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The Gitmo Gulag

Started by S Goldstein; Last updated Feb 22, 08 7:04 PM CST by Imperator | View history

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The Gitmo Gulag

The remote prison where America holds the 'worst of the worst' has quickly turned into a symbol of the war on terror...and of its abuses

Stories

Stories 1 - 20 of 101

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July 2008
- Gitmo Trial Describes al-Qaeda Inner Circle
  
  newser | Miami Herald | Jul 22, 08 3:02 PM CDT
  
  Arguments in the trial of Salim Hamdan gave a view of al-Qaeda's inner circle today, as prosecutors opened by painting Osama bin Laden's driver as a key member of the organization, the Miami Herald reports. The lead prosecutor depicted Hamdan as a constant presence in high-level al-Qaeda operations and argued that he knew the destination of the fourth plane hijacked on 9/11. More »
- Judge in Gitmo Driver Trial Nixes Interrogation Evidence
  
  newser | Miami Herald | Jul 21, 08 4:42 PM CDT
  
  A military judge at the war-crimes tribunal for Osama bin Laden’s alleged driver today barred evidence from a series of 2002 interrogations in Afghanistan, the Miami Herald reports. Salim Hamdan says he was subjected to sleep deprivation and was not offered a lawyer; his defense team wants all interrogations stricken. On the first day of his trial at Guantanamo Bay, the Yemeni formally entered a not guilty plea. More »
- Historic Terror Trial Starts Today
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jul 21, 08 2:42 AM CDT
  
  The trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver is set to begin at Guantanamo Bay today. Salim Hamdan, accused of transporting weapons, will be tried by the first military commission since the end of World War II, reports the Washington Post .The proceedings promise to be the first big test of the controversial military justice system introduced after the 9/11 attacks. More »
- Gitmo Trial Will Proceed After Judge Threatens Delay
  
  newser | Miami Herald | Jul 18, 08 5:01 PM CDT
  
  Federal prosecutors will give lawyers for Osama bin Laden's ex-driver access to accused 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed this weekend, ensuring that the first Guantanamo tribunal will begin Monday as scheduled, the Miami Herald reports. The judge in the case apparently forced the hand of the government lawyers prosecuting Salim Hamdan by threatening to delay the opening of the trial. More »
- Trial of Bin Laden's Driver Can Begin, Judge Rules
  
  newser | Associated Press | Jul 17, 08 1:37 PM CDT
  
  The first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay can begin Monday, a federal judge ruled today, saying civilian courts should let the military process play out as Congress intended. A US District judge rejected an effort by Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, to postpone his trial. More »
- Video of Gitmo Interrogation Hits Web
  
  newser | CBC (Canada) | Jul 15, 08 6:47 AM CDT
  
  A videotape of Canadian officials interrogating a sobbing 16-year-old detainee at Guantanamo Bay surfaced on the Internet today. The clip, made public under a court order obtained by the suspect's lawyer, is the first such footage from the detention center to reach the public, the CBC reports. It shows an intelligence agent grilling Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen charged with killing a US soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan. Khadr says he was severely tortured in Afghanistan. More »
- Gitmo Inmates May Testify for bin Laden Aide
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jul 15, 08 5:07 AM CDT
  
  Fellow Guantanamo Bay inmates may testify at the upcoming terror trial of Osama bin Laden’s former driver, the Washington Post reports. Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan hope the testimony will prove their client was not a high-level terror operative. The military officer in charge of the case said he would allow it, and that it would probably be a boon to Hamdan. But prosecutors say the testimony could threaten national security. More »
- 'Insane' Gitmo Rules Frustrate Lawyers
  
  newser | Reuters | Jul 14, 08 11:42 AM CDT
  
  Lawyers for the five Guantanamo prisoners facing military tribunals find themselves drowning in red tape, with security rules undermining even the most basic proceedings, Reuters reports. From office supplies to legal backup for the three detainees representing themselves, support is hard to come by. "You have from the sublime to the ridiculous," says one lawyer. "You have from the mundane to the serious and significant." More »
- Judge Demands Speedy Trial for Gitmo Prisoners
  
  newser | Associated Press | Jul 9, 08 2:51 AM CDT
  
  A federal judge coordinating 200 Guantanamo Bay cases has ordered the Justice Department to set aside all other work to give the detainees their day in court as soon as possible. "The time has come to move these forward," he ruled. A Justice Department attorney asked for eight weeks to start turning over evidence so the government can "present its best case." More »
- Bush Could Decide by Weekend to Close Gitmo
  
  newser | ABC News | Jul 3, 08 3:55 PM CDT
  
  President Bush could decide by Saturday to close Guantanamo Bay as a prison for high-value detainees, insiders tell ABC. There is “generally wide agreement” among Bush's top advisers—Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates among them—that Gitmo should eventually be shuttered, but the landmark recent Supreme Court decision undermines the central reason to keep prisoners on the Cuban base—to prevent access to courts. More »
- Gitmo 'Torture' Modeled on Chinese Grilling of US POWs
  
  newser | New York Times | Jul 2, 08 3:37 AM CDT
  
  Guantanamo Bay interrogators learned their techniques from Chinese Communists who used them on American POWs in the Korean War, the New York Times reports. A 1957 Air Force chart labeled Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance detailed methods like prolonged standing and exposure to cold, and was used as a training aid by military trainers. The chart was copied verbatim for use at Guantanamo. More »
- Court Likens Gitmo Case to Absurd Poem
  
  newser | New York Times | Jul 1, 08 6:24 AM CDT
  
  In ruling that a Gitmo detainee has been improperly held for 6 years, a federal appeals court deemed the government's standard of evidence on par with an absurdist poem of the 19th century. The DC Court of Appeals voided the detention of Huzaifa Parhat last week, but yesterday it released the unclassified text of its unanimous decision, which contains sharp rebukes to the Bush administration and the Pentagon, reports the New York Times . More »
June 2008
- Fall Gitmo Trials Could Present Campaign Landmine
  
  newser | Politico | Jun 24, 08 11:13 AM CDT
  
  If everything goes right, the trial of the five Guantanamo Bay detainees charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks could begin within days of their seventh anniversary—and just as the presidential campaign begins its most heated stretch, Politico reports. Such a development would usually be a gift to Republicans, but this year it could help—or devastate—either candidate. More »
- Advisers to Bush: You Asked for It
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jun 21, 08 3:44 PM CDT
  
  President Bush ignored warnings that his detainee policy would spark a Supreme Court backlash, the Washington Post reports. Top lawyers both in and outside Washington said that jailing suspects without Congressional approval would push the court to rule on national security—but the White House either ignored the advice or disagreed. More »
- Fierce Military Lawyers Take On Gitmo Fight
  
  newser | New York Times | Jun 19, 08 2:43 AM CDT
  
  Military lawyers appointed to represent Guantanamo prisoners have been fighting in their clients' corner with unexpected fierceness, the New York Times reports. The lawyers have infuriated prosecutors by challenging the administration's war crimes system and demanding rights for their clients. One of them describes the task as a "historic opportunity to defend the rule of law." More »
- CIA Gave Pentagon Torture Tips
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jun 18, 08 8:06 AM CDT
  
  The CIA gave the Pentagon advice about the legality of harsh interrogation techniques to be used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, the Washington Post reports. Documents shown to a Senate committee yesterday reveal that the agency had a bigger role than first thought. Torture is "subject to perception,"a CIA lawyer told officials at a 2002 meeting. "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong." More »
- Court's Gitmo Ruling a Judicial 'Power Grab'
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | Jun 17, 08 5:23 PM CDT
  
  The Supreme Court's decision on Guantanamo Bay detainees got such praise from newspaper editorials that one might think a “dictator” had been stopped “from trampling civil liberties,” writes former Justice Department official John Yoo in the Wall Street Journal . In fact, the ruling is an unprecedented judicial “power grab” that defies the Constitution and gives terrorists the same rights as citizens. More »
- Note to McCain: Gitmo Ruling Hardly 'Worst'
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jun 17, 08 1:29 PM CDT
  
  John McCain's painting of last week's Guantanamo Bay ruling as one of the Supreme Court’s “worst decisions" has George Will scoffing in the Washington Post . Various segregation rulings could hold that title, he notes, but more important to McCain should be the justices' affirmation of habeas corpus, "the heart of the centuries-long struggle to constrain governments"—something the Republican should, in theory, be aiming for. More »
- Ex-Pentagon Lawyers Face Grilling in Torture Probe
  
  newser | New York Times | Jun 17, 08 5:33 AM CDT
  
  Pentagon lawyers had more input than was initially thought into the harsh interrogation techniques used on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, sources close to a Senate investigation have told the New York Times . Documents from 2002 reveal that officials in the Department of Defense, then run by Donald Rumsfeld, researched techniques like waterboarding months before they were used on detainees. More »
- Bush Forced Ruling on Detainees
  
  newser | Newsweek | Jun 15, 08 7:45 PM CDT
  
  President Bush forced the Supreme Court’s hand by overplaying his own over Guantanamo detainees, Stuart Taylor, Jr. writes in Newsweek . Courts usually defer to Washington on national security, but Bush so flouted ordinary "ideas of justice and liberty" that he "put the Supreme Court in an impossible position." Stuck with detainees who say they are innocent, justices have granted them full access to federal courts. More »

Stories 1 - 20 of 101

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Images (4)
Videos (1)

Protestors walk from the US Supreme Court during the International... (Getty Images)

FILE ** The sun rises over the razor-wired detention compound at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, Thursday, in this Dec. 8, 2006, file photo. Lawyers for Guantanamo detainee Jamil el-Banna... (Associated Press)

A Guantanamo detainee, center, is escorted by U.S. military personnel on the grounds of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba, in this May 15, 2007, file photo reviewed by U.S.... (Associated Press)

A Guantanamo detainee peers out through the so-called "bean hole" which is used to allow food and other items into detainee cells, at Camp Delta detention center, Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba,... (Associated Press)

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Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and the C.I.A. (russellwyllie (YouTube))

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Related Threads

War on Terror • Is It Torture? • Supreme Court • Election 2008 • Afghanistan • Bush 43 • Homeland Security • O Canada • The 9/11 Tribunal • Dick Cheney

Background

Human Rights Watch: 5 Myths About Guantanamo
Human Rights Watch

MYTH: The detainees at Guantanamo are the %u201Cworst of the worst." Fact: Few of the men sent to Guantanamo are the high-ranking al Qaeda or Taliban members the US government alleges them to be. Hundreds were not even involved in the conflict, but rather sold to the US by bounty hunters or turned over...

» Read more about Human Rights Watch: 5 Myths About Guantanamo at Human Rights Watch

Guantánamo Bay
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

Inlet of the Caribbean Sea, southeastern Cuba. It is one of the largest bays in the world: its harbour is about 6 mi (9 km) wide and 12 mi (19 km) long. Its strategic importance was recognized during the Spanish-American War, when U.S. ...

» Read more about Guantánamo Bay at Encyclopedia.com

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