Sunday, January 28, 2024

Two GITMO Detainees: Recommended for 23 Years Detention for 2002 Bali Bombings

Aftermath of one of the two Bali bombings in 2002

Update on two new Gitmo detainees reported on here from THE INDEPENDENT with this article headline (2 days ago):

“Guantanamo panel recommends 23-year sentences for two in connection with 2002 Bali bombing attacks”

A military panel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has recommended 23 years in detention for two Malaysian men in connection with a deadly 2002 bombings in Bali

A military panel at Gitmo Bay, Cuba has recommended 23 years in detention for two men from Malaysia in connection with deadly 2002 bombings in Bali, a spokesman said.

The recommendation, following guilty pleas earlier this month under plea bargains for longtime Guantanamo detainees Mohammed Farik Bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, marks comparatively rare convictions in the two decades of proceedings by the U.S. military commission at Guantanamo.

Guantanamo military commission spokesman Ronald Flesvig confirmed the sentencing recommendations concerning the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah whose two bombing killed 202 Indonesians, foreign tourists, and others in the two simultaneous bombings at nightspots on the resort island of Bali.

The two defendants denied any role or advance knowledge of the attacks but under the plea bargains admitted they had over the years conspired with the network of militants responsible. 

The sentence recommendation still requires approval by the senior military authority over Guantanamo.

The two are among a total of 780 detainees brought to military detention at Guantanamo under former President George W. Bush's administration's “war on terror” following the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. 

There have been only a handful of convictions over all those the years since: Eight, according to one advocacy group named: Reprieve.

Defendants in some of the biggest attacks, including 9/11, remain in pretrial hearings. 

Prosecutors are seeking negotiated agreements to close that case and some others. The prosecutions have been plagued by logistical difficulties, frequent turnover of judges and others, and legal questions surrounding the torture of detainees during CIA custody in the first years of their detention.

Only about 30 detainees remain at Guantanamo.

About half have been cleared and are eligible for transfer out if a stable country agrees to take them.

As part of their plea bargains, the two Malaysian men have agreed to provide testimony against a third Guantanamo detainee, an Indonesian man known as Hambali, who took part in the bombings.

Relatives of some of those killed in the Bali bombings testified in the courtroom listening attentively.

Matthew Arnold of Birmingham, England, who lost his brother in the attacks testified:The reach of this atrocity knew no bounds, and has affected very many people.”

A panel of five military officers delivered the recommendation after listening to the sentencing testimony.

My 2 Cents: More updates on this story and other detainee updates from GITMO will be provided when they are made available.

Thanks for stopping by.


Tuesday, June 6, 2023

DeSantis Watched Gitmo Torture: He Seemed to Enjoy the Force-Feeding He Observed

DeSantis watched this and liked what he saw

DeSantis was at Gitmo and watched detainees being force-fed and outlined in this article from NY DAILY NEWS with this headline:

“Showtime pulled ‘Vice’ episode about Ron DeSantis at Guantanamo Bay without explanation”

NEW YORK — Ron DeSantis appears to have been canceled — by Showtime. The Florida governor and GOP presidential hopeful was to be the subject of an episode of the premium cable channel’s newsmagazine series “Vice.” Promoted to premiere on May 28, the show didn’t air as scheduled; previously aired programming reportedly ran in its place.

No explanation was given, and a spokesperson for Showtime told The Daily News:  We don’t comment on scheduling decisions. The Gitmo Candidate & Chipping Away was the title of the half-hour episode of the series, which has prided itself on delivering immersive reporting from the frontlines of global conflict, civil uprisings and more.”

The episode’s description teased potentially explosive material about DeSantis. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter it detailed allegations from former Guantanamo Bay detainees that he witnessed the force-feeding, which BTW has been condemned by the United Nations as torture (re: NY TIMES) during his past service as a Navy JAG officer at the Naval base in Cuba.

MY NOTE INSERTED: For decades, the international community including the International Red Cross, the World Medical Association, and the United Nations have recognized the right of prisoners of sound mind to go on a hunger strike. 

Force-feeding has been labeled a violation on the ban of cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. 

The World Medical Association (WMA) holds that it is unethical for a doctor to participate in force-feeding. Force-feeding violates international law. 

DeSantis has consistently argued for Gitmo to remain open and spoken against the release of prisoners, even those held for years without formal charge.

Former detainee Mansoor Adayfi previously revealed during a November 2022 podcast interview that DeSantis looked on with amusement as he and others were force-fed through a nasal feeding tube pushed down their throats. 

Adayfi, Yemen-born detainee at the time was also known as Abdul Rahman Ahmed, was released after 14 years in 2016 without charges. He detailed the experience during a discussion with U.S. Army veteran and anti-war activist Michael Prysner.

Adayfi claimed about the incident:Ron DeSantis was there and watching us. We were crying, screaming. We were tied to the feeding chair and that guy; he was watching that. He was laughing basically when they used to feed us, because … our stomach cannot hold this amount of Ensure. They used to pour Ensure, one can after another, one can after another. So, when he approached me, I said this is the way we are treated. He said, ‘You should start to eat.’ …I threw up on his face. Literally on his face.”

FYI: DeSantis joined the Navy in 2004 and was stationed in Guantanamo and Iraq before serving as a special assistant U.S. attorney in FL until 2010. He was born in Jacksonville, FL. He is a Harvard Law School alum, and he served in the Navy Reserve until 2019.

A “Vice” rep told The Hollywood Reporter that materials about that episode were scrubbed from Showtime’s website and press portal saying:As with all current affairs programming there can be scheduling changes, and we are very much still in discussion about the scheduling of this episode. We are proud of our reporting and of our continuing partnership with Showtime.”

My 2 Cents: I can’t even image DeSantis as President let alone being CINC (Commander in Chief) not with his outlandish and crazy thinking, ideas, and governing style. 

It would be a national disgrace and dishonor as the above article shows. It also seems to me that Showtime wanted to “more or less protect” DeSantis by not showing that “Vice” segment mentioned above (at least in my view).

Thanks for stopping by.


Thursday, February 2, 2023

Gitmo Detainee Released: Nineteen Eligible for Release — 34 Remain in Custody

Majid Khan Released from Gitmo
(Was held for 10 years: Then & Now)

Gitmo detainee update – Majid Khan released to Belize who has accepted him and is family.

This update from Politico.com with this headline:

U.S. resettles former al-Qaeda courier from Guantanamo to Belize”

U.S. officials have finally found a country — Belize — to take in a Guantanamo detainee and former al-Qaeda courier who finished serving his sentence nearly a year ago. 

FYI: Nineteen other detainees are eligible for transfer. A total of 34 detainees remain in custody and held at Guantanamo.

Majid Khan left the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and is now in Belize, a senior State Department official said.

Background on Khan: He is a 42-year-old Pakistani citizen who pleaded guilty in 2012 to delivering $50,000 to an al-Qaeda affiliate that financed a deadly hotel bombing in Indonesia in 2003. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

His sentence was later reduced after he cooperated with the government and testified about his torture at a CIA black site, thus making him eligible for release last March.

Military officers on the jury condemned the torture in a clemency letter published by the New York Times, calling it a stain on the moral fiber of America.  

Khan was granted that clemency in March of 2022, when Col. Jeffrey Wood, the convening authority for military commissions, reduced Khan’s official sentence to 10 years, time he had already served.

A senior State Department official said:The tribunal had actually written a letter on his behalf to say that they thought that he was the guy who could really find a new home and a new lease on life and acknowledged that yes, he was a good candidate for transfer.”

In a statement provided by his lawyers, Khan said:I have been given a second chance in life. I intend to make the most of it. I deeply regret the things that I did many years ago, and I have taken responsibility and tried to make up for them. I promise all of you, especially the people of Belize that I will be a productive, law-abiding member of society.”

Wells Dixon, Khan's lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said his client's transfer “is the culmination of decades-long litigation and advocacy ... to challenge the worst abuses of the ‘war on terror’ and close the Guantanamo Bay prison.”

Since the end of his sentence, the U.S. struggled to find a place that was willing to take Khan and his family. The Biden administration said the State Department had approached 11 countries and finally he was accepted by Belize. In a certified statement the State Department had said that Khan posed no danger to the U.S. or its allies, and Belize.

My 2 Cents: Based on the facts of this case as presented it does appear to the correct decision and hopefully history will prove it so.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck to Khan and his family in their new home in Belize.


Saturday, December 10, 2022

Gitmo Sill Open after 4 Presidents: Time to Shut It Down After Nearly 21 Long Years

First Detainees Arrived at Gitmo in 2002
(Time to shut it down & and turn off the lights) 

This could be my last post on this topic hopefully now as we enter 2023, and do the 40 detainees still held at Guantánamo (Gitmo). Talk of closing it has lingered long enough – either try them and put them in permanent prison, or set them free… nothing in between. 

This update from the Smirking Chimp with this headline as we and the detainees head into the 21st year of their captivity as “Middle East War Captives:”

“Guantánamo: Will America's Forever Prison Finally Close On Biden's Watch?

The Beginning: In January 2002, the first planes landed at Guantánamo, the hooded, shackled, goggled, and diapered prisoners in them were described by the Pentagon at the times as: “The worst of the worst.” 

In truth, however, most of them were neither top leaders of al-Qaeda nor, in many cases, even members of that terrorist group. Housed at Camp X-Ray initially in open-air cages without plumbing, dressed in those now-iconic orange jumpsuits, the detainees descended into a void, with little or no prison policies to guide their captors. Then Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert (now retired Maj. Gen in 2009), the man in charge of the early detention operation, asked Washington for guidelines and regulations to run the prison camp, Pentagon officials assured him that they were still on the drawing board, but that adhering in principle to the “Spirit of the Geneva Conventions” was, at least, acceptable.

Those first 100 days left General Lehnert and his officers trying to provide some modicum of decency in an altogether indecent situation. For example, Lehnert and those close to him allowed one detainee to make a call to his wife after the birth of their child. They visited others in their cells, talked with them, and tried to create conditions that allowed for some sort of religious worship, while forbidding interrogations by officials from a variety of U.S. government agencies without a staff member in the interrogation hut as well. Against the wishes of then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon, a lawyer working with Lehnert called in representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In March 2002, the U.S. installed prefab prisons at Guantánamo in which those detainees could be all too crudely housed and had brought in a new team of officers to oversee the operation while pulling Lehnert and his crew out.

The new leadership included people reporting directly to Rumsfeld as they put in place a brutal regime whose legacy has lasted, in all too many ways, to this day.

Despite General Lehnert's efforts, in the nearly 21 years since its inception, Guantánamo has successfully left the codes of American law, military law, and international law in the dust, as it has morality itself in a brazen willingness to implement policies of unspeakable cruelty. That includes both physical mistreatment and the limbo of allowing prisoners to exist in a state of indefinite detention. Most of its detainees were held without any charges whatsoever, a concept so contrary to American democracy and legality that it's hard to fathom how such a thing could happen, no less how it's lasted these 7,627 days.

Geo. W. Bush's Prison: As the 40 prisoners still in Guantánamo illustrate, no president has yet found a way to close that prison completely. George W. Bush, who opened it, did eventually acknowledge that it would be best to shut it down. As he said to a German television audience in May 2006: “I very much would like to end Guantánamo. I very much would like to get people to a court.”

He was, however, anything but decisive on the subject. As he told a White House press conference that June: “I'd like to close Guantánamo, but I also recognize that we're holding some people that are darn dangerous, and that we better have a plan to deal with them in our courts. And the best way to handle — in my judgment, handle these types of people is through our military courts.” That month the Supreme Court invalidated the ad hoc military tribunals that had by then been formed at Gitmo.

In the fall of 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA), formally creating the courts Bush had imagined.

Pointing out that shuttering the prison was not as easy a subject as some may think on the surface, Bush began pursuing another approach — namely, releasing uncharged prisoners and returning them to their home countries or transferring them elsewhere.

Bush and his administration did, in the end, release about 540 of the 790 prisoners held there with as accepted its last prisoner in March 2008.  Meanwhile, a 2008 Supreme Court ruling granting detainees the right to challenge their detention by filing habeas corpus petitions in federal court opened a new path toward future freedom. Twenty-three of those detainee petitions were granted before Bush left office, but the prison, of course, remained open.

Barack Obama's Well-Intentioned but Failed Efforts: Barack Obama initially signaled his desire to close Guantánamo on the campaign trail and then, in one of his first acts as president, issued an executive order calling for it to be shut down within a year, writing: “If any individuals covered by this order remain in detention at Guantánamo at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.”

With new energy, the Obama administration plunged ahead on the two fronts Bush had halfheartedly pursued: establishing military commissions and transferring certain prisoners directly to their home countries or others willing to accept them.

On Obama's watch, a reformed version of the Guantánamo tribunals was reauthorized by the passage in 2009 of the new MCA, resolving five cases, all with guilty pleas. That administration edged toward closure and transferred nearly 200 more prisoners to willing countries in a vigorous effort over the final year and a half of Obama’s term.

Still, Obama encountered opposition within Congress. Although the military commissions did start anew under Obama, so many years later, the trial of the five prisoners alleged to have been actual 9/11 co-conspirators has still not been scheduled – and that includes leader KSM.

In addition, under Obama, numerous habeas corpus petitions were filed in federal court, often falling victim to defeat in appellate courts. As Shayana Kadidal, the Center for Constitutional Rights' senior managing attorney for Gitmo litigation, summed it up at Just Security: By 2011, the sharply conservative D.C. Circuit rendered it more or less impossible for detainees to prevail on their habeas petitions.”

Obama's team did seem to add a new possibility for aiding the closure process by transferring one detainee to federal court for trial on terrorism charges. 

In 2010, Ahmed Ghailani stood trial in New York City for participating in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on U.S. soil.

But in the end, that trial proved fraught with problems, including the fact that the defendant was acquitted on 284 of 285 charges and so it would prove to be not just the first but the last such trial. In fact, in the 2011 NDAA, Congress included a ban on the transfer to the United States of any further Gitmo detainees for any reason whatsoever.

All told, though the Obama administration poured far more energy into the effort to close Gitmo than the Bush administration had. In his last year, Obama continued to push hard with the rallying cry: “Let's go ahead and get this thing done!”

He called for renewed federal trials on U.S. soil and prisoner incarceration in the United States, noting that Guantánamo was “contrary to our values and undermines our standing in the world not even to mention the $450 million annual price tag for keeping it open.”

Obama put the blame for failure squarely on the growing political divide in the country and openly worried about what it meant not to succeed, saying:I don't want to pass this problem on to the next President, whoever it is.” 

(And, of course, we now know just who he was talking about: Donald J. Trump)

Donald Trump's “Bad Dudes” policy: Not surprisingly, passing Guantánamo on to Trump fulfilled whatever misgivings he had. Unlike Bush and Obama, Trump displayed no interest whatsoever in closing it. His instinct was to reaffirm its standing as a legal black hole. On the campaign trail in 2016, in fact, he swore: “We're gonna load it up with some bad dudes, believe me, we're gonna load it up.” 

(On taking office, almost instantly signed an executive order to keep Gitmo open).

No new detainees were actually added during his term in office. In 2020, Trump even suggested it should house people infected with CoVID, but as it turned out, expanding its activities was as elusive a goal for Trump as closing it had been for his predecessors.

While his threats of adding inmates amounted to naught, his presidency basically put that prison camp on pause. He even stopped the process of transferring five detainees cleared for release by the Obama team.

Only one prisoner, Ahmed Muhammad Haza al-Darbi, who pleaded guilty in 2014 in the military commissions, was released during Trump's time in office

Meanwhile, the military commissions remained essentially stalled on his watch and Congress continued the ban on moving any of the detainees to the U.S.

Now Biden's Gitmo: When Joe Biden entered office in January 2021, 40 prisoners remained at Gitmo.

In his first weeks, his aides called for a formal review of their cases and spokesperson Jen Psaki announced the Biden’s intention to close the prison camp before he leaves office. Biden learned from Obama's mistakes thus making no sweeping public promises.

His administration nonetheless put renewed energy into both transfers and trials. The military commissions have indeed ramped up in recent months. Pretrial hearings have recently been held in the four pending military tribunal cases. In addition, plea deals that would take the death penalty off the table are reportedly being negotiated for the five 9/11 defendants including KSM.

Three of the five detainees cleared for release by the Obama administration have finally been transferred to other countries, while all but three of the 27 prisoners not cleared when Biden took office have been greenlighted to go home or to a third country. In doing so, several previously blocked thresholds were crossed.

As of early 2021, when the government cleared detainee Guled Hassan Duran, it signaled that, for the first time, there was a willingness “to release even those who had been subjected to torture while held at CIA black sites in the early years after 9/11.”

The point was made even more strongly three months later when Mohammed al Qahtani, who experienced some of the worst treatment at American hands, was also finally released.

Meanwhile, in September 2022, President Biden appointed former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism and former ambassador to Kosovo, Tina Kaidanow, to oversee the transfer of prisoners cleared for release. While her position doesn't replicate the formidable office of the Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure that Obama established and Trump nixed, it is a promising move. Her job of arranging each prisoner transfer, assuring the security of the detainee, and assessing that the release will not pose a danger to the United States is challenging but achievable, as prior releases have demonstrated.

All told, recidivism rates for Guantánamo detainees, as reported by the DNI, have been 18.5%, though only 7.1% for those released under Obama.

The last question after all these nightmarish years might be this: Are there any options for the final Gitmo prisoners and closure of that place?

In 2017, military defense lawyers Jay Connell and Alka Pradhan, joined by researcher Margaux Lander, and pointed out: “That international law, victims of torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment have the right to full rehabilitation.”

In addition to seeking the removal of the death penalty in their cases, the 9/11 defendants at Gitmo have reportedly asked for access to a torture rehabilitation program.

Pradhan, who represents 9/11 defendant Ammar al Baluchi has summed the situation up well:The United States has utterly failed to give these men either a fair trial or medical treatment for their torture in violation of their legal obligations. Most of the evidence in the 9/11 case is torture-derived, and the men are deteriorating quickly from the brain and other injuries inflicted by U.S. torture nearly 20 years ago. The Department of Defense has confirmed that they don't currently have the ability to provide complex medical care at Guantanamo, so the most ethical solution is to transfer the men to locations where they can obtain the care they require.”

In fact, after all these years in prison, releasing those who might otherwise still stand trial and putting them in rehabilitation centers might indeed be a good idea. There are many ways to address a wrong. Arguably, the greater its magnitude, the more leeway should be given for subsequent actions. As the Biden administration has taken steps towards closing Gitmo, perhaps the gesture of sending the defendants in the military commissions to rehabilitation programs is a good one.

For years, Gen. Lehnert has told Congress, media outlets, and anyone who would listen that it remains imperative, however difficult, to finally shut the prison down. 

As he has written: “Closing Guantánamo is about reestablishing who we are as a nation.”

It might not quite accomplish that, but it would certainly be a formidable step in that direction. After all, its legacy of torture, indefinite detention without charges or trials, and the reckless disregard for the rule of law will no doubt haunt us for years.

There is no way to fathom the harm caused by the torture, cruel treatment, legal limbo, injustice, and dehumanization that has become the definition of Guantánamo. But for the first time in all these years, its actual closure might realistically be on the horizon.

My 2 Cents: There is nothing in this article that I disagree with and as an old interrogator myself, I know and support the idea firmly that “torture does not work and is a serious and unprofessional tactic for us.” 

Yes, this post is long but comprehensive and long overdue to reinforce the argument: Shut Gitmo down ASAP.

I say give those who need a trial for their crimes justice and then punish them or set them free depending after a fair trial and jury decision – that is the American way.

Holding them this long without justice is just not right – imagine if North Korea or North Vietnam were still holding our military POWs all these years behind bars in their Gitmo style confinement? Serious question isn’t it?

Thanks for stopping by.


Sunday, September 18, 2022

Gitmo Update: Justice for the Charged; Turn Out the Lights; Lock Up and Close It

Last one out don't forget the keys

Update on Gitmo closing prospects here from the Wall Street Journal with this headline (September 17, 2022):

“Biden Administration Quietly Steps Up Effort to Close Guantanamo”

Special representative named to oversee efforts to transfer detainees out of the military facility in Guantanamo, Cuba: The U.S. has held foreign terrorists there since it opened in 2002.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is revamping its effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, for the first time appointing a senior diplomat to oversee detainee transfers and signaling it won’t interfere with plea negotiations that could resolve the long-stalled prosecution of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (aka: KSM) and four of his co-defendants.

President Biden, after taking a low-profile approach to the matter for his first year in office to avoid political controversy, now is moving closer to fulfilling a campaign promise to shut down the facility.

Gitmo (common nickname) is in Cuba and it was set up in January 2002 to house alleged foreign terrorists captured overseas following the 9/11 attack, and it has held nearly 800 men since then.

As of now, only 36 detainees remain at the facility. That at is after hundreds were returned to their homeland or resettled in third countries during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The newest detainee arrived in 2008; thus some have been held for two decades.

Nine of the remaining detainees are defendants in military commission proceedings. 

That includes five accused of conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, hijacking, or hazarding a vessel

One example is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri: He has as been charged with perfidy, murder in violation of the law of war, terrorism, conspiracy, and hazarding a vessel in planning attacks on three vessels, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors.

That case is now under serious review affecting al-Nashiri that was reported on here from the Washington Post in 2019.

Three other detainees have been convicted by military commissions, including two via plea bargains.

The first is Abd al-Hadi al Iraqi: He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and violation of the law of war and is awaiting sentencing.

The second is Ali Hamza al-Bahlul: He is serving a life term for providing material support for terrorism, solicitation and conspiracy.

The third is Majid Khan: He made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, and spying. He became a government co-operator and completed his sentence in March.

Four detainees are being held indefinitely without charge because authorities consider them a security risk.

Twenty others have been cleared for transfer by a review board including defense, intelligence and law-enforcement officials, but moving the men out has proven harder than the Biden team expected.

Some critics of the Biden administration’s action on closing the prison, both within and outside the administration, say newer crises have been occupying the national security staff, and the potential for being branded soft-on-terrorism has slowed the administration’s efforts, they say.

The White House is seeking to avoid the kind of backlash that stymied Obama’s plans after his high-profile calls to shut the prison down

Congress responded to the Obama administration’s effort to close the prison in 2010 by passing a ban on the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. 

FYI: Gitmo costs some $540 million a year to operate, according to a University of PA study (the Penn study) including about $100 million for military commissions.

That comes to $15 million per detainee, and that is compared to about $78,000 a year for an inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary at Florence, CO, where non-war captured detainees, and high-security convicts are held.

The Bush administration transferred more than 500 detainees from Guantanamo before 2009, and the Obama administration transferred nearly 200 more

Only one transfer, which had been negotiated during the Obama era, took place during the Trump administration. 

Forty detainees were at Guantanamo when Biden took office.

Harvey Rishikof, a former head of the military-commissions apparatus who helped draft a recent report on closing the facility from the University of PA Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law said: “The Biden administration doesn’t want to look like it’s soft on terrorism and is awaiting a political consensus.”

This more-detailed article continues here.

My 2 Cents: Not much to add to this updated story except to say just image that any of our VN era POWs, who were labeled as “War criminals or accused of war crimes were still being held in Hanoi?”

The outrage would be tremendous – so why isn’t this after over 20 years not an outrage now?

In my opinion, I say it’s time to close Gitmo. Process and try those lingering who have been charged with crimes, and let’s move on with justice that we say we take pride in achieving.

Thanks for stopping by.


Saturday, April 2, 2022

Gitmo Detainee Release: Second in Last Few Months to be Released After 20 Years

Looks happy for very good reason

Another Gitmo detainee released after 20 years in detention – that full story here from The AP with this headline:

U.S. sends home Algerian held 20 years at Guantanamo

An Algerian man imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for nearly 20 years has been released and sent back to his homeland.

Sufyian Barhoumi (age 48) was captured in Pakistan and taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002.

The United States eventually determined he was involved with various extremist groups but was not a member of al-Qaeda or the Taliban, according to a report by a review board at the prison that approved him for release in 2016.

Barhoumi, who lost four fingers in a land mine explosion in Afghanistan, had offered to plead guilty to any charges in 2012 in hopes he could receive a fixed sentence and return to his elderly mother, according to his attorney, Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights

Kadidal went on to say: Our government owes Sufyian and his mother years of their lives back. I’m overjoyed that he will be home with his family, but I will dearly miss his constant good humor and empathy for the suffering of others in the utterly depressing environment of Guantánamo.”

DOD announced that Barhoumi was repatriated with assurances from the Algerian government that he would be treated humanely there and that security measures would be imposed to reduce the risk that he could pose a threat in the future.

The Pentagon did not provide details about those security measures, which could include restrictions on travel.

U.S. authorities attempted to prosecute Barhoumi in 2008 but the effort was dropped amid legal challenges to the initial version of the military commission system set up under then President George W. Bush.

In the final days of Barack Obama's presidency in January 2017, a federal judge in Washington declined to intervene in the Pentagon's decision not to repatriate Barhoumi, whose lawyer said he had expected his client to be released and that the prisoner’s family had begun making preparations for his return, including by buying him a car and a small restaurant for him to run.

The DOJ under then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter rejected the release of Barhoumi on January 12, 2017, “Based on a variety of substantive concerns shared by multiple agencies,” but they offered no further details.

The effort to resettle prisoners also languished under Trump’s administration. 

The Biden administration is attempting again to reduce the number of men held at Guantanamo as part of a broader effort to close the facility.

His release brings the total held at the U.S. base in Cuba to 37 men, including 18 who have been deemed eligible for repatriation or resettlement in a third country.

My 2 Cents: Sounds like a good decision to me… 

Now, DOJ and DOD must move to release those 18 have been cleared for release and then swiftly more on trials as needed for the others - the hardcore ones. 

Then let’s close Gitmo until further notice.

Thanks for stopping by.


Monday, March 7, 2022

Major Update: Detainee to be Released After 20 Years for Mental Health Reason

Mohammed al-Qahtani, 26 in 2001 & 46 in 2022
(Released from Gitmo after 20 years detention)

Good smart humanitarian decision – releasing this Gitmo detainee after his 20 years of confinement – this story from The AP with this headline:

U.S. sends home suspected 20th (9/11) hijacker from Guantanamo

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Saudi prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center who was suspected of trying to join the 9/11 hijackers has been sent back to his home country for treatment for mental illness, the DOD said on Monday (March 7, 2022). 

Even so, just as DOD officials notified Congress of its intention to transfer al-Qahtani in February, and that prompted outrage from some Republicans.

My insert: Suppose North Vietnam had detained our “POWs” for 20 years say like for the late John McCain and numerous others? 

There would probably be no Republican outrage way back then, right? – Yeah right; no outrage.

DOD said in a prepared statement announcing the repatriation of al-Qahtani: The United States appreciates the willingness of Saudi Arabia and other partners to support ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing of the Guantanamo Bay facility.”

Noteworthy: With this release, there still remains 38 prisoners left at the detention center, and he is the second one released under President Joe Biden, who has said he intends to close the facility.

The detainee, Mohammad Ahmad al-Qahtani, was flown to a Saudi Arabia treatment facility after a review board (military & intelligence officials) concluded he could be released after 20 years of custody.

The Bush administration dropped charges to try him after a legal official concluded he had been tortured.

His lawyers said al-Qahtani, now 46 years old, suffers from mental illness, including schizophrenia, and has ever since his childhood.

Background on his capture: In August 2001, al-Qahtani was turned away from the U.S. at the Orlando airport by immigration officers who were suspicious of his travel. The lead September 11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta, was going to pick him up to take part in the plot, according to previously released documents.

U.S. forces later captured him in Afghanistan and sent him to Guantanamo, where he was subjected to brutal interrogations that the Pentagon legal official in charge of war crimes commissions said amounted to torture.

His treatment included beatings, exposure to extreme temperatures, noise, sleep deprivation, and extended solitary confinement.

One FBI official in 2002 observed al-Qahtani speaking to non-existent people in his cell, while “hearing voices” all the while he crouched in a corner covering himself with a sheet for hours at a time.

Now with his release, there still remains 38 prisoners left at the detention center. However, only about half the men held there have been cleared for release, and no decision has been made about what to do with the rest, including those who still face trial by military commission for the 9/11 attack like the mastermind, KSM.

My 2 Cents: Interesting story and as I said right up front, it is a good smart humanitarian decision in this man’s case.

More to come and then the big trials begin – when? Who knows for sure, stay tuned.

This page as before will be updated even as this snail pace process proceeds.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Gitmo Detainees: Thirty-Nine Still Held @ $13 Million Each Now for 20 Years

 

First group arrived there in 2002

Update (January 12, 2022) from AFP News here with this headline:

Government has approved the release of five more prisoners from Gitmo (according to DOD). Three of the five detainees were from Yemen, one was from Somalia, and the fifth from Kenya. 

They have spent a collective 85 years in the prison opened two decades ago for the “war on terror” detainees in the wake of the September 11, 2001attacks. None of these five were never charged, detainees now approved for release – decided after case reviews in November and December – total 18 of the 39 men still held in the facility.

Those approved for release are: Somali Guleed Hassan Ahmed, (also called Guled Hassan Duran); Kenyan Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu; and Omar Muhammad Ali al-Rammah, Moath Hamza al-Alwi, and Suhayl al-Sharabi of Yemen.

The Pentagon's Periodic Review Board found that all did not present, or no longer presented, a threat to the United States.

Original Post from Here: Gitmo Detainee update after 20 Years from the AP with this headline:

Biden's low profile on Guantanamo rankles as prison turns 20

WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center were optimistic when President Joe Biden took office. And they were relieved this summer after the U.S. released a prisoner for the first time in years. Many are now increasingly impatient.

In the months since that release, there have been few signs of progress in closing the notorious offshore prison on the U.S. base in Cuba. That has led to increased skepticism about Biden’s approach as the administration completes its first year and the detention center reaches a milestone Tuesday — the 20th anniversary of the first prisoners' arrival.

Wells Dixon, an attorney with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which has long taken a leading role in challenging the indefinite confinement without charge at the base, says:President Biden has stated his intention to close Guantanamo as a matter of policy but has not taken substantial steps toward closure.”

Daphne Eviatar, director of the security with the human rights program at Amnesty International USA said:There’s a lot of impatience and a lot of frustration among advocates and people who have been watching this. We can’t forget what this country did 20 years ago and is continuing to do today. This administration has a lot on its plate, certainly, but this is such an egregious human rights offense.”

Without a more concerted effort, those who want the center to close fear a repeat of what happened under President Barack Obama. He made closing Guantanamo a signature issue from his first days in office.

But, Obama managed only to shrink it in the face of Congressional political opposition. Then Trump rescinded the Obama order to close Guantanamo, but largely ignored the place, and he also pledged during his first campaign to “load it up with some bad dudes” but he never sent anyone there and said the annual cost of operating the detention center was crazy at around $13 million per prisoner.

Guantanamo also became the focus of international outrage because of the mistreatment and torture of prisoners and the U.S. insistence that it could hold men indefinitely without charge for the duration of a war against al-Qaeda that seemingly has no end.

The critics grew and now also include Michael Lehnert, a retired Marine Corps major general who was tasked with opening the detention center but has come to believe that holding mostly low-level fighters without charge was counter to American values and interests, says:To me, the existence of Guantanamo is anathema to everything that we represent, and it needs to be closed for that reason. Until I see some visible signs that the administration is going to do something about it, I am not heartened. If there is somebody in charge of closing Guantanamo, I have not talked to anybody that knows who they are.”

Now 39 prisoners are left there. That is the fewest since the detention center's earliest days, when the initial groups, suspected of having a connection to al-Qaeda or the Taliban, arrived on flights from Afghanistan hooded, shackled, and clad in orange jumpsuits.

At its peak, in 2003, the detention center held nearly 680 prisoners. President George W. Bush released more than 500 and Obama freed 197 before time ran out on his effort to whittle down the population. 

Of the remaining prisoners, 10 face trial by military commission in proceedings that have bogged down for years. 

They include Khalid Sheikh Mohammad the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Two others have been sentenced and one of them, former Maryland resident Majid Khanis expected to complete his sentence next month.

The other 27 include 13 who have been cleared for release, including eight under Biden who could now be returned to their homeland or resettled elsewhere. Two dozen have not been cleared and have never been charged, and likely never will be, a status that some Republicans continue to defend, including in a Senate hearing last month.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in that hearing stated:We’re not fighting a crime. We’re fighting a war. I don’t want to torture anybody. I want to give them due process consistent with being at war, and, if necessary, I want to hold them as long as it takes to keep us safe or we believe that they’re no longer a threat.”

A senior Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal policy, saysThe NSC is actively working with Defense, State, and Justice Departments and other agencies to reduce the population within restrictions imposed by Congress,” then adding: “The restrictions include a ban on returning prisoners to certain countries, including Yemen and Somalia, or sending any to the U.S., even for further imprisonment. The administration is committed to closing the detention center, an effort it jump-started after four years of inaction under Trump.”

One sign of progress is the eight approved for release through a review process created under Obama. Under Trump, just one detainee was cleared and the only release was a Saudi sent back to his homeland as part of an earlier military commission plea deal.

Critics want the Biden administration to get busy repatriating or resettling the detainees who have been cleared and to restore a State Department unit devoted to the effort that was eliminated under Trump. Advocates argue the administration could resolve the fate of the rest by transferring the military commission cases to federal court and releasing the rest.

Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York who with his students has represented 14 Guantanamo prisoners since 2005 says:Biden's low-key approach could be a smart strategy considering the political opposition encountered by Obama. He appears to have learned from Obama’s missteps, transferring one prisoner and clearing many without being too loud about it and painting a target on his own back, Still, the administration must up the pace because, at the rate of one prisoner a year, it won’t come close to shuttering the prison.”

My 2 Cents: I still advocate to try those awaiting trial, punish them more; release those without any formal charges; and then close the place down. It has cost over $540 million to date keeping it open and operating.

Just imagine U.S. POWs still being held in Hanoi for 20 years. Time for justice to prevail – this is taking far too long for the accused to face justice.

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