Guantanamo Bay detention camp

“ Al Qaeda Manual Drives Detainee Behavior at Guantanamo Bay By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, June 29, 2005 – If you're a Muslim extremist captured while fighting your holy war against "infidels," avoid revealing information at all costs, don't give your real name and claim that you were mistreated or tortured during your detention.
This instruction comes straight from the pages of an official al Qaeda training manual, and officials at the detention facility at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, say they see clear evidence that detainees are well-versed in its contents. ”

“ An elaborate process is in place to identify enemy combatants to be held at Guantanamo, assess the threat they pose to the U.S. and the international community, and regularly review all available information to make sure that their continued detention is necessary.
Detainees have been released when it is believed they no longer pose a significant threat, and they have been transferred to the custody of their governments when those governments are prepared to assume responsibility for ensuring that the detainees will not pose a threat to the United States. ”

“ To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend – because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists – because living our values doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger. And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture. ”

“ The Secretary of Defense, or his designee, is responsible for making decisions about the release or transfer of detainees from Guantanamo. However, no determination is made without full consideration of other agency positions. Because detainees at Guantanamo may be held for a long time as the war against al Qaida and its affiliates continues, the review process is being formalized for the future to provide each detainee at Guantanamo with an individualized, regular review to assess the continued need for detention. ”

“ The detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility include bin Laden's bodyguards, bomb makers, terrorist trainers and facilitators, and other suspected terrorists. More money is spent on meals for detainees than on the U.S. troops stationed there. Detainees are offered up to 4,200 calories a day. The average weight gain per detainee is 20 pounds. The Muslim call to prayer sounds five times a day. Arrows point detainees toward the holy city of Mecca. Detainees receive medical, dental, psychiatric, and optometric care at U.S. taxpayers' expense. ”

“ While the ARB procedures were being developed last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court issued three rulings related to detained enemy combatants. Among other things, the Court in one of those cases held that federal courts have jurisdiction, under the federal habeas corpus statute, 28 U.S.C. Section 2241, to hear challenges to the legality of the detention of Guantanamo Bay detainees. ”

“ Recruitment and Travel: Detainee and his family traveled to Miram Shah, Pakistan (PK) refugee camp in 1979 to escape the Soviet invasion. Detainee traveled back and forth between Pakistan and Afghanistan to work on a relative's farm during the spring and summer months. He claimed authorities imprisoned him for one year because he did not support the Taliban. Detainee denied Taliban or Al-Qaida connections, but does know and has identified Al-Qaida operatives. ”

“ Before the closure of Guantanamo, the detainee may be transferred if the security situation in Yemen improves, an appropriate rehabilitation program or third-country resettlement option becomes available, or Yemen has demonstrated its ability to or mitigate any threat they pose. At the time of the closure of Guantanamo, the detainee will be reconsidered for transfer to Yemen, a third country, or a detention facility in the United States. ”

“ Over the course of the near future the world’s eyes will intermittently turn its attention to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the historic military commissions of detained enemy combatants. However, before any trial may begin, there are countless hours of hard work by numerous organizations involved with the detainees. ”

“ Water-boarding, beatings, faked executions, confinement in extreme cold or extreme heat, prolonged enforcement of painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, and the defiling of religious articles have been practiced and exposed as routine at Guantanamo, at Abu Ghraib Prison and other US detention sites in Iraq, and at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. ”

“ But I want to be very clear that our goal is to construct a legitimate legal framework for Guantanamo detainees – not to avoid one. In our constitutional system, prolonged detention should not be the decision of any one man. If and when we determine that the United States must hold individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war, we will do so within a system that involves judicial and congressional oversight. And so going forward, my Administration will work with Congress to develop an appropriate legal regime so that our efforts are consistent with our values and our Constitution. ”

“ But you know, again, people who are accused of serious crimes and who are detained, I mean, this is a fact of life, that it is not a comfortable situation for anybody who has been accused of a crime and has to be detained; that they have a comfortable and happy lifestyle. In maximum security prisons in the United States and I'm sure in Canada, this is a -- this is not necessarily a comfortable environment. But the conditions in Guantanamo are very much modeled on conditions in federal prisons in the United States and they have outstanding medical care. ”

“ There is no requirement in the law of armed conflict that a detaining power charge enemy combatants with crimes, or give them lawyers or access to the courts in order to challenge their detention. States in prior wars have generally not done so. ”

“ JTF Guantanamo Public Affairs The negative spotlight placed on psychologists assigned to military detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has now dimmed after the American Psychological Association showed support for the work performed by its colleagues. ”

“ They are in a very, very secure place ninety miles off our shore. If they exercise their right to test their detention and are determined to be a threat, then they will be returned. If they are not a threat, then by definition the public safety is not compromised. We cannot create the requisite danger to public safety by importing them to Guantanamo. That is not what the Framers of the Constitution envisioned.
Nor is it reasonable to argue that the public safety is jeopardized by overwhelming our court system with frivolous habeas petitions from the detainees. ”

“ Meanwhile, instead of serving as a tool to counter-terrorism, Guantanamo became a symbol that helped al Qaeda recruit terrorists to its cause. Indeed, the existence of Guantanamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.
So the record is clear: rather than keep us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies. It sets back the willingness of our allies to work with us in fighting an enemy that operates in scores of countries. ”

“ The Justice Department statement on the U.S. District Court decision ordering release of the Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay Today, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered that 17 Uighurs detained at Guantánamo Bay — individuals who have admitted to receiving weapons training at camps in Afghanistan— be released into the United States. Today’s ruling presents serious national security and separation of powers concerns and raises unprecedented legal issues. ”

“ While judgments of military necessity are entitled to deference by the courts and while temporary custody during wartime may be justified in order properly to process those who have been captured, the Executive has had ample opportunity during the past five years during which the detainees have been held at Guantanamo Bay to determine who is being held and for what reason. ”

“ Under the pretext of "war on terror", the CIA has set up black sites in at least 54 countries and regions over the years, where more than 100,000 people are detained. A group of independent human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement released on 10 January 2022 that the US has arbitrarily detained people without trial and subjected them to torture or ill-treatment in Guantanamo Bay for 20 years in violation of international human rights law, calling this "a stain on the US Government's commitment to the rule of law". ”

“ The experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, are part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. CBS News reported on Oct. 29, 2021 that the United States still holds 39 people at Guantanamo Bay. ”

“ And it proceeds like that until effectively the Government says, OK, that is the end of the tribunal, and he goes back to detention. Even if there is evidence that he was not involved in any terrorist activity, he may not have any mechanism to introduce that evidence into the hearing.
Now, the vast majority of the folks in Guantanamo, I suspect, are there for a reason. There are a lot of dangerous people. Particularly dangerous are people like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. ”

“ Presently, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepts about 600 refugees at sea every month, and estimates that another 50 reach U.S. soil weekly. Should there be a mass migration in the Caribbean for any reason, the Coast Guard estimates an average flow rate of about 3,000 migrants per week.
The Joint Task Force will be responsible for two key phases of the migrant facility operation. Personnel will conduct both the “precrisis” and “initiate camp build” phases as soon as the migrant population approaches exceeds capacity at Guantanamo. (Normally, Guantanamo houses around 30 migrants at any given time.) ”

“ Hundreds of innocent civilians from dozens of other countries have been killed as well.
Seventeen U.S. soldiers have been killed in combat with Taliban/al Qaida forces in Afghanistan since August 2003.
The law of armed conflict governs this war between the U.S. and al Qaida and establishes the rules for detention of enemy combatants. These rules permit the U.S. to detain enemy combatants without charges or trial for the duration of hostilities. Detention prevents combatants from continuing to fight against us.
We have no interest in holding people who are not enemy combatants. ”

“ Shanita Simmons JTF Guantanamo Public Affairs GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Nov. 14, 2007 – A Canadian-born detainee held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since his capture on the battlefield in Afghanistan at age 15 was arraigned by a military commission on Nov. 8. ”

“ II. In In re Guantanamo Detainee Cases, 355 F. Supp. 2d 443 (D.D.C. 2005) , Judge Joyce Hens Green addressed eleven coordinated habeas cases involving 56 aliens being detained by the United States as “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay, id. at 445. These detainees are citizens of friendly nations — Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Kuwait, Libya, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Yemen — who were seized in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Gambia, Pakistan, Thailand, and Zambia. Each detainee maintains that he was wrongly classified as an “enemy combatant.” ”

“ I would urge those people to
consider that the memory of that day would be a daily reality were it
not for the brave men and women who serve in our military and have
apprehended the heinous thugs and criminals housed at Guantanamo Bay. ”

“ Petitioner has never been housed at Camp Iguana. The respondents explain that this is because he did not arrive at Guantánamo until after his sixteenth birthday. See Sept. 3 Lee Letter at 2 n.1.5 According to a declaration submitted by Dr. John S. Edmondson, a Captain in the United States Navy who oversees the hospital that provides medical care to the detainees at Guantánamo, all detainees arriving at Guantánamo are given a complete physical examination upon arrival, and continue to receive medical attention throughout their detention. ”

“ Charges sworn against detainee Mohammed Kamin
The Defense Department announced March 12 that charges have been sworn against Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Kamin of Afghanistan.
Kamin is the thirteenth detainee at Guantanamo Bay against whom charges have been sworn under the Military Commissions Act. He is charged with providing material support to terrorism in violation of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. If convicted, the accused faces up to life in prison. ”

“ THe detainee claimed only being a fighter assisting the Taliban. The detainee doesn't want to return to Yemen because of being falsely accused of a crime for which he was imprisoned for eight and a half months. Supposedly it was this imprisonment that led him to leave the country. The detainee claims a family member had something to do with the bombing of the USS Cole. The detainee stated there would be a future attack on America bigger than w:11 September 2001. All Americans will pay for their actions against the Muslim detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ”

“ It was an assessment that was shared by the American people, who nominated candidates for President from both major parties who, despite our many differences, called for a new approach – one that rejected torture, and recognized the imperative of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Now let me be clear: we are indeed at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates. We do need to update our institutions to deal with this threat. But we must do so with an abiding confidence in the rule of law and due process; in checks and balances and accountability. ”