WASHINGTON, June 22, 2007
U.S. May Move Detainees To Afghan Prison
News Of Transfer Of Some Guantanamo Prisoners Comes Amid Criticism Of Tribunals By Army Lawyer
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Photo
The sun rises over the razor-wired detention compound at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, in this Dec. 8, 2006, file photo. The Bush administration reportedly is seeking to move some inmates being held at Guantanamo to a facility being built in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
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Gitmo Tribunals
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The news comes the same day as the release of an affadavit by an Army lawyer criticizing the evidence used by military tribunals to determine whether detainees will continue to be held.
The Bush administration has said it wants to close Guantanamo Bay and move terror suspects to prisons elsewhere. Senior officials have told The Associated Press a consensus is building among the president's top advisers on how to do it.
The administration is looking to resolve the issue swiftly, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino told reporters Friday, although she said there's no deadline set.
"Everybody is working towards the goal to meet what the president has asked them to do, which is to do it as soon as possible," she said of shuttering the facility.
A meeting of top officials on Guantanamo was planned for Friday but it was called off when word leaked.
Even so, Perino said, the president remains committed to shutting down the jail for suspected terrorists, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller. But, Perino added, "Nothing is imminent."
"America does not have any intention of being the world's jailer," Perino said. She noted that the United States has announced plans to release about 80 of some 375 detainees, and hopes to transfer several dozen Afghans back to Afghanistan in the near future.
The Pentagon announced Friday that a new detainee had been transferred to the center, but added it was doing its best to reduce the population there, now at the lowest point in its five-year history.
That word came the same day as new criticism of the military tribunals held at Guantanamo Bay was raised, this time by an Army officer with a key role in the hearings.
In an affidavit released Friday, Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran of military intelligence who is an Army reserve officer and a California lawyer, says the tribunals relied on vague and incomplete intelligence and were pressured to declare detainees "enemy combatants," often without any specific evidence.
Abraham said military prosecutors were provided with only "generic" material that didn't hold up to the most basic legal challenges.
Despite repeated requests, intelligence agencies arbitrarily refused to provide specific information that could have helped either side in the tribunals, according to Abraham, who said he served as a main liaison between the Combat Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) and those intelligence agencies.
"What were purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence," Abraham said in the affidavit, filed in a Washington appeals court on behalf of a Kuwaiti detainee, Fawzi al-Odah, who is challenging his classification as an "enemy combatant."
Abraham "bravely" agreed to provide the affidavit when defense lawyers contacted him, said al-Odah attorney David Cynamon.
"It proves what we all suspected, which is that the CSRTs were a complete sham," he said.
At the White House, Perino said Mr. Bush has directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to work with her counterparts around the world to try to repatriate detainees to their home countries, make sure they are held safely and treated humanely and that they are not allowed to perpetrate acts of terrorism.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that Rice continues to work to achieve that goal while she and others in the administration struggle with how to address security concerns that could result from closing Guantanamo.
"The president has said he would like nothing better than at some point to shut down Guantanamo Bay, but there are a number of steps that need to be taken between here and that stated objective and they are tough issues," McCormack said. "There are people down at Guantanamo Bay who are very, very dangerous and you can't just let them walk free."
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman noted Defense Secretary Robert Gates supports closing the facility.
"I think that's the goal of everybody in the administration and probably most Americans — that we would rather not have to have a place like Guantanamo," he said. "But the fact remains that there are dangerous people out there that are being picked up on the battlefield that have vowed to return to the fight if released and individuals that have committed war crimes and should be held accountable for their actions."
The Pentagon announced the transfer to the center of Haroon al-Afghani, an alleged terrorist captured in the Afghan province of Nangarhar who is suspected of serving as a courier for al Qaeda leadership and commanding multiple cells of the Hezb-e-Islami militant faction.
The Guantanamo Bay prison, set up in 2002 to house terror suspects captured in military operations, mostly in Afghanistan, has been a flashpoint for criticism of the Bush administration at home and abroad.
Human rights advocates and foreign leaders have repeatedly called for its shutdown, and the prison is regarded by critics as proof of U.S. double standards on fundamental freedoms in the war on terrorism.
Some of the detainees have come from countries that are U.S. allies, including Britain, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Each of those governments raised complaints about the conditions or duration of detentions, or about the possibility that detainees might face death sentences.
A proposal gaining traction among Mr. Bush's top national security advisers would have some of the most dangerous suspects at Guantanamo transferred to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., officials say.
White House spokeswoman Perino said the Friday gathering to discuss the issue was canceled because it was determined that a "meeting wasn't necessary at this time."
"There was going to be a meeting in which Guantanamo detainee issues were discussed today, but that has been taken off the schedule," she said. "That doesn't mean that people don't continue to work on what the president has asked them to do, which is work towards getting that facility closed."
Expected to consult soon, according to the officials, are Rice, Gates, Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace.
The move is opposed by Cheney's office and the Justice Department, which argue that transferring prisoners to U.S. soil would give them undeserved rights and pose a threat to the United States.
But pressure on the administration to shut the facility has been mounting in recent months with a series of legal setbacks and some in Congress threatening to mandate it. The pressure has given advocates of closure some leverage in intense internal debate, the officials said.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 185 CommentsLet's made sure it is closed down instad of relocating it to Afaganistan... Another Bush lie, He & Gonzales was responsible for keeping it open for so long.
They were Taliban and Al-Qaida captured in Afghanistan after 9-11, mostly Afghans, Saudis, Egyptians, Pakistanis. Why leave them in Iraq? Oh, I forgot, people like you figure them for the same place...
Torture and humiliation of unlucky saps sold into slavery by unscrupilous warlords...
We have been Bu$hed!
Dubya may wish to wash his hands of the blood of fascism, but the stains will stay with him through history.
Re: "Gitmo is the biggest Bu$h failure ever"
It doesn't have to be. This would be an excellent location for use in detaining, trying, and sentencing the Bush regime and their accomplices, for treason, crimes against humanity, Contitutional breaches, and war crimes.
Re: "Officials familiar with the agenda of Friday's meeting said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace and Vice President *** Cheney are likely to attend."
This would make an excellent initial transfer of candidates for the converted Guantanimo. This crew is enough to keep an army of judges and attorneys busy for a long time.
In short, I wouldn't expect any miracles out of the White House and can only expect things to get worse.
It's time to salute "der Furher"!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!
Open your eyes and start appreciating what you have as a citizen of the greatest country in the world and maybe you wouldn't be so angry and unhappy all the time.
Posted by producer123 at 09:54 PM : Jun 21, 2007
Thinking America is the greatest country on earth shows how little you know of the outside world. This is the kind of arrogance that makes people dislike the US and prevents people like you from seeing the truth. Other countries have the capability of making war on governments they don't like, or don't agree with, but they don't. Other countries have a political system that doesn't require you to be a zillionaire to run for office.
What's so "great" about that??
Where do they turn ? How ironic.
... Oh, these guys aren't prisoners or charged with any crimes. We're just holding onto them for a while ... you know, detaining them ... holding them gingerly by their wrists. It's all very cordial.
Now, run along and tend to your personal life. There's nothing to see here.
The world wants (requires) due process for these people so at the very least those men and children (yes there are children there) who are innocent can be repatriated, and those who are guilty can feel the full force of the law.
Failure to do this has resulted in the tables being turned, crass hipocrac by the White House, who in claiming they were protecting American freedoms were in actual fact destroying them.
We in the outside world see this very clearly. What we don't understand is why don't you?
Not to mention, several other countries have a higher standard of living, better education and health care systems, better public transport and lower crime rate. Check the stats for Singapore, for example.
How many beheadings? How many limbs were sawed off? Anyone get fed into a shredder? How about a discreet touch up with a blow torch or an electrical drill? Electrical charges to the genitals? ALL DOCUMENTED TORTURES USED BY THIS HEINOUS PERVERTED ISLAMO FACIST ENEMY.
Sleep depravation,being forced to listen to loud Rap Music hardly qualifies as torture. Even WATER BOARDING is humane when compared to a blowtorch.
THE TROUBLE WITH LIBERALS is they are fast and loose with the truth. Never allow the facts to get in the way of the truth.
THE TRUTH IS TORTURE DOESN'T WORK!
Promulgating a smoke screen defense for our enemies is as UNAMERICAN as any of those imagined sins, you think (DON"T KNOW) were committed at GITMO.
MORON! We are at WAR. The waco LIBERAL PRESS says it. So it MUST be TRUE, RIGHT?
You keep drinking the COOL AID.
We'll fight the bad guys.
TAKE ONE BAD GUY, APPLY WIRING TO TESTICLES, FLIP THE SWITCH, NOW ASK A QUESTION WHILE KEEPING YOUR FINGER ON THE SWITCH.............WOW, YOU GET AN ANSWER !
KEEP ASKING, KEEP FLIPPING THE SWITCH ONCE IN A WHILE..............TAAAAAA DAAAAAAAAAA , MAGICALLY TRUTH COMES SPILLING OUT OF THE BAD GUY !
NO MORE QUESTIONS......OK, TAKE BAD GUY TO BOAT, TAKE HIM OUT TO SEA, WRAP CHAIN AROUND ANKLES AND SHOOT HIS ***, PUSH SCUM BAG OVERBOARD.
TERRORIST PROBLEM SOLVED !
Posted by bluestardad
I think that Bush and Company should release these bastardos in the general population, preferrably where you live. This way we can see first-hand whether the administration is cleaning up it's evidence. Sounds good to me? Rightin your neighborhood.
Or we can send them back into the arena of Afghanistan over the mountains while we are in hot pursuit and just kill them. No court, no trial, no rights to our court system. This especially works for me. Or we can send them back to their countries of origin where they can lope off their heads. Much more merciful.
Do you like any of the above? I do.
You keep drinking the COOL AID.
We'll fight the bad guys.
Posted by JEGibbons
These people are muslim sympathizers. That's why they hate Bush so very much. If you aren't with them you are against them. You are supposedly a neocon (which is a code word for Jew). Then you have the leftwing numbnuts who like Boxer and Billary the two-headed Clintoid want to stiffle Talk Radio because they tell it like it is. Why would you want such freedom of speech? Right? Did you know that Congress now has a 14% approval rating. I said it last week that they would drop another 5% and they did. They want to stiffle free speech, they won't close the borders, but just about every bastardo on the face of the earth that means to do us harm deserves every friggin right we have. I say, put them on a boat headed for the high seas in hurricane season.
Neocon is a code word for Israeli Likud Party loyalist first and American loyalist second.
Please provide evidence of Congress trying to stifle talk radio and I'll fight it with you. Please also provide evidence of Democrats not wanting to close the borders and I'll fight with you on that one too.
If you can offer a suggestion on how to distinguish who wants to do us harm from who was grabbed off the street by profiling and do it without a hearing and the providing of even cursory evidence then let me know about that too.
Not hating all Muslims whether guilty or not does not make someone a Muslim sympathiser. It makes someone a believer in the American system of justice rather than the Jihadist system of justice.
It would be amusing to see how you would fare if the next time you went to court for say a speeding ticket you were subjected the GITMO legal process!
Posted by ozilot
In all the history of this country it has never been our enemy's right to receive any kind of due process in our legal system. I love my killer compassion. It has served me well. I survived a war and saved many a life in the process. This is not compassion. This is stupidity and a misuse of our legal system.
If you can offer a suggestion on how to distinguish who wants to do us harm from who was grabbed off the street by profiling and do it without a hearing and the providing of even cursory evidence then let me know about that too.
Posted by realpatriot1
Boxer and Clinton. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
said Thursday on John Ziegler's evening radio show on KFI in L.A. that he overheard Clinton, D-N.Y., and Boxer, D-Calif., saying they want legislation to control conservative radio talk shows.
S1639. New Name for Immigration Bill that Senator Harry Reid is trying to ram down our throats. It's the same bill that was previously introduced.
If you can offer a suggestion on how to distinguish who wants to do us harm from who was grabbed off the street by profiling and do it without a hearing and the providing of even cursory evidence then let me know about that too.
Then send them back to the country of their origins. We had weeded out those that were picked up off the streets as you say. They do not belong in our legal system.
We can't win the war on terror by sticking it to the rest of the world.
You assume that anyone we accuse is automatically guilty.There are plenty of people in there that we have the goods on and who should never see the light of day. There are also people that we grabbed off the street on the flimsiest of evidence that we've denied all INTERNATIONAL rights to!
Don't you think that can create more terror? It stands to reason that at least some of these people were not terrorists before but their relatives are now.
This is what many conservatives still don't get about the war on terror(yes,forget Edwards, the war is real)-In order to win,we can't go it alone and alienate the rest of the world. That's not in anyone's interest!
We need to get back to having the broad international support that we had after Sept.11 when we were widely perceived as the victim and not the perp.
This isn't the way to do it. Abu Grab isn't the way to do it. Standing up for and representing American principles is the way to do it.
Posted by realpatriot1
Abu Grab was an aberration. No doubt. These people were unsupervised and left to their own devices did unspeakable things that humilited their captors. Not the way to go. As to the other situation, I object to having these people processed through our legal system. I'm sorry, I stand very firm on that in light of the 4th Circuit determinations on the definition of enomy combatants. Since when do the courts have the right to determine who the enemy is or is not.
Very scary indeed....
==the right of defendents to a fair and speedy trial, due process, and right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the right not to testify against yourself.==
This comment would be COMICAL if it wasn't so pathetically DUMB! These people are CRIMINAL TERRORIST COMBATANTS taken from a battlefield in Afganistan or Iraq. They are NOT US citizens.
BTW - F.D.R. the BELOVED LIBERAL PRESIDENT OF WWII era jailed Japanese American Citizens during the World War. He did so without trial or due process. His logic, no reason other than fear and suspicion. NOT RIGHT, but it was understandable.
GITMO detainees are undeniable ENEMY COMBATANTS.
They are not American citizens. They are NOT under any circumstance entitled to the guarantees of our US CONSTITUTION. In our history have we ever guaranteed enemy combatants a status that gusrantees the right to trial? ANSWER NO!
This LOGIC could only come from an uninformed LIBERAL. We are at War. I know that may offend you, but it's the REALITY.
These Terrorists are counting on us to play fair. Go Figure!
THE BAD GUYS ARE CCOMING BACK.
Wonder what they would find if the same happened to Gitmo?
Wonder what they would find if the same happened to Gitmo?
Posted by adventurepa
Volley ball fields. Three hots, a cot and the Koran.
I hear what you're saying. I don't advocate trying all these people inour already overburdened justice system and giving them the same Constitutional rights as citizens. I realize some are calling for that.
Here's the problem from my perspective. We're in new territory here,hence grabbing people off the street. I know that you're correct that some innocents have been released already because I've seen them being interviewed by the media. I believe there's a really good chance that there are more, not because i think Bush is the evil one but because this is all new so there's no real precedent for this.
A military tribunal,as I understand it, doesn't require any evidence to be presented. We both agree that it should be kept out of our courts.
We either need to come up with a hearing process to provide evidence of terrorist activity that international observers can have confidence in or we need to send people back to their home countries.
It was in fact a job well done, except in the fact that they caught out in the end.
Posted by mudrose
Are you kidding mudrose? You must be.
I guess you missed the torture stuff happening at the secret US bases in other parts of the world. How about the fact Chaney is blocking secret meetings and stuff for the archives?
Are you that much in denial?
Think about it for a second.
Out of country and able to be disposed of easily down there.
"GITMO detainees are undeniable ENEMY COMBATANTS."
Posted by JEGibbons at 09:37 AM : Jun 22, 2007
Then why are they being released without being charged with crimes? We release "CRIMINAL TERRORIST COMBATANTS" from custody? They must not be "undeniable ENEMY COMBATANTS" if they're being let go - right?
Posted by mudrose
Are you kidding mudrose? You must be.
I guess you missed the torture stuff happening at the secret US bases in other parts of the world. How about the fact Chaney is blocking secret meetings and stuff for the archives?
Are you that much in denial?
Think about it for a second.
Out of country and able to be disposed of easily down there.
Posted by adventurepa
Any proof? I think we should have proof and not hearsay. Just like the Minister of Iraq who called U.S. Troops liars when our people found disabled orphans unattended, in squalor, naked, starving and in their own excrement. And we are talking about Gitmo?
Some people believe Superman can fly, too.
WHY? Because they read it somewhere.
Know what's good about Secret Bases?
You never have to prove they exist!
==Are you that much in denial?==
COME ON? No one is that big of a CHUMP,are they?
Do you have no concerns about your blind allegiance to the president? No matter what he or Cheney does, you defend it without question. Do you have any reservations about anything this president has done?
Do you have no concerns about your blind allegiance to the president? No matter what he or Cheney does, you defend it without question. Do you have any reservations about anything this president has done?
Posted by hungry1968
None whatsoever, especially in a time of WAR.
It was in fact a job well done, except in the fact that they caught out in the end.
Posted by jasonking4
It's an aberration. I say tomato and you say tamoto.
This is well documented information.
Canada had a very large case involving one of it's citizens.
"Know what's good about Secret Bases?
You never have to prove they exist!"
They exist. Many facts have been published about this .
O unless of cource you believe everything the government tells you.
"Are you that much in denial?"
"COME ON? No one is that big of a CHUMP,are they?"
Do tell!
This is ridiculous. I understand the right to a free and open market, but there is obviously no balance when it comes to what people are being fed on the radio. Personally, I don't feel they have the right to dictate radio programs, ever, but you have to admit there is a serious inbalance, no?
Posted by mudrose at 10:26 AM : Jun 22, 2007
We're not at war. The "War on Terror" is a catch phrase. You can't declare war on an idea, and Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism until we arrived and liberated the insurgents from Saddam Hussein.
But you know - never mind. There's no point in trying to converse with someone that has such a closed mind. Have a nice life.
I am completely confident in the combined wisdom of the American electorate. Together they may not be happy about this war, that's understandable. They are not happy about a number of things about this administration,Okay. But they are not READY to substitute a WEAK KNEED LIBERAL committed to cut and run, either.
If the Liberal Press continues to SPIN baseless, insinuation into believable accusation, the US will not only LOSE this war, but we will never be safe AGAIN.
Oh really?? What was the COLD WAR if not a war of ideas and economics. I guess we won that one because the LOONIES ON THE LEFT didn't realize it WAS a war.
RONALD REAGAN called it!
=="Tear down this wall!"==
But you know - never mind. There's no point in trying to converse with someone that has such a closed mind. Have a nice life.
Posted by hungry1968
Yeah, I know what you mean. Hahahahaha.
You dumba$$, I am so sick of this f*cking denial from you wingnuts. D1ck Cheney has been hitting the Sunday morning show circuit the last two years DEFENDING the US's use of torture. Remember the brohaha a while back about Cheney denying waterboarding being torture? Ever see the pictures of the "restraint" chair at Abu? You want proof? How about Cheney's own G0ddamn mouth?
Ah, yes, the guy who sold weapons to our terrorist enemy Iran.
Too bad your description of progressives is wrong and made up only to make it easier to hate liberals. Also too bad (for your "hate poor people" theory) that only a small majority of people abuse welfare and that most of them who are on it need it. But if it makes you feel better to make up facts in order to rage against liberals, knock yourself out.
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