Showing posts with label Guantánamo Bay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guantánamo Bay. Show all posts
Friday, February 02, 2018
Guantánamo Bay: Shaker Aamer – BBC News | Full Interview
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Former Gitmo Detainee Returns to Battlefield
Saturday, June 06, 2015
Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee Weds Muslim Convert in Uruguay
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| Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi with his wife Samira (formerly Roma), a Uruguayan who converted to Islam four months ago. |
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi looked out his apartment window Friday and smiled as he showed off his wedding ring to a handful of cheering onlookers below.
The 50-year-old Tunisian married Roma Blanco, a 24-year-old Uruguayan who converted to Islam. The union was the first of two weddings being organized by men resettled in the South American country.
“Adel is humble, respectful, nice and very gentlemanly,” Blanco said. “He is everything that a woman can expect from a man.”
Blanco added she liked her husband’s sincerity, and how he treated her 5-year-old son from a previous relationship.
She said she converted to Islam four months ago and planned to take the name Samira. She and El Ouerghi met a month ago at a mosque. Blanco wore a light purple scarf and a violet jacket with gold-colored lacing. She also had henna designs on her hands, customary for Muslim women for the marriage ceremony. » | Associated Press | Friday, June 05, 2015
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Report: Gitmo Prisoners Join Forces with ISIS
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Indefinite Suffering: GITMO Guards Told 'Not to Treat Prisoners as Humans’
Friday, May 31, 2013
Death threats are just another part of life for Terry Holdbrooks Jr.
The ex-U.S. Army employee converted to Islam in 2003, inspired by the faith of the Guantanamo detainees he was charged with watching. Since then, he says he has lost his friends, received violent threats, and been labeled a “race traitor” online.
But he hasn’t gone quietly. The 29-year-old has done his fair share of media and has even signed on for a job as a speaker for the Muslim Legal Fund of America. Now the devout Muslim is racking up frequent flyer miles and touring the country with what he calls the “truth about Gitmo.”
“Gitmo was supposed to be a cushy deployment since we were just going to babysit detainees,” Holdbrooks said. “But it changed me.”
The Phoenix, Ariz., resident spent the year between 2003 and 2004 guarding U.S. military prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was often given the job of escorting detainees to interrogation rooms. He says he witnessed atrocities committed by his fellow American soldiers that he never thought were possible. (+ video) » | Carol Kuruvilla | New York Daily News | Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Monday, April 25, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: At least 35 terrorists incarcerated at Guantánamo Bay were sent to fight against the West after being indoctrinated by extremist preachers in Britain, secret files obtained by The Daily Telegraph disclose.Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza, two preachers who lived off state benefits after claiming asylum, are identified by the American authorities as the key recruiters responsible for sending dozens of extremists from throughout the world to Pakistan and Afghanistan via London mosques.
The leaked documents, written by senior US military commanders at Guantánamo Bay, illustrate how, for two decades, Britain effectively became a crucible of terrorism, with dozens of extremists, home-grown and from abroad, radicalised here.
Finsbury Park mosque, in north London, is described as a “haven” for extremists. United States intelligence officials concluded the mosque served as “an attack planning and propaganda production base”.
The files will raise questions over why the Government and security services failed to take action sooner to tackle the capital’s reputation as a staging post for terrorism, which became so established that the city was termed “Londonistan”.
The documents show that at least 35 detainees at Guantánamo had passed through Britain before being sent to fight against Allied forces in Afghanistan. This is thought to be more than from any other Western nation. » | Robert Winnett, Christopher Hope, Steven Swinford and Holly Watt | Monday, April 25, 2011
Sami al-Hajj was working as an Al Jazeera cameraman when he was arrested in late 2001 and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
One file in the newly released trove of leaked US military documents shows that al-Hajj, held at Guantanamo for six years, was detained partly in order to be interrogated about the news network.
He speaks to Al Jazeera's Nick Clark about the documents.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose.
Al-Qaeda terrorists have threatened to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” on the West if Osama Bin Laden is caught or assassinated, according to documents to be released by the WikiLeaks website, which contain details the interrogations of more than 700 Guantanamo detainees.
However, the shocking human cost of obtaining this intelligence is also exposed with dozens of innocent people sent to Guantanamo – and hundreds of low-level foot-soldiers being held for years and probably tortured before being assessed as of little significance.
The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America’s own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world’s most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
The disclosures are set to spark intense debate around the world about the establishment of Guantanamo Bay in the months after 9/11 – which has enabled the US to collect vital intelligence from senior Al Qaeda commanders but sparked fury in the middle east and Europe over the treatment of detainees. » | Christopher Hope, Robert Winnett, Holly Watt and Heidi Blake | Monday, April 25, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Guantánamo files lift lid on world's most controversial prison » | David Leigh, James Ball, Ian Cobain and Jason Burke | Monday, April 25, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: What are the Guantánamo Bay files? Understanding the prisoner dossiers: David Leigh, the Guardian's investigations editor, explains the files and how in key cases they expose official lies » | David Leigh | Monday, April 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia says it will not give up a controversial rehabilitation programme for Islamist radicals heavily criticised in the US after former inmates set up an al-Qaeda cell in neighbouring Yemen.
One former Guantanamo Bay inmate who went through the programme, which features "positive thinking" classes, art therapy and video games, is now deputy leader of Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, the cell behind the Christmas Day "underwear bombing" in an airliner over Detroit.
Four others from the same group of Guantanamo inmates handed over to the Saudis in November 2007 are among more than a dozen inmates who have returned to terrorism, including one who was shot dead while wearing a suicide vest under a burka last year.
But senior officials including an Interior Ministry general and the cleric and psychologists responsible for overseeing the programme's "religious re-indoctrination" courses told The Daily Telegraph it had been an overall success.
"We are confident in our system," said General Mansur al-Turki. "Part of that is the rehabilitation programme, and when we say that we are considering one thing - the results we are getting. We are not giving up because a few people decided to go back and share al-Qaeda activities." >>> Richard Spencer in Riyadh | Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Friday, November 13, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Five Guantanamo Bay detainees alleged to have masterminded the September 11 attacks are to be taken to the United States to stand trial in a civilian court in New York, an Obama Administration official said today.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices will be brought on to US soil for trial as part of President Obama’s pledge to close down the detention centre in Cuba.
The Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to officially announce the decision today.
Mr Obama initially planned to close Guantanamo by January 22 next year but the Administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.
The high profile trial will be an enormous legal and political test for Mr Obama’s approach to terrorism. If the case suffers legal setbacks the administration will face criticism from those who believe that it should have been held in a military court The case is also likely to force the federal court system to confront a host of controversial legal issues surrounding the President Bush-era counter terrorism programmes that started after the 2001 attacks. >>> Nico Hines | Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: A high-level transatlantic row has broken out over the Obama administration's failure to consult Britain over the transfer of four Guantánamo Bay inmates to Bermuda.
David Miliband has telephoned Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, to express the government's disappointment at the deal.
British officials were informed the four Chinese Uighurs were heading to the United Kingdom's oldest dependency only as they boarded their plane for Bermuda on Wednesday night.
A British diplomat said: "The Foreign Secretary registered his surprise. It was a regrettable mistake. Bermuda, the UK and the US now need to work together to fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again."
A senior State Department official said this diplomatic understatement masked a real anger over the Obama administration's oversight among British officials, telling ABC News: "They're pissed". >>> By Toby Harnden in Washington | Friday, June 12, 2009
THE INDEPENDENT: 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 US government determined last year that the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, were not enemy combatants and should be released from the US military prison in Cuba. China has objected to their resettlement, calling the men "terrorist suspects" and demanding they be sent home.
The US 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. >>> Associated Press | Friday, June 12, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
TIMESONLINE: President Obama’s high-profile pledge to shut Guantánamo Bay was stalled by his own party last night when Senate Democrats said they would not pay for the closure until they knew where the detainees were going to be sent.
The blow is the latest set-back for the Obama Administration, which has already disappointed some supporters by announcing that the controversial military tribunals for detainees, set up by President Bush but halted by Mr Obama on taking office, will be re-started.
Senators said they would deny the request for $80 million to move the 240 detainees from the US military base in Cuba. They also promised to prevent the Administration from transferring any of the facility’s prisoners to the US, although an outright ban could be relaxed in subsequent legislation.
Harry Reid, the Democrat Majority Leader, insisted that none of Guantánamo’s detainees should be sent to the US to stand trial or serve prison sentences.
“We don’t want them around,” he said. “I can’t make it any more clear. . . We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States.”
The Senate block, echoing a similar move by the House of Representatives, threatens to paralyse the Obama Administration’s key pledge to shut down the military camp by January. Congress's attitude may force the detention facility to remain in operation indefinitely. >>> Nico Hines | Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has disclosed the controversial CIA interrogation techniques of the Bush administration, including the threat of stinging insects, simulated drowning and depriving prisoners of sleep for up to 180 hours.
The US government released four memos written by the Justice Department in 2002 and 2005 to provide legal cover for methods that have been widely criticised as torture and which the new president has already disowned.
They exposed in graphic detail how 28 al-Qaeda suspects were questioned at CIA secret prisons, revealing the use of forced nudity, facial and abdominal slaps and the use of confined space and "stress positions".
They considered locking suspects in a box with an insect which they claimed was a stinging insect. >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Thursday, April 16, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
THE INDEPENDENT: A "relaxing, calm, beautiful place" may not be everyone's description of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States holds about 240 prisoners in a detention centre that has drawn condemnation from around the world.
But this was the opinion of reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, who visited the US naval facility in eastern Cuba this month on a trip organised by the United Service Organisations (USO) which supports US troops.
The Guantanamo Bay base, whose presence Cuba's government has contested as illegal for years, is used by US authorities as a prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects. Critics have condemned it as a symbol of abuses in Washington's war on terrorism launched after the 11 September, 2001 attacks.
Caracas-born Mendoza, 22, who visited the facility between 20-25 March along with Miss USA Crystle Stewart, 27, enthused about her Guantanamo trip as an "incredible experience" in a blog entry posted on the Miss Universe website dated 27 March 27, 2009 (www.missuniverse.com/missuniverse/blog.php).
"It was a loooot of fun!," Mendoza wrote, describing how she and Stewart met US military personnel and took rides around the camp, which is encircled by a barbed-wire fenced, minefields and watchtowers. She said they also visited a bar on the base and the "unbelievable" beach there. >>> Reuters | Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
POLITICO: Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.
In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.
And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans — and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team — understand.
“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.
Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.” >>> By John F Harris & Mike Allen & Jim Vandehei | Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
BBC: Saudi Arabia has issued a list of 83 wanted militants living overseas, calling on them to return to their home country and resume normal life.
All the suspects are Saudis, except for two men from neighbouring Yemen.
The kingdom has put many militants returning from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay or from Iraq through rehabilitation programmes.
But officials have acknowledged recently that some of these have rejoined armed groups.
Last month al-Qaeda's wing in neighbouring Yemen named two Saudis released from Guantanamo as commanders. >>> | Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
Sunday, February 01, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: The highly controversial anti-terror practice of rendition will continue under Barack Obama, it has emerged.
Despite ordering the closure of Guantanamo and an end to harsh interrogation techniques, the new president has failed to call an end to secret abductions and questioning.
In his first few days in office, Mr Obama was lauded for rejecting policies of the George W Bush era, but it has emerged the CIA still has the authority to carry out renditions in which suspects are picked up and often sent to a third country for questioning.
The practice caused outrage at the EU, after it was revealed the CIA had used secret prisons in Romania and Poland and airports such as Prestwick in Scotland to conduct up to 1,200 rendition flights. The European Parliament called renditions "an illegal instrument used by the United States".
According to a detailed reading of the executive orders signed by Mr Obama on Jan 22, renditions have not been outlawed, with the new administration deciding it needs to retain some devices in Mr Bush's anti-terror arsenal amid continued threats to US national security.
"Obviously you need to preserve some tools – you still have to go after the bad guys," an administration official told the Los Angeles Times.
"The legal advisers working on this looked at rendition. It is controversial in some circles and kicked up a big storm in Europe. But if done within certain parameters, it is an acceptable practice." >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Sunday, February 1, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
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