tagged w/ Close Guantanamo
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A group of prominent musicians are joining a campaign to close Guantanamo Bay and demanding the release of records about what music was used during the potential torture of detainees there and at other facilities.
Some of the more famous names in the music industry are formally lending their prestige to an effort being led by retired generals, progressive groups and a former member of Congress to shut GITMO down. The list includes Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Rosanne Cash, Billy Bragg and the Roots, all of whom are joining the broader National Campaign to Close Guantanamo which was launched earlier in the week.
Hoping to cast further light on the potential illegalities that took place at the detention facility, the group is also working to obtain records about why and how music was used (under laws authorized by the Bush administration) to effectively torture suspected terrorists. The musicians have officially endorsed a Freedom of Information Act request for the declassification of all secret government records pertaining to music utilized during interrogations. At least two members of the coalition, Reznor and Morello, have had their music linked to interrogations.
"Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured -- from water boarding, to stripping, hooding and forcing detainees into humiliating sexual acts -- playing music for 72 hours in a row at volumes just below that to shatter the eardrums," said Morello, in a statement provided by the NCCG. "Guantanamo may be Dick Cheney's idea of America, but it's not mine. The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me -- we need to end torture and close Guantanamo now."
The National Security Archives will be officially filing the FOIA request on behalf of the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo (NCCG)
lA group of prominent musicians are joining a campaign to close Guantanamo Bay and... more
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Eric Holder asserted on Wednesday that terrorism suspects indefinitely detained by the United States would be granted opportunities for due process, both before and during their detention. But he declined to detail how and where such appeals could take place, telling members of Congress that such specifics had yet to be agreed upon by the administration.
At a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Attorney General was pressed early and often on the Obama White House's approach to detainee policy. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), in particular, asked why the president supported a system that would essentially transfer the Guantanamo structure (holding suspected terrorists without trial for an indefinite period of time) to another location.
Holder acknowledged that there could be a group of detainees who fell into that category. But, he added, "It will only happen pursuant to really pretty robust due process procedures."Eric Holder asserted on Wednesday that terrorism suspects indefinitely detained by the... more
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The tiny town of Hardin, Montana, is offering an answer to a very thorny question: Where should the nation put terror detainees if the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is shut down by the end of the year as President Obama has pledged?
Hardin, Montana, says the Two Rivers Regional Detention Facility should be used for Gitmo detainees.
Hardin, population 3,400, sits in the southeast corner of Montana, in the state's poorest county. Its small downtown is almost deserted at midday. The Dollar Store is going out of business. The Hardin Mini Mall is already shut. The town needs jobs -- and fast.
Hardin borrowed $27 million through bonds to build the Two Rivers Regional Correctional Facility in hopes of creating new employment opportunities. The jail was ready for prisoners two years ago, but has yet to house a single prisoner.
People here say politics in the capital of Helena has kept it empty. But the city council last month voted 5-0 to back a proposal to bring Gitmo detainees -- some of the most hardened terrorists in the world -- to the facility.
"It would bring jobs. Believe it or not, it would even bring hope and opportunity," Greg Smith, Hardin's economic development director, told CNN.
But a decision on whether it becomes a reality is a long way off. The state's congressional leaders have lined up against the plan. "Housing potential terrorists in Montana is not good for our state," Max Baucus, the state's senior Democratic senator, wrote to Smith. "These people stop at nothing. Their primary goal in life, and death, is to destroy America."
Adds Sen. Jon Tester, "I just don't think it's appropriate, that's all. I don't think they know what they're asking for."
On North Central Avenue in downtown Hardin, opinion is mixed. See where Hardin is located »
Darlene McMillen says if the detainees move in, she is moving out. A part-time waitress at a Hardin restaurant, McMillen says her opinion is based on her son's experiences serving in the military in Afghanistan. "He said the people have no respect for any human life, even their own."
Manicurist Donovan Lindsay says bringing the detainees to Hardin would bring more law enforcement, and that would make the town safer. She also believes it would generate jobs . "We are the poorest county in the state of Montana and we need all the help we can get," she says.
...click above to read the full article...The tiny town of Hardin, Montana, is offering an answer to a very thorny question:... more
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A military judge at Guantanamo Bay Thursday rejected a prosecution bid to suspend the trial of a Saudi accused in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, according to Pentagon sources.A military judge at Guantanamo Bay Thursday rejected a prosecution bid to suspend the... more
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The Obama administration is drafting orders for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. The White House if expected to call for a close to the detention facility within a year, a review of detention policy and procedures, a review of all individual cases, and a policy requiring that the Army field manual for interrogations to apply to all people in US custody.
The officials say the White House is expected to call for:The Obama administration is drafting orders for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. The... more
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Brack Obama plans to close Guantanamo Bay as early as his first week in office. "But I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution," he said in an earlier interview.Brack Obama plans to close Guantanamo Bay as early as his first week in office.... more
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City:
D.C.
Description:
Closing Guantanamo
The Key Challenges and Choices Facing President-elect Obama
January 6, 2009, 12:00pm – 1:30pm
About This Event
After nearly seven years of constant controversy, it certainly looks like Guantánamo's days are numbered after President-elect Obama reiterated his campaign pledge to close the prison camp at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The debate has now shifted away from the simple argument about whether it should be closed and now focuses on how the Obama administration will actually do it.
Major decisions remain on whether to keep, modify, or scrap trial by military commissions, leading to further questions about when, how, where, and even if some detainees can be put on trial. Serious obstacles loom in the path of any effort to transfer other detainees back to their native countries as some can not simply be sent back home and little progress has been made to date finding other countries willing to accept them.
Please join our distinguished panel, each of whom have authored reports on closing Guantánamo, for a discussion of these and other challenges facing the incoming Obama administration.
Featured Speakers:
Ken Gude, Associate Director, International Rights and Responsibilities, Center for American Progress
Elisa Massimino, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, Human Rights First
Dr. Sarah E. Mendelson, Director of the Human Rights and Security Initiative, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Moderated by:
Rudy deLeon, Senior Vice President for National Security and International Policy, Center for American Progress
A light lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m.
RSVP
Click here to RSVP for this event
For more information, call 202.741.6246
Location
Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005City:
D.C.
Description:
Closing Guantanamo
The Key Challenges and Choices... more
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Rear Admiral David Thomas says it is doubtful Guantanmo Bay will close shortly after Barack Obama is sworn into office. "The hard part, the important part to get ready is where you're going to put the detainees, and the legal process that you intend to use to continue any sort of prosecution or resolution of their cases," Mr Thomas said.Rear Admiral David Thomas says it is doubtful Guantanmo Bay will close shortly after... more
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In his New York Times review of Jane Mayer’s new book, The Dark Side, Alan Brinkley describes how by the end of 2005, torture advocates within the Bush administration were fighting to continue their extreme detainee program “because they feared being prosecuted should the program be halted and exposed.” In one White House meeting described by Mayer, Vice President Dick Cheney argued against releasing innocent detainees because “they’ll all get lawyers“:
"By the end of 2005, those defending the regime of torture were no longer seeking primarily to protect the search for valuable intelligence. They were fighting for its survival, in the face of considerable evidence of the failure of SERE and other programs, because they feared being prosecuted should the program be halted and exposed. Even releasing detainees whom they knew to be entirely innocent was dangerous, since once released they could talk. “People will ask where they’ve been and ‘What have you been doing with them?’” Cheney said in a White House meeting. 'They’ll all get lawyers.'"In his New York Times review of Jane Mayer’s new book, The Dark Side, Alan... more
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The Supreme Court ruling and Nov. 4 presidential election mostly likely mean closure.
Guantanamo Bay was a sleepy Navy outpost before the U.S. began using it to hold prisoners in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks — and it may soon become one again.
The days of this U.S. offshore prison are numbered. The Bush administration's main rationale for holding terrorism suspects without trial vanished when the Supreme Court ruled on June 12 that they have certain legal rights. John McCain and Barack Obama have both called for the detention center to be shut.
But whoever becomes the new president will have to figure out what to do with those left at Guantanamo — roughly 270 at present.The Supreme Court ruling and Nov. 4 presidential election mostly likely mean closure.... more
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By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, June 12, 2008; 1:25 PM
President Bush's slow and painful schooling in constitutional law continued today as the Supreme Court ruled for the third time in four years that he had violated a basic precept of the American legal system.
The court ruled 5-4 that Bush cannot deny prisoners at Guantanamo Bay the right to challenge their detentions in federal district court. Some of them have been held already -- without charges -- for more than six years.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, determined that the prisoners in the U.S.-run facility "have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus. . . ."
(In other words, BushCo broke the law.)
~ snip ~
The Supreme Court decision was close -- one vote made the difference. And the dissent was bitter. Mark Sherman writes for the Associated Press: "In dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts criticized his colleagues for striking down what he called 'the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.'
"Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also dissented.
(One. Fucking. Vote. AAAARGH!)
"Scalia said the nation is 'at war with radical Islamists' and that the court's decision 'will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.'"
(No. The invasion and occupation of a nation which did not pose a threat to us is what's going to almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.)
Full piece available at link.
Man, I dig that Mr. Froomkin.By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, June 12, 2008; 1:25 PM... more
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This could quite possibly be the greatest WORLD OPINION tragedy in American history.
World opinion of America has now sunk to an all time low. Help bring it back up to pre-bush blunder level.
ThanksThis could quite possibly be the greatest WORLD OPINION tragedy in American history.... more
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