additional filings, but it is up to the judges to decide how quickly to act afterward.

"The decision is quite a blow," said Emi MacLean, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing many of the detainees. "We basically have to go to the men after telling them they would be released and say that their detention is once again indefinite."

"It's hard to believe there is any sense of justice in a situation like that," she said. "We will continue to argue strongly that the judge's order is meritorious and continues to stand."

The three-judge appeals panel that halted the detainees' release included Judges Karen Henderson and A. Raymond Randolph, both appointees of the first President George Bush, and Judge Judith W. Rogers, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton.

Judge's order undercut immigration laws: Justice Department

The appeals court's move comes after U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina on Tuesday made a dramatic decision ordering the government to free the detainees by Friday. Urbina said it would be wrong for the Bush administration to continue holding the detainees, known as Uighurs, since they are no longer considered enemy combatants.

"We are pleased that the Court of Appeals granted our request for a temporary stay, and we look forward to presenting our case," Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said in response to the appeals court decision.

The Bush administration had asked the appeals court to block Urbina's order no later than Wednesday. The detainees were scheduled to arrive in Washington early Friday and appear in Urbina's courtroom for release to local Uighur families who have agreed to help them settle into the United States.

The government says the detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba had admitted receiving weapons training in Afghanistan and were a national security risk.

Earlier Wednesday, lawyers for the detainees urged the appeals court in filings not to interfere with Urbina's decision, which is the first court-ordered release of Guantanamo detainees.

The detainees said they have been cleared of wrongdoing and have waited long enough for their freedom after being held at Guantanamo for nearly seven years.

"The government would prolong by months, and perhaps years, an imprisonment whose legal justification it has conceded away," the detainees' lawyers wrote in court filings.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration said it was continuing "heightened" efforts to find another country to accept the Uighurs since the detainees might be tortured if they are turned over to China.

"There are extensive efforts. We oppose the idea of their release here," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Albania accepted five Uighur detainees in 2006 but has since balked on taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China.

The Justice Department criticized Urbina's decision as undercutting immigration laws that dictate how foreigners should be brought into the country. It also cited security concerns over weapons training the Uighurs received at camps in Afghanistan.

Such a potential security risk outweighs the inconvenience the detainees might suffer in waiting longer at Guantanamo, government lawyers contended.

The Uighur detainees were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001.

China has long said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang. The Beijing government has repeatedly urged the U.S. to turn the Uighurs over to Chinese authorities.

The Uighurs' case is among dozens of Guantanamo cases currently being reviewed by federal judges after the Supreme Court ruled in June that foreign detainees at Guantanamo have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their imprisonment.

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U.S. Judge Allows 17 Muslim Prisoners to Roam Free on our Streets

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina has ordered 17 Chinese Muslims to be freed from Guantanamo Bay and be allowed to take up residence within the USA. This must be some kind of liberal logic. We capture them on the battlefield in another continent and then we allow them to roam free here. This sure sounds like a good deal for them, but not so much for us. Did it ever even cross the judge's mind that they might not be so loyal to our country after being locked up for nearly 7 years? They come from the ethnic group called the Uighurs (WEE'-gurs), who are from the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang. The Uighurs in China are causing the same problems Muslims are causing across the world in non-Islamic countries. They want their own state within China . I am sure that they would not follow that line of thinking here in the U.S. Here is an idea, how about we send them back to where we found them?


Hat tip to Kao the owner of Infidelnation

D.C. Area Families Are Ready to Receive Uighur Detainees

By Steve Hendrix
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 8, 2008; Page A08

When U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina was looking for a place in the United States to send 17 Chinese Muslim detainees he wants released from Guantanamo Bay, the Washington area was an obvious choice. The region is home to the country's largest concentration of refugees from the men's ethnic group, known as Uighurs, and members have promised to help resettle the prisoners.

"Our community said: 'We are here to help. Release them into our custody,' " said Nury Turkel, a Washington aviation lawyer and past president of the Uyghur American Association, a District-based human rights group that uses another spelling of the ethnic group's name. "We have people offering them places to stay, English training, employment. We don't want anyone to think they will be a burden on society."


Urbina has ordered the men, who have been held at Guantanamo for almost seven years and are no longer considered enemy combatants by the United States, released into the care of 17 volunteer Uighur families by Friday. According to one of the detainees' attorneys, the presence of a local community willing to receive the detainees was key in the judge's decision that they be released on U.S. soil.

"The local Uighur presence is critical," said Susan Baker Manning, an attorney for the detainees. "These men are halfway around the world from their home and their families. They've been held in grinding isolation, many of them in solitary confinement for about a year and half. They are going to need some help."

The Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking people and the largest ethnic group of the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang, which Uighurs refer to as East Turkistan. The group has long complained of repression by Chinese authorities.

A few Uighurs settled in the Washington area as students in the 1980s, Turkel said. The number of asylum-seekers picked up in the mid-1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union and amid increasing political pressure in China. Turkel came as a law student to American University in 1995 and was subsequently granted political asylum.

The refugees, who tend to be college educated, are attracted to the nation's capital because they often remain active in the Uighur cause and other human rights issues.

"They tend to be very political," Turkel said. "They will talk to anyone, the cashier at the grocery store: 'I'm from the northwestern part of China that has been occupied by communist China for 50 years. We've suffered just like the Tibetans, but nobody knows about us because we don't have a Dalai Lama.' That's a common daily conversation, and it's a lot easier to have it here than in Lincoln, Nebraska."

Elshat Hassan, 46, of McLean was a professor of chemical engineering for 15 years in China before he fled with help from the United Nations. He was settled in Buffalo but moved to Virginia after only a few months in 2006.

"I wanted to be with other Uighur people," said Hassan, who has volunteered to host one of the released detainees and plans to cook him a polo, a ceremonial dish of lamb, carrots and rice. After working in a Uighur-owned frame shop for six months, Hassan is now an information technology specialist for Booz Allen Hamilton. "I didn't know anyone when I came, but they all helped me. And now I will help him."

Turkel said the local group is close-knit and active, and the court was crowded yesterday with area Uighurs. They gather several times a year, often at a rented hall at George Mason University, for ethnic celebrations. The largest is Nations Day, Nov. 12, a mix of political seminars and a traditional dance party.

If the legal system delivers the detainees to Washington in the next several weeks, next month's gathering promises to be the biggest ever, Turkel said.

"It will be huge," he said. "Having them released into Washington is more than just having some guys released from prison. It sends a big signal to China."

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