The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009 in Pakistan and Yemen. The disclosure, in a letter from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, comes on the eve of a major national security speech by President Barack Obama.

Al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric, was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen. Holder said three other Americans were killed by drones in counterterrorism operations since 2009 but were not targeted.

The three are Samir Khan, who was killed in the same drone strike as al-Awlaki; al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who also was killed in Yemen two weeks later; and Jude Kennan Mohammed, who was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan.

WaPo:

Holder said that only Anwar al-Awlaki was “specifically targeted.” Khan was known to have been killed by the strike that targeted Awlaki, while the 16-year-old was killed in what senior administration officials described as a “mistake,” when he was in the company of another targeted individual shortly after his father’s death.

Mohammad was indicted in 2009 by a federal grand jury in North Carolina, where he had lived near Raleigh. The indictment said he was believed to have left the United States for Pakistan in 2008 to “engage in violent jihad.”
...

Reached in North Carolina Wednesday, Mohammad’s mother, Elena Mohammad, said she had been aware for some time that her son had been killed in a drone strike, but was told by people in Pakistan, not by U.S. authorities. Her ex-husband is Pakistani.

Mohammad said she had no details on when or where her son was killed. She also said she had no interest in discussing her son’s past.

“I dealt with that and I don’t have to deal with it anymore because it’s already over with,” she said in the phone interview. “So whatever transpired I don’t want it back in my life anymore. It’s gone. There are no questions. I don’t have to hear any authorities; the FBI has finished coming to my house. It’s over. That’s it.”

During Obama's scheduled counterterrorism policy speech on Thursday, he will discuss his belief that it's in the best interests of the nation to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It is not clear whether or not the President will discuss the transfer of detainees, or the repatriation of those cleared for release during Thursday's speech.

Holder said in his letter, that Obama “has made clear his commitment to providing Congress and the American people with as much information as possible about our sensitive counterterrorism operations.”

You can read Holder's letter here.

On Friday, May 17, the international hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, joined by Code Pink and other political action groups from the U.S. and the U.K., launched Operation Guantanamo to mark the 100th day of a hunger strike within the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

The three day campaign of global action is intended to raise awareness of the human rights violations currently going on at Guantanamo Bay prison camp via social media and on the ground protests. Alleged violations at Guantanamo include the indefinite detention of prisoners, many of whom have been cleared for release years ago.

The following is an excerpt from a press release issued by Anonymous regarding Operation Guantanamo (#OpGTMO):

"With no hope for justice, over 100 men who have been held and tortured for years have gone on a hunger strike. On May 18th, it will have been 100 days since they have eaten voluntarily. Prisoners have died suddenly, violently, and suspiciously. All inmates in Guantanamo Bay have been locked in solitary confinement. Some are being force fed, an international crime. These men face the prospect of a terrible death in prison despite many of them having been cleared for release years ago.

Guantanamo Bay must be closed at once, and the prisoners should be either returned to their home countries or given a fair trial in a federal court. Guantanamo Bay is an ongoing war crime. Anonymous will no longer tolerate this atrocity.

On May 17 to May 19, to coincide with the 100th day of the hunger strike, we urge everyone to join global actions on the ground and hacktivist protests as well as twitterstorms, email bombs, and fax bombs, in 3 days of nonstop action.

Phone Bomb the representatives:

Call the White House and insist that President Obama fulfill his promise to close Guantanamo: 202-456-1111, 202-456-1414

Call the U.S. Southern Command to decry the conditions at Guantanamo: 305-437-1213

Call the Department of Defense, voice your concerns about the treatment of hunger strikers: 703-571-3343

Call your senators and representatives and urge them to support the closure of Guantanamo: http://congresslookup.com/

Sign the petition:

https://www.change.org/CloseGTMO

For updates:

Twitter : @opGTMO

Hashtag: #opGTMO"

The number of prisoners currently on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay has reached 100, forcing the United States to send 40 nurses and medical specialists to the detention center to monitor the situation over the weekend. Of those on strike, 21 are being force-fed. The inmates, many of whom are held without charge, are protesting their detention with the hunger strike, which began in February.

BBC:

Although such actions are frequent at Guantanamo, the current protest is one of the longest and most widespread.

Guantanamo officials deny claims that the strike began after copies of the Koran were mishandled during searches of prisoners' cells.

Violence erupted at the prison on April 13th as the authorities moved inmates out of communal cell blocks where they had covered surveillance cameras and windows.

Some prisoners used "improvised weapons" and were met with "less-than-lethal rounds", camp officials said, but no serious injuries were reported.

Nearly 100 of the detainees have reportedly been cleared for release but remain at the facility because of restrictions imposed by Congress and also concerns of possible mistreatment if they are sent back to their home countries.

During a White House press conference on Tuesday, President Obama said he will renew his first-term efforts to close the detention center. Obama reasoned that the existence of the facility damages the country’s image abroad, costs too much money and undermines U.S. counterterrorism efforts by serving as a recruiting tool for militants.

“I’m going to go back at this,” he said. “I’m going to reengage with Congress to try to make the case that this is not something that’s in the best interests of the American people.”

This is your Moment of Clarity #229: Two-thirds of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) have been hunger striking since February. Some may soon die. But there's a reason you should care about these men...

From CloseGuantanamo.org:

The ongoing existence of this abominable experiment in indefinite detention poisons America's claim to be a nation that believes in justice, and the detention of 86 prisoners cleared for release, who are held because it is politically inconvenient to release them, is a disgrace. Please read our latest exclusive report about the cleared prisoners still in Guantánamo, our latest world exclusive from Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, our first report about the hunger strike, and our follow-ups here and also here.

We are a group of lawyers, journalists, retired military personnel and concerned citizens seeking to close the "war on terror" prison at Guantánamo Bay, where 166 men are still held, even though 86 of them have been cleared for release. In June, we published an exclusive report identifying 40 prisoners cleared for release up to eight years ago who are still held. We have also just produced a new report telling the stories of 55 of the 86 cleared prisoners whose names were included on a list released by the Justice Department in a court case in September.

Also, just a few days left for the Moment of Clarity Show kickstarter campaign, to contribute, click here.

Keep fighting,

Lee

Just days after The New York Times published a disturbing Op-ed written by a Gitmo inmate staging a hunger strike, 32 more detainees are now participating in the strike.

Over half of all detainees at the US-run Guantanamo Bay military prison are now taking part in the hunger strike, with many being force-fed, a US military spokesman confirmed today.

The number of prisoners on hunger strike has risen to 84, an increase of 32 since last Wednesday, with 16 now receiving “enteral feedings,” a process involving being force-fed via tubes, and five detainees hospitalized.

The military's Muslim adviser in Guantanamo told reporters this week that one or more of the detainees will die before the hunger strike is over:

Zak, a longtime Muslim adviser at Guantanamo who goes only by his first name for security reasons, said detainees in the U.S. military prison have “perfected their methods” for suicide. He predicted the ongoing detainee hunger strike would lead to deaths.

"There will be more than one death,” Zak said. “I'm saying it right now, so next time we meet, you can say, 'Okay, Zak, you told us.’" The detainees, he said, “wanted to die out of hunger and thirst behind covered cameras.”

Reporters listening to morning prayers were evacuated from the higher security Camp 5 after a detainee began feeling faint and had to be evaluated by medical personnel:

The detainee that prompted the code yellow was okay, military officials later tell reporters. He was feeling dizzy and faint. Medical professionals checked him out and left him in his cell.

It was unclear if the detainee was part of the hunger strike, as reporters were unable to see if detainees refused their meals due to the code yellow evacuation.

Hunger Strikes and Indefinite Detention: A Rundown on What's Going on at Gitmo

By Cora Currier, ProPublica, April 18, 2013

It's been 11 years since the first detainees were brought to Guantanamo Bay. But the future of the prison, and the fate of the men inside it, is far from certain.  With 59 detainees at Gitmo currently on hunger strike, by the military's count, here's a primer on what's going at the island prison.

What started the hunger strike?

It began after guards allegedly mishandled detainees' Korans in a cell search in early February — but it's certainly become about more than the holy books.

The military says detainees have previously hidden "improvised weapons, unauthorized food and medicine" in the spines of the Korans, and that the February searches were standard, conducted by Muslim translators. (Koran searches had set off hunger strikes before, in 2005.)

Attorneys for hunger strikers say the detainees have offered to relinquish their Korans rather than have them searched. The military initially would not accept that option, but now says, "if they choose not to have one, they choose not to have one."

In any case, just about everyone – from the International Committee of the Red Cross to the general in charge of U.S. Southern Command – agrees the strike comes out of growing frustration and hopelessness among detainees. As we detail below, there are few indications that Gitmo will be shuttered or detainees transferred in the near future. The last detainee to leave Gitmo, last fall, was dead.

General Kelly, of U.S. Southern Command, said last month that detainees had watched Obama's State of the Union address, and heard no mention of Guantanamo. "That has caused them to become frustrated and they want to ... turn the heat up, get it back in the media," Kelly said.

In an account published in the New York Times last weekend, a Yemeni hunger striker named Samir Moqbel said he hoped "that because of the pain we are suffering, the eyes of the world will once again look to Guantánamo before it is too late." (Moqbel had recounted his story by phone to his lawyers.)

Another detainee, a Saudi Arabian named Shaker Aamer, also recently wrote an op-ed. Calling himself "a bit of a professional hunger striker," Aamer said "this one is a whole lot different." Lawyers say the strike is far more widespread than the military's count.

According to the military, two detainees have attempted suicide since the strike began.

Continue reading »

An inmate at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, took to the pages of The New York Times to tell about the degradation and misery the hunger strikers are experiencing at the prison. His name is Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, and he can only "write" by dictating to his lawyers, through a translator, over the phone. Moqbel and his fellow strikers are tied down and force-fed twice a day, often painfully. “I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose,” he writes. “I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone.” Moqbel, who has been imprisoned for 11 years and three months, has been fasting since February 10.

Over the weekend, after the Red Cross had left and during a media blackout, prisoners and military guards clashed as the authorities attempted to end the protest by moving prisoners from the communal blocks into individual cells, a step back toward the Bush administration's maximum security-style detention policies. The protests were sparked by what prisoners say was mistreatment of their Qurans during searches, but Moqbel writes that its aims are broad: "I just hope that because of the pain we are suffering, the eyes of the world will once again look to Guantánamo before it is too late."

Documents from 2008 published by the Times indicate that Moqbel was captured in December 2001 and identified as a guard for Bin Laden. Moqbel obviously disputes this claim.

Continue reading »

By Cora Currier, ProPublica

The long-troubled military trials at Guantanamo Bay were hit by revelations earlier this year that a secret censor had the ability to cut off courtroom proceedings, and that there were listening devices disguised as smoke detectors in attorney-client meeting rooms.

Now, another potential instance of compromised confidentiality at the military commissions has emerged: Defense attorneys say somebody has accessed their email and servers.

"Defense emails have ended up being provided to the prosecution, material has disappeared off the defense server, and sometimes reappeared, in different formats, or with different names," said Rick Kammen, a lawyer for Abd Al Rahim Al Nashiri, who is accused of plotting the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole.

The lawyers say they don't know exactly who is accessing their communications. And it's not yet clear whether the emails were intentionally grabbed or were scooped up mistakenly due to technical or procedural errors.

Either way, the lawyers are concerned.

In response to the apparent breaches, the military's chief defense counsel ordered defense lawyers to stop using email for privileged or confidential communications.

"This follows on the heels of the seizure of over 500,000 e-mail containing attorney-client privileged communications as well as the loss of significant amount of defense work-product contained in shared folders," Commander Walter Ruiz, one of the military defense counsels, said in an email.

The search of thousands of emails was revealed by the prosecution, attorneys say.

"The searches on their face looked to be fairly benign," Kammen said.  The defense emails turned up when prosecutors requested a search of prosecutors' own emails. "The people who were doing the searches ended up providing all manner of defense material as well." It's not clear what department, agency, or office did the search.  

It is not possible to corroborate the attorneys' accounts because the full documents are undergoing security review, and are not yet public.

The Pentagon declined to comment, citing the ongoing trial.  

Continue reading »

Uh oh. WikiLeaks is publishing Defense Department documents that reportedly cover detainment policies in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay post-9/11. Julian Assange said that the files show a “dark space” where law and rights don’t necessarily apply. The documents also reveal a harsh but “formal” interrogation policy -- as well as a policy of destroying interrogation recordings.

Reuters:

The WikiLeaks website began publishing on Thursday what it said were more than 100 U.S. Defense Department files detailing military detention policies in camps in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay in the years after the September 11 attacks on U.S. targets.

In a statement, WikiLeaks criticized regulations it said had led to abuse and impunity and urged human rights activists to use the documents, to be released over the next month, to research what it called "policies of unaccountability".

The statement quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as saying: "The 'Detainee Policies' show the anatomy of the beast that is post-9/11 detention, the carving out of a dark space where law and rights do not apply, where persons can be detained without a trace at the convenience of the U.S. Department of Defense."

"It shows the excesses of the early days of war against an unknown 'enemy' and how these policies matured and evolved," it said, and led to "the permanent state of exception that the United States now finds itself in, a decade later."

Assange is still staying inside Ecuador's embassy in central London to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning about an alleged rape and sexual assault. Assange and his supporters believe that the extradition to Sweden is a ruse, and that Sweden will then extradite him to the United States to face charges related to the publishing of leaked U.S. military and diplomatic documents.

In this video, Omar Khadr, a 15 year old Canadian detainee – the youngest at Guatanamo bay – speaks to a team of Canadian intelligence agents after being tortured by US officials before even arriving at the facility.

This just-barely teen boy was taken into custody by the US after a firefight in Afghanistan in September 2002. Khadr was severly wounded in this battle, tortured after being taken into custody, and a month later was sent to Guantanamo Bay. Shortly after he arrived, Canadian security agents spent four days interrogating him, which are documented here. In this clip,the psychologically perverse interrogation techniques used are exposed, as you follow Khadr's painful realization that the Canadian agents are not there to take him home but to manipulate him into making incriminating statements whether or not those statements are true.

In July 2008, the video of this interrogation was ordered to be made available in a Canadian supreme court ruling that stated: “ Interrogation of a youth, to elicit statements about the most serious criminal charges while detained in these conditions and without access to counsel, and while knowing that the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the US prosecutors, offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects.”

The transformation of this 7 minute video into a documentary titled “Four Days in Guantanamo” is increasing the level of awareness regarding the treatments of prisoners at this infamous detention center.

The directors explain that International conventions which protect the rights of children in wartime (especially child soldiers) should have applied to Omar, but the Canadian government sidestepped those laws.

In October 2010, Omar pleaded guilty to all the charges pressed by the US. It was a strategic plea bargain which enabled the young boy to serve eight years in jail, instead of 40. He is the first person ever convicted as a war criminal for acts committed as a juvenile. He served a total of 3619 days in Guantanamo.

Omar has returned to Canada after a decade in custody and has been transferred to a maximum security prison in Canada where he awaits parole, which, according to his attorney, could be as early as 2013.