Archivo etiqueta «Guantánamo»
By Laura Pitter is counterterrorism adviser for Human Rights Watch (THE GUARDIAN, 21/02/11):
The latest military commission trial at Guantánamo Bay opened the door for the defendant’s release in a few years. But the continued use of indefinite detention and lax rules on hearsay evidence still plague the system. These puts enormous pressure on defendants to plea-bargain to avoid the dangers of going to trial in a process that is tipped against them.
On Tuesday 15 February, Sudanese national Noor Uthman Muhammed pled guilty to conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism for the role he played at the … Seguir leyendo
By Karen Greenberg, the executive director of the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law, the editor of The Torture Debate in America and co-editor of the forthcoming The Enemy Combatant Papers (THE GUARDIAN, 22/12/10):
The Obama administration, ProPublica’s Dafna Linzer first reported, is about to issue an executive order that gives shape, contour and future life to indefinite detention for Guantánamo detainees. The order will provide for the continual detention of several dozen detainees – who will have access lawyers in order to periodically contest their detention.
On one level, we shouldn’t be … Seguir leyendo
By Michael B. Mukasey, U.S. attorney general from 2007 to 2009 and the judge who presided over the trial of Omar Abdel Rahman in 1995 (THE WASHINGTON POST, 20/07/10):
There were fatal flaws in the recent suggestion that Congress should designate Guantanamo Bay part of an existing federal district court or as a separate federal district court so that those accused of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks can be tried there ["Try them in federal court -- at Gitmo," Washington Forum, July 16].
Eugene R. Sullivan, a former chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for … Seguir leyendo
By J.D. Gordon, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and a retired Navy commander who served in the George W. Bush administration’s Defense Department as the Pentagon spokesman for the Western Hemisphere (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 12/04/10):
Guantanamo has been at thecenter of intense political and security debates for the past decade, yet many commonly held perceptions of its detention operations and interrogations are not based upon the facts.
From the outset, Department of Defense officials characterized Guantanamo as the “least worst place” for holding al Qaeda and Taliban suspects picked up in the aftermath of Sept. … Seguir leyendo
Por Joan J. Queralt, catedrático de Derecho Penal de la UB (EL PERIÓDICO, 05/03/10):
Estados Unidos no solo quiere cerrar Guantánamo, lugar que nunca debería haber abierto, sino que debe cerrarlo, pues el periodo de gracia que le han dispensado sus tribunales hace ya un par de años que caducó. Primero fueron las admisiones de las demandas de los allí ilegítimamente detenidos, aceptado que su indebida privación de libertad pudiera ser revisada por los tribunales civiles norteamericanos pese a la plétora de disposiciones tan absurdas como antijurídicas que pretendían cubrir las vergüenzas que seguían a la vista de todos.… Seguir leyendo
Par Frédéric Koller (LE TEMPS, 27/01/10):
La décision que doit prendre le Conseil fédéral concernant l’accueil de deux Ouïgours (des Chinois musulmans), ex-détenus de Guantanamo, est un casse-tête dont la résolution sera révélatrice de ses choix diplomatiques et de l’affirmation ou non de certains de ses principes. Cette décision, pour caricaturer, irritera soit les Etats-Unis et les défenseurs des droits de l’homme, soit la Chine et les représentants des milieux économiques. En d’autres termes, le choix final pourrait être déterminé par l’évaluation des moindres dommages collatéraux.
Bien sûr, Berne pourrait s’en sortir par une pirouette en invoquant des problèmes techniques … Seguir leyendo
Par Philippe Currat, avocat et spécialiste des droits de l’homme (LE TEMPS, 13/01/10):
Guantanamo résonne dans tous les Etats de droit comme un avertissement. C’est l’exemple d’une dérive sécuritaire totalitaire qui méprise l’ordre constitutionnel, les droits fondamentaux, l’Etat de droit, la démocratie. Guantanamo, c’est l’exemple de l’arbitraire, tant il a été démontré que les personnes qui y sont détenues ne sont le plus souvent coupables d’aucun crime. Guantanamo est une abomination qui marquera durablement du seing de l’infamie une démocratie pourtant fondatrice. La mise en place d’un tel lieu de détention est bien davantage qu’une erreur, c’est une faute … Seguir leyendo
By Jack Goldsmith, who teaches at Harvard Law School and served as an assistant attorney general in the Bush administration and Benjamin Wittes, a former Post editorial writer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the editor of Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform. Both are members of the Hoover Institution’s Task Force on National Security and Law (THE WASHINGTON POST, 22/12/09):
Since U.S. forces started taking alleged terrorists to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the task of crafting American detention policy has migrated decisively from the executive branch to federal judges. These judges, … Seguir leyendo
By Dimitrina Petrova, the director of The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) (THE GUARDIAN, 19/12/09):
The decision by President Obama to move 100 detainees from Guantánamo Bay to the Thomson Correctional Centre in Illinois has drawn criticism from across the spectrum. But amid the controversy, the fact that one of the biggest barriers to closure of Guantánamo remains in place has been largely ignored.
Of the estimated 110 detainees who will be neither transferred to Thomson nor moved to New York to stand trial for the 9/11 attacks, many are stateless. These men remain in detention not because they are … Seguir leyendo
By Judith Miller, a contributing editor of City Journal, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a Fox News contributor (THE GUARDIAN, 25/09/09):
It’s been a busy summer at the Guantánamo Bay detention centre. The joint task force in charge of the 226 remaining detainees is spending about $440,000 to expand the recreation yards at Camp 6. At nearby Camp 4, which offers communal living for the most “compliant” captives, the soccer yard is being enlarged. At Camp 5, a maximum-security facility, a $73,000 classroom is under construction. In March, the task force added art classes to the … Seguir leyendo
By Joseph Finder, who writes frequently on intelligence issues, is the author, most recently, of the novel Vanished (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 30/08/09):
Earley in 2002, Eric Holder, then a former deputy attorney general, said on CNN that the detainees being held at Guantánamo Bay were “not, in fact, people entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention,” particularly “given the way in which they have conducted themselves.”
Six years later, declaring that “Guantánamo Bay is an international embarrassment,” Mr. Holder said, “I never thought I would see the day when … the Supreme Court would have to order … Seguir leyendo
By Clive Stafford Smith is the director of Reprieve, the UK legal action charity (THE TIMES, 01/08/09):
Disappointment has rippled through the ranks of Obama supporters in recent weeks, with the reviving of Guantánamo military courts and other backtracking in the War on Terror. More worrying still, in Afghanistan, Bagram Air Force Base has become Guantánamo’s evil twin sister — and a bloated twin at that, with a new $50 million prison bringing the number of inmates to more than 1,500, none of whom has ever caught sight of a lawyer or a legal right.
The Obama Administration has supported … Seguir leyendo
By Chisun Lee, a lawyer and a reporter for ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative-reporting group (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 23/07/09):
As the Obama administration and Congress try to forge a legal framework for detaining suspected terrorists, they might want to take a close look at what’s happening at the federal district courthouse just a short walk down Pennsylvania Avenue from both the White House and the Capitol.
Trial judges there have quietly decided 31 of some 200 cases brought by Guantánamo inmates seeking freedom. Dossier by dossier, the jurists have answered the core questions that policy experts have been addressing … Seguir leyendo
By Barry Wingard, a lieutenant colonel in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard and an Air Force judge advocate general. He began his career in the Army as an enlisted infantry soldier (THE WASHINGTON POST, 01/07/09):
Like his fellow prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Kuwaiti detainee Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed al-Kandari hoped that President Obama’s election would finally bring justice. Judges, not political appointees, would prevail and restore the rule of law.
Unfortunately, nothing seems to have changed. The Obama administration is reportedly considering an executive order that would “reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely,” and the situation at the … Seguir leyendo
By Peter Bergen, a senior fellow and Katherine Tiedemann, a program associate at the New America Foundation (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/05/09):
Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul and Said Ali al-Shihri may be the two best arguments for why releasing detainees from Guantánamo Bay poses a real risk to America. Mr. Rasoul, who was transferred to Afghanistan in 2007 and then released by the Kabul government, is now the commander of operations for the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Mr. Shihri, sent back to his native Saudi Arabia in 2007, is now a leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.
Are … Seguir leyendo