Charges Dropped Against 5 Gitmo Detainees

U.S. Withdraws War Crimes Charges After Prosecutor Resigns Alleging Supression of Evidence

(CBS/AP)  The U.S. military says it is dropping war-crimes charges against five Guantanamo Bay detainees.

A military spokesman says the government can renew the charges later. The chief prosecutor - Army Col. Lawrence Morris - will review material, coordinate with intelligence agencies and recommend appropriate action in each case.

Spokesman Joseph DellaVedova said Tuesday the charges were dropped against Noor Uthman Muhammed, Binyam Mohamed, Sufyiam Barhoumi, Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi and Jabran Said Bin al Qahtani.

The announcement comes after U.S. military prosecutor Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld resigned last month alleging the military was suppressing evidence favorable to defense attorneys.

It is the latest setback for U.S. authorities trying to prosecute so-called "illegal enemy combatants."

One of the detainees, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian refugee who moved to Britain when he was 15, alleges he was tortured while in custody in Morocco. He was accused by the U.S. of conspiring with al Qaeda leaders to attack civilians with a dirty bomb.

Mohamed is the subject of a separate court battle in Britain for the release of secret documents that his lawyers believe will prove he was tortured.

Captured in April 2002 in Pakistan, Mohamed (left) claims he spent 18 months in Morocco and was tortured there before being flown to an alleged CIA-run site in Afghanistan and later Guantanamo.

Although the military commission dropped the charges, Mohamed is still being held at the U.S. prison camp awaiting the possibility that authorities will file new charges against him next month, according to Clare Algar, executive director of the British legal charity Reprieve, which represents some 30 Guantanamo detainees.

Appeals Court Refuses To Immediately Free Muslims From China

Meanwhile, a divided federal appeals court on Monday refused to allow the immediate release into the U.S. of 17 Turkic Muslims being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, agreeing to keep them in prison for at least several more weeks.

In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with the Bush administration in halting the Muslims' release while the government prepares its full appeal. Lawyers for the detainees, a group of Muslims from China known as Uighurs, had asked that they be freed into the U.S. pending the time-consuming appeal.

The appeals court ordered both sides to submit additional briefs by Nov. 7. Judges will hear oral arguments on Nov. 24.

"We're pleased the court has granted our motion for a stay pending the appeal, and we look forward to presenting our arguments before the court of appeals," Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

Lawyers for the detainees declined immediate comment late Monday as they weighed their next move. One possibility might be to appeal to the Supreme Court, which ruled in June that foreign detainees at Guantanamo have the right to appeal to federal judges to challenge their imprisonment.

Voting to halt the detainees' immediate release were Judges Karen Henderson and A. Raymond Randolph, both appointees of the first President Bush.

In a stern four-page dissent, Judge Judith W. Rogers, who was appointed by President Clinton, argued that the detainees should be freed. She noted that the Bush administration had acknowledged the Uighurs were no longer considered enemy combatants even as it continued to argue the detainees were a national security risk based on little more than the fact they had admitted to receiving weapons training in Afghanistan.

"The fact that petitioners received firearms training cannot alone show they are dangerous, unless millions of United States resident citizens who have received firearms training are to be deemed dangerous as well," Rogers wrote. "And, in any event, the district court found there is no evidence petitioners harbor hostility toward the United States."

She added that the government's appeal was problematic "given both the length of time that petitioners have been denied their liberty" and the years the government has already had up to now - with little success - to justify the Uighurs' continued imprisonment.

The Uighurs have been in custody at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo for nearly seven years.

The appeals court's move comes after U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina earlier this month ordered the government to free the detainees right away. Urbina said it would be wrong for the Bush administration to continue holding the Uighurs since they are no longer considered enemy combatants.

[impeach__w]

guyfrompa49 you must be some frieghtened little baby. Tell me how these guys would kill you in PA for being an American. As an American it is your responsibility to protect yourself. It is your right and your duty. It is also you duty to know right from wrong and though you may call us idiots, It is YOUR judgement that is clouded.
With the "laws" you seem to support, YOU could be permantenlty held in a prison just like this. As an American, this is what you need protection from. Remember Our Constitution Bush took an Oath to protect? What gives? Impeach.

[lastdance128]

The Political Criminal FBI Knew :
"RAPE - CHILD SODOMY - TORTURE and MURDER"
Were being Committed at : Guantanamo

The Political Criminal FBI SAID and did NOTHING
It took the : Freedom of Information Act
To FORCE : The FBI to Disclose __ What the FBI had Already WITNESSED

ANOTHER Criminal ACT of : The Political Criminal FBI
The FBI - (ONCE AGAIN ! ! ) __ GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION of :
"RAPE - CHILD SODOMY- TORTURE and MURDER"
___________

Rape - CHILD SODOMY - Torture and Murder
is SO ..... Sweet and Justified

When you are an FBI Employee and Immune From :
Criminal Complaints and Criminal Prosecution

Never has such a Perverted and Degenerate Sub-Human
Creature ever walked The Earth - Other than :
The Political Criminal FBI Employee
_________

The Political Criminal FBI needs to be Eradicated
A New Federal Law-enforcement - Investigation Branch
Needs to be Built - With a New Name and this time with
People Who Have some : Morals - Ethics - Patriotic and
American Constitutional Values
The Political Criminal FBI - has None of these Qualities !

Research : The Monarch Project MKULTRA
(Copy and Paste (Google)

Research : The Franklin Cover-up
(Copy and Paste (Google)

[lastdance128]

The Other Guantanamo.......

Asia Times online (South Asia) Jan 16, 2008
The other Gitmo
By William Fisher

NEW YORK - As last week marked the sixth anniversary of the arrival
of the first prisoners at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
human-rights organizations are attempting to focus on what some are
calling "the other Gitmo".

The detention center was set up by the US military. It currently houses
about 630 prisoners close to three times as many as are still held at
Guantanamo.

In 2005, following well-documented accounts of detainee deaths, torture
and "disappeared" prisoners, The prison is still under American military
control. And a recent confidential report from the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reportedly complained about the continued
mistreatment of prisoners.

Some prisoners have been held without charges or lawyers for more than
five years. The Red Cross said dozens of prisoners have been hidden from
prison inspectors.

According to Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
Bagram appears to be just as bad, if not worse, than Guantanam

The problems at Bagram burst into the headlines in 2005, after the
New York Times obtained a 2,000-page US Army report concerning the
deaths of two unarmed civilian Afghani prisoners guarded by US armed
forces in 2002.

The army acknowledged that the deaths were homicides. The prisoners
were chained to the ceiling and beaten, causing their deaths.

[burneb]

Another of the many screwups that are bound to happen when an arrogant Administration callously ignores existing laws and tries to create fantasy laws for their own sloppy purposes.

Their incompetent entanglements have downrated both worldwide and domestic confidence in our U.S. goverment''s preaching about liberty and justice, while they bring us shame.

Now even John McCain, who of all people should know better, no longer renounces illegal imprisonment and torture. America used to stand for much better.

[libluv2cnsor]

we should release all gitmo detainees..give them a $100 and a one way busticket bus to san francisco

[toolmangler-2009]

You would think the US could manufacture a case in 7 years. Prosecute them or let them go!
Posted by fiteit1 at 01:28 PM : Oct 21, 2008


Gitmo is the American "Gulag Archipelago".

[impeach__w]

BUSH CAN''T DO ANYTHING RIGHT. HE IS STILL NOT QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT EVEN AFTER EIGHT MISERABLE YEARS!

[spadeisspade]

NPR did a piece on the Uighurs a few months ago; from what I understood, the issue wasn''t necessarily building a case against them, but where they were going to be released. China has threatened to imprison/kill them if they go back (they were arrested outside of China, looking for refuge), the US doesn''t want them here (just in case), and since they''re Asian, no other Muslim country wants them.

[inventagod2]

Kinda hard to railroad these ''detainees'' when the real bad guys are here in our Pentagon...

[fiteit1]

You would think the US could manufacture a case in 7 years. Prosecute them or let them go!