Follow cases in Guantanamo Bay and discuss how the military is using a culture of fear and ambiguity to hold prisoners with dramatically reduced prisoner rights.
A Somali just home from eight years in the US jail at Guantanamo Bay told AFP the prison was "hell on Earth", and alleged torture there had scarred some of his fellow inmates. Mohamed Saleban Bare, who arrived in his hometown of Hargeisa on Saturday, said he was innocent of any charges that would have caused security forces to arrest him in Pakistan in 2001 and transfer him to the US jail via Afghanistan. "Guantanamo Bay is like hell on Earth," he said in an interview Monday with an AFP... Read Full Story
Foes and proponents of a plan to bring alleged terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Illinois are converging on a high school auditorium for the state's first public hearing on the issue. Both sides plan rallies before the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability convenes the hearing Tuesday in the small northwest Illinois community of Sterling. Some 50 people are scheduled to testify before the state legislative panel about Gov. Pat Quinn's push to sell the Thomson... Read Full Story
Photo/White House photographer Pete Souza
Last Tuesday, in a letter to Illinois governor Pat Quinn, five senior Obama administration officials — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano — announced that “the President has directed, with our unanimous support, that the Federal Government proceed with the acquisition... Read Full Story
The Obama administration announced Tuesday it wants to buy the Thomson Correctional Center, 50 miles northeast of Davenport, Iowa, and move 1,600 to 2,000 federal prisoners there, along with a “limited number” of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Newscom
As Deadline Approaches, Obama Speeds Up Guantánamo Bay Closure — Christian Science Monitor
The Obama administration’s announcement Sunday that 12 Guantánamo detainees would be sent to other countries followed news that some... Read Full Story
The U.S. has transferred a dozen Guantanamo detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region as the Obama administration continues to move captives out of the facility in Cuba in preparation for its closure. The Justice Department said Sunday that a government task force had reviewed each case. Officials considered the potential threat and the government's likelihood of success in court challenges to the detentions. Over the weekend, four Afghan detainees were transferred to their... Read Full Story
A Somali just home from eight years in the US jail at Guantanamo Bay told AFP Monday the prison was "hell on Earth", and alleged torture there had scarred some of his fellow inmates. Mohamed Saleban Bare, who arrived in his hometown of Hargeisa on Saturday, said he was innocent of any charges that would have caused security forces to arrest him in Pakistan in 2001 and transfer him to the US jail via Afghanistan. "Guantanamo Bay is like hell on Earth," he told AFP in the town, capital of the... Read Full Story
The United States has transferred 12 detainees from its "war on terror" prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to locations in Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region, the US Department of Justice said Sunday. Six Yemenis, four Afghans and two Somali detainees were sent to their homelands over the weekend, the DOJ said in a statement. "These transfers were carried out under individual arrangements between the United States and relevant foreign authorities to ensure the transfers took place... Read Full Story
The debate over bringing detainees from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to western Illinois will re-ignite later today. State lawmakers are scheduled to hold a public hearing this afternoon over whether to accept up to 100 terrorism suspects at a state prison in Thomson, about a two-and-a-half hours drive west of Chicago along the Mississippi River. The Obama administration wants to move forward in buying the prison from the state of Illinois for use as a facility operated by the Department of... Read Full Story
Twelve more detainees from the US prison camp at Guantanamo have been sent home to Afghanistan, Yemen and the breakaway state of Somaliland, the US Department of Justice said Sunday. The transfers bring the total number of detainees at the "war on terror" prison to below 200 just days after the US government arranged for more inmates to be moved to a maximum-security prison in the northern state of Illinois. Six Yemenis, four Afghans and two Somali detainees were sent to their homelands over... Read Full Story
State-run and private television stations say a third Tunisian detainee from Guantanamo Bay is being moved to Italy to face international terrorism charges for having allegedly recruited fighters for Afghanistan. Private TG5 identified the man as 40-year-old Moez Ben Abdelkader Fezzani, also known as Abou Nassim, and said he was expected to land Sunday night at Milan's Malpensa airport. A prosecutor confirmed the name on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the... Read Full Story
