Guantanamo Bay: Shame on you, United States

[REASON]

More news surrounding Guantanamo's Kangaroo Courts

US Drops Charges Against 5 Guantanamo Prisoners

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday it has dropped war-crimes charges against five Guantanamo Bay detainees after the former prosecutor in their cases complained that the military was withholding evidence helpful to the defense.

None of the men will be freed, and the military said it could reinstate charges later.

America's first war-crimes trials since the close of World War II have come under persistent criticism, including from officers appointed to prosecute them. Some of the harshest words came this month from the very man who was to prosecute the five men against whom charges were dropped.

Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld said during a pretrial hearing for a sixth detainee this month that the war-crimes trials are unfair. Vandeveld said the military was withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense in that case, and was doing so in others. He resigned over his concerns.

But the chief Guantanamo prosecutor, Army Col. Lawrence Morris, said Tuesday's announcement was unrelated to Vandeveld's accusations. He said the charges were dismissed because evidence "is being more thoroughly analyzed." He would not elaborate on the nature of the evidence but said the review began before Vandeveld's testimony.

"Rather than refine the current charges, it was more efficient and more just to have them dismissed and charge them anew," he told The Associated Press.

In addition, dismissing the charges allows to Pentagon to avoid deadlines set by the Military Commissions Act to bring the men to trial.

"The way to stop the clock and get a new clock is to dismiss the charges and start again," said Air Force Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor who quit in October and later testified about alleged political interference in the military trials.....

Wow! Drop the charges so you can avoid your own rules and then charge them again to restart the clock.

Now that's what I call justice.

[REASON]

So of course..........

Bush Decides to Keep Guantánamo Open

WASHINGTON — Despite his stated desire to close the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, President Bush has decided not to do so, and never considered proposals drafted in the State Department and the Pentagon that outlined options for transferring the detainees elsewhere, according to senior administration officials.

Mr. Bush’s top advisers held a series of meetings at the White House this summer after a Supreme Court ruling in June cast doubt on the future of the American detention center. But Mr. Bush adopted the view of his most hawkish advisers that closing Guantánamo would involve too many legal and political risks to be acceptable, now or any time soon, the officials said.

The administration is proceeding on the assumption that Guantánamo will remain open not only for the rest of Mr. Bush’s presidency but also well beyond, the officials said, as the site for military tribunals of those facing terrorism-related charges and for the long prison sentences that could follow convictions.

The effect of Mr. Bush’s stance is to leave in place a prison that has become a reviled symbol of the administration’s fight against terrorism, and to leave another contentious foreign policy decision for the next president.....

[Michaelangelica]

Hicks set to shake off shackles of control order
December 20, 2008 - 12:41PM

Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks will fully focus on his rehabilitation program after his control order expires at midnight on Saturday, his father says.

The convicted terrorism supporter has been living under a strict control order since his release from South Australia's Yatala jail last December.

Hicks' father Terry Hicks on Saturday said his son was looking forward to his full freedom without having to report to police or abide by other control conditions, such as curfews or restrictions on his movements.

"At the moment, once it's all over, he's going to fully focus on his rehabilitation - it's what he wants to do," Mr Hicks told AAP.

"What's been happening is he's been going to rehab, making good progress with the mental and physical things, then having to report to the police station so the rehab's been going out the window and he regresses in his treatment."

Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and in January the following year was transferred to the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba

Hicks set to shake off shackles of control order - National - smh.com.au

[Michaelangelica]

GOOGLE NEWS HEADLINES
PM warned: don't take men from Guantanamo Bay
The Australian - 13 hours ago
A TOP US general has warned of the risks of taking terror suspects from the notorious Guantanamo Bay military prison as the Rudd Government yesterday admitted it was considering the move after a second request from the Bush administration.
Bush asks Australia to take prisoners from Guantanamo Bay Sydney Morning Herald
Guantanamo deal 'unlikely' The Age
Sky News Australia - Independent - BBC News - NEWS.com.au
all 1,070 news articles »

[Michaelangelica]

http://www.amnesty.org.au/centre/action/18823/
President-elect Obama must uphold promise to close Guantanamo Bay

Home, Amnesty International Australia - Working to Protect Human Rights
Obama, it’s time to close Guantanamo

[Racoon]

Enough with the Charades.

Lets charge those MoFo's and be done with it.

Obama plans on getting rid of GitMo. good. But it may take a few months.

Whatever he was secretly informed on may not Matriculate to our pedestrian level however.. So we can just hope.

Implant them with Veri-Chips before we let them go.. Lets track their asses

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Racoon

Enough with the Charades.

Lets charge those MoFo's and be done with it.

Obama plans on getting rid of GitMo. good. But it may take a few months.

Whatever he was secretly informed on may not Matriculate to our pedestrian level however.. So we can just hope.

Implant them with Veri-Chips before we let them go.. Lets track their asses

Racoon
You need to go back on your pills again
m

[REASON]

Originally Posted by Racoon

Enough with the Charades.

Lets charge those MoFo's and be done with it.

Did you ever consider that the reason they haven't been charged is that the government is unable to come up with anything legitimate to charge them with?

Maintaining the indefinite detention of these people helps to create the illusion that we are able to capture "terrorists" and that the "War On Terror" is succeeding.

Plus, the longer we hold them, the more time it will give us to come up with something to charge them with, which then legitimizes their detention all along.

It's a shady operation that seeks to circumvent justice under the law, not promote it.

[modest]

Originally Posted by REASON

Did you ever consider that the reason they haven't been charged is that the government is unable to come up with anything legitimate to charge them with?

A good example (or, at least one that I'm familiar with), is the surviving members of the battle of Qala-i-Jangi...

Battle of Qala-i-Jangi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Time - Inside the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi

...who were all put in Guantanamo Bay.

Proving that the survivors had any part in the uprising, or ever fired a shot in anger, or did anything criminal would be a legal nightmare. The only evidence would be confessions which no doubt came about without defense council. And, the nature of these trials would showcase interrogation techniques and living conditions at camp X-ray far more than they would showcase success stories in the war on terror. I would agree—it doesn't seem likely that they would be or could be tried openly.

~modest

[Michaelangelica]

Italy Convicts 23 Americans in C.I.A. Trials
By RACHEL DONADIO 2 minutes ago

The landmark case involved the seizure of a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan more than six years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/wo...5italy.html?hp