The Gitmo Gulag

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June 2008
- 9/11 Mastermind Goads Others Into Dropping Lawyers
  
  Washington Post | Jun 6, 08 10:45 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Self-described superterrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed proved himself still the mastermind in court yesterday, urging his four co-defendants in the 9/11 plot to drop their lawyers and defend themselves, which all four had done by the end of the day. The Washington Post paints the scene, in which the men are talking, laughing, and joking—until one questions the wisdom of self-defense, and KSM spits back, “What are you, in the American Army now?” More »
- 9/11 Mastermind to Gitmo Judge: Martyr Me
  
  MSNBC | Jun 5, 08 10:28 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man said to have planned the Sept. 11 attacks, asked a judge to be put to death today, MSNBC reports. During his arraignment at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base a military judge told Mohammed he could face the death penalty. Mohammed replied, “Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time.” More »
- Alleged 9/11 Leader Faces Gitmo Tribunal
  
  Washington Post | Jun 5, 08 8:07 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, will be arraigned today at a special military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay, reports the Washington Post . Five years after his arrest in Pakistan, the detainee and four others will appear in a specially designed, $4 million courtroom to face charges of terrorism and "murder in violation of the law of war." More »
May 2008
- Amnesty Again Demands Gitmo Closure
  
  New York Times | May 28, 08 11:46 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The US has “distinguished itself in recent years through defiance of international law,” says human-rights advocate Amnesty International in its annual reports, released today. The group called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay and other secret detention centers , the New York Times reports, and the prosecution of "detainees under fair trial standards or release them." More »
- Gitmo Defense Lawyers See Case as a 'Privilege'
  
  Seattle Post-Intelligencer | May 27, 08 9:32 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Defending a Guantanamo Bay detainee isn't a normal pro bono case for Seattle corporate lawyers used to making $575 an hour, the Post-Intelligencer reports: But Harry Schneider and Joe McMillan say the "effort to rein in" what they see as President Bush's legal abuse is motivation enough. "Even a king can't do that," Schneider says of indignities forced upon Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's alleged driver. More »
- Ex-Detainee Describes Gitmo Tortures
  
  ABC News | May 21, 08 12:02 PM CDT
  
  (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 released without charge after nearly 5 years in custody. More »
- '20th Hijacker' Tried Suicide at Gitmo
  
  Reuters | May 21, 08 7:48 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A man accused of being al-Qaeda's 20th 9/11 hijacker tried to kill himself at Guantanamo Bay last month, Reuters reports. A lawyer for the Saudi said he cut his wrist open after learning that the Pentagon had filed capital charges against him. The charges were dropped last week without explanation but the Pentagon has reserved the right to reinstate them. More »
- Charges Dropped Against '20th Hijacker'
  
  Reuters | May 13, 08 3:49 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The US has dropped charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, who allegedly planned to be the “20th hijacker” in the 9/11 attacks, Reuters reports. The US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay rejected the charges against Qahtani “without prejudice,” meaning that the Saudi citizen may yet face prosecution. The charges against the other five alleged planners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were approved. More »
- Judge Purges General From Gitmo Case
  
  New York Times | May 10, 08 12:10 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A military judge has expelled a Pentagon general from the case of a Guantanamo detainee in a move that could open the military tribunal system to further attacks. The judge said the general—who is supposed to be impartial as overseer of the Gitmo legal process—worked too closely with the prosecution, fueling critics’ argument that the system is designed to score convictions, the New York Times reports. More »
- Freed From Gitmo—to Kill in Iraq
  
  New York Times | May 8, 08 3:29 AM CDT
  
  (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 his release in 2005. Several Gitmo detainees are known to have returned to insurgent status, officials say. More »
- 9/11 Suspects Won't See Trial on Bush Watch
  
  Washington Post | May 6, 08 4:29 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Guantanamo Bay inmates likely will not be tried for charges connected to the Sept. 11 attacks while President Bush is still in office, US officials say. The system set up in 2006 for trying charges brought against the prisoners is crawling. "Every little detail ends up being contested, because it's an entirely new system," a Human Rights Watch observer tells the Washington Post . More »
- Newsman Freed From Gitmo After 6 Years
  
  CNN | May 2, 08 6:24 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A cameraman was released yesterday from the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay after being held without charges for 6 years. Al-Jazeera's Sami al-Hajj, who has been on a hunger strike, was immediately taken to a hospital in Khartoum. "I've been dreaming of this moment," said the Sudanese journalist, who was arrested in 2002 as he covered the US invasion of Afghanistan. More »
April 2008
- Gitmo Drives Detainees Crazy: Lawyers
  
  New York Times | Apr 26, 08 10:48 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Osama bin Laden's driver can't help his lawyers prepare his defense because he's been driven mad by years of isolation at Guantanamo Bay, his lawyers say. The conditions "boil his mind" and prevent a fair trial, they say, an argument that will become increasingly common as lawyers begin preparing the first war crimes trials for Guantanamo detainees, the New York Times reports. More »
- White House 'Duped' General Into Torture: Book
  
  Guardian (UK) | Apr 19, 08 7:54 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Bush administration "hoodwinked" one of the country's top military men in order to establish harsh interrogation techniques on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, according to revelations in a new book reported in the Guardian. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers was misled by White House aides into abandoning the military's long-standing ban on inhumane treatment of prisoners, according to London law professor Phillipe Sands in his book Torture Team. More »
- Gitmo Prisoner Hails 9/11 at Court Hearing
  
  Reuters | Apr 11, 08 3:40 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A terror suspect told a military court at Guantanamo yesterday that he didn't recognize its legitimacy, and praised the 9/11 attacks. "I believe that Osama bin Laden has succeeded in a great way in attacking you," said Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, the Sudanese man accused of being bin Laden's bodyguard, driver and logistics operator. "The world has a headache from your hypocrisy." He said he didn't plan to attend future court sessions. More »
- Gitmo Detainees' Military Tribunals Mired in a Host of Snags
  
  New York Times | Apr 10, 08 7:50 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Six men detained in Guantanamo in connection with the 9/11 attacks were charged with war crimes two months ago—they were to be the first defendants in President Bush's never-tested military commission system. But not a single one has even met their counsel yet because military lawyers are in extremely short supply. It's one of several snags that have confounded efforts to get on with the military trials, the New York Times reports . More »
March 2008
- Pentagon Charges Inmate in Terror Strike
  
  New York Times | Mar 31, 08 5:38 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Pentagon charged a Guantanamo inmate today in the 1998 US embassy bombing in Tanzania that killed 11 people, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, saying he remained an al-Qaeda agent after the attack and worked as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden. But the charges quickly drew fire from critics of Guantanamo Bay tribunals. More »
- Former Prisoner to Detail Torture on 60 Minutes
  
  CBS | Mar 30, 08 4:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A former terror suspect will reveal details of tortures he suffered in 5 years of US custody tonight on 60 Minutes, reports CBS News. American authorities seized the ethnic Turk in Pakistan and continued to torture him even after determining he was innocent, he charges. The Pentagon refutes his claims. "The abuses are not only unsubstantiated and implausible, they are simply outlandish," said a Pentagon spokesman in a statement. More »
- Lawyers Declare Innocence of Waterboarding Victim
  
  CNN | Mar 18, 08 11:40 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah isn’t a member of al Qaeda or the Taliban, his lawyers contend, and he’s never tried to harm American citizens. Held in CIA secret prisons and waterboarded, Zubaydah wasn’t given anything “that would satisfy even the most basic notions of due process,” his lawyers wrote in a deposition unsealed yesterday, arguing that the native Saudi should go free. More »
- Qaeda Suspect Held by CIA, Moved to Gitmo
  
  Reuters | Mar 15, 08 7:15 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A top al-Qaeda suspect who has been in secret CIA detention for at least 6 months was moved this week to Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said yesterday. Muhammad Rahim, described as a "tough, seasoned, jihadist," is said to have been a close associate of Osama bin Laden's who helped the al-Qaeda leader escape from Afghanistan as the Americans hunted him after 9/11, Reuters reports. More »