October 05, 2007

Bush: 'This Government Does Not Torture People'

UPDATED.

The White House today signaled that it will not accede to Congress' demands for transparency on two secret memos on terrorism detainees, insisting it does not engage in torture and that key members had already learned all they needed to know.

"They have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress on the Intelligence Committee. But they are classified for a reason and they are secret," press secretary Dana Perino said during the daily briefing. "One of the reasons they are secret is because they need to be. They need to be cloaked in the classified system so that we can keep that information private so that we're not signaling to our enemies exactly what our techniques are."

Earlier, President Bush gave his first public response to revelations that CIA officers may be using tactics that might qualify as torture in a program secretly endorsed by the Justice Department.

"This government does not torture people. We stick to U.S. law and our international obligations," Bush said in a brief statement to the press this morning.

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Posted at 5:20 PM
Posted to: Al-Qaida, Alberto Gonzales, Bush Administration, Detainees, Guantanamo Bay, Michael Mukasey, Military, President Bush, Terrorism
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August 07, 2007

Britain Seeks Release Of Five Gitmo Prisoners

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to release five former U.K. residents from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The move marks a shift in British policy toward the detention facility under new Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair, "generally held that the British government was not obliged to seek the release of Guantanamo inmates who had lived in Britain but did not hold citizenship," as is the case with the five men in question, the London Guardian reports.

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Posted at 10:17 AM
Posted to: Guantanamo Bay, U.K.
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August 03, 2007

Guantanamo, The Day After

Faced with a number of judicial setbacks and increasing calls for its closure, the U.S. military's detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, faces an uncertain fate. The possibility of closing the facility has been batted around during presidential debates and, despite Vice President Dick Cheney's recent assurance that it would remain open, even President Bush has said he'd be open to abandoning Gitmo if a better alternative for holding terrorism suspects were presented.

But what would happen if some officials, from the Democratic leadership in Congress to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, had their way, and the detention center were closed today? What would happen to the terrorism suspects being held there, and the ones authorities might capture in the days, months and years to come?

National Journal's Corine Hegland explores the fascinating (and frightening) possibilities in the magazine's cover story this week. And in a related column (subscription), Jonathan Rauch sizes up where the 2008 presidential candidates stand on the issue.

(Photo: PH1 Shane T. McCoy, U.S. Navy)

Posted at 3:08 PM
Posted to: Guantanamo Bay
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June 29, 2007

Supreme Court Reverses Course On Gitmo Cases

In a remarkable turnabout, at least two justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have changed their minds about a petition and have agreed to hear the case. More significant: the case is actually two petitions from foreign terror suspects challenging the Bush administration's power to hold them in Guantanamo.

Back in April, only three justices agreed to hear the detainees' arguments -- one short of the number needed to grant a review of the case. Two others, Justices John Paul Stevens and Anthony Kennedy disagreed, instructing the petitioners to exhaust the lower-court options, including the newly established military tribunal system, first.

In order to grant a hearing after initially denying one, the votes of five justices are needed. It's a safe bet that Stevens and Kennedy were the justices who changed their minds, and not Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia or Chief Justice John Roberts.

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Posted at 12:04 PM
Posted to: Bush Administration, Constitution, Guantanamo Bay, Supreme Court
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April 02, 2007

SCOTUS Rejects Gitmo Appeal

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 this morning to reject two appeals from Guantanamo Bay detainees who had hoped to challenge a lower court's ruling on the validity of their detention by the U.S. government.

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Posted at 11:16 AM
Posted to: Guantanamo Bay, Supreme Court
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March 30, 2007

Hicks Found Guilty On Terror Charges

Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks was found guilty "of providing material support for terrorism, marking the first conviction at a U.S. war-crimes trial since World War II," AP reports.

The 31-year-old Australian's plea agreement requires him to serve seven years in prison on the condition that he "drop any claims of mistreatment by the U.S. government since he was captured in Afghanistan and taken to Guantanamo Bay, said the judge, Marine Corps Col. Ralph Kohlmann."

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Posted at 11:35 AM
Posted to: Guantanamo Bay, Terrorism
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