Guantanamo Bay

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Oldest Gitmo Prisoner Loses Bid for Freedom

Saifullah Paracha, 68, considered too dangerous for release

(Newser) - Guantanamo's oldest prisoner won't soon return to Pakistan or the US as he had hoped: The Guantanamo parole board has ruled that 68-year-old Saifullah Paracha will remain in custody as "a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States." The Pakistani businessman has been...

Obama's New Plan to Close Gitmo: Move 56 Inmates to US

Plan would see 35 detainees moved to other countries

(Newser) - The White House responded to Congress' request for a blueprint for the closure of Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday—though NPR reports that President Obama's proposed plan is "not expected to go very far." It would see 35 of Guantanamo's 91 inmates transferred to other countries by...

Prisoner Leaves Gitmo, but Freedom Eludes Him

Inside the case of Younis Shokuri

(Newser) - Younis Shokuri spent 14 years imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. He got out in September only to be held again, and the New York Times reports on his "legal limbo." Repatriated to his native Morocco, Shokuri now is in the custody of that country's government, despite its assurances...

Freed Gitmo Prisoner Refuses to Leave

Lawyer says Yemeni man is too 'frightened' to leave the familiarity of Guantanamo

(Newser) - A Guantanamo Bay inmate who remained in the prison for nearly 14 years finally had his shot at freedom this week—and he turned it down. While two other Gitmo prisoners boarded a plane out of Cuba Wednesday morning, Yemen native Mohammed Ali Abdullah Bwazir—who Fox News says is...

Wrong Guy Has Been Held at Gitmo for 13 Years

Yemeni national was mistaken for al-Qaeda honcho

(Newser) - A 37-year-old man named Mustafa Abd-al-Qawi Abd-al-Aziz al-Shamiri has spent most of his adult life as a Guantanamo prisoner because of some confusion over his name, US authorities have admitted. A Defense Department review , which calls the Yemeni national "YM-434," states that he was initially thought to be...

5 Men Freed From Gitmo After 13 Years

Population now down to 107

(Newser) - Five Guantanamo Bay inmates who had been held without charge for almost 14 years have been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the Defense Department announced Sunday, marking the first time that the Gulf nation has accepted Guantanamo inmates from other countries. The men, who had been designated as enemy...

Feds Eye Colorado for Gitmo Transfers

State lawmakers don't want 'world's worst terrorists' in their backyard

(Newser) - The Unabomber may be about to get some new neighbors. Department of Defense officials plan to visit Colorado to assess whether facilities including a medium-security prison adjacent to the ADX Florence "Supermax" prison could hold prisoners now at Guantanamo Bay, which the administration wants to close, the Denver Post...

Gitmo Inmate: I Wished the CIA Had Killed Me

Majid Khan says he was dunked in ice water, kept in total darkness for a year

(Newser) - "I wished they had killed me," detainee Majid Khan told lawyers of abuse he suffered at the hands of the CIA at Guantanamo Bay, per Reuters . The mistreatment that the former Maryland resident says he endured went beyond the methods described in the Senate's December report : According...

No More Big Macs for Gitmo Inmates in Lawyer Meetings

Food during Guantanamo legal consults forbidden for 'health,' 'safety' reasons

(Newser) - Guantanamo Bay inmates accustomed to snacking on falafel, hummus, and kebabs—as well as fare from the on-base Pizza Hut or Mickey D's—brought in by their legal teams during visits will now have to confer on an empty stomach. In a "procedural modification" to existing rules about...

Youngest Gitmo Prisoner Goes Free in Canada

Omar Khadr promises to prove he's a good person

(Newser) - Omar Khadr, the youngest Guantanamo Bay inmate and last Westerner to be released from the facility, is out on bail after spending nearly half of his 28 years locked up. A judge in Alberta decided there was no evidence there would be "irreparable harm" if Khadr, who was transferred...

'Middle Class' Gitmo Inmates Struggle in New Home

They're not 'humble people of the desert,' Uruguay prez says

(Newser) - Controversy is flaring over the six Guantanamo detainees taken in by Uruguay for resettlement , with even the man who pushed through the plan, President Jose Mujica, seeming to criticize them for lacking a work ethic. The men were locked up for more than a dozen years at the US base...

Cuba to US: Return Guantanamo Bay

Raul Castro renews demand amid thaw in relations

(Newser) - Cuba is making a renewed push to get Gitmo back. President Raul Castro demanded today that the United States return the US base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba, and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations. Castro told a summit...

'I Almost Lost My Mind': Guantanamo Prisoner's Diary

Sexual abuse, beatings, force-feedings: 12-year inmate's book describes torture

(Newser) - For 12 years, Mauritania native Mohamedou Ould Slahi has been Prisoner No. 760 at Guantanamo, accused of aiding and abetting the 9/11 terrorists and involvement in a halted attack at LAX, der Spiegel reports. He's since confessed to multiple crimes, but he now says those admissions were only because...

GOP Seeks Halt as 5 More Gitmo Inmates Freed

Transfers to Estonia, Oman bring population down to 122

(Newser) - The release of five more detainees yesterday brought the inmate population at Guantanamo Bay down to 122—and brought President Obama a little closer to finally fulfilling his promise to close the detention center—but the transfer came just a day after Republicans proposed legislation to stop the releases. The...

Joint Chiefs Chair: Time to Close Guantanamo

Gen. Martin Dempsey calls detention center a 'psychological scar'

(Newser) - Count the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman among those who believe it's in the national interest to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Gen. Martin Dempsey says the facility at the US Navy base in Cuba "does create a psychological scar on our national values. Whether it should...

US Sends 4 Guantanamo Prisoners Back to Afghanistan

That leaves 132 detainees at Gitmo

(Newser) - The US has returned four Afghans from Guantanamo Bay back to their home country. US officials say the transfer—which drops the number of detainees at the facility to 132—is a sign of confidence in new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The Defense Department identities them as Mohammed Zahir, Shawali...

Gitmo Prison Count Hits Milestone

With release of 6, Cuban prison at lowest number of prisoners since 2002

(Newser) - Six prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to Uruguay, the US government said today, announcing a resettlement deal that had been delayed for months by security concerns in the Pentagon and political considerations in the South American country. The six are the first prisoners transferred to South America from...

Gitmo Now Down to 143 Prisoners

5 released and transferred to Georgia, Slovakia

(Newser) - Five prisoners have been released from Guantanamo Bay as part of a renewed effort to close the detention center, officials say. Three men were sent to Georgia and two to Slovakia for resettlement. They were among dozens of low-level prisoners at Guantanamo that an administration task force in 2009 deemed...

Obama Mulls Veto to Shut Guantanamo

Officials: Obama weighing options to move detainees to US

(Newser) - President Obama is considering overriding a congressional ban on bringing Guantanamo prisoners to the US in an effort to close the Cuban prison, the Wall Street Journal reports. Lawmakers are strongly against the move, which "would ignite a political firestorm, even if it's the best resolution for the...

Papers: Kissinger Made Plan to 'Smash' Cuba

Infuriated secretary of state sought airstrikes because of Angola incursion

(Newser) - The co-author of a new book about negotiations between the US and Cuba says Henry Kissinger was the secretary of state who tried the hardest, in secret, to establish normal relations with Havana, NPR reports. So when Castro launched a military mission in Angola in late 1975, Kissinger was "...

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