HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ----- Original Message -----
From: Walter
Lippmann
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2002 8:03 PM
Subject: [CubaNews] Guantanamo updates There's something odd about the repeated
affirmations in the US media that Cuba is not objecting to the imprisonment of the al-Queda fighters at Guantamo. First of all, of course, it hasn't actually taken place. Second, Cuba objects to the whole base being there, a foreign occupation of Cuban national territory, on principle. Thus, there's no specific need on this occasion to make an individual response to this particular unilateral action by the occupying power, the United States. The Bush administration and its extreme rightist backers in the Cuban-American community would like nothing better than to generate additional conflict between Cuba and the United States. Cuban policy has been measured and restrained. It is not rising to the bait which the media in the US has been trying to tempt it with over this issue. Cuba is not, of course, in a position to do anything operational about it at this time. Education of public opinion as to the historical origins of the base and its utter illegality are always timely. In this case, as in many others, Cuba's framework, the "Battle of Ideas", gives an orientation for action by those who are in solidarity with Cuba. Education as to the facts and explanations of the history of the Guantanamo base are key. ================================== Sunday January 6 12:26 PM ET U.S. Troops Head to Cuban Navy Base By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - About 1,500 U.S. military personnel are bound for the U.S. Navy base in Cuba to build and then guard a prison that will hold hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban detainees ``in maximum security,'' a Pentagon spokesman said Sunday. The whereabouts of the biggest prize - Osama bin Laden - are still unknown, but U.S. and other anti-terrorism coalition officials are beginning to believe he has fled Afghanistan for Pakistan, two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday. The majority of the U.S. troops being sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are Army military police from Fort Hood, Texas, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. About 1,000 troops began deploying Sunday, with another 500 expected to go in the coming weeks, Davis said. Initially, the troops will prepare a section of the base to hold a first batch of fewer than 100 prisoners, but up to 2,000 prisoners may eventually be housed there, Davis said. Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of the military effort in Afghanistan, said Friday that some prisoners are to arrive at Guantanamo within 10 days. Military personnel are also being sent from Fort Campbell, Ky., Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Norfolk Naval Station, Va., among other bases, Davis said. Davis said they will be held in ``maximum security'' conditions, and will be treated in accordance with international standards for military prisoners and have access to Red Cross and other non-governmental organization personnel. Davis said officials are making plans in light of the al-Qaida prison riot that left hundreds dead, including CIA officer Johnny ``Mike'' Spann. ``We are cognizant of the incident that took place in Mazar-e-Sharif,'' Davis said. ``Many of these people have demonstrated their determination to kill others, kill themselves or escape.'' No decision has been made whether to hold military tribunals for some of the prisoners at the Navy base, Davis said. The U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo predates the communist revolution on the island nation. Fidel Castro's government says the base should have been closed and returned to Cuban control decades ago. The base is well-defended and would offer few avenues of escape for prisoners. More than 300 suspected Taliban or al-Qaida members were in U.S. custody this weekend, military officials have said. Soldiers were guarding 275 prisoners at the base in Kandahar, 21 at Bagram air base north of Kabul, and one in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Compton said. Another nine prisoners, including American Taliban John Walker Lindh, are being held on the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea. Afghan and Pakistani authorities are holding thousands more prisoners captured during the fighting. But the top targets, al-Qaida terrorist chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, continue to elude the coalition hunt. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who is traveling with other senators in the region, said Sunday that Uzbekistan's military intelligence service believes bin Laden has crossed the border into Pakistan. Uzbekistan, like Pakistan, borders Afghanistan and has been a U.S. ally in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida. ``I fully expect the Pakistanis will do everything they can to help us locate bin Laden,'' Edwards told ``Fox News Sunday.'' Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said bin Laden and other top officials have probably escaped Afghanistan, but no one is certain. ``Increasingly as our efforts to get them in Afghanistan have been futile, there is a greater sense that they have, in fact, escaped, and are probably in one of those tribal territories just over the border into Pakistan,'' Graham said from Miami on ABC's ``This Week.'' Top military officials have said they don't know where bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader, are. Bin Laden was thought to be in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, but he has not turned up in searches by U.S. and anti-Taliban forces there. Omar was most recently thought to be near Baghran, northwest of Kandahar, but Afghan officials now say they believe he escaped. ========================================= Sunday January 6 2:43 PM ET U.S. Forces Moving to Set Up Guantanamo Prison WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Military police from Fort Hood, Texas, and forces from other U.S. bases began to ship out on Sunday for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to establish a maximum security detention jail that will hold 2,000 al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, the Pentagon said. ``The deployment order was issued and they are moving,'' said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis. ``Some are moving today.'' Davis said many of the U.S. forces at the facility would be Army military police from Fort Hood but other troops would come from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and Norfolk Naval Air Station, Virginia. The total number being deployed is about 1,500. The new security facility will be run by Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert from Camp Lejeune. An initial 100 al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners from Afghanistan will be housed there, with the number gradually increasing to 2,000, the Pentagon spokesman said. NOT CLEAR WHEN PRISONERS WILL GO It was unclear when the first prisoners would be moved to Guantanamo or who they would be, Davis said. John Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old Californian who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan, is among those being held aboard a U.S. vessel. Davis said the United States was taking precautions against prisoner uprisings like one at a facility in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, which led to many deaths, including that of a CIA operative. ``Many of these detainees have demonstrated their determination to kill others, kill themselves or escape, and we're using the necessary amounts of constraints in order to build appropriate facilities for these detainees given what they demonstrated at Mazar-i-Sharif,'' Davis said. He said the prison, however, would conform to the requirements of the Geneva Convention and to ``international customary law.'' ``Their treatment and their detention will be humane and the detainees will have access to appropriate nongovernmental organizations such as the International Red Cross,'' Davis said. Cuban leader Fidel Castro had been expected to object to Washington's decision to build a jail at the 45-square mile American base on Cuba's southeastern tip, but two senators who recently visited Havana said he raised no objection. The U.S. base was founded after Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay in 1898 during the Spanish-American War and, under a 1934 treaty, can only be disbanded by mutual consent or if the U.S. forces pull out voluntarily. Late last week, the Pentagon counted 248 battlefield detainees: 225 in the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar, 14 at Bagram air field near the capital Kabul, eight on the U.S. Navy assault ship Bataan and one in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The prisoners, described by Washington as battlefield detainees, have not been charged with crimes. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said no decision had been reached on how to conduct any military trials authorized
by President Bush.
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