Guantanamo Bay

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Coney Island Gets Political With Waterboarding Demo

New sideshow installation protests torture

(Newser) - Coney Island's politically charged addition to its sideshow lineup—two animatronic figures demonstrating how waterboarding works—"is disturbing in a way that journalistic accounts of torture can only approximate," writes Jeremy Gerard of Bloomberg. "It left me wrecked." For $1, spectators can peer through a barred...

Six Months for Hamdan? Scrap Military Trials
Six Months for Hamdan? Scrap Military Trials
Opinion

Six Months for Hamdan? Scrap Military Trials

It's time for a new system with elements of civilian courts

(Newser) - Salim Hamdan’s five-and-a-half-year prison sentence is a "stunningly unjust" joke, writes an enraged Andrew McCarthy in the National Review, especially because bin Laden’s driver will eligible for release in 6 months. Absurdly, he is now in a better position than his fellow detainees who haven’t been...

Osama Driver Gets 66 Months
 Osama Driver Gets 66 Months 

Osama Driver Gets 66 Months

But Hamdan will be eligible for release in about 5 months

(Newser) - Salim Hamdan, the driver for Osama bin Laden convicted of providing material support for terrorism, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison today, Reuters reports. The military jury's sentence takes into effect time served at Guantanamo Bay, making him eligible for release in about 5 months. The...

Jury Convicts bin Laden Driver
 Jury Convicts bin Laden Driver

Jury Convicts bin Laden Driver

But acquits him of the most serious charge

(Newser) - A six-man military jury has convicted Salim Hamdan of providing material support to terrorists, while acquitting him of the most serious charge against him, the AP reports. Hamdan wept with his head in his hands as the jury declared Osama bin Laden’s former driver not guilty of conspiracy, but...

US Warned It Would Tape Visits With Gitmo Detainees

Attorneys long foiled in attempts to gain access; could confirm abuse allegations

(Newser) - Foreign intelligence and law-enforcement teams visiting their citizens being held at Guantanamo Bay were warned by the Bush administration that video and sound from the sessions might be recorded, the Washington Post reports. If true, it means the military could have tapes of dozens of discussions detainees have claimed were...

Bin Laden Driver Too 'Primitive' to Be a Terrorist: 9/11 Planner

Defense rests in first Gitmo war crimes trial

(Newser) - Ex-Bin Laden driver Salim Hamdan's defense rested today after insulting yet possibly exonerating testimony from 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the LA Times reports. In the final testimony of Hamdan’s Guantanamo war crimes tribunal, Mohammed asserted in a written statement that Hamdan “did not play any role” in...

Guantanamo Only Looks Like a Real Trial
Guantanamo Only Looks Like a Real Trial
analysis

Guantanamo Only Looks Like a Real Trial

Beneath surface lie fundamental questions about its fairness

(Newser) - The first trial taking place at Guantanamo Bay has the look and feel of a real American court proceeding, but that appearance is in many ways just an illusion, writes William Glaberson in the New York Times. Secret evidence remains sealed in red folders, much of what is presented was...

Bin Laden Driver's Soft Spot: McDonald's Fries

FBI agents discovered he liked them during interrogations

(Newser) - Osama bin Laden’s driver warmed up to interrogators after he was given McDonald’s french fries, Reuters reports. He "even appreciated that McDonald's fries are not good cold," an FBI agent testified yesterday at Salim Hamdan’s war crimes trial. In another instance, he perked up when...

Gitmo Trial Describes al-Qaeda Inner Circle

Driver was key member of organization: prosecutor

(Newser) - Arguments in the trial of Salim Hamdan gave a view of al-Qaeda's inner circle today, as prosecutors opened by painting Osama bin Laden's driver as a key member of the organization, the Miami Herald reports. The lead prosecutor depicted Hamdan as a constant presence in high-level al-Qaeda operations and argued...

Historic Terror Trial Starts Today
Historic
Terror Trial Starts Today

Historic Terror Trial Starts Today

Bin Laden driver faces first US war crimes tribunal since WWII

(Newser) - The trial of Osama bin Laden's  former driver is set to begin at Guantanamo Bay today. Salim Hamdan, accused of transporting weapons, will be tried by the first military commission since the end of World War II, reports the Washington Post.The proceedings promise to be the first big test...

Gitmo Trial Will Proceed After Judge Threatens Delay

Defense lawyers win access to alleged 9/11 mastermind

(Newser) - Federal prosecutors will give lawyers for Osama bin Laden's ex-driver access to accused 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed this weekend, ensuring that the first Guantanamo tribunal will begin Monday as scheduled, the Miami Herald reports. The judge in the case apparently forced the hand of the government lawyers prosecuting Salim...

Trial of Bin Laden's Driver Can Begin, Judge Rules

Tosses effort to stall; trial will begin Monday

(Newser) - The first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay can begin Monday, a federal judge ruled today, saying civilian courts should let the military process play out as Congress intended. A US District judge rejected an effort by Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, to postpone his trial.

Video of Gitmo Interrogation Hits Web

Sobbing 16-year-old Canadian detainee claims torture

(Newser) - A videotape of Canadian officials interrogating a sobbing 16-year-old detainee at Guantanamo Bay surfaced on the Internet today. The clip, made public under a court order obtained by the suspect's lawyer, is the first such footage from the detention center to reach the public, the CBC reports. It shows an...

Gitmo Inmates May Testify for bin Laden Aide

Prosecutors seek to block testimony as threat to national security

(Newser) - Fellow Guantanamo Bay inmates may testify at the upcoming terror trial of Osama bin Laden’s former driver, the Washington Post reports. Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan hope the testimony will prove their client was not a high-level terror operative. The military officer in charge of the case said he...

'Insane' Gitmo Rules Frustrate Lawyers

Red tape strangles proceedings

(Newser) - Lawyers for the five Guantanamo prisoners facing military tribunals find themselves drowning in red tape, with security rules undermining even the most basic proceedings, Reuters reports. From office supplies to legal backup for the three detainees representing themselves, support is hard to come by. "You have from the sublime...

Judge Demands Speedy Trial for Gitmo Prisoners

After 7 years, it's 'time to move cases forward'

(Newser) - A federal judge coordinating 200 Guantanamo Bay cases has ordered the Justice Department to set aside all other work to give the detainees their day in court as soon as possible. "The time has come to move these forward," he ruled. A Justice Department attorney asked for eight...

Bush Could Decide by Weekend to Close Gitmo

Supreme Court's decision has forced administration's hand

(Newser) - President Bush could decide by Saturday to close Guantanamo Bay as a prison for high-value detainees, insiders tell ABC. There is “generally wide agreement” among Bush's top advisers—Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates among them—that Gitmo should eventually be shuttered, but the landmark recent Supreme Court decision undermines...

Gitmo 'Torture' Modeled on Chinese Grilling of US POWs

Communist methods became US training manual

(Newser) - Guantanamo Bay interrogators learned their techniques from Chinese Communists who used them on American POWs in the Korean War, the New York Times reports. A 1957 Air Force chart labeled Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance detailed methods like prolonged standing and exposure to cold, and was used as...

Court Likens Gitmo Case to Absurd Poem

Lewis Carroll cited in mocking decision to void detention

(Newser) - In ruling that a Gitmo detainee has been improperly held for 6 years, a federal appeals court deemed the government's standard of evidence on par with an absurdist poem of the 19th century. The DC Court of Appeals voided the detention of Huzaifa Parhat last week, but yesterday it released...

Gitmo Prisoner Charged in Cole Bombing

Torture claims will be central to defense

(Newser) - A suspected al-Qaeda terrorist held at Guantanamo Bay for six years has been charged with masterminding the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors and injured 50 others. The treatment of Saudi prisoner Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri in custody, which included waterboarding by interrogators, will be a...

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