25 Saudi Guantanamo prisoners return to militancy

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

RIYADH, June 19 (Reuters) – Around 25 former detainees from Guantanamo Bay camp returned to militancy after going through a rehabilitation programme for al Qaeda members in Saudi Arabia, a Saudi security official said on Saturday.

The United States have sent back around 120 Saudis from the detention camp at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, set up after the U.S. launched a “war on terror” following the Sept. 11 attacks by mostly Saudi suicide hijackers sent by al Qaeda.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has put the returned prisoners along with other al Qaeda suspects through a rehabilitation programme which includes religious re-education by clerics and financial help to start a new life.

The scheme, which some 300 extremists have attended, is part of anti-terrorism efforts after al Qaeda staged attacks inside the kingdom from 2003-06. These were halted after scores of suspects were arrested with the help of foreign experts.

Around 11 Saudis from Guantanamo have gone to Yemen, an operating base for al Qaeda, while others have been jailed again or killed after attending the programme, said Abdulrahman al-Hadlaq, Director General of the General Administration for Intellectual Security overseeing the rehabilitation.

He pinpointed strong personal ties among former prisoners but also tough U.S. tactics as the reason why some 20 percent of the returned Saudis relapsed into militancy compared to 9.5 percent overall in the rehabilitation programme.

“Those guys from other groups didn’t suffer torture before, the non-Guantanamos (participants). Torturing is the most dangerous thing in radicalisation. You have more extremist people if you have more torture,” Hadlaq told reporters in a rare briefing about Saudi anti-terrorism efforts.

REHABILITATION SCHEME “A SUCCESS”

Despite the setback with Guantanamo prisoners, Saudi Arabia regards the rehabilitation scheme, which kicks in after militants have served a prison term, as a success. “There is no doubt that there is an effect,” Hadlaq said.

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the camp shut after taking office in January 2009 but his plans have been stymied. There are now about 180 detainees left, among them 13 Saudis. At its peak, the camp held about 780 detainees.

More than 2,000 sympathisers of al Qaeda are still in prison in Saudi Arabia. Some 2,000 teachers have been removed from classrooms for their extremist views in the past five years while 400 teachers are in prison, Hadlaq said.

Saudi Arabia plans to build five more rehabilitation centres which will be able to accommodate 250 people each, he said.

The expansion plans are partly to cope with the eventual release of 991 suspected al Qaeda militants whom the authorities said in October were awaiting trial for 30 attacks since 2003.

In July, a Saudi court sentenced one unnamed Islamist to death and handed out to others jail terms of up to 30 years in the first publicly reported trials since the arrests. (Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Robert Woodward)

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Most at Guantanamo are low-level fighters – report

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Most of the 240 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison when President Barack Obama took office were low-level fighters, with only 24 considered to be involved in plots against the United States, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

The newspaper said the report from the Guantanamo Review Task Force recommended 126 of the detainees be transferred either to their homes or a third country; 36 be prosecuted in federal court or by a military commission; and 48 be held indefinitely under the laws of war.

In addition to the 10 percent the report said were involved in plots against the United States, about 20 percent had significant roles with al Qaeda or similar groups.

The Post said the report was finished in January and sent to lawmakers earlier this week.

The Obama administration held on to the report following the attempted bombing of an airplane on Christmas Day because there was little public or congressional interest in its plan to close the facility, the paper said.

Obama ordered the widely maligned detention camp at the U.S. naval base in Cuba shut down shortly after taking office in January 2009. But his plans have been stymied by Congress, including some members of his own Democratic Party.

Former President George W. Bush’s administration opened the prison in January 2002 to hold and interrogate foreign captives suspected of links to terrorism.

There are now about 180 detainees. At its peak, the camp held about 780 detainees.

(Writing by Christopher Doering; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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US may amend Miranda Rights for effective interrogation

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 10 (ANI): After facing flak over providing Miranda Rights to Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, the Obama administration is in the process of framing a law that would enable investigators to question terror suspects without informing them of their rights.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder has averred that Shahzad was trained by Taliban on Pakistani soil.

There has been mounting pressure on the Obama adminstration to treat terror suspects as military detainees, and enemy combatants waging war on the US.

In an unprecedented departure from its stance defending the provision of Miranda Rights, the Government is paying heed to Holder’s concerns.

“We’re now dealing with international terrorists, and I think that we have to think about perhaps modifying the rules that interrogators have and somehow coming up with something that is flexible and is more consistent with the threat that we now face,” the New York Times quoted Holder, as saying.

John O. Brennan, Obama’s counterterrorism adviser strongly echoed Holder’s views, and is convinced of Shahzad’s Talibani affiliations.

“He was trained by them,” Brennan said. “He received funding from them. He was basically directed here to the United States to carry out this attack. Investigation’s ongoing,” he added.

The US administration is now hastening to fill the glaring lacunae in its justice system. Cold-blooded Shahzad was questioned for just two hours before being read out his rights.

The administration relied on an exception to Miranda for immediate threats to public safety. That exception was established by the Supreme Court in a 1984 case in which a police officer asked a suspect, at the time of his arrest and before reading him his rights, about where he had hidden a gun. The court deemed the defendant’s answer and the gun admissible as evidence against him, the paper said.

Miranda was formulated with a view to prevent confessions that were obtained through coercion and intimidation, however, critics have for long argued about the possibility of its misuse.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate, said Sunday on “This Week” on ABC that he supported Holder’s proposal.

“I would not have given him Miranda warnings after just a couple of hours of questioning,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I would have instead declared him an enemy combatant, asked the president to do that, and at the same time, that would have given us the opportunity to question him for a much longer period of time.” (ANI)

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Asylum seeker policy causing distress

April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A lawyer working with asylum seekers on Christmas Island says the detainees are becoming increasingly distressed by the Federal Government’s policy changes.

The government has suspended the processing of all new applications for protection by people from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Asylum seekers from those two nations who are already on Christmas Island will still have their claims processed.

The Director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre David Manne says the level of unrest at the facility has grown.

“There is a strong level of fear amongst even those who have been told that they won’t be caught out by the announcement that somehow they too will be negatively affected,” he said.

“There is a real level among some of the asylum seekers of confusion and of distress.”

Extra federal police have been sent to Christmas Island to deal with any backlash to the policy change.

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Asylum boat crew transferred to Darwin

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Twenty-two Indonesian crewman were flown from Christmas Island to Darwin last night but no asylum seekers have been brought to the mainland.

The Department of Immigration says until yesterday, Darwin’s detention centre housed 55 Indonesian crewman who were caught on illegal fishing boats or asylum seeker vessels.

Late last night another 22 Indonesian crew from asylum seeker boats were brought to Darwin.

That brings the total number of detainees there to 77.

The department says the men have been brought to Darwin for prosecution processes.

This week the Prime Minister said no decision had been made about where asylum seekers would be sent if the Christmas Island detention centre reached capacity.

But the federal member for the Territory-based seat of Solomon, Damian Hale, says up to 300 asylum seekers could be transferred to mainland detention facilities including Darwin.

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Al Qaeda strategist orders kidnapping of foreigners

September 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Sep 16 (ANI): Veteran al-Qaeda adviser Mustafa Hamid alias Abu Walid al-Masri, who was married to Australian Rabiah Hutchinson in Afghanistan in 2001, has issued a directive to kidnap foreign civilians, including Australians in Afghanistan, in retaliation for the capture, detention and torture of al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners by the US and its allies.

Hamid has been detained in Iran since 2003, but remains an influential figure in the militant movement and has maintained contact with his followers through jihadist websites, despite his imprisonment.

In an edict titled “The US Soldier in Afghanistan – the first step for the release of all prisoners of the war on terror”, Hamid argues that the capture of an American soldier by Taliban forces earlier this year should be used as a precedent in a campaign of abducting Western civilians to use as bargaining chips to negotiate the release detainees.

In the document uncovered by former Australian Federal Police senior counter-terrorism intelligence analyst Leah Farrall, Hamid argues that the US has “changed the rules of the game” on the treatment of prisoners of war by its detention and torture of inmates at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, The Australian reports.

He says it is now time for the Afghan mujahideen to change the rules and accept the principle approved and implemented by the enemy – the abduction of civilians who have nothing to do with the battle.

Hamid writes that soldiers from foreign countries such as Australia are fair targets.

Farrall, formerly a senior counter-terrorism intelligence analyst with the AFP, who is currently completing a PhD on al-Qaeda at Monash University and specialises in unearthing al-Qaeda documents, discovered the document.
“This is one of the most important things I’ve seen for a very long time. I have not (previously) seen any senior militant figure sanction a targeted campaign in direct response to American detainee policies and I find this extremely concerning,” she said.

Hamid advocates that mass abductions should be carried out under the direction of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar in areas of Afghanistan that his troops control. (ANI)

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Iranian youth recounts how he was raped, beaten for questioning Ahmadinejad’s victory

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Tehran, Sep. 11 (ANI): A teenaged engineering student has revealed that he was locked up, beaten and raped multiple times for daring to protest against President Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

“When I first participated in the protests I was not demonstrating against the Leader or the Islamic Republic. I was protesting Ahmadinejad’s cheating. But today, I say ‘Death to Khamenei’, and having been raped by his henchmen I also say ‘Death to the Dogs of Khamenei,” Times Online quoted Ardeshir, 19, as saying.

Ardeshir recounts that after being arrested he was driven to an apartment building 90 minutes away that was clearly an unofficial detention centre.

“A Basiji called Mahmoud urinated on my face, saying that this would teach me not to oppose the divine wishes of the Great Leader of the Revolution. ‘We have been sent to re-educate you, you spoilt Western piece of shit.

“Another Basiji came up and raped me. At this point I felt that I was not me. I seemed to have shut down and separated from my body. Why these people who claim to be the most religious in our society can do such things?” report quoted him, as saying.

A hospital report confirms he suffered anal damage. He has temporarily abandoned his studies temporarily and seeks solace by playing the santur, an Iranian instrument.

“He has extreme feelings of self-hatred resulting from a sense that he will never be clean again, and from shame over the repeated rapes,” his psychologist says.

Ardeshir – not his real name – is one of scores of detainees who have been raped and tortured by their jailers in the past three months in what appears to be a systematic attempt to break their will, the report concludes. (ANI)

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Sri Lanka’s expulsion of top UN official condemned

September 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep.6 (ANI): Asian Centre for Human Rights today condemned the expulsion of James Elder, the Communications Chief of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) by the Sri Lankan Government over his remarks about the Internally Displaced People (IDPs), in particular, the conditions of children in camps.

Elder was told on Saturday to leave within two weeks.

“This is an obnoxious attempt to turn the IDP camps into closed door slaughter houses where children are being killed as a result of manufactured starvation and where thousands of ethnic Tamils have been disappearing at the hands of the Sri Lankan army,” said Suhas Chakma, Director of the ACHR.

Over 13,000 Tamil IDPs have disappeared according to various UN reports and only about 2,000 detainees are subject to visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights urged the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and international donors, including India, which sanctioned Rs 500 crores for the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, to demand revocation of expulsion of Elder, full and unrestricted access to the IDP camps by the United Nations and international agencies, and respect for human rights and humanitarian law standards by the Sri Lankan government.

“Unless international donors ensure respect for full and unrestricted access, they shall be condoning and contributing to continued flagrant violations of international human rights and humanitarian law standards by the Sri Lankan government,” Chakma added. (ANI)

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Britain, Pakistan agree to facilitate return of illegal migrants

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Aug.27 (ANI): Pakistan and Britain have agreed to facilitate the return of thousands of Pakistanis who are detained or living illegally in the United Kingdom.

Interacting with media persons after a meeting with British Home Secretary Allan Johnson here, Pakistan Interior Advisor Rehman Malik said both countries have reached an accord to facilitate the return of the illegal migrants.

Malik said Pakistani High Commission would issue passports to such people free of cost to help them to return.

“Let me be very clear and inform Pakistanis (here) that they must not think that they can get a permanent status if they stay here illegally for 10 years or more,” Malik said.

He said the agreement would reduce the suffering of the detainees and their families, The Dawn reports.

Talking to reporters, Johnson said those people who do not have a valid reason to stay in Britain must return to their native country. (ANI)

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CIA lacked safeguards to stop abuse in terror prisons: Report

August 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug. 24 (ANI): Due to a lack of clear safeguards, the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) failed to prevent abuses of terror suspects in its network of secret prisons, a 2004 report surfaced for the first time has revealed.

The report, significant portions of which are scheduled for release on Monday, also found that some CIA interrogators had inadequate training and oversight.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to decide whether to launch a probe to determine if guidelines were violated in some cases, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The report by then-Inspector General John Helgerson, released following a freedom of information lawsuit, portrays an agency ill-equipped to imprison and interrogate terrorist suspects.

Helgerson’s team found that some officials crossed the program’s legal bounds. The report found that waterboarding was used excessively and suggested that the program violated international law.

“The CIA in no way endorsed behaviour-no matter how infrequent-that went beyond formal guidance,” said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano.

Gimigliano said the CIA’s interrogation program had legal and operational guidance, and decisions to refer some conduct that went beyond legal guidance to the Justice Department “speaks to the strength of the safeguards that existed.”

He added that agency interrogators “were carefully chosen and trained. Examples of inappropriate behaviour in the high-value detainee program were, to my knowledge, rather rare indeed.”

The report is likely to give more ammunition to critics of Bush-era counterterrorism programs, and provide further material for detainee lawsuits against the US.

It may also unleash fresh fights over the CIA’s 2005 destruction of 92 videotapes of interrogations.

The Obama administration, which shut the CIA prisons, is now weighing a proposal to establish a team of trained interrogators from intelligence and law-enforcement agencies for important detainees. (ANI)

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‘Tortured’ Pak detainee says MI5 tried to bribe him to drop complaints

July 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 7 (ANI): The British Security Service, MI5 has been accused of attempting to bribe a man who was jailed on terrorism charges, in a bid to persuade him to withdraw his custodial torture complaints.

Rangzieb Ahmed had three of his fingernails ripped out after MI5 and Greater Manchester police (GMP) drew up a list of questions for officers from a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency.

Ahmed says he was visited in prison by an MI5 officer and a police officer who offered to secure a reduction in his sentence or a payment of money to withdraw his torture complaints when his appeal against conviction is heard later this year.

“They said they wanted my advice about tackling extremism and then said they could offer me protection if I helped them. Then they said, ‘If you withdraw what you are saying about torture, we can make a deal with you to reduce your sentence, or if you want to take money we can give you money,” The Guardian quoted Ahmed, as saying.

His lawyers have written to the Crown Prosecution Service to complain that the approach was “grossly inappropriate” and amounted to an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

Apart from lodging an appeal against his conviction, Ahmed is also suing the British government for damages arising out of his treatment in Pakistan.

“Any attempt to conceal evidence of torture would amount, in this case, to an attempt to pervert the course of justice, and I would expect the courts to take a very serious view of the matter,” Ahmed’s lawyer Tayab Ali said.

The British Home Office refused to say anything on the matter.

“We don’t comment on matters of security. Security service officers act within the law,” a Home Office spokesman said.

The international community has expressed concern about Britain’s involvement in the torture of detainees held by overseas intelligence agencies during the so-called war on terror.

Earlier this year, Martin Scheinin, a UN special rapporteur on human rights, reported that British intelligence personnel had “interviewed detainees who were held incommunicado by the Pakistani ISI in so-called safe houses, where they were being tortured”. (ANI)

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UK tax payers outraged over ‘compasses to Muslim detainees to pray facing Mecca’ move

July 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 1 (ANI): British TaxPayers Alliance, a campaign group, is outraged over the move to issue a compass to all Muslims detained in cells by the police so that they can face Mecca while praying.

To make sure they face the holy site, the Norfolk police force has already painted the ceiling of some cells to point them in the right direction. Chief Inspector Roger Wiltshire, head of custody services, said either a ceiling compass would be painted or hand-held compasses would be issued to detainees.

The move was attacked on Tuesday by Matthew Elliott of campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

He said: “These people may be ­criminals and should be treated as such. The fact that law-abiding taxpayers are having to pay for these compasses, and that staff are ­having to waste time carrying out risk assessments, is ludicrous.”

“Behaviour like this leaves right-minded people questioning the ­priorities of the police,” he added. The compass plan was put forward by ­Norfolk police authority’s custody visitors’ committee.

It follows a pilot scheme at Bethel Street police station in Norwich that police said had proved to be successful.

Compasses were painted on cell ceilings to assist Muslims with prayers. King’s Lynn is next in line for the treatment, the Daily Express reports.

Inspector Colin Williamson, custody officer for King’s Lynn, said the force had a responsibility to meet the ­religious needs of everyone it takes into custody.

He said: “We have responsibilities to ensure that everyone detained has their specific needs met whether they are unable to read, visually impaired or a vulnerable young person.”

“Each person taken into custody is asked if they have any particular religious or dietary requirements.

We will have the compasses available to Muslims so that they may know the direction of Mecca.”Custody staff facilitate any reasonable request in respect of religious considerations.” (ANI)

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Outrage over exotic cuisine for foreign criminals in UK detention centre

June 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

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London, June 22 (ANI): The news that foreign criminals, including rapists and terrorists, are being treated to lavish cuisine as they wait to be deported, has not gone down with the taxpayers in Britain./pp
There is an outrage among residents over money being spent on the preparation of mouthwatering dishes for 383 inmates, who are currently staying at a luxurious 47 million pounds Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre in Berkshire./pp
The menu that these detainees are being offered includes oriental poached fish parcels, beef goulash and mint lamb stew. Each detainee is offered four choices for lunch and dinner, plus three vegetable options and a dessert. /pp
The idea that these people should enjoy hotel-style standards of service and food is preposterous. Given the recession we’re living in, most people will think this type of arrangement is outrageous, the Sun quoted Matthew Elliott, a local resident, as saying./pp
Other delicacies offered to them include chicken chasseur, fish gumbo and beef and onion pie. /pp
They are handed a menu at the start of the week and asked to mark their choices for the next seven days – with food cooked to order. /pp
Some of the dishes are so exotic they put Gordon Ramsay to shame. The grub’s certainly better than the local hotels. Now every foreign con wants to come here because the food is so good, an official said./pp
The scandal is the latest to hit the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre in Berkshire, which is run by a private firm ‘Serco’. /pp
Earlier it was reported how the detainees had access to Nintendo Wiis and plasma TVs. (ANI)/p

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Palau to accept 17 Chinese Muslims from Guantánamo as ‘gesture of thanks’ to US

June 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The remote Pacific nation of Palau has agreed to accept 17 Chinese Muslim prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, giving the Obama administration a major fillip as it faces the complex problem of closing the controversial prison.

Johnson Toribiong, the president of Palau, said the decision was a “humanitarian gesture” intended to help the detainees restart their lives.

“This is but a small thing we can do to thank our best friend and ally for all it has done for Palau,” he said.

Negotiations between Washington and the Palauans over the prisoners coincided with discussions about a $200 million (£120 million) renewal of a regular assistance package on which the island, a former US territory, depends.

However, a senior US state department official described the idea of any connection as “completely false”.

The Obama administration was beginning to despair of finding a home for the ethnic Uighur detainees, whom the Pentagon has determined are not “enemy combatants” and should be freed. They have been left in legal limbo after an appeals court blocked their release into the United States.

After six or seven years of incarceration, the Uighurs’ new home is located 500 miles south-east of the Philippines, and has 20,000 people scattered over eight main islands.

There are no buses and just 38 miles of roads, almost half of which are unpaved. Employment opportunities are limited to the government and the luxury tourist industry. The islands receive 50,000 visitors a year, many of them scuba divers, and were twice chosen as the location for the US reality television show “Survivor”.

The 17 detainees had become a symbol of the difficulties Mr Obama has faced in achieving his goal of closing the jail at the US naval base in Cuba within a year of taking office. With 250 detainees remaining, finding new homes or adjusting trial systems has proved problematic.

Washington has decided the Uighurs cannot be returned to China over fears that they face persecution there, but American states that were initially amenable to accepting the group got cold feet and Australia, a major ally with a Uighur community, declined to take the group.

It was alleged that the Uighurs had trained at terror camps in Afghanistan and belonged to an Islamist separatist movement in the western Xinjiang region.

In 2006, Albania accepted five Uighur detainees from Guantanamo but has since balked at taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China. Palau is one of a handful of countries that does not recognize China and maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

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EU to approve rules for accepting Guantanamo inmates

May 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Brussels – The European Union will agree on June 4 the rules member states should follow if they take in former inmates of the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, EU diplomats said Wednesday.

According to a draft agreement seen by the German Press Agency dpa, EU justice ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg will approve the rules for sharing information on any former detainees they allow to settle on their territory.

Diplomats say such a measure is vital because 22 EU member states as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland belong to the border-free Schengen zone, in which all residents are allowed to travel from one country to the next without facing border checks.

According to the draft agreement, any EU member state which takes the political decision to take in detainees “cleared for release” from Guantanamo should demand “all available (confidential and other) intelligence and information concerning that person.”

The state should pass that information on to the other EU and Schengen states “before taking a final decision” on the subject, so that they can make their own security assessments.

And the information should also include the status which the host country wants to give to the former detainee, “when possible.”

In the future, EU member states could also exchange information on the best ways to integrate former detainees, the draft says.

However, the draft also reinforces the EU’s message that “the primary responsibility for closing Guantanamo and finding residence for the former detainees rests with the United States.”

And it stresses that it is up to individual member states to decide whether they will take in any former detainees.

Portugal and Italy have said that they would be willing to take in detainees, while Britain has already accepted a dozen former prisoners with British passports or residence permits. France accepted its first non-French former detainee on May 16. (dpa)

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Egypt holds seven “al-Qaeda” operatives for bombing

May 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Egypt holds seven Cairo – Egyptian police have arrested seven people on suspicion of being behind a deadly bomb attack in Cairo last February, two sources in Egypt’s Interior Ministry said Saturday.

Investigators believe the seven were responsible for a bomb attack that killed a French tourist and wounded 21 others, including a young Egyptian boy, in a popular market in Cairo’s Medieval quarter on February 22, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

Police found explosives in at least some of the seven’s possession when they were arrested, the Interior Ministry officials said, but did not specify when the arrests had taken place.

The detainees, who planned further attacks on pipelines and tourist destinations in Egypt, were “connected to the al-Qaeda network and a group known as the Palestinian Army of Islam,” the officials said.

The seven reportedly include a Frenchwoman of Albanian origin, a Belgian of Tunisian origin, a Briton of Egyptian origin, two Palestinians, and two Egyptians, including one woman.

The British, Belgian, and Palestinian embassies to Cairo could not immediately confirm the arrests.

The officials said two additional Egyptians organized the group from outside the country, and sent some members to the Gaza Strip through smuggling tunnels for training in carrying out attacks while some received training though the Internet.

The foreign recruits entered Egypt as students.

Investigators had identified the group’s leaders, organization and financing by monitoring their “coded” communications and Internet use, the Interior Ministry sources said.

Egyptian security forces crushed violent Islamist groups that carried out a series of deadly attacks in the 1990s. But beginning in 2004, a series of attacks targeting popular tourist destinations have killed 126 people, including February’s attack and an April 2005 bombing in the same neighborhood that killed three tourists. (dpa)

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New prison for terror suspects can be built, Gates says

May 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New prison for terror suspects can be built, Gates says Washington – The US government could build a new high security prison to house some of the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.

Gates defended President Barack Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo and dismissed congressional opposition to bring some of the detainees to prisons on US soil as “fear-mongering.”

Gates said that federal maximum security prisons – known as “supermax” facilities – are capable of safely housing some of the 240 detainees currently locked up at Guantanamo.

“The truth is there’s a lot of fear-mongering about this,” Gates said in an interview in NBC television. “We’ve never had an escape from a super-max prison. And that’s where these guys will go. And if not one of the existing ones, we’ll create a new one.”

Obama has encountered fierce opposition from Democrats and Republicans who argue bringing the prisoners to the United States would pose a threat to national security. The Senate joined the House of Representatives on Wednesday in rejecting the president’s 80-million-dollar request to begin shuttering Guantanamo.

Gates reiterated Obama’s argument that keeping the controversial facility open undermines the war on terrorism.

“The truth is it’s probably one of the finest prisons in the world today, but it has a taint,” Gates said. “The name itself is a condemnation. What the president was saying is this will be an advertisement for al-Qaeda as long as it’s open.” (dpa)

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Malaysia frees three Hindraf leaders detained under ISA

May 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Taiping (Malaysia), May 10 (ANI): Three Hindu Right Action Force leaders along with other 10 detainees held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in Malaysia were released from the Kamunting detention camp.

With the release of the Hindraf trio of M. Manoharan, K. Vasanthakumar and P. Uthayakumar, there are no more leaders of the movement held under ISA.

Family members and supporters, who had been anticipating their release since Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein announced it on Friday, started gathering outside the camp on Saturday morning.

While Vasanthakumar and Manoharan left quietly in unmarked cars, Uthayakumar was mobbed the moment he left the camp.

Supporters in orange shirts bearing the words Makkal Sakti, defied instructions from camp officials and crowded around the car ferrying Uthayakumar who was the last to emerge from the detention centre.

On November 23, 2007, the Hindraf were arrested and charged under the Sedition Act. However, in a series of repeated arrests and releases, the courts could not prove that they had incited racial hatred. (ANI)

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HINDRAF leaders among 13 ISA detainees to be freed

May 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Putrajaya (Malaysia), May 8 (ANI): Banned Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) leaders, P.Uthayakumar, M.Manoharan and K.Vasantha will be among 13 ISA detainees to be released soon, Malaysia’s Home Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein announced in Putrajaya today.

According to the New Strait Times and The Star, the three remaining leaders are being detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and will be released soon.

Hussein said he would sign the documents on Friday.

The 13 ISA detainees include six Malaysians, two Indonesians and five Filipinos.

The other three Malaysians are Zulkepli Marzuki, Jeknal Adil and Adzmi Pindatun while the Indonesians are Zainun Rasyhid and Aboud Ghafar Shahril. The Filipinos as Sufian Salih, Hasim Talib, Abdul Jamal Azahari, Yusof Mohd Salam and Husin Alih.

Hussain added the release of the three Hindraf leaders was not politically motivated.

When he became Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak ordered the release of 13 ISA detainees, including HINDRAF leaders V. Ganabatirau and R. Kengadharan. (ANI)

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Jordan King accuses US of engaging in torture

April 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr.25 (ANI): Jordan’s King Abdullah II has said in an American TV interview that there is enough evidence available to suggest that the United States had engaged in torture, a topic that has turned into a political firestorm since the release last week of Bush-era interrogation memos.

Abdullah, when asked in an interview with NBC News if he thought the U.S. had tortured, was quoted by Fox News as saying such accounts suggest “that is the case,” calling the CIA’s controversial interrogation techniques “illegal ways of dealing with detainees.”

“But there is still a major battle out there,” he said, adding that he thought President Obama was making improvements to the American legal system.

The interview, to air Sunday on “Meet the Press,” comes after Abdullah called on the United States to support peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and both sides are already testing President Barack Obama’s resolve.

Abdullah, who talked Mid East peace with Obama at the White House earlier in the week, said the United States should have a peace plan “for 2009 and beyond,” in which negotiations produce clear and quick results.

“Now is the time for the United States to lead,” Abdullah said. He warned that time is running out to establish a viable independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That is the goal all sides have embraced and the outline of a deal is clear, but it will take determination and a push from Washington to make it happen, Abdullah said in an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The status quo is simply untenable,” Abdullah said.

The memos released last week by the Obama administration are from 2002 and 2005 and detail legal justification for the CIA’s interrogation techniques used on terror suspects after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.

Obama plans to invite the Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders to the White House in the coming weeks for separate discussions on Middle East peace.

Abdullah welcomed what he called early signals from Obama that he will make Middle East peace a priority.

The White House named a special peace envoy but has made no bold moves three months into Obama’s term and during a period of political upheaval in Israel. (ANI)

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