Guantanamo closure delayed amid rehab failures

Christina Lamb in Washington

A REPORT questioning the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs for former terrorists is threatening to undermine Barack Obama's pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

The US President has suspended a release of Yemeni prisoners because of the attempted Christmas Day bombing masterminded from Yemen. The administration has conceded it will not meet its January 22 deadline for closing the base in Cuba.

The fate of all 198 prisoners still at Guantanamo now hangs in the balance after US figures showed that up to one in five former detainees have engaged in terrorist activity after their release.

The main hope had been a much vaunted rehabilitation program set up by Saudi Arabia in 2003. This uses crayon therapy, table tennis and video games to reform jihadists.

The Saudis had claimed near-total success for the program, which had 108 former Guantanamo detainees pass through it. But 11 of these graduates have been named on the kingdom's list of 85 "most wanted" terrorists. They include Said Ali al-Shihri, who re-emerged as a leader of al-Qa'ida in Yemen, the group claiming responsibility for the Christmas Day bombing plot.

A team of FBI officers and terrorism experts who have visited the rehabilitation centres over the past year to prepare a report for the Department of Homeland Security had doubts about the safety of releasing these people.

"The Saudis claim 80-90 per cent success in turning these jihadists," said John Horgan, director of the International Centre for the Study of Terrorism at Pennsylvania State University, who was among the experts. "But when I asked Saudi officers how they knew these people were safe to release, all they could say was they got a feeling."

Run by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the program initially received international plaudits. Aside from art therapy, games and religious discussion to counter radicalisation, it relies on social support. Jihadists are encouraged to get a flat, find a wife and settle down.

"It's more like a halfway house than a prison," said Christopher Boucek, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who visited the camps. "The centres have guards and fences and you can't leave when you want to, but the first thing that happens to prisoners is their shackles are removed."

He warned: "I think what we have seen is, it is unrealistic to close Gitmo if you don't have a program to monitor people when released."

Mr Horgan agrees. Although he praised the Saudi scheme for being "innovative and ambitious", he said: "The idea that this is a silver bullet is naive. These guys are not being deradicalised. They are being encouraged to disassociate from terrorism, but their fundamental views have not changed."

The unpublished Homeland Security report's main criticism is the lack of any reliable risk assessment to decide whether an individual should be allowed back into society. "Sex offenders have to meet all sorts of criteria before they are released," Mr Horgan said. "Why shouldn't it be the same for terrorists?"

The report points out that there is no way of measuring recidivism.

Many of the Saudi rehab graduates ended up in Yemen. Apart from Shihri, these included Ibrahim Suleiman al-Rubaish, al-Qa'ida's spiritual leader in the Arabian peninsula, and Abu Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi, who appeared in an al-Qa'ida video last January, threatening attacks. Shihri is thought to have played a direct role in an al-Qa'ida attack on the US embassy in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, in 2008, in which 19 people died.

The Australian

Yeah, About Those Gitmo Detainees…

We need to be a tad bit more careful in releasing them.


A classified DOD report says that about one in five of those released have re-joined terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda.


This includes at least a dozen who joined Al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, such as the group’s current deputy leader.

And those are the ones that we know about. Oops.

World Threats

Freed Guantanamo inmates are heading for Yemen to join al-Qaeda fight

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.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, voiced concern about the growing strength of al-Qaeda in Yemen. “Obviously, we see global implications from the war in Yemen and the ongoing efforts by al-Qaeda in Yemen to use it as a base for terrorist attacks far beyond the region,” she said.

A Yemeni, Hani Abdo Shaalan, who was released from Guantánamo in 2007, was killed in an airstrike on December 17, the Yemeni Government reported last week. The deputy head of al-Qaeda in the country is Said Ali al-Shihri, 36, who was released in 2007. Ibrahim Suleiman al-Rubaish, who was released in 2006, is a prominent ideologue featured on Yemeni al-Qaeda websites.

Geoff Morrell, the spokesman for the Pentagon, said: “This is a large question that goes beyond the issue of transferring detainees. The bulk of the remaining detainees are from Yemen and that has been the case for a long time. We are trying to work with the Yemeni Government on this.”

The US Government issued figures in May showing that 74 of the 530 detainees in Guantánamo were suspected or known to have returned to terrorist activity since their release.

They included the commander of the Taleban in Helmand province, Mullah Zakir, whom the British Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Jock Stirrup, called “a key and seemingly effective tactical leader”. Among others who returned to terrorism was Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti who killed six Iraqis in Mosul in 2008.

The number believed to have “returned to the fight” in the May 2009 estimate was double that of a US estimate from June 2008. US officials acknowledged that more detainees were known to have reoffended since, but the number has been classified.

“There is a historic trend and it continues. I will only say that we have said there is a trend, we are aware of it, there is no denying the trend and we are doing our best to deal with this reality,” Mr Morrell said.

Officials said that a higher proportion of those still being held were likely to return to terrorism because they were considered more of a security threat than those selected in the early stages of the release programme.

Chris Boucek, an expert on the region for the Carnegie Endowment think-tank, said that up-to-date figures for Saudi Arabia showed that 26 of the 120 Saudis released from Guantánamo were either in jail, wanted by the authorities or dead.

Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University, said evidence showed that al-Qaeda was seeking to use Yemen to mount a renewed campaign into Saudi Arabia. He cited a recent incident in which two Saudi militants, one the brother-in-law of alShihri, were killed while trying to cross the border in women’s clothing. Martyrdom videos were subsequently posted on militant websites.

The Saudi Government had boasted previously of a zero reoffence rate for Guantánamo detainees who were put through its widely praised rehabilitation programme for al-Qaeda members.

Robert Lacey, who writes about Saudi Arabia, made numerous visits to the Prince Mohammad bin Naif rehabilitation facility north of Riyadh.

More at Times Online

Former Gitmo Detainees Lead Yemeni Al-Qaeda Group Linked to Detroit Bomber

Jim Hoft

Figures. The leaders of the Detroit bomber’s Al-Qaeda group are Gitmo Grads.

Two Gitmo grads rehabilitated in Saudi Arabia rejoined the jihad and made a movie earlier this year.

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri and former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Oufi appeared in a threatening Al-Qaeda movie earlier this year.

Said Ali al-Shihri (or al-Shahri) passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen. (AFP)

The two set up their base in Yemen.

Jihadica reported on the their Al-Qaeda branch back in January:

Earlier this week we learned that the Saudi and Yemeni branches of al-Qaida had formally merged. The release of Sada al-Malahim on Monday was accompanied by an extract from an interview with AQY leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who said the Saudi mujahidin had pledged allegiance to him and agreed to form a united organization under the old name “al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula.”

…The video, entitled “From here we begin and in Jerusalem we will meet”, featured Nasir al-Wuhayshi, Said al-Shihri, Qasim al-Raymi and Muhammad al-Awfi seated side by side, each giving a 4-minute statement.

The video served at least three purposes. The first was to tap into popular outrage over Gaza. The speakers presented their campaign as part of the struggle to liberate Palestine, since Israel and the Crusaders are one.

They also cited the famous hadith according to which “an army of 12000 men will come out of Abyan to help God and his messenger”, and showed footage from a training camp as if to suggest that al-Qaida is currently building that army.

(Incidentally, President Salih allegedly also proposed training volunteers for combat in Gaza). The second purpose was to display the union between the Saudi and Yemeni mujahidin. The seating arrangement (Yemeni-Saudi-Yemeni-Saudi) and mutual praise signalled a happy marriage.

The third aim was to humiliate Saudi authorities, who have let al-Shihri and al-Awfi, both former Guantanamo detainees (ISN# 372 and 333 respectively) and graduates of the famous rehabilitation program, slip away. Unless al-Shihri and al-Awfi are agents (which I doubt), their appearance is indeed extremely embarrassing for Saudi authorities.

Today Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attempted bombing of a Delta Airlines plane as it approached Detroit on a flight from Amsterdam with almost 300 people on board. The terror group released its message on several Al-Qaeda-linked websites.

Previously On Released Gitmo Detainees:
** Gitmo Detainees Re-Arrested in Russia
** Former Gitmo Prisoner Arrested for Terrorism in Moscow
** Three Former Gitmo Detainees Held in Morocco
** Former Gitmo Inmate Involved in Russian Terror Attack on Nalchik
** Former Gitmo Detainee Re-Arrested in Pakistan
** Seven Percent of Gitmo Detainees Return to Battlefield.
** Former Club Gitmo Detainee Carries Out Suicide Mission in Iraq
** Pentagon: 61 Gitmo Grads Returned to Terror
** Former “Rehabilitated” Gitmo Detainee Becomes Al-Qaeda Chief
** 2 Former “Rehabilitated” Gitmo Grads Appear in Al-Qaeda Movie
** 11 Former “Rehabilitated” Gitmo Grads Back On Saudi Most Wanted List
** American Teenager Murdered By Former Gitmo Detainee
** Breaking: Taliban’s Top Officer in Southern Afghanistan Is Former Gitmo Detainee
** Former Gitmo Detainee Leads Fight Against US Troops
** Another Former “Rehabilitated” Gitmo Detainee Killed in Shootout
** Former Gitmo Detainee Now Al Qaeda “Spiritual Leader”

With thanks to Gateway Pundit

What Next? Body Cavity Searches at Airports?

Look: I’m no military strategist or historian. I have spent no time in any standing army or paramilitary organization. But, as a citizen civilian I have some questions.

First, what next?

Are we all going to be subjected to underwear checks before boarding our flights?

If so, Al-Qaeda will soon secrete explosives in body cavities.

Will we all be searched there as well? Will the time it takes to travel coast to coast or continent to continent soon approximate medieval travel times?

Is there another, easier way to deal with global terrorism in airports, on trains, and on ships? Might that way involve “profiling?” If so, is it still more important in terms of western values and law that we continue to seriously inconvenience or endanger the majority in order not to collectively punish the presumably innocent-until-proven-guilty minority?

What minority? Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion in the world and currently comprises 1.2-1.3 billion people. I guess I’m talking about the Muslim minority in the West most of whom are not actively involved with terrorism or with known terrorist groups. Or are they? Does anybody really know?

C’mon: The minute I heard that someone had attempted to blow up a plane over Michigan on Christmas Day I did not think: “Oh, the Buddhists (or the neo-Nazi right-wingers) are at it again. We all knew that it was, without doubt, a Muslim terrorist.

So, here are some questions.

Why are we still allowing Muslims from non-western foreign countries to fly into Western countries? Please note: I am not talking about “race” but about a highly politicized “faith.” And, what shall we do about the West’s own homegrown Islamist terrorists? Ground them all? Why not?

Why are we trying Muslim Islamist terrorists who have been captured in battle against us as if they were American citizens, fully entitled to the protection of the American constitution?

Why do we want the American taxpayer to fund the care and feeding, not to mention the expensive legal talent for all the obviously guilty Gitmo graduates?

More at Phyllis Chesler

Xmas bomb bid complicates Gitmo plan

Growing evidence that the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a commercial airliner as it landed in Detroit Friday spent time in Yemen and may have been fitted with customized, explosive-laden clothing there could complicate the U.S.
government’s efforts to send home more than 80 Yemeni prisoners currently at Guantanamo Bay.

Since Yemenis represent almost half of the roughly 200 remaining prisoners at Gitmo, new hurdles to their resettlement could spell more trouble for President Barack Obama’s plan to close the island prison while transferring a limited number of detainees to a prison in the U.S. Six Yemeni nationals were returned home earlier this month, and officials hoped more transfers would follow.

The relatively weak central government has been working, with U.S. military and diplomatic support, to counter two separate insurgencies, and the nation, Osama Bin Laden’s ancestral home, has become a haven for some members of Al Qaeda. That instability has contributed to concerns within the Obama administration and from its domestic critics about returning prisoners there for repatriation.

The Nigerian man charged with the Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard Northwest Flight 253, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, reportedly spent time in Yemen after graduating from a London university in 2008. According to ABC News, Abdulmutallab has told authorities that, while in Yemen, Al Qaeda operatives crafted the explosive device which was sewn into Abdulmutallab’s underwear.

“Yesterday just highlights the fact that sending this many people back—or any people back—to Yemen right now is a really bad idea,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. “It’s just dumb….If you made a list of what the three dumbest countries would be to send people back to, Yemen would be on all the lists.”

“I think it’s a major mistake,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said about prisoner releases to Yemen. “I don’t think Guantanamo should be closed, but if we’re going to close it I don’t believe we should be sending people to Yemen where prisoners have managed to escape in the past….Obviously, if [Abdulmutallab] did get training and direction from Yemen, it just adds to what is already a dangerous situation.”

While Republicans have long been outspoken against plans to send more Guantanamo prisoners to Yemen, the Northwest Airlines incident seems to have persuaded at least one key Democrat that those plans should be reconsidered.

“In terms of sending more of them to return to Yemen, it would be a bit of a reach,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told POLITICO on Saturday. “I’d, at a minimum, say that whatever we were about to do we’d at least have to scrub it again from top to bottom.”

Thompson, who said he plans to convene hearings in January about the bombing attempt, said the reported Yemen links to the incident could even lead some members to question whether Yemenis at Guantanamo should be transferred to the new terror prison the administration wants to set up in Thomson, Ill. “It’s something that’s going to be of interest to everybody…We ought to look at everything we have underway to make sure that something hasn’t been overlooked,” the congressman said.

More at Politico

US plans to send Guantanamo detainees home to Yemen

THE US is planning to send six Yemenis held at Guantanamo Bay back home, in a move that could be a prelude to a larger repatriation program, The Washington Post reported today.

There are currently 97 Yemenis being held at Guantanamo, making up almost half the 210 detainees who have yet to be relocated.

The impending release has spawned fears that Yemen would be unable to effectively monitor and rehabilitate returnees.

"I believe they will be involved in terrorism that will cost American lives," Republican Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) was quoted as saying in the Post.

Negotiations with Yemen are said to have included Stephen R. Kappes, the deputy director of the CIA. The agency declined to comment.

On Tuesday, the White House said it was moving a "limited number" of detainees to Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois.

President Barack Obama has promised to close the Guantanamo Bay facility by January 2010.

The Australian

Creating a 'Gitmo North' an Alarming Step, Says ACLU

NEW YORK – The Obama administration announced today that it will purchase the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois for the purpose of holding some of the detainees currently remaining at Guantánamo.

Though the administration is leaving unsaid which detainees will be moved there and for what purposes, the information it has provided indicates that some detainees might be held for military commission proceedings in Illinois while others might be held at Thomson indefinitely without charge or trial.

The administration has stated that "any detainees at Guantánamo who continue to be held, and for whom no prosecution is planned, will be held only under authority granted by Congress in 2001 under the Authorization for Use of Military Force, as informed by the law of war." However, the so-called war on terrorism is not a traditional war, having no temporal or geographical boundaries.

The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU:

"The creation of a 'Gitmo North' in Illinois is hardly a meaningful step forward. Shutting down Guantánamo will be nothing more than a symbolic gesture if we continue its lawless policies onshore.

"Alarmingly, all indications are that the administration plans to continue its predecessor's policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial for some detainees, with only a change of location. Such a policy is completely at odds with our democratic commitment to due process and human rights whether it's occurring in Cuba or in Illinois. In fact, while the Obama administration inherited the Guantánamo debacle, this current move is its own affirmative adoption of those policies.
It is unimaginable that the Obama administration is using the same justification as the Bush administration used to undercut centuries of legal jurisprudence and the principle of innocent until proven guilty and the right to confront one's accusers.

"It is also greatly disturbing that the administration will continue the use of military commissions, which are no more acceptable in Illinois or any other U.S. state than in Guantánamo.

Despite some improvements, the commissions still fall far short of the legal standards necessary to comply with constitutional and international standards, allowing, for example, the use of coerced and hearsay evidence that would not be allowed in federal court. The proceedings will achieve neither reliable justice nor a restoration of America's credibility around the world.

"The administration must also make very clear what category of detainee will be transferred to Thomson in the future and what kind of prison conditions will apply. Detainees not charged with a crime should not be subject to punitive conditions meant for sentenced prisoners who have been found guilty in a court of law, and all conditions must comply with the Geneva Conventions.

"The administration will no doubt be looking to Congress for legislative buy-in for this facility, and as both branches work together, we strongly urge lawmakers to legislate responsibly and not set any policies or precedents for indefinite detention on U.S. soil, or create any violation of the Geneva Conventions.

"The Obama administration's announcement today contradicts everything the president has said about the need for America to return to leading with its values.

American values do not contemplate disregarding our Constitution and skirting the criminal justice system.

After detaining hundreds of individuals without the basic due process rights that define our justice system for almost eight years, it is time to charge suspects where evidence exists and repatriate and transfer the rest to countries where they won't be tortured."

ACLU

David Horowitz: The Traitor Class

On Monday night Bill O’Reilly had a representative of the traitor class in his cross-hairs, an episode he re-visited Tuesday night.

The traitor class is easily defined as people who can’t identify a self-declared enemy of the United States even after he has killed 3,000 innocent people in an act of self-described holy war and is prepared to provide his talents and services gratis to help the enemy combatant attack this own country.

Scott Fenstermaker is an attorney for Covington Burling, a white shoe law firm which has provided millions of dollars in pro bono legal work to Gitmo terrorists.

A Covington partner is the brother of Weather terrorist Kathy Boudin, and the lawyer organizing the Gitmo pro bono defense team is family friend and political comrade Michael Ratner, head of the terrorist-supporting Center for Constitutional Rights, who has spent his life defending America’s enemies and serving anti-American causes.

If you can’t describe the 3000 innocent victims of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as “murdered” and your first move is to describe your own government’s case as propaganda, and you are devising a case to “justify” the evil deed your client has committed and won’t say that you would be upset if your country were to lose the case, and also if you’re a Jew and don’t have any problem defending an Islamic Nazi who beheaded Daniel Pearl after forcing him to say “I’m a Jew, I’m a Jew” — there can be only one explanation.

You believe in the justification defense you are preparing, you think America and the Jews are guilty and deserve what they get, and you are a traitor.

And much worse — only words are inadequate to describe just how low on the human scale you have sunk.

FPM

America on Trial

by Jacob Laksin

In the annals of poor political judgment, the Obama administration’s decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay-based terrorist detainees in a New York City federal court may yet rank as a blunder without peer in American history.

The administration’s announced motive is to prove that civilian courts can be trusted to dispense justice to America’s deadliest enemies.

But in affording al-Qaeda alumnus Mohammed and his jihadist cohorts the constitutional privileges reserved for common criminals, the administration may have put America on trial and potentially endangered the country to score a political point against its predecessor.

Of Mohammed’s guilt there can be no doubt. By his own account, he had a hand in 31 terrorist plots, chief among them the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans a short distance from Mohammed’s expected trial site in southern Manhattan.

In March 2007, the onetime al-Qaeda number three confessed that he helped Osama bin Laden organize, plan, and execute the 9/11 attacks. “I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z,” Mohammed recounted.

Other highlights of Mohammed’s terrorist handiwork include planning the 1993 World Trade Center attack; the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whom Mohammed boasted of personally beheading; the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings; planning attacks in Thailand, the Philippines and Israel; and planning a series of “second wave” terrorist attacks to be carried out in the aftermath of 9/11 on the Library Tower in Los Angeles, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Empire State Building in New York, as well as targets in Washington State.

As Mohammed once put the obvious in his broken English, “For sure, I’m American enemies.”

Read more at FPM

City blocks are locked & loaded

Call it the fortress of steel.

When the murderous 9/11 Gang of Five finally lands in New York for trial, they'll face an impenetrable wall of security -- with five times the normal number of US marshals flooding lower Manhattan and a ring of marksmen watching their every move, sources said yesterday.

National Guardsmen will be placed at major transportation hubs while the NYPD will close off subway entrances near the federal courthouse and intensify bag searches throughout the system, the sources said.

Marshals will be shipped in from out of town and snipers placed on roofs nearby the courthouse, where a death-penalty trial is likely.

Nearby streets will be shut off to motor vehicles in all directions.

One source described the likely cost of all the extra measures as "tremendous."

When the Islamist fanatics behind the plot that left 3,000 Americans dead are moved from their cages in Guantanamo Bay to the Big Apple -- which could be as soon as a month from now -- they will likely arrive by private plane, sources said.

Bound, gagged and blindfolded, mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his crew will get their first taste of American justice when they land in the middle of the night at Stewart Airport, outside Newburgh.

Under the strictest security, they will then likely be put on a helicopter and delivered to a jail near the scene of their heinous crime.

The trip will mirror what the al Qaeda thug behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef -- Mohammed's nephew -- went through after he was arrested.

During his journey to New York in 1995, FBI officials lifted Yousef's blindfold as they passed over the Twin Towers to show him they were still standing.

"They wouldn't be if I had more money," Yousef chillingly replied.

Federal prison officials have yet to decide whether they will place al Qaeda animals Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd Al-Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmad Al-Hawsawi and Waleed Bin Attash together in isolation at the Metropolitan Correctional Center or split them up, sending some to the federal pen in Brooklyn, the sources said.

Either way, they will be placed in solitary confinement and allowed no contact, aside from their lawyers.

Once the trial grows close, they will all be placed at MCC and possibly moved in and out of the courthouse through underground tunnels.

Despite the massive security detail, former federal prison guard Louis Pepe -- who was permanently injured in a 2000 stabbing by Osama bin Laden aide Mamdouh Mahmud Salim -- said that it was not enough and that the trial should not be here in the first place.

"It's going to happen again," said Pepe, who suffered brain damage and was paralyzed on his right side after Salim stabbed him in the eye with a sharpened toothbrush while awaiting trial for the 1998 African embassy bombings.

"They want to kill people. They want jihad. They want to become martyrs. That's all they want. That's what they did to me."

He said that federal prisoners are still allowed to have toothbrushes and other items that could be turned into weapons.

"They are still stupid," he said. "They still give them these things."

Officials also are prisoners to political correctness by allowing Muslim prisoners out of their handcuffs to pray, he said.

"They can't say anything -- they have to pray," he complained.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration last night said that it is considering shipping an unknown number of Guantanamo detainees to a near-empty federal prison in Illinois, about 150 miles west of Chicago.

NYPost

9/11 family members welcome, criticize civilian trials

Some family members of 9/11 victims welcomed the announcement that five Guantanamo Bay detainees with alleged ties to the attacks will be tried in a New York civilian court, while others blasted the decision.

"I'm very, very disappointed in the government," said Anne Ielpi, whose son, Jonathan Ielpi, was a firefighter who was killed in the south tower.

"It's like throwing it in our face again," she said, speaking by phone Friday. "We can't get away from 9/11, we can't."

She said the five, who include confessed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, should be tried in military court.

"It definitely should have been finished in Cuba," she said.

But others -- including members of the September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, some of whom spoke to reporters by phone on Friday -- said a civilian trial allows for transparency, noting that families of the victims could attend. Their access to a military trial would be more limited, they said.

"Here we can see what's going on," said Valerie Lucznikowska, whose nephew was killed in the attacks. "Everyone in the world can see what's going on."

John Leinung, whose stepson, Paul Battaglia, worked in the north tower, said the United States has a responsibility to "operate under our existing system of laws."

"I think our traditional court system is very capable of convicting guilty people," he said.

Dozens of family members of 9/11 victims have signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced the trial decision; President Obama; and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates opposing a civilian trial for the alleged plotters.

They said it would give the men a well-publicized platform, blocks from where the towers stood, in which they could espouse their views.

"It is incomprehensible to us that members of the United States Congress would propose that the same men who today refer to the murder of our loved ones as a 'blessed day' and who targeted the United States Capitol for the same kind of destruction that was wrought in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, should be the beneficiaries of a social compact of which they are not a part, do not recognize, and which they seek to destroy: the United States Constitution," the letter said.

However, Leinung said the trials offer an opportunity for justice.

"If we want the world to operate lawfully, if we want people to address their international grievances in a fair manner, we are under an obligation to do that ourselves," he said.

CNN

9-11 Mastermind Will Face Trial in NY Civilian Court

The Obama Administration will send 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and four other Gitmo detainees to New York to face trial in a civilian court.

MSNBC reported, via Free Republic:

Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday.

The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning.

The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Bringing such notorious suspects to U.S. soil to face trial is a key step in President Barack Obama’s plan to close the terror suspect detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Obama initially planned to close the detention center by Jan. 22, but the administration is no longer expected to meet that deadline.

Waterboarding
The New York case may also force the court system to confront a host of difficult legal issues surrounding counter-terrorism programs begun after the 2001 attacks, including the harsh interrogation techniques once used on some of the suspects while in CIA custody. The most severe method — waterboarding, or simulated drowning — was used on Mohammed 183 times in 2003, before the practice was banned.

With thanks to Gateway Pundit

Guantánamo suspects want to stay, say officials

Despite its reputation, the regime at the Pentagon facility on Cuba's southern coast offers privileges that would not be enjoyed at the federal "supermax" prison at Florence, Colorado, the likely alternative for the most dangerous al-Qaeda suspects.

Sensitive to criticism that the detention centre was not meeting international standards, the Pentagon has gradually improved living conditions at Guantánamo.

Adm Thomas Copeman, the commander, now confidently describes it as a "model detention facility" in terms of environment, though he refused to be drawn on the policy and legality of detentions that have lasted for nearly eight years, in most cases without trial.

Peter King, a Republican congressman who visited earlier this year and wants the prison kept open, said that "if there's any scandal at Guantánamo, it is that the detainees are treated too well".

The 221 remaining inmates receive between four and 20 hours outdoor recreation in the Caribbean sun and anything from weekly to almost unlimited access to DVDs and receive three newspapers (USA Today, plus one Egyptian and one Saudi Arabian title) twice a week. Every bed has an arrow pointing towards Mecca and every cell a prayer rug.

Adm Copeman said "generally speaking the rules are about the same" for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and the 15 other "high value detainees", who are held at Camp 7, which is out of bounds to the media.

The detainees' diet is exclusively Middle Eastern and halal, in observance of regional and religious sensitivities.

Dates, olive oil and honey are provided daily and pita bread is baked on the premises. They drink the same bottled water as the prison's staff and have the same access as other prisoners to 16,000 books and 1,600 magazines held at the library.

Read more here,,,,

Source: Telegraph

Uighurs arrive in Palau from Guantanamo Bay

SIX Chinese Muslim Uighurs held at Guantanamo Bay arrived in the Pacific island nation of Palau today.

It represents the latest step in US President Barack Obama's struggle to close the controversial prison.

The men, who had been held at the US naval base in Cuba for more than seven years despite being cleared of all charges, arrived here “to begin rebuilding their lives in freedom,” New York-based lawyers for three of the former prisoners said.

They had been cleared by the previous George W. Bush administration after it decided to no longer treat them as “enemy combatants,” the Justice Department said.

It identified the men as Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori.

“These men want nothing more than to live peaceful, productive lives in a free, democratic nation safe from oppression by the Chinese,” said Eric Tirschwell of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, which represented the former detainees along with the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR).

“Thanks to Palau, which has graciously offered them a temporary home, they now have that chance. We hope that another country will soon step forward to provide them permanent sanctuary.”

Palau President Johnson Toribiong, who met the Uighers on their arrival, said they would put through a structured programme to assist their transition to civil life.

“The government of Palau will provide medical care, room and board, and education to the Uighurs until such time as they are prepared to integrate into the Palauan community,” Johnson said in a statement.

“The Uighurs will be taught conversational and written English, educated about the culture and laws of Palau, and instructed in skills that will enable them to find a job and earn a living in Palau.”

The former prisoners were among 22 Uighurs _ a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from China's remote Xinjiang region _ living at a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led invasion of the country began in October 2001.

They said they had fled to Afghanistan to escape persecution from China, which wants the men returned home to be tried, saying they belong to an Islamic separatist movement.

Amid US administration fears that they could face torture if returned to China, five were released in Albania in 2006, and four were resettled in Bermuda this year. The others have remained in legal limbo.

Palau, which has no diplomatic relations with China, has agreed to take up to 12 Uighurs. Seven remain at Guantanamo, where 215 “war on terror” suspects are still held.

Many of the 21,000 residents of Palau have expressed unease about the former detainees resettling in their tiny country, which only has a smattering of Muslim inhabitants.

The Uighurs now in Palau and those still at Guantanamo contend they should be released in the United States and the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear their case early next year.

A federal judge last year ordered that the men be released to US soil, where families from the large Uighur community are willing to host them.

But Obama has signed into law a bill passed by Congress that bars the release of any Guantanamo detainees to US soil.

Matthew Olsen, executive director of the Guantanamo Review Task Force charged with reviewing the detainee cases, said the United States was “grateful to the Republic of Palau for its assistance in the resettlement of these individuals.”

The move comes as Obama faces a litany of challenges to meet his self-assigned deadline to close the prison by January.

Olsen's team has struggled to persuade other countries to take some of the captives, with only a trickle of prisoners transferred since Obama's inauguration in January.

Since the notorious jail was opened in January 2002 under former president George W. Bush, more than 550 detainees have been transferred to other nations.

Palau lies about 500 miles (800 kms) east of the Philippines, and was administered by the United States until independence in 1994.

Source: The Australian

Senate votes to allow Guantanamo transfers to US soil for trial

THE US Senate has voted 79-19 to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees to be brought to US soil for trial, boosting President Barack Obama's efforts to close the notorious facility.

The green light came in a $US42.7 billion spending bill for the US Department of Homeland Security in 2010, which easily cleared the House of Representatives last week and now heads to Obama to sign into law.

Obama vowed on his second day in office to shutter the facility, a magnet for global criticism of US tactics in the "war on terrorism," by January 22, though White House aides say they face an uphill fight to keep that promise.

Of the roughly 220 people still held at the controversial prison camp, which then-president George W. Bush opened in January 2002, about 80 are waiting to be released and a further 60 are expected to be prosecuted.

The House-approved measure forbids the release of detainees at the US naval base in Cuba onto US soil, and requires a detailed assessment of the possible security risk before they can be brought to trial in the United States.

The assessment would have to include details of the dangers involved, steps to diminish the possible threat, the legal rationale for the transfer, and assurances to the governor of the receiving state that the individual poses little or no security risk.

The legislation also says the detainees cannot be sent to another country unless the president gives Congress the name of the detainee, the destination, a risk assessment, and the terms of a transfer.

The measure would also allow the Pentagon to block the release of photographs showing abuse of suspected terrorists in US custody.

The bill did not address whether the Obama administration can hold prisoners indefinitely without charge in the United States and left unclear what the fate would be of those who may be tried and acquitted.

Source: The Australian

Obama Administration Frees Three More Gitmo Detainees

by Jake Tapper

The Department of Justice Saturday evening announced that two detainees had been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Ireland, and one had been transferred to Yemen.

There are more than 220 detainees remaining at the prison. In the last couple months, the White House has made it increasingly clear that the President will not make his self-stated January 22, 2010 deadline to close to prison.

Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, a native of Yemen, was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and returned to Yemen today. The Yemeni Embassy to the US issued a statement saying the country welcomed, "with enthusiasm, the release and transfer of its citizen."

Known at Gitmo as Captive 692, the government labeled Ali Ahmed an "enemy combatant," saying he "was associated with Al-Qaeda. He was present on the front lines in Bagram, Afghanistan.

He was identified by a senior Al-Qaeda facilitator as having been a resident at a safehouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2000 (his individual also saw the detainee at a safehouse located in Faisalabad, Pakistan in February 2002 with a group of Yemenis who had fled Afghanistan). Finally, the Detainee was identified by another individual, a senior Al-Qaeda operational planner, as having resided at a safehouse located in Kandahar in 2001."

Al Ahmed denied almost all of the charges.

"I never went to Afghanistan, ever. You have to prove how you came to the conclusion that I am a member of the Taliban," he told a military commission.

Al Ahmed claimed he left Sana'a, Yemen around 2000 for Karachi, Pakistan to learn about textiles, with $3,500 -- most of which was from his mother -- in his pocket.

After several months of partying -- "We spent the whole six months going out, having fun, ladies," he says of one leg of his journey -- he ended up in a house full of university students in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Read more here,,,,

Source: ABC News

Freed to Kill More American Soldiers: Taliban Thrives, Thanks to Obama Policy

Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.

A dog returneth to its vomit.

So reads Proverbs 26:11.

Any doubt of this truth should be put to rest by recent developments in southeastern Afghanistan where the U.S. Marines have launched a massive offensive.

The purpose of the mission – dubbed Operation Khanjar or “Strike of the Sword” – is to rout out the Taliban forces before the August 20th election to ensure the re-election of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The Marines are encountering stiff resistance from the Taliban, who have been newly energized under the leadership of Abdul Qayum Zakir, also known as Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, and several of his friends from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay (GITMO), including Mohammed Nayim Farouq, and Abdul Rahman

These insurgents were released from GITMO to the custody of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who promptly freed them in an effort to gain the widespread support for his re-election bid.

The Karzai tactic backfired.

The released GITMO prisoners have assumed command of the Taliban army, and have succeeded in making July 2009 the bloodiest month in the eight year old Afghan war.

Several terrorists who rejoined the Taliban after spending some time at GITMO have bit the dust and are presently enjoying their 72 virgins in seventh heaven. More here,,,

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Paul L. Williams is the author of The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World, The Al Qaeda Connection, and other best-selling books. He is a frequent guest on such national news networks as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, and NPR. Visit his website at http://thelastcrusade.org.

Source: Faith Freedom