War on Terrorism

Finding New Homes for Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners

by Andy Worthington October 13, 2009

In a recent article, “75 Guantánamo Prisoners Cleared For Release; 31 Could Leave Today,” I examined the implications of an announcement that 75 of the remaining 223 prisoners in Guantánamo have been cleared for release. This came by way of a list posted in the prison, identifying the prisoners by nationality, and a statement by a ...

Dick Cheney’s Pawns on Guantánamo

by Andy Worthington October 5, 2009

I like to believe that, despite studying Guantánamo for four years, I still have a sense of humor, but last Thursday I lost it, after 258 members of the House of Representatives (including 88 members of President Obama’s own party) voted foran idiotic, paranoid, and unjust motion proposed by Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ken.), which was designed ...

The CIA, Assassination, and the War on Terrorism

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2009

In late July, the New York Times disclosed a secret plan by the CIA to assassinate suspected terrorists around the globe. According to the Times, the agency decided against implementing the plan, possibly because of the risk of being prosecuted for murder in countries in which the assassinations would take place. Actually, it’s not at all clear yet that the CIA is ...

The Bogus Anti-Terrorist Crackdown on Financial Freedom

by James Bovard October 1, 2009

In the post–9/11 era, federal officials are treating cash as they would a suspected weapon of mass destruction. They have created legions of new restrictions and reporting requirements for citizens’ money. But the new controls have done nothing to make Washington any more competent at protecting Americans from real threats. Federal experts estimated that Mohamed Atta and the other 18 ...

Telecom Wiretap Immunity (Video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 30, 2009

Telecom Wiretap Immunity (Video from Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Freedom Watch FoxNews.com)

Obama Drops Plan For Guantánamo “Indefinite Detention” Law

by Andy Worthington September 28, 2009

Last Wednesday, Obama administration officials told the Washington Post, as Peter Finn described it, that the administration “has decided not to seek legislation to establish a new system of preventive detention to hold terrorism suspects.” In some ways, of course, this is a relief. In May, in a major speech on national security, when President Obama first proposed ...

Court Allows Return of Guantánamo Prisoners to Torture

by Andy Worthington September 21, 2009

As rumors swirl, suggesting that a number of the remaining 13 Uighur (Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province) prisoners in Guantánamo may soon be relocating to the tiny Pacific island state of Palau, a court case relating to nine of these men threatens to hurl a number of other prisoners in Guantánamo, who have also been cleared for ...

Obama Brings Guantánamo to Bagram

by Andy Worthington September 14, 2009

Following briefings by Obama administration officials (who declined to be identified), both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported yesterday that the government is planning to introduce a new review system for the 600 or so prisoners held at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, which will, for the first time, allow them to call witnesses in ...

An Interview with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Part 2

by Andy Worthington September 8, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 Col. Lawrence Wilkerson served in the U.S. military for 31 years and was chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from August 2002 until January 2005, two months after Powell’s resignation, when he left the State Department. He is now the chairman of the New America Foundation’s U.S.-Cuba 21st Century ...

An Interview with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Part 1

by Andy Worthington August 24, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 Col. Lawrence Wilkerson served in the U.S. military for 31 years and was chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell from August 2002 until January 2005, two months after Powell’s resignation, when he left the State Department. He is now the chairman of the New America Foundation’s US-Cuba 21st Century ...

Guantánamo and The Courts, Part 3: Obama’s Continuing Shame

by Andy Worthington August 17, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In the first part of this three-part series examining the Guantánamo prisoners’ attempts to secure their release via the U.S. courts, I looked at how, after the Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2008 holding that the prisoners had constitutionally guaranteed habeas corpus rights, the Bush administration lost 23 of ...

Guantánamo and The Courts, Part 2: Obama’s Shame

by Andy Worthington August 10, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 In the first part of this three-part series examining the Guantánamo prisoners’ attempts to secure their release via the U.S. courts, I examined the Bush administration’s record in the seven months after the Supreme Court’s ruling, in June 2008, that the prisoners had constitutionally guaranteed habeas corpus rights, and ...