Guantanamo prisoners

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Obama's Cell Phone Plea Helps Clear War Funds

Last-minute tensions healed; measure set to pass next week

(Newser) - Congressional leaders settled on a $106 billion spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan last night, but it took a last-minute intervention by President Obama via Rahm Emanuel's cell phone. When talks got bogged down over the release of detainee photos, Emanuel rushed to the Capitol and had...

Obama Gives Up On Resettling Detainees in US

Plans abandoned after Uighur deals, congressional opposition

(Newser) - The administration has largely abandoned plans to allow Guantanano detainees cleared for release to settle in the US, the Washington Post reports. Plans to allow Uighur detainees who said their only enemy was the Chinese government to live in the US met firm opposition from Congress. Four Uighurs were sent...

Britain Bashes Bermuda for Taking Gitmo Inmates

Overseas territory told it's getting too big for its britches with resettlement deal

(Newser) - Britain has berated its oldest remaining colony for taking in former Guantanamo detainees without asking London's permission first, the BBC reports. American officials say they dealt directly with Bermuda on the issue, through its British-appointed governor, as they arranged to release four Chinese Muslim Uighurs to Bermuda.

First Gitmo Detainee to Face Trial Pleads Not Guilty

Denies role in 1998 embassy bombings

(Newser) - The first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be brought to the US for trial has pleaded not guilty in two embassy bombings. Ahmed Ghailani entered the plea today in federal court in Manhattan. Ghailani is charged with participating in the bombing of embassies in Africa in August 1998, attacks that killed...

Colorado Town Would Welcome Gitmo Inmates

Supermax is already home to Unabomber, '20th hijacker'

(Newser) - Members of Congress have protested President Obama's efforts to move Guantanamo inmates to US prisons, but residents of Florence, Colo., say they wouldn't mind taking in a few enemy combatants. The supermax prison near town already holds some of the world's most infamous terrorists: a 1993 World Trade Center assailant,...

Gitmo Prisoner Commits Suicide

Yemeni detainee held since 2002 with no charges

(Newser) - A Yemeni man was found dead in his Guantanamo Bay cell last night in the fifth apparent prisoner suicide at the facility, reports the Los Angeles Times. Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, 31, was imprisoned at Guantanamo since February 2002 on accusations he trained with the Taliban in Afghanistan, although no...

Europe Balks at Taking Gitmo Detainees

After US Congress raises objections, allies change tune

(Newser) - The Obama administration has intensely lobbied its European allies to allow at least 50 Guantanamo detainees to resettle overseas. But as the US Congress rebels against the president's plans to move inmates to federal prisons, reports the Washington Post, an already skeptical Europe has strengthened its objections. "If the...

Supermax Neighbors Fear Gitmo Influx

Townspeople worry that transfer will make them a target for terrorists

(Newser) - People who live near some of America's most notorious killers fear closing Guantanamo Bay will wreck their neighborhood, the New York Times reports. Residents of Cañon City, Colo., close to the Florence "Supermax" prison, worry the detainees will be transferred there, making them a target for terrorists and...

RNC Recycles LBJ 'Daisy' Ad to Bash Obama on Gitmo

Classic incendiary spot doesn't age well in Michael Steele's hands

(Newser) - RNC chairman Michael Steele has rolled out an ad remixing an LBJ classic on nuclear war to warn about the danger of closing Guantanamo. The infamous 1964 spot used images of a little girl plucking petals off a daisy juxtaposed with a nuclear explosion to illustrate the risk of Armageddon....

You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire
You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire
ANALYSIS

You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire

Ex-veep's speech full of torture distortions

(Newser) - In his full-on assault on the president's conterterrorism policies yesterday, Dick Cheney deployed an arsenal of “omissions, exaggerations and misstatements,” charge Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of McClatchy. Among them:
  • Cheney claimed that harsh interrogations yielded vital, attack-preventing information and quoted Adm. Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence.
...

Reid: We Still Need Details; McCain: Obama Is 'Punting'

(Newser) - Leading Democrats praised President Obama's speech today while making clear that they still need details about closing Gitmo, Politico reports. “We’re all awaiting the details of the plan and the president is going to come up with one,” said Harry Reid, echoing the sentiment of fellow senators....

First Gitmo Detainee Coming to US for Trial

He's linked to 1998 embassy bombings

(Newser) - A top al-Qaeda suspect held at Guantanamo Bay will be sent to New York for trial, an Obama administration official said. Ahmed Ghailani would be the first Guantanamo detainee brought to the US, and the first to face trial in a civilian criminal court. Ghailani has been indicted in the...

Pentagon: 1 in 7 Gitmo Prisoners Rejoin Fight

(Newser) - A Pentagon report concludes that 74 of 534 prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay returned to militant activity—a recidivism rate of 14%, or about 1 in 7, the New York Times notes. The report, still under review, could complicate President Obama’s goal of shutting the facility by January because...

Gitmo Inmates May Be Held Indefinitely in US

Detainees may be held without trial under authority of national security court

(Newser) - The Obama administration is considering moving the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay to US soil and holding them in prisons indefinitely without trial, the Wall Street Journal reports. The proposal would take place under the authority of a new national-security court, according to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has met...

Dems Deny Obama Funds to Close Gitmo

House Democrats say president needs to come up with a plan first

(Newser) - President Obama's request for $80 million to close Guantanamo Bay was cut from the House version of a war spending bill unveiled yesterday, CNN reports. Democratic lawmakers, whose bill totaled $94.2 billion, said if the president wants money to close Guantanamo Bay then he'll first have to come up...

Fleischer: Subpoena Me —I Dare You

Ex-Bush spokesman would 'be proud to testify' about torture

(Newser) - Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer doesn’t think there should be an investigation of his boss’s torture program. But “I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena,” he said during a panel discussion yesterday. “I’m proud of what we did to protect...

On Gitmo, Obama Has a NIMBY Problem

Congress balks at funds, authority to move detainees to US

(Newser) - President Obama has ordered that Guantanamo be closed by the end of the year, but finding a place for the prisoners the administration can neither try nor export is turning into a political nightmare. A Pentagon request for $50 million to relocate the prisoners is running into crossfire in Congress,...

Gitmo Inmates May Land on Mainland: Gates

(Newser) - The fate of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay remains unclear, but Robert Gates hinted at one possibility during a Senate hearing today, reports the New York Times: Inmates who aren’t tried, repatriated, or sent to other countries could wind up in the US. Of the 250 “enemy combatants” in...

US 'Close' on Fate of Gitmo Prisoners

First group may be released to Va.

(Newser) - The US is close to deciding whether to free an initial group of Guantanamo detainees, AP reports. Attorney General Eric Holder didn't specify how long it would be before Gitmo closes, but said he must first determine how many prisoners will be released or tried. "We're doing these all...

Obama Rejected Idea of Interrogation Inquiry

(Newser) - More details are emerging from the Obama camp's debate on how to handle the Bush interrogation memos. In the Washington Post, Dan Balz writes that President Obama rejected the idea of setting up an investigation panel along the lines of the 9/11 Commission. Obama wanted to move on rather than...

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