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Showing posts with label Guantánamo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guantánamo. Show all posts
Monday, July 04, 2016
The Former Guantánamo Detainees Trapped in Paradise and Wanted by the Chinese
WIKI: Palau »
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Prisoner Exchange an Impeachable Offense for Obama?
Sunday, May 15, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A campaign group for Muslim prisoners, partnered by Amnesty International, has published a mock execution of President Obama.CagePrisoners, run by Moazzam Begg, the former Guantánamo detainee, published a fake picture of Mr Obama with head wounds and headlined it: "Breaking news: Barack Obama is dead."
The article underneath, which has been duplicated on Muslim forums across the internet, described the US president as a war criminal and claimed he had been killed by Pakistani security forces at a compound near Camberley, Surrey, not far from Sandhurst. Mr Obama's wife Michelle was also said to have been killed when she was used as "a shield".
"Obama was cremated at the stake after a Christian funeral on board an aircraft carrier," the article said, mocking the Muslim funeral given to Osama bin Laden.
The article, by Fahad Ansari, criticised Mr Obama for the campaign of drone attacks against al-Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan and claimed Pakistan believed his killing was "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat the CIA". » | Duncan Gardham | Friday, May 13, 2011
Sunday, April 11, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: George W Bush knew that hundreds of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay were innocent - but covered the fact up for political reasons, a top former aide has told a U.S. court.
Retired Army Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, testified that officials 'knew that they had seized and were holding innocent men at Guantanamo Bay'.
'I discussed the issue of the Guantánamo detainees with Secretary Powell,' he said. 'I learnt that it was his view that it was not just Vice-President [Dick] Cheney and [Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld, but also President Bush who was involved in all of the Guantánamo decision making.'
'They simply refused to release them out of fear of political repercussions,' he continued.
Colonel Wilkerson heaped most of his criticism on the heads of of Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Cheney, saying they knew that the majority of the 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were not guilty of any crimes. >>> Mail Foreign Service | Saturday, April 10, 2010
Monday, February 01, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Just two years ago al-Qaeda was believed to be on the back foot. Now the jihadist group is attracting ever more recruits across a growing arc of terror.
Bored, depressed and stuck in a dead-end job, Khaled al-Bawardi. spent just a few hours watching jihadi videos to convince himself that he wanted to fight for militant Islam.
It took another six years in Guantanamo Bay, plus a year in religious rehab in Saudi Arabia, to realise there might be better career options.
“When I was young, I thought these people were angels and we had to follow them,” said Mr Bawardi, formerly Inmate 68 at Guantanamo and one of hundreds of Saudi al Qaeda suspects arrested after the US invasion of Afghanistan. “Now, though, I can see between right and wrong.”
Quietly-spoken, and dressed in a traditional Arab robe and keffiya, Mr Bawardi is an alumnus of the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care outside Riyadh, where for the last two years, batches of former Guantanamo inmates have undergone religious “deprogramming” in exchange for their liberty.
With its swimming pool, games rooms and therapy courses such as “10 Steps Toward Positive Thinking”, it resembles a jihadist’s version of London’s Priory clinic. Yet like any rehab programme, it also has its recidivists - and Batch 10, to which Mr Bawardi belonged, is a case in point.
The tenth group of Saudis to be flown back from Guantanamo Bay, no less than five of the original 14 who passed through the programme absconded to neighbouring Yemen to re-embrace terrorism. To the embarrassment of their mentors, and the dismay of Washington, one Batch 10 member, Said al-Shihri, has since re-surfaced as no less than deputy leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the movement’s new Yemen-based branch. The group opened up the latest frontier in the war on terror last month, when it claimed to have groomed the so-called Detroit “Underpants Bomber”, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Such “relapses” show how, more than eight years since 9-11, al-Qaeda has confounded its doomsayers with both its resilience and its ever-spreading presence. >>> Reporting team: Richard Spencer in Riyadh, Adrian Blomfield in Sana'a, Mike Pflanz in Nairobi, Ben Farmer in Kabul, Colin Freeman in London, and Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent | Sunday, January 31, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: At least a dozen former Guantánamo Bay inmates have rejoined al-Qaeda to fight in Yemen, The Times has learnt, amid growing concern over the ability of the country’s Government to accept almost 100 more former inmates from the detention centre.
The Obama Administration promised to close the Guantánamo facility by January 22, a deadline that it will be unable to meet. The 91 Yemeni prisoners in Guantánamo make up the largest national contingent among the 198 being held.
Six prisoners were returned to Yemen last month. After the Christmas Day bomb plot in Detroit, US officials are increasingly concerned that the country is becoming a hot-bed of terrorism. Eleven of the former inmates known to have rejoined al-Qaeda in Yemen were born in Saudi Arabia. The organisation merged its Saudi and Yemeni offshoots last year.
The country’s mountainous terrain, poverty and lawless tribal society make it, in the opinion of many analysts, a close match for Afghanistan as a new terrorist haven. >>> Tom Coghlan | Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
NZZ ONLINE: Die Schweiz nimmt aus humanitären Gründen einen Guantánamo-Häftling auf. Dies hat der Bundesrat am Mittwoch entschieden. Beim ehemaligen Häftling handelt es sich um einen Usbeken, der keine Gefahr für die öffentliche Sicherheit darstellen soll. Er wird im Kanton Genf leben.
Der Bundesrat wolle mit dem Entscheid zur Lösung des Problems beitragen, teilte das Justiz- und Polizeidepartement mit. Der Entscheid zur Aufnahme des Usbeken stütze sich auf intensive Abklärungen, heisst es weiter. Die gegen ihn erhobenen Anschuldigungen der Verbindung zu terroristischen Kreisen hätten sich nicht erhärten lassen. Bereits im Jahr 2005 sei er von den USA «zur Freilassung freigegeben» worden. Bereitschaft zur Integration >>> sda/ap | Mittwoch, 16. Dezember 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: A Saudi woman is seeking a divorce after she found out that her husband had nicknamed her 'Guantanamo' on his mobile phone.
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. >>> | Monday, October 19, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Newly-released pictures of the alleged mastermind of 9/11 are being used by terrorist groups to inspire attacks against the United States, American experts say.
The photographs of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, taken in July by Red Cross visitors to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, show Mohammed sitting wearing a white robe, a red-patterned headdress and a long salt-and-pepper beard.
They are the first known images of Mohammed since a widely-distributed shot taken upon his capture in Pakistan in March 2003 showing him in a stretched white T-shirt, with dishevelled hair and a moustache. Since then, only courtroom sketches from his war crimes trial have been available.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which photographs Guantanamo prisoners as part of its mission to monitor their treatment, confirmed that it took the images and sent them to Mohammed's family.
Bernard Barrett, an ICRC spokesman, said that the photos were given only to the family and were not intended for public release, but the organisation does not impose conditions on detainee families.
The military began to allow the Red Cross to photograph Guantanamo detainees in February and the group has taken pictures of 107 inmates. Detainees are allowed to select two shots and the ICRC sends five prints to their families, along with personal messages.
Mohammed’s photos began appearing in recent days on internet sites that have previously been used by al-Qaeda and its sympathisers to communicate with each other, said Jarret Brachman, the former research director at the Combating Terrorism Centre of the US Military Academy at West Point.
Mr Brachman, now an independent terrorism researcher based in Fargo, North Dakota, said he fears the photos could breed sympathy for a man who has proudly proclaimed his role in the September 11 attacks, as well as other incidents of terrorism, while also alleging he has been tortured by the US.
“What’s problematic for me is it really humanises the guy,” Mr Brachman said. “I understand the value of these photos for family members, but at the same time this is the guy who planned 9-11.” >>> Times Online | Thursday, September 10, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The Queen is skipping today’s celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Britain’s oldest colony after a row with the island’s pro-independence leader.
Bermuda is commemorating the shipwreck on July 28, 1609, of the Sea Venture, the flagship of a fleet sent to resupply the Jamestown colony in America.
Sailors, including the crew of the visiting Royal Navy destroyer HMS Manchester, will re-enact the 150 settlers rowing ashore on what is now St Catherine’s Beach to start four centuries of continuous settlement of the mid-Atlantic island.
Neither Queen Elizabeth II, the island’s sovereign, nor Ewart Brown, the elected pro-independence Premier, however, will be present for the celebrations.
The Queen was invited and had been considering a visit but decided to skip the festivities after Britain clashed with the island’s elected Government in June over its decision to resettle four former Guantánamo Bay prisoners without asking Britain’s permission.
The four Muslim ethnic Uighurs from China have been transferred to guest-worker housing and are learning English with a tutor. They are trying to get jobs but are all currently recovering from a bout of flu.
A Palace source said that the Queen had no immediate plans to visit Bermuda. >>> James Bone in New York | Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: THE Foreign Office is threatening to cancel a state visit by the Queen to Bermuda after a row with the island over its “unacceptable” decision to give sanctuary to four former inmates of Guantanamo Bay.
The boycott is being considered after Bermuda infuriated David Miliband, the foreign secretary, by allowing the four men, all Chinese Muslim Uighurs, to stay on what is an overseas British territory.
The move followed a secret deal struck between Washington and the Bermudans. It was carried out without consulting Britain or the island’s governor.
Miliband protested to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, about the pact. He told her the move was “invalid” because it breached Bermuda’s constitution, under which the UK has control over the island’s foreign and security policy.
The Uighurs are Muslim separatists from Xinjiang province. They had fled to Afghanistan in 2001 to escape Chinese oppression and were detained after they went to Pakistan.
Their arrival in Bermuda last month sparked an angry response from Sir Richard Gozney, the island’s governor. He summoned Ewart Brown, the Bermudan prime minister, for a dressing down. >>> David Leppard | Sunday, July 19, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The British Government responded with ill-disguised fury tonight to the news that four Chinese Uighurs freed from Guantanamo Bay had been flown for resettlement on the Atlantic tourist paradise of Bermuda.
The four arrived on Bermuda in the early hours, celebrating the end of seven years of detention after learning that they were to be accepted as guest workers.
But it appears that the Government of Bermuda failed to consult with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the decision to take in the Uighurs – whose return is demanded by Beijing – and it could now be forced to send them back to Cuba or risk a grave diplomatic crisis.
Bermuda, Britain's oldest remaining dependency, is one of 14 overseas territories that come under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom, which retains direct responsibility for such matters as foreign policy and security.
"We've underlined to the Bermuda Government that they should have consulted with the United Kingdom as to whether this falls within their competence or is a security issue, for which the Bermuda Government do not have delegated responsibility," an FCO spokesman said. >>> Philippe Naughton | Thursday, June 11, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
WELT ONLINE: Im Umgang mit dem Gefangenenlager Guantánamo hat der US-Präsident keine glückliche Hand. Eigentlich will er das Gefängnis schnell schließen. Doch dafür verweigert ihm der Senat das Geld. Zudem zeigt eine Studie des Verteidigungsministeriums, dass viele Guantánamo-Insassen nach ihrer Entlassung rückfällig werden.
Gute Nachrichten für Barack Obama sind rar in diesen Tagen. Ein großes Problem ist für den US-Präsidenten das Gefangenenlager Guantánamo auf Kuba. Schon vor Monaten verkündete er, Guantánamo werde bald geschlossen. Doch auf dem Weg zu diesem Ziel jagt ein Hindernis das andere.
Zum Beispiel ist da dieser Bericht aus dem US-Verteidigungsministerium. Es geht um die Rückfallquote der bislang 534 Personen, die aus dem Gefangenenlager entlassen worden sind. 74 von ihnen haben erneut dem Terror verschrieben oder sind militant aktiv – eine Quote von 14 Prozent. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt laut „New York Times“ der bislang unveröffentlichte Report des Verteidigungsministeriums.
Wie die Zeitung unter Berufung auf Regierungskreise berichtete, wird der Bericht mit Rücksicht auf die Pläne von US-Präsident Barack Obama, Guantánamo bis Januar nächsten Jahres zu schließen, zurückgehalten.
Die neuen Zahlen dürften Kritiker des Präsidenten stärken, die vor einer Freilassung weiterer Terrorverdächtiger warnen. Solche Bedenken hat auch der US-Senat: Die Kammer verweigerte Obama am Mittwoch die beantragten Mittel zur Schließung des Gefangenenlagers. >>> dpa/AFP/Reuters/cn | Donnerstag, 21 Mai 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
TAGES ANZEIGER: Wegen der Anschläge in New York droht fünf Männern, die in Guantánamo inhaftiert sind, die Todesstrafe. In einem heute veröffentlichten Dokument bekennen sie sich mit Stolz zu den Terroranschlägen.
Der mutmassliche Drahtzieher der Anschläge vom 11. September 2001, Chalid Scheich Mohammed, und vier weitere Angeklagte haben ein umfassendes Geständnis abgelegt. Im Dokument, das die Zeitung «New York Times» jetzt veröffentlicht hat, bezeichnen sie die Anschläge gegen das World Trade Center (WTC) in New York als «Opfergabe an Gott». Die Anschuldigungen gegen sie betrachten die Männer als Abzeichen der Ehre. Das Dokument trägt den Titel «Die islamische Antwort auf die neun Anschuldigungen der Regierung». Gemäss dem Zeitungsbericht wird die US-Justiz das Dokument möglicherweise heute Dienstag veröffentlichen. >>> vin | Dienstag, 10. März 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch und Gebundene Ausgabe) – Versandkostenfrei innerhalb der Schweiz >>>
Thursday, January 22, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has made a dramatic departure from the Bush era by announcing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, a ban on harsh interrogation techniques and the end of CIA prisons.
Mr Obama said America would now be "willing to observe core standards of conduct not just when it's easy, but also when it's hard".
He said: "We think that it is precisely our ideals that give us the strength and the moral high ground to be able to effectively deal with the unthinking violence that we see emanating from terrorist organisations around the world.
But he added that he didn't want to have to make a "false choice" between successfully waging war against terrorist organisations and abiding by human rights considerations. "We intend to win this fight. We're going to win it on our terms." >>> By Toby Harnden in Washington | Wednesday, January 22, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
NZZ Online: Der amerikanische Präsident Barack Obama will das Gefangenenlager Guantánamo auf Kuba innerhalb eines Jahres schliessen. Noch heute soll die Anordnung unterzeichnet werden. Gleichzeitig will der neue Präsident die als Folter kritisierten Verhörpraktiken untersagen. >>> ap | Donnerstag, 22. Januar 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch und Gebundene Ausgabe) – Versandkostenfrei innerhalb der Schweiz >>>
Sunday, December 21, 2008
BBC: An Australian former inmate of the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay is now a free man after Australian police lifted strict controls on his actions.
David Hicks spent more than five years at Guantanamo Bay without a trial before admitting to charges of providing material support to al-Qaeda.
In return, he was allowed in May 2007 to serve out the last nine months of his sentence in an Australian prison.
Hicks, a convert to Islam, was captured by US troops in Afghanistan in 2001.
The former kangaroo wrangler was the first "enemy combatant" held at Guantanamo to be convicted by a US military commission. >>> | Sunday, December 21, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Australia) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Australia) >>>
Monday, June 11, 2007
NZZ: Früherer US-Aussenminister für Aufgabe des Gefangenenlagers auf Kuba
Der ehemalige amerikanische Aussenminister Colin Powell hat sich im amerikanischen Fernsehsender NBC für die Schliessung des Gefangenenlagers in Guantánamo Bay ausgesprochen. Powell fordert Schliessung von Guantánamo (more)
Mark Alexander
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