Bismillah [hidayahnet] A Tribunal by US Clowns

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 01:34:06 -0700


bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful


=== News Update ===

Transcripts of tribunals detail stories of Guantanamo detainees

Voice acceptance, defiance of fate

By Pete Yost and Matt Kelley, Associated Press  |  April 10, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A terror suspect held at Guantanamo Bay asked his US military judge a pointed question: ''Is it possible to see the evidence in order to refute it?" In another case, according to court documents, a judge blurted out: ''I don't care about international law."

The government is holding about 550 terror suspects at the US Navy base in Cuba. An additional 214 have been released since the facility opened in January 2002 -- some into the custody of their home governments, others freed outright.

Little information about those held at Guantanamo has been released through official government channels. But stories of 60 or more are spelled out in detail in thousands of pages of transcripts filed in US District Court in Washington, where lawsuits challenging their detentions have been filed. The previously anonymous detainees provide accounts of their imprisonment and impressions of US justice. Some express defiance, others stoic acceptance of their fate.

The detainees appeared last year before military tribunals which, after quick reviews, confirmed their status as ''enemy combatants" who could be held indefinitely.

Omar Rajab Amin, a Kuwaiti who graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1992, wanted to see the evidence. The ''tribunal president," the de facto judge for the proceeding, replied that he could review only unclassified evidence.

''You are not the master of the Earth, Sir," Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani businessman, told a tribunal president.

Feroz Ali Abbasi was ejected from his September hearing because he repeatedly challenged the legality of his detention.

''I have the right to speak," Abbasi said.

''No, you don't," the tribunal president replied.

''I don't care about international law," the tribunal president told Abbasi just before he was taken from the room. ''I don't want to hear the words 'international law' again. We are not concerned with international law."

The tribunal found Abbasi to have been ''deeply involved" in Al Qaeda, yet four months later the government released him, saying his home country of Great Britain would keep an eye on him.

The Guantanamo Bay detainees come from about 40 countries and were picked up mainly in Afghanistan and Pakistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, designated enemy combatants by the Bush administration.

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled last June that the detainees may challenge their imprisonment. The Pentagon hastily responded nine days later, creating the tribunals and pushing through reviews of everyone at Guantanamo by year end.

A military spokeswoman said Friday the Pentagon believes the tribunals allow for the review called for by the court ruling.

''We believe the tribunal process gave each detainee a fair opportunity to contest their detention," said Navy Captain Beci Brenton, a spokeswoman for the Defense Department office overseeing the prisoners at Guantanamo.

Administration officials repeatedly have said the prisoners are not entitled to the internationally accepted legal protections given prisoners of war.

In the filings, some detainees seemed stunned by the speed of the process.

''How long will it take before you decide the results of this tribunal?" one detainee asked.

''We should have a decision today," the tribunal president replied.

The tribunals brought out previously unknown information regarding the war on terror.

In one proceeding, the government identified detainee Juma Mohammed Abdul Latif Al Dosari as an Al Qaeda recruiter who persuaded six Yemeni-Americans in suburban Buffalo to join the terrorist group.

The tribunal also disclosed that Dosari had been questioned by Saudi Arabian authorities about the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 members of the US Air Force.

A number of detainees told the three-member panels they had been mistreated or tortured. They complained about the evidence, too.

''You believe anyone that gives you any information," detainee Mohammed Mohammed Hassen, who was arrested in Pakistan, objected to his tribunal.

''What if that person made a mistake? Maybe that person looked at me and confused me with someone else," he said.

The unclassified evidence against Hassen, 24, was that a senior Al Qaeda lieutenant had identified his picture as that of someone he might have seen in Afghanistan.

The tribunals also had access to classified evidence that the detainees were not allowed to see, a key reason a federal judge said in January that there were constitutional problems with the tribunals. An appeals court is considering that issue.

The tribunals in some cases rejected requests for witnesses or documents that detainees said would help prove their innocence.

Boudella Al Hajj requested a copy of a court document from Bosnia. The tribunal president ordered the document produced, but military personnel couldn't locate it, so the proceedings commenced without it.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/04/10/transcripts_of_tribunals_detail_stories_of_guantanamo_detainees/

===


-muslim voice-
___________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of Hidayahnet unless sanctioned or approved otherwise.

If your mailbox clogged with mails from Hidayahnet, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest".


Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
Children International
Would you give Hope to a Child in need?
 
� Click Here to meet a Girl
And Give Her Hope
� Click Here to meet a Boy
And Change His Life
Learn More

Yahoo! Groups Links
 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.6 - Release Date: 11/04/2005

Kirim email ke