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NEWS ABOUT: enemy combatants

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So Miranda Didn't Blow This Case—but It Could Have!

Treat terrorists as enemy combatants, or we endanger civilians

(Newser) - America must update its approach to investigating terrorists, argues Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post . It's great that Faisal Shahzad kept talking after being read his Miranda rights, but what if he stopped? His silence could have put people at risk. "We should treat enemy combatants as enemy combatants,... More »

Slovakia Takes 3 Gitmo Detainees

Transfer based on EU-US agreement designed to help close prison

(Newser) - Three detainees from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay were moved to Slovakia over the weekend, bringing the total number of detainees at the Cuban base down to 193. Neither that nation nor the Justice Department, at Slovakia’s urging, would disclose the former prisoners’ names or nationalities, Reuters reports.... More »

Panel: 50 Gitmo Prisoners Must Be Kept Indefinitely

Task force says 110 can be released

(Newser) - A task force spearheaded by the Justice Department recommends that 50 of the 196 detainees at Guantanamo Bay be held indefinitely without trial. The group, providing a specific breakdown for the first time, determined that the 50 prisoners were too dangerous to release and that any trial would expose state... More »

More Ex-Detainees Returning to Fight: Pentagon

Classified report puts Guantanamo's recidivism rate at 20%

(AP) - One in five terror suspects released from the Guantanamo Bay prison has returned to the fight, according to a classified Pentagon report. Early last year, the Pentagon reported that the rate of released detainees returning to militancy was 11%. In April, it was 14%. The latest figure was 20%, according... More »

Easy to Find Middle Ground on Gitmo: Klein

Military courts wouldn't allow torture evidence, get civilian review

(Newser) - Lawyers and soldiers are divided on how to deal with enemy combatants, but “it shouldn’t be too hard to find a middle ground,” writes Joe Klein in Time, because both arguments “are being made by unappealing extremists.” It’s unrealistic to try detainees in open... More »

Al-Qaeda Agent Pleads Guilty to Supporting Terrorism

Al-Marri entered US the day before 9/11

(Newser) - An al-Qaeda sleeper agent who entered the country the day before the 9/11 attacks pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism in federal court today and faces 15 years in prison, the Peoria Journal Star reports. The government says Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who had been designated an "enemy combatant" and... More »

Afghan Detainees Have Right to US Courts: Judge

(Newser) - A federal judge overruled both the Bush and the Obama administrations today, declaring that prisoners held at a military base in Afghanistan can challenge their detention in US civilian courts, the New York Times reports. The prisoners deserve the same right that the Supreme Court granted to Gitmo detainees last... More »

Yemen Doc Cleared to Leave Gitmo After 7 Years

Justice Department clears detainee for transfer to unknown country

(Newser) - A Yemeni doctor held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 has been cleared for transfer abroad as part of the administration's review of prisoner cases, reports CNN. Justice Department officials say the hard part now will be to find a country willing to take him. The Bush administration once claimed the... More »

US Drops Term 'Enemy Combatant'

(AP) - The Obama administration said today it is abandoning one of President Bush's key phrases in the war on terrorism: enemy combatant, the AP reports. The Justice Department said in legal filings that it will no longer use the term to justify holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. But that won't change... More »

US Will Charge 'Combatant' in Military Custody

In policy shift, he will get civilian trial, not military tribunal

(Newser) - Ali al Marri, the only alleged enemy combatant held on US soil, will be charged by the Justice Department, possibly for supplying material support to terrorism, ABC News reports. The move to a civilian criminal trial is an about-face from the policies of the Bush administration, which had insisted on... More »

NATO Chief OKs Attacks on Afghan Drug Producers

(Newser) - NATO's top commander has authorized coalition troops “to attack directly drug producers and facilities throughout Afghanistan,” saying they “are inextricably linked to the Opposing Military Forces,” Der Spiegel reports. The order from US General John Craddock is not going over well with commanders on the ground.... More »

2 Dozen Gitmo Prisoners Win Court Cases

All but 3 who got hearings were found wrongfully detained

(Newser) - At least 24 detainees at Guantanamo Bay have won cases in federal court or military tribunals voiding their detention in the last 3 months. While the Bush administration has insisted that the prisoners who remain at Gitmo are "the worst of the worst," there was apparently no legal... More »

Judge Orders Youngest Gitmo Prisoner Freed

Chadian citizen, 21, has been held at camp since he was 14

(Newser) - A judge has ordered the military to release the youngest prisoner ever sent to Guantanamo Bay, reports CNN. The judge ruled that Mohammad el-Gharani, sent to the detention center in 2002 at the age of 14, was not an enemy combatant. El-Gharani's lawyer said his client, a citizen of Chad,... More »

US Ends Trials of 5 Gitmo Prisoners

Though charges are dropped, men are still held, may be retried

(Newser) - The war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay has dropped charges against five suspects that the Pentagon has called al-Qaeda operatives, reports the Los Angeles Times. All of the men were fingered by Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi-born militant whom the Bush administration concedes was waterboarded. The charges were dismissed after one... More »

Six Months for Hamdan? Scrap Military Trials

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

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

Court: al-Qaeda Suspect Can Challenge Detention

Ruling finds president can legally order detention, but detainee free to challenge status

(Newser) - The president has the right to order the detention of enemy combatants, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday—but detainees can challenge that status. The Virginia-based court was hearing the case of an al-Qaeda suspect who's been in a Navy brig for 5 years without trial, Reuters reports, making him... More »

Ex-Detainee Describes Gitmo Tortures

He was beaten, hung from ceiling, shocked with electricity

(Newser) - A man arrested in Pakistan and held as an enemy combatant in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay was hung from the ceiling, beaten, and shocked with jolts of electricity, he testified to Congress yesterday. The German-born Turkish citizen told lawmakers that US interrogators also forced water down his throat. He was... More »

Pentagon to Build Giant Prison in Afghanistan

New Bagram complex marks intention to hold prisoners abroad for years to come

(Newser) - The Pentagon is planning to build a huge new detention complex in Afghanistan, reports the New York Times, acknowledging that the US expects to hold prisoners there for many years to come. The 40-acre, $60-million facility at Bagram Air Force Base will replace the existing makeshift prison in a converted... More »

Freed From Gitmo—to Kill in Iraq

Release detainee becomes suicide bomber

(Newser) - One of the suicide bombers responsible for a series of attacks in the Iraqi city of Mosul last month is a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, reports the New York Times. The Kuwaiti, originally detained in Afghanistan, is said to have traveled to Iraq via Syria to join jihadists after... More »

What the Candidates Should Be Talking About

LA Times editors take a break from nonsense and turn to issues

(Newser) - Quick, before the public completely loses interest: Let’s leave aside “guns, bitterness, race, religion, geriatric radicals and other trivia,” and turn to real presidential political issues, Los Angeles Times editors write. They pose some questions that most need answering:
  • For John McCain: You voted against giving workers
... More »

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