The Obama administration has released five Guantanamo Bay prisoners after an administration task force determined they no longer posed a threat.
The Department of Defense announced Thursday that three of the men were sent to Georgia and two to Slovakia for resettlement. The Pentagon identified the three now former prisoners resettled in Georgia as Abdel Ghaib Ahmad Hakim, Salah Mohammed Salih Al-Dhabi and Abdul Khaled Al-Baydani. The two sent to Slovakia were Hashim Bin Ali Bin Amor Sliti and Husayn Salim Muhammad Al-Mutari Yafai.
Hakim was the first prisoner from Yemen to be released since 2010. Yemenis make up the majority of men cleared for release because the U.S. is reluctant to send prisoners to the unstable country.
The group was among dozens of low-level prisoners at Guantanamo who were determined to no longer pose a threat by an administration task force in 2009.
Their release brings the total prison population to 143, about 100 fewer than when President Barack Obama took office pledging to close the detention center.
A U.S. military lawyer for a Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee described as an al-Qaida commander said on Monday he may be classified as a soldier under international war rules – and therefore exempt from prosecution – so charges against him should be dropped.
Marine Lt. Col. Tom Jasper asked a judge to dismiss multiple charges against Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi, accused of commanding attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan, killing civilians and conspiring to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Jasper said Article 5 of the Third Geneva Conventions of 1949 might classify Hadi al-Iraqi as a “lawful combatant” and, as a prisoner of war, grant him immunity from prosecution for lawful acts of war.
“The bottom line, sir, is that at this point Hadi al-Iraqi could not be tried by this tribunal,” Jasper told the judge during the hearing at the Guantanamo Bay prison that was shown over closed-circuit television at Fort Meade, Maryland, media center.
More evidence and hearings are needed to define Hadi al-Iraqi’s status, Jasper said.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2014-11-18 03:12:082014-11-18 03:12:08Defense: Guantanamo Detainee Is Soldier, Exempt From War Crimes Charges
A former prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base died fighting for anti-government rebels in Syria, according to an Islamist opposition group which posted a video of his funeral on YouTube.
Moroccan-born Mohammed al Alami, who was released in 2006, is the first former Guantanamo detainee to die in battle in the Syrian civil war, analysts say.
The video, first reported by The Miami Herald, was posted by Harakat Sham al-Islam, one of the Islamist brigades fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It showed the August 5 funeral in which Alami is praised by a rebel leader for enduring “the prison of the Americans in Guantanamo for five years … where he did not reform or change.”
U.S. Defense Department officials had no comment.
Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who monitors jihadi activities at the website Jihadology.net, said the video appeared to confirm rumors that had been circulating for several weeks about a former Guantanamo prisoner being killed in Syria.
“The sources seem to be legitimate,” he said, adding that the video was posted on a known jihadi website.
Alami fought in Afghanistan and was captured in Pakistan after the September 11 attacks.
Photo Credit: JTF GitmoDemocratic lawmakers pushing to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay said on Wednesday its cost has skyrocketed to $2.7 million per inmate this year and argued it is too expensive to keep open while the country is fighting budget deficits.
“This is a massive waste of money,” Senator Dianne Feinstein said during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the base.
Guantanamo has been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth, and President Barack Obama in May cited its cost – then calculated at about $900,000 per prisoner – as one of many reasons to close it.
Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, testified during the hearing that the current cost of operating the facility has jumped to $454 million in the fiscal year ended September 30, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, or about $2.7 million for each of the 166 inmates.
Smith said overall, $4.7 billion has been spent running Guantanamo since the facility opened in 2002. Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: GettyGuantanamo Bay Prison Divides Senate Panel
By Alexei Koseff. Sharp disagreement over the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp dominated the first Senate hearing on the issue in four years.
The meeting Wednesday of a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee, held in the wake of a high-profile hunger strike by inmates and renewed calls from President Obama to close the facility, made clear that deep partisan divisions remain over whether keeping the prison open is a threat to national security or a necessity.
Opened at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, Guantanamo was established by President George W. Bush to hold detainees suspected of connections to global terrorism organizations.
Allegations of abuse and torture of inmates have led to repeated calls for Guantanamo’s closure, and Obama has campaigned twice on the issue, though Congress has passed repeated measures to keep the prison open.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who is chairman of the panel, urged Congress to support Obama’s efforts, which would end the indefinite detention of prisoners without trial and either release them or charge them in American courts. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2013-07-25 00:06:422016-04-11 11:18:27Lawmakers Blast Guantanamo’s $2.7 Million Per Prisoner Cost
What do you do when your base is angry about Guantanamo? I guess that you promise to close it again. You also blame Congress for not giving you the money to do it. The problem is that it was a Congress controlled by Democrats that did not provide the funding.
What about drones? You promise that we will “drone” more carefully from now on. Let’s hope that the terrorists will cooperate by keeping children away from them.
What about tapping reporters phones? You say that it was about national security and because that “darn Congress” didn’t pass the media shield law.
By the way, does anyone remember President Obama persuading members of Congress to pass the media shield law? I don’t!
Overall, I rate this as a speech trying to win back the left. I did not hear much more than that. My guess is that it will be largely forgotten when the next IRS official comes to Congress and says “I don’t know.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-26 04:44:572016-04-11 11:20:22Obama’s Speech to ‘Kiss and Make Up’ with His Base
Photo Credit: Yahya Arhab/EPAThe lawyer who first drew up White House policy on lethal drone strikes has accused the Obama administration of overusing them because of its reluctance to capture prisoners that would otherwise have to be sent to Guantánamo Bay.
John Bellinger, who was responsible for drafting the legal framework for targeted drone killings while working for George W Bush after 9/11, said he believed their use had increased since because President Obama was unwilling to deal with the consequences of jailing suspected al-Qaida members.
“This government has decided that instead of detaining members of al-Qaida [at Guantánamo] they are going to kill them,” he told a conference at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Obama this week pledged to renew efforts to shut down the jail but has previously struggled to overcome congressional opposition, in part due to US disagreements over how to handle suspected terrorists and insurgents captured abroad.
An estimated 4,700 people have now been killed by some 300 US drone attacks in four countries, and the question of the programme’s status under international and domestic law remains highly controversial.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-05-03 02:09:392016-04-11 11:22:10Lawyer: Drone Strikes Literally Being Used as an Alternative to Guantanamo
Photo Credit: IndyDina with Mr. WonderfulPresident Barack Obama on Tuesday renewed his pledge to close the prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but the impediments that have thwarted him thus far remain.
At a White House news conference, Obama said he would try to persuade Congress to end restrictions that have prevented him from closing the facility. The president’s comments followed the arrival Monday of medical reinforcements at the U.S. naval prison to help deal with a hunger strike by about 100 of the 166 detainees there. The forced feeding of detainees has refocused human rights concerns on the issue.
“I don’t want these individuals to die,” Obama told reporters.
He added that the situation was “not sustainable” and that he had asked advisers to review it. He also said he would press the issue with lawmakers.
“I’m going to re-engage with Congress to try to make the case that this is not something that’s in the best interest of the American people,” he said.
Detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp have launched a hunger strike to protest interference with their personal effects, including Qurans, their lawyers and prison officials, said on Monday.
“My client and other men have reported that most of the detainees in Camp 6 are on strike, except for a small few who are elderly or sick,” said Pardiss Kebriaei, a New York lawyer, representing Ghaleb Al-Bihani, a Yemeni detainee.
Camp 6 houses the majority of the 166 detainees still incarcerated at Guantanamo — estimated at about 130 men — who usually don’t pose any disciplinary problems and are not regarded as a particular risk.
High-profile detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, are held in a different part of the camp.
Interviewed by AFP, Robert Durand, director of public affairs for the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said nine detainees were engaged in hunger strikes, five of whom were being fed through tubes inserted into their stomachs. However, he indicated that “refusing delivered food does not make a detainee a hunger striker, not eating does.”
A lawyer who came to prominence for his full-throated defense of a subsequently convicted terrorist was quietly promoted to the No. 3 slot at the Department of Justice last month, a post that puts him in charge of the administration’s policy regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The move has raised red flags on Capitol Hill and elsewhere among national security stalwarts who argue that the promotion could imperil the country’s longstanding war on terrorism.
The Obama administration appointee at the center of the debate is Tony West, a longtime Justice Department lawyer who received national attention for his aggressive defense of John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban who is currently serving 20-years in prison for colluding with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and taking up arms against U.S. troops.
Late last month, President Obama appointed West as the DOJ’s acting associate attorney general, a posting that does not require Senate confirmation. He formally began the job on Monday.
As the department’s third in command, West is tasked with defending a broad array of legal matters, such as Obama’s controversial health care law and civil rights issues. He also will be in charge of “litigating national security cases, such as habeas corpus petitions brought by detainees at Guantanamo Bay,” according to the DOJ.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-09-26 06:10:572012-09-26 06:10:57American Taliban lawyer Appointed to Third-Highest Position in Obama’s Justice Department
By Erik Ortiz. An ex-Guantanamo detainee once considered a “threat” to America is believed to have been involved in the attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya — possibly leading the deadly rampage, intelligence sources told Fox News.
The potential link with the militant, identified as Sufyan bin Qumu, could lead the White House to revise its claim that administration officials saw “no evidence” that last week’s attack on Sept. 11 was preplanned, and was instead a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Islamist film produced in the United States.
A senior U.S. counterterrorism official on Wednesday also called the assault a “terrorist attack” — the first time someone in the Obama administration has used that term. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American embassy workers died after the consulate compound was overrun by heavily armed militia and became engulfed in flames, according to reports.
A Fox News report didn’t say how Qumu, a Libyan, may have been explicitly involved with the attack, although his fighting group — Ansar al-Shariah — is suspected in taking part.
Analysts at Guantanamo branded him in 2005 as “medium to high risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies,” the New York Times reported last year. Bin Qumu was transferred from the detention camp to Libya in 2007, and was freed the next year in an amnesty for militants, according to The Times. Read more from this story HERE.
Intel official says al Qaeda link probed in Libya terrorist attack
By Jordy Yager. A senior counterterrorism official told senators Wednesday that the assault on a U.S. consulate in Libya — which left four Americans dead — was definitely a terrorist attack and that some of those involved might be connected to al Qaeda.
“Yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” said Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Olsen was responding to a question from Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) during an appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“A number of different elements appear to have been involved in the attack, including individuals connected to militant groups that are prevalent in eastern Libya, particularly in the Benghazi area,” Olsen said.
“As well, we are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates, in particular al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb.” Read more from this story HERE.
Al Qaeda, ex-Gitmo detainee involved in consulate attack, intelligence sources say
By FoxNews.com. Intelligence sources tell Fox News they are convinced the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was directly tied to Al Qaeda — with a former Guantanamo detainee involved.
That revelation comes on the same day a top Obama administration official called last week’s deadly assault a “terrorist attack” — the first time the attack has been described that way by the administration after claims it had been a “spontaneous” act.
“Yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said during a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Olsen echoed administration colleagues in saying U.S. officials have no specific intelligence about “significant advanced planning or coordination” for the attack.
However, his statement goes beyond White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, saying the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate was spontaneous. He is the first top administration official to call the strike an act of terrorism. Read more from this story HERE.
Here’s the Fox News Video:
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2012-09-19 19:11:542012-09-19 19:11:54Al Qaeda, Ex-Guantanamo Bay Detainee Freed in 2007, Involved in Killing of Libyan Ambassador (+video)
A lawyer who came to prominence for his full-throated defense of a subsequently convicted terrorist was quietly promoted to the No. 3 slot at the Department of Justice last month, a post that puts him in charge of the administration’s policy regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees.
By Erik Ortiz. An ex-Guantanamo detainee once considered a “threat” to America is believed to have been involved in the attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya — possibly leading the deadly rampage, intelligence sources told Fox News.
