Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Home Front: WoT

Gitmo prisoner freed due to insufficient evidence

2009-12-02

[Al Arabiya Latest] Algerian detainee Saber Lahmar became one of hundreds of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to be freed for "insufficient evidence" and was transferred to French territory, his lawyer said late Monday. Lahmar, 39, is the last of five Algerians arrested in Bosnia in late 2001 to be transferred from Guantanamo since a U.S. judge's ordered their release in November 2008 due to insufficient evidence. Lahmar's attorney Robert Kirsh said that his client's departure from Guantanamo will allow him "to rebuild his life as a free man after nearly eight years of illegal detention." "Mr Lahmar suffered years of inhumane, isolating imprisonment. He was separated from other human contact until one month after Judge (Richard) Leon ruled that the detention of Mr Lahmar was illegal," Kirsh told AFP. Kirsh praised French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner as "straight shooters throughout this process." "We appreciate the opportunities they have given to Saber Lahmar and Lakhdar Boumediene," he said. Boumediene, one of the five Algerians arrested in Bosnia, was transferred to France and released on May 15. Hours after the announcement the French foreign ministry issued a statement. "In deciding to welcome to its soil a second former detainee France is contributing, as are other European and non-European states, to the implementation of the decision of President (Barack) Obama ... to close the Guantanamo detention center," the French foreign ministry said early Tuesday. "After seven years of incarceration in Guantanamo, Mr Lahmar can finally begin to live a normal life again," it said, adding steps would be taken to help his integration into French society. The U.S. Justice Department also announced that the United States has transferred two Tunisians held at its Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba to Italy. Earlier Monday Tunisian nationals Abel Ben Mabrouk bin Hamida Boughanmi and Mohammed Tahir Riyadh Nasseri "were transferred to the government of Italy. Both detainees are the subject of outstanding arrest warrants in Italy and will be prosecuted there," the Justice Department said. "The United States is grateful to the government of Italy for helping achieve President Obama's directive to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," it added. The two, according to prosecutors, were also part of a group that provided logistical support to a militant cell recruiting suicide attackers for operations in countries including Afghanistan. Obama vowed during his first week in office in January this year that he would close Guantanamo by the end of 2009 but the president recently delayed his promise and it is now expected to close later in 2010.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Portugal to resettle 2 Syrians now at Gitmo

2009-08-08

They're all yours. We have more if you want them ... Portugal announced Friday that it will resettle two Syrian men now held as detainees at the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, following France and Ireland in the humanitarian gesture. The six-paragraph statement posted on Portugal's Minister of Foreign Affairs website did not name the two men. But the joint foreign and interior ministries announcement linked the move to a broad European Union agreement to help the White House empty the prison camps that had been a source of tension between Europe and the Bush administration. It cast U.S. closure of the camps as "a milestone in revitalizing the transatlantic relationship and a victory for all those who advocate and promote respect for human rights in the fight against terrorism.'' Yeah, yeah, whatever, and remember, no give-backs ... The military holds fewer than a dozen Syrian men among its 229 foreigners at Guantánamo, including Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko, 31, whose detention was ruled unlawful in June by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. Ship him to Zimbabwe or Burma. It'll spite the judge, and in six months Abdul will be begging to come back ... President Barack Obama has ordered the prison camps emptied by Jan. 22 and Europe has been seen as key to a broad strategy that seeks to repatriate some, resettle others in third countries and put more on trial in either military or civilian courts. France has already taken in Algerian Bosnian Lakhdar Boumediene, who, like Janko, won an unlawful detention suit heard by Leon in a Washington court. Ireland interviewed two Uzbek citizens at the prison camps last month. The State Department confirmed the agreement Friday afternoon. "We are very grateful for the efforts of the government of Portugal . . . to join our effort to close Guantánamo through this humanitarian gesture and for the leadership it exhibited in achieving a common European position on resettling Guantánamo detainees,'' said deputy spokesman Robert Wood. Lisbon's announcement said that Obama's special envoy, Ambassador Daniel Fried, had presented a specific proposal to Portugal to take the two men. In response, it said, the government had balanced humanitarian and foreign relations considerations along with national security to forge the agreement, along with the prospects for a successful absorption of the two specific men selected for special entry visas. It did not specify whether the visas would allow the men to travel abroad, or simply remain in Portugal. The latest resettlement plans come as Fried is reportedly still negotiating with the Pacific island nation of Palau to provide asylum to some Uighur Muslims from China held in a prerelease camp at Guantánamo. It also comes as the White House is grappling with meeting the deadline as well as recent new congressional limitations and reporting requirements imposed on any future transfers, either abroad or to U.S. soil.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Obama's Detention Plans Face Scrutiny

2009-05-23

Of course it does: it now looks like the Bush administration detention plan. The Obama administration's efforts to craft what it calls a "preventive detention" plan for suspected terrorists will face constitutional challenges similar to those raised against the Bush administration's policies. Some detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are deemed too dangerous to release and may not be able to put on trial, creating a quandary that President Barack Obama said Thursday poses "the toughest issue we will face." There are still many unknowns in the administration's plans. How many prisoners will fall into the thorniest category requiring indefinite detention is still unclear while detainee cases are being reviewed by government lawyers. A White House task force reviewing detention policy is set to make recommendations in late July. The administration has floated with Congress a possible plan that would seek legislation allowing the government to hold suspected terrorists without trial indefinitely on U.S. soil. A National Security Court would oversee the cases. Administration lawyers view the congressional and court oversight of the plans as key to their argument that their approach differs significantly from the Bush administration, which tried to claim broad presidential powers to strip terror suspects of legal rights. There's a tradition of indefinite detentions by the military in war time. However, the government's argument that the campaign against al Qaeda and other terrorist groups may be a war without end creates complications. The government's past attempts at such detentions have a checkered legal history. According to some. The Bush administration and the Congress worked hard to create a system of checks and balances, with military tribunals and periodic reviews. They did that not one but twice, and both times the USSC threw out the hard-won plans, even though the USSC admitted that they, and judges in general, did not have the knowledge base or temperament to deal with the thorny issues of detaining combatants and terrorists. Had the Dhimmicrats just settled down these things could have been settled law by now and Bambi could be dealing with other issues. The Bush administration tested the government's indefinite detention powers in the case of Yaser Hamdi, a U.S. citizen captured in Afghanistan and detained as an "illegal enemy combatant." In a 2004 ruling, the Supreme Court agreed in part with the government. But its ruling that Mr. Hamdi had the right to challenge his detention led the Bush administration to create Pentagon-run tribunals to review cases of detainees. Which the Court then threw out. Administration officials acknowledge that the Hamdi case doesn't directly answer the legal questions posed by the White House's emerging indefinite detention policy. In a subsequent 2008 case, the Supreme Court backed the legal rights of foreigners held at Guantanamo, ruling in the case of Lakhdar Boumediene that he had a right to access the U.S. courts. That was where the USSC went off the rails. The Constitution specifically allows the executive branch to conduct war, which includes the handling of prisoners, and the legislative branch to fund and advise on war. There is nothing in the Constitution for the USSC to do with regard to war. Civil liberties and human rights groups who criticized the Bush administration's detention policies are definitive in their opposition to Mr. Obama's plans. "It's really crossing a constitutional Rubicon," said Jonathan Hafetz, American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented Ali al Marri. Mr. al Marri recently pleaded guilty to being an al Qaeda sleeper agent after years being held without charge as an "enemy combatant." Mr. Hafetz says that President Obama is "taking steps that are inconsistent with our legal traditions and values. At the same, he's closing Guantanamo but he's creating a new Guantanamo in another form." What is consistent with our legal tradition is not affording enemy combatants access to our legal system. That was decided just after WWII, and had we stuck to that we wouldn't have the mess we have today. In recent weeks, the Obama administration has won court backing for important elements of the policy. District court rulings have agreed with the administration that the congressional authorization for military force following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, as well as the laws of war, give the government the right to detain indefinitely members of al Qaeda and affiliated groups at war with the U.S. Those cases will likely continue to be in litigation for months to come. The government has tried indefinite detentions for cases unrelated to terrorism, particularly immigration and mental illness. A 2001 Supreme Court decision ruled it was illegal for the U.S. to indefinitely detain hundreds of Cuban refugees who arrived in the Mariel boatlift and who were deemed dangerous to release but whom the Cuban government refused to take back. Because those detainees weren't enemy combatants. No one would seriously argue that we're at war with Cuba. So of course we couldn't detain the Marielitos, no matter how odious they were. But the courts, including the high court in one case, have allowed state laws that require the indefinite detention of criminal sex offenders deemed to have mental issues that make them a danger to society even after they have served a prison sentence. The administration is studying detention proposals, including one from South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who suggests a hybrid approach: applying military law to declare detainees a danger to the U.S., followed by reviews of the National Security Court to verify detainees' status. On Wednesday, the president discussed outlines of such a plan with representatives of civil liberties and human rights groups at a meeting in the White House. These groups, including the ACLU, led the legal assault that won important court-ordered curbs on the legal underpinnings of the Bush administration's national security policy. They promise to the same to Mr. Obama's.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US releases Boumediene from Gitmo

2009-05-16

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States on Friday released the Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was at the center of a Supreme Court battle giving detainees the right to challenge their confinement, an Obama administration official said. Lakhdar Boumediene left the U.S. naval facility in Cuba Friday headed to relatives in France, said the official, who spoke on a condition of anonymity because the release was not yet cleared for announcement. Guess it's okay to bomb US embassies again ... It will be interesting to see how France feels about this decision in a year or two. Boumediene was arrested along with five other Algerians in 2001 in Bosnia, suspected in a bomb plot against the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo. He arrived in Guantanamo in January 2002. President Barack Obama has promised to close the prison at Guantanamo and has urged allies to help take prisoners from there. France promised to take one Guantanamo prisoner when Obama attended the NATO summit in April and said last week it would accept Boumediene. In June 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in a case called Boumediene v. Bush that foreign Guantanamo Bay detainees have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in civilian courts. On a 5-4 split, the majority said the U.S. government was violating the rights of prisoners there and that the system the Bush administration put in place to classify suspects as enemy combatants and review those decisions is inadequate. Perhaps the worst ruling since Plessy v Ferguson ... Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times." But the Constitution already provided for the handling of foreign nationals captured in time of war, Tony, you guys on the Court forgot that ... I'm sure they'll have the opportunity to revisit this decision in the not-too-distant future. The mills of God, and all that.

Link

Europe

Guantanamo detainee set to start new life in France

2009-05-09

[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The family of an Algerian national held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo for seven years is delighted he is due to arrive in France next week to start a new life. Lakhdar Boumediene, 42, would be the first non-French citizen from Guantanamo to be taken in by France since President Barack Obama pledged to shut down the prison camp when he took office in January. "I cannot hide the fact I am really happy. Soon, he is going to be freed," his wife Abassia Bouadjimi told AFP Wednesday from Algeria. "He really is keen to be free, and be with his wife and children," said his sister-in-law Louiza Baghdadi, who plans to welcome him into her home in Nice, she told AFP. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said earlier in Paris that France was "finalizing details to be able to accept him in France before the end of next week." French President Nicolas Sarkozy had agreed following a meeting with Obama in Strasbourg last month to take in the detainee who was cleared for release in November. Sarkozy applauded Obama's decision to shut down the camp that he described as an affront to US values and democracy. "We don't combat terrorists with terrorist methods, we combat them with the methods of democracy," he said. France had said it was ready to help Washington shut down the camp by accepting detainees but that the decision would be taken on a case-by-case basis. Boumediene was among six Guantanamo inmates arrested in Bosnia in 2001 and initially charged with plotting to attack the US Embassy in Sarajevo. The detainee, who has staged hunger strikes, is expected to be hospitalized briefly before being reunited with Baghdadi. More than 800 men and teenagers have passed through Guantanamo since former US president George W. Bush opened it on January 11, 2002 to hold "war on terror" suspects in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Some 245 prisoners are still held at the jail located at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, with around 60 of them cleared for release. Obama has vowed to close it by January 2010.

Link

Europe

Three Algerian Detainees Set for Transfer to Bosnia

2008-12-17

The Bush administration has decided to transfer three Algerian detainees to their adopted homeland of Bosnia, a decision that partially complies with the order of a federal judge who said last month that five Algerians should be released "forthwith," rejecting government allegations that the men were dangerous enemy combatants. But Lakhdar Boumediene, the Algerian whose name is associated with a landmark Supreme Court decision regarding the legal rights of those held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remains in limbo despite the U.S. District Court ruling and the imminent release of his countrymen. Administration officials and other sources, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said yesterday that authorities at the base have begun to prepare for a transfer, a process that includes moving detainees to a pre-release facility at Guantanamo and having them undergo exit interviews with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Three have had exit interviews in recent days, sources said. Those three men are expected to be flown out of Guantanamo today, weather permitting in Sarajevo. A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment, citing operational concerns. The ICRC also declined to comment.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Federal Judge Orders Release of 5 Guantanamo Detainees

2008-11-21

Why the hell do we even bother? For the first time, a federal judge today ordered the release of enemy combatants from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ruling that the government had provided insufficient evidence to continue their detentions. The decision came in the case of six Algerians who were detained in Bosnia after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and have been held at the military prison in Cuba for nearly seven years. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, a Bush appointee, ruled that five of the men must be released "forthwith" and ordered the government to engage in diplomatic efforts to find them new homes. In an unusual move, Leon also urged the government not to appeal his ruling, saying "seven years of waiting for our legal system to give them an answer" was long enough. In the case of the sixth Algerian, Belkacem Bensayah, Leon found that the government had met its evidentiary burden and could continue to hold him. Bensayah's lawyers said he would appeal. The landmark ruling is the first by a federal judge who has weighed the government's evidence in lawsuits brought by scores of detainees who are challenging their detentions. In June, the Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by the Algerians, that Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their detentions in federal court under the legal doctrine of habeas corpus. In October, a federal judge ordered the release into the United States of a small band of Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay, but in that case the government presented no evidence to justify their continued detention and no longer considers them enemy combatants. The government has been unable to find another country willing to take them in. In the case of the Algerians, the government presented mostly classified evidence in closed hearings that its attorneys asserted proved the men planned to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The government dropped earlier allegations, mentioned by President Bush in his 2002 State of the Union address, that they had plotted to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. Leon said the government did not provide enough credible and reliable evidence during a series of closed hearings to justify the detentions of the five Algerians: Lakhdar Boumediene, Mohamed Nechla, Mustafa Ait Idir, Hadj Boudella and Saber Lahmar. He said the allegations were provided by a single source in an intelligence document. The government did not provide enough information about the source to determine whether he or she was credible or reliable, Leon ruled. Leon made the ruling in the U.S. District Court's large ceremonial courtroom, which was filled with lawyers and law clerks hoping to witness a historic ruling. As he read his ruling, Leon had to wait for an Arabic interpreter to translate his words for the detainees, who listened via audio-link to the military prison. The detainees' lawyers hugged each other. "I have the feeling of relief for the five" who were ordered released, said Robert Kirsch, one of the Algerians' lawyers. The "judge did what he thought he had to do," Kirsch said. "I just hope the government listens." Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman who attended the hearing, said the department's attorneys were reviewing the ruling and would issue a statement later. It is not known whether the government will appeal. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo Bay, but the Bush Administration has aggressively fought the release of detainees by the courts. On Monday, an appeals court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case of the Chinese Muslims. The government was granted a stay to appeal the October ruling by U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina that the men, all Uighurs, should be freed into the United States. The government has argued the judge does not have the authority to order the release of detainees into the country.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Judge defines detainees as enemy combatants

2008-10-28

Ruling takes a first step in resolving the fate of terrorism suspects held without charge at Guantanamo Bay Reporting from Washington -- Al Qaeda or Taliban supporters who directly assisted in hostile acts against the United States or its allies can be held without charge as enemy combatants, a federal judge ruled Monday. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon takes a first step toward resolving the fate of some of the hundreds of men detained as terrorism suspects -- many without charges for years -- at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It also strikes a compromise between dueling definitions by the government and the detainees over who can be labeled an enemy combatant. Lawyers for six detainees, all Bosnians, said Monday's ruling limited the government's ability to hold suspects who were not captured on a battlefield. They called it a favorable opinion. Similarly, Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the government was pleased with Leon's ruling, which relies on the Defense Department's 2004 definition of an enemy combatant. One of the Bosnians involved in the hearing, Lakhdar Boumediene, won a landmark case in front of the Supreme Court last summer giving detainees the right to challenge their detention in federal court. But first, lower courts were to define the term "enemy combatant" and decide who would qualify as one. In Monday's order, Leon reached back to the Pentagon's September 2004 definition. "Happily, happily, there is a definition that was crafted by the executive and blessed by the Congress," Leon said. Wow, a judge who defers to the executive and to the Congress, and interprets law rather than makes his own. He won't last long if The One™ wins the election ... He pointed to the 2004 standard, defining an enemy combatant as an individual who was part of supporting Al Qaeda, Taliban or other associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the U.S. or its coalition partners. The definition includes anyone who committed a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy forces. That's a pretty good definition, and it should apply to more than just two dozen detainees ... With the definition in hand, both sides headed into what Leon described as a secret hearing to discuss the evidence against the Bosnians, much of which is classified and cannot be discussed in open court -- or even with the detainees themselves. The government initially detained Boumediene and the other five men on suspicion of plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo in October 2001. The Justice Department backed away from those accusations last week. Leon's definition only applies to the estimated two dozen cases under his jurisdiction. The rest are being reviewed by a different judge, who could set his own definition.

Link

Terror Networks

U.S. Sued Over Two Guantanamo Detainees

2004-07-13

Lawyers for two Algerian terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Tuesday they filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. government's authority to hold the men and saying they were wrongly handed over to American forces in Bosnia. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, lead attorney Stephen Oleskey said from Boston. (Must be a Kerry delegate) Lakhdar Boumediene and Mohammed Nechla were doing relief work in Bosnia when they were detained in 2001, according to the suit, which demands the U.S. government justify their detentions or free them. "There is no lawful basis for their detention, and they should be released," said Steven Watt, a lawyer involved in several Guantanamo cases for the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. The challenges follow similar lawsuits brought earlier this month on behalf of nine detainees at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba. The U.S. military maintains the nearly 600 detainees there are "enemy combatants" captured in the Afghanistan war and suspected of links to the fallen Taliban regime or al-Qaida. All the planes that brought detainees to Guantanamo originated in Afghanistan, said Army Lt. Col. Leon Sumpter, a spokesman. Lawyers for the Algerians, however, say they were not al-Qaida members, had no links to terrorism and were not involved in the Afghan conflict. The lawsuit says neither man "was in or near Afghanistan, or any other theater of war" when they were detained. The lawyers said the two Algerians were among six arrested by Bosnian police in October 2001. Bosnian authorities said the police, investigating possible al-Qaida cells, acted on a tip-off from U.S. authorities who suspected the six of threatening U.S. and British embassies. Their lawyers appealed to Bosnia's top human rights court, the Human Rights Chamber. On Jan. 17, 2002, a few hours before the men were to be released for lack of evidence, Bosnian police handed over the six to U.S. authorities, acting on a late-night request. Their families sued the Bosnian government at the Human Rights Chamber, which ruled the families should be paid compensation. In December, the Bosnian government said it would offer each family $19,000. The latest lawsuit was prepared with the consent of the Algerians' wives, Oleskey said. The men, like most at Guantanamo, have not been allowed contact with lawyers. So far, 15 detainees have been designated to stand trial by military tribunals, including three charged with offenses including war crimes conspiracy. In response to a June 28 Supreme Court ruling, U.S. officials said they began notifying detainees Monday that they may challenge their detentions in American courts, and challenge their status as "enemy combatants" before military panels.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-9 More