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All posts tagged "guantanamo"

Trump considered sending political foes to Gitmo -- here's why he didn't: Ex-Trump official

Donald Trump actually once considered sending his political enemies to Guantanamo Bay, but didn't in part because it would be too expensive, according to a former Trump administration official.

Ex-DHS official Miles Taylor, known for secretly voicing his Trump criticisms while employed within the administration, appeared on MSNBC's Alex Witt Reports on Saturday and was discussing Trump's purported tendency to weaponize the justice system against his "adversaries."

"A number of folks who worked in the Trump Administration with me and have since spoken out against the ex president, we joke darkly about the fact that in the second term, a number of us will be in orange jumpsuits in Guantanamo Bay," Taylor said, adding that the joke isn't entirely outside of the realm of reality.

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"I say that the comment is half facetious, because Donald Trump actually did have a vision, while I was in the administration, to go use the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay to house political prisoners," he said. "In that case what he wanted to do is use it to move people from the southern border to send a message and put them in the same place where people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, sits behind bars, and send a message."

He noted that "the only reason Donald Trump didn't start sending people to Gitmo" is because "he was convinced it would be too expensive, and the facility couldn't house the number of people he wanted to send there. That was the mindset of the man when he was president of the United States.

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US panel recommends release of mentally ill Guantanamo detainee

This photo screened by US military officials shows a sign for Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, created after the September 2001 attacks

Washington (AFP) - American authorities have recommended releasing a mentally ill inmate from Guantanamo Bay and repatriating him to Saudi Arabia, according to a government document published Friday.

Suspected of being Al Qaeda's intended 20th hijacker for the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured by interrogators at the US military base in Cuba where he has been detained for nearly two decades. 

The government dropped its case against him in 2008 due to the abuse he experienced at the prison. 

The detention of  al-Qahtani is "no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States," the Periodic Review Board, a panel composed of several US national security agencies, said in a summary of its decision.

In its final determination dated February 4, the board said al-Qahtani was "eligible for transfer" and recommended that he be repatriated to Saudi Arabia where he could receive comprehensive mental health care and be enrolled in a rehabilitation center for extremists.

The body noted his "significantly compromised mental health condition and available family support."

Security measures, including surveillance and travel restrictions, were also recommended.

Al-Qahtani was one of the first prisoners sent to Guantanamo in January 2002. 

He had flown to Orlando, Florida on August 4, 2001, but was denied entry to the country and sent back to Dubai.

He was eventually captured in Afghanistan in December 2001.

His torture at the prison was widely documented and spurred on international human rights groups' calls for the site to be shut down. He was subjected to prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation and other abuses.

"We tortured Qahtani," Susan Crawford, a top judicial official in the Bush administration said in 2009, according to a Washington Post article.

In January, the United States approved the release of five of the remaining 39 men still at Guantanamo.

Ten others, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, known as "KSM", are awaiting trial by a military commission.

The detention center, run by the US Navy, was created after the 2001 attacks to house detainees in the US "war on terror" and has been called a site of "unparallelled notoriety" by UN rights experts.

Amnesty urges Biden to close Guantanamo Bay detention camp

The logo of the human rights organization Amnesty International is pictured in Berlin. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged US President Joe Biden to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, which has been operational for 20 years this month. Sebastian Kahnert/dpa

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged US President Joe Biden to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, which has been operational for 20 years this month.

The camp stands for arbitrariness, injustice and torture, Amnesty's US expert Sumit Bhattacharyya told dpa in Washington.

Bhattacharyya urged Biden to close the camp and bring people who were involved in torture or other illegal activities there to justice.

The camp now has 39 detainees left. It was established under the government of Republican President George W Bush to hold suspected Islamist terrorists without trial after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington DC.

Bush's successor, Democrat Barack Obama, wanted to close it, but failed due to opposition in the US Congress, while Republican Donald Trump wanted to keep the camp open.

Biden, who was Obama's vice president, is trying to push through with plans to close the facility.

To mark the upcoming 20th anniversary of the opening of the camp, Amnesty International held protests in several countries on Saturday.

In Germany, people turned out to mark the day in Berlin, Bremen, Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Halle, according to Amnesty.

The first prisoners were brought to the Guantanamo Bay camp - located on a US military base in Cuba - on January 11, 2002.

Lawmakers urge Biden to shut Guantanamo prison

The main gate at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Washington (AFP) - Democratic lawmakers called on US President Joe Biden Thursday to immediately shut down the Guantanamo prison and either release or place on trial in federal courts the 39 remaining "war on terror" detainees there.

With the United States approaching the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, 75 lawmakers signed a letter saying the US Navy-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was in disrepair, costly and a two-decade-old human rights embarrassment to the country.

The prison has become a symbol of the excesses in the "war on terror" launched after the 2001 attacks.

"The prison at Guantanamo has held nearly 800 prisoners throughout its history but currently holds only 39 men, many aging and increasingly infirm," they wrote.

"According to reports, the prison costs over $500 million per year to operate, at a staggering annual cost of $13 million per prisoner," they said.

"The continued operation of the prison is a stain on our international reputation and undermines our ability to advocate for human rights and the rule of law," they said.

The prison was activated in late 2001 when the United States combed the world for members and supporters of Al-Qaeda complicit in the September 11 and other attacks against US assets and facilities.

But detaining and secretly rendering hundreds of men to Guantanamo, subjecting many to torture, and holding them for years without charges or due process heavily tainted Washington's demands for justice after the 9/11 attacks.

Only a handful of prisoners have been charged under the military courts system set up for Guantanamo, and their cases have mostly ground to a halt.

The letter cited Biden's support for closing Guantanamo when he became vice president in 2009, which was reiterated after he became president in January.

"After nearly two decades, and numerous efforts at reform, the military commission process remains dysfunctional," the letter said.

When Biden became president, 40 detainees remained at the prison. One was released to his home in Morocco in July, and another 10 have been approved for release -- some for more than four years -- and away arrangements for their repatriation or transfer to a third country.

Twelve, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, called the architect of the 9/11 attacks, are in the slow-moving military tribunal system. Just two have been convicted over nearly two decades.

The other 19 are in limbo: they haven't been charged or granted release.

After stalling under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, the military tribunals began holding hearings again last month.

In September, the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is scheduled to resume with a pre-trial hearing.

U.S. judge halts force-feeding of Guantanamo prisoner

A U.S. federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the military from force-feeding a Syrian prisoner on hunger striker at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

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'Disruptive' 9/11 suspect expelled from Guantanamo courtroom

One of five men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks was expelled from a Guantanamo courtroom Monday after trying to speak without permission.

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Two Algerians repatriated from Guantanamo: Pentagon

Two Algerian prisoners at the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay have been transferred back to their homeland, the Pentagon said in a statement Thursday.

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Guantanamo braces for unrest after Ramadan truce

The end of Ramadan has left authorities at the Guantanamo Bay military jail preparing for an uptick in unrest at the controversial prison, US officials say.

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Obama should review force-feeding at Guantanamo: judge

A US judge Monday rejected a legal bid by a Guantanamo detainee to have his force-feeding blocked, but urged President Barack Obama to review the issue to see if the controversial practice should end.

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