The ‘Blessed One’ Has His Request Refused by US Judge
BBC: A military judge at the Guanatanamo Bay detention facility has rejected a request by US President Barack Obama to suspend the trial of a detainee.

Correspondents say this could be a setback to Mr Obama's plans to close the facility.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi citizen, is accused of planning the USS Cole attack of October 2000.

The White House said it was consulting the Pentagon and justice department about its possible options.

Judge James Pohl said the request to halt the trial to allow a review by the new administration was "unpersuasive".

The trial of Mr Nashiri will go ahead, he ruled[.] >>> | Thursday, January 29, 2009

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Freed Guantánamo Prisoners Taunt US as Closure Plan Falls Apart
Photo of freed Guantánamo prisoners courtesy of The Times
TIMES ONLINE: President Obama's plan to close Guantánamo Bay within a year appeared to be unravelling yesterday with the emergence of former inmates on terrorist websites, fierce opposition in the US and a lukewarm response to taking detainees from the European Union.

After signing an executive order last week to close the US military prison, Mr Obama has been confronted with myriad obstacles that are making his ambitious pledge look unrealistic.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, ruled out the prospect of Britain taking any more inmates, claiming that it had already made a significant contribution.

His announcement, at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, came as Saudi Arabia announced yesterday that it had rearrested nine Islamist militants, including former Guantánamo inmates released to the Kingdom who had undergone a re-education programme in Riyadh.

Two other former detainees sent home to Saudi Arabia from the prison in November 2007 re-emerged over the weekend on a jihadist website, railing against Britain, the US and Israel and identifying themselves by their Guantánamo detainee numbers. One of the men who appeared on video was Said Ali al-Shihri, now the deputy leader of al-Qaeda's Yemeni branch. He is suspected of involvement in a bombing at the US Embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in September, which killed 16. “By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for, and were imprisoned for,” al-Shihri said on the video. The other former inmate has been identified as Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi, who is seen clutching an automatic rifle and a grenade. >>> Tim Reid in Washington and David Charter in Brussels | Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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’Yurp’ Says auf Wiedersehen to Dubya: ‘Bush Damaged America’s Image Around the World’
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: German politicians from both the ruling coalition and the opposition are taking aim at outgoing US President George W. Bush ahead of his week-long farewell trip to Europe. The Iraq war, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib have damaged America's reputation, they say.

Visits by US presidents to Germany are usually surrounded by an air of history. But the program for George W. Bush's visit on Tuesday and Wednesday reads as if he's already left office. There won't be any grand speeches or symbolic gestures at historic sites.

Instead he's being put up in an official residence in Brandenburg, about 70 kilometers north of the German capital. It's a clear sign that Bush is the lame duck of US politics in the remaining months of his deeply controversial eight-year presidency.

By inviting Bush to Schloss Meseberg palace, the official guest house of the German government, Merkel is officially returning the US president's invitation to his ranch in Crawford, Texas (more...) last November. It's a friendly gesture, but not an especially personal one. "She succeeds in playing this game between closeness and distance," Alexander Skiba, expert for trans-Atlantic relations at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), told the news agency AFP.

But senior politicians from Merkel's ruling grand coalition as well as from opposition parties have done away with diplomatic niceties, seizing on Bush's farewell visit to express their aversion to the president who remains vilified in Germany for launching the Iraq war. ’Yurp’ Says auf Wiedersehen to Dubya: ‘Bush Damaged America’s Image Around the World’ >>> June 9, 2008

BBC:
Bush, the Destroyer of the US Economy, Eyes the Economy on Trip to Europe: He talks about the need for a strong dollar; yet he has done everything in his power to weaken it. Funny that! >>> | June 9, 2008

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
The Faltering George Bush spoke of the work to be done in Afghanistan, ahead of his trip to Europe >>>

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