Guantanamo prisoners

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Drone Strike Kills Afghan ISIS Leader

Disaffected mullah quit Taliban last month

(Newser) - A disaffected Taliban commander has been killed less than a month after he pledged allegiance to ISIS. Mullah Abdul Rauf was killed yesterday in Helmand province in a strike that tribal elders say hit a car traveling across the desert and killed around six people, the BBC reports. Rauf—who...

'I Almost Lost My Mind': Guantanamo Prisoner's Diary

Sexual abuse, beatings, force-feedings: 12-year inmate's book describes torture

(Newser) - For 12 years, Mauritania native Mohamedou Ould Slahi has been Prisoner No. 760 at Guantanamo, accused of aiding and abetting the 9/11 terrorists and involvement in a halted attack at LAX, der Spiegel reports. He's since confessed to multiple crimes, but he now says those admissions were only because...

GOP Seeks Halt as 5 More Gitmo Inmates Freed

Transfers to Estonia, Oman bring population down to 122

(Newser) - The release of five more detainees yesterday brought the inmate population at Guantanamo Bay down to 122—and brought President Obama a little closer to finally fulfilling his promise to close the detention center—but the transfer came just a day after Republicans proposed legislation to stop the releases. The...

US Sends 4 Guantanamo Prisoners Back to Afghanistan

That leaves 132 detainees at Gitmo

(Newser) - The US has returned four Afghans from Guantanamo Bay back to their home country. US officials say the transfer—which drops the number of detainees at the facility to 132—is a sign of confidence in new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. The Defense Department identities them as Mohammed Zahir, Shawali...

Gitmo Prison Count Hits Milestone

With release of 6, Cuban prison at lowest number of prisoners since 2002

(Newser) - Six prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to Uruguay, the US government said today, announcing a resettlement deal that had been delayed for months by security concerns in the Pentagon and political considerations in the South American country. The six are the first prisoners transferred to South America from...

Gitmo Now Down to 143 Prisoners

5 released and transferred to Georgia, Slovakia

(Newser) - Five prisoners have been released from Guantanamo Bay as part of a renewed effort to close the detention center, officials say. Three men were sent to Georgia and two to Slovakia for resettlement. They were among dozens of low-level prisoners at Guantanamo that an administration task force in 2009 deemed...

Watchdog: Bergdahl Prisoner Swap Was Illegal

Congress should have been told, GAO says

(Newser) - The Obama administration's release of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for captive soldier Bowe Bergdahl was illegal in more ways than one, according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The government watchdog says the decision violated federal law because Congress wasn't given 30 days' notice of the transfer...

Navy Nurse at Gitmo Turns Conscientious Objector

He refuses to force-feed detainees

(Newser) - A Navy nurse working at Guantanamo Bay has refused to force-feed hunger-striking detainees, an inmate's lawyer tells CNN . The male nurse, whose name hasn't been revealed, at first conducted the feedings, but "as soon as he saw what was happening, he started talking to the [inmates],"...

Secret Bergdahl Prediction: Only 1 Will Shun Taliban

2 likely to return as honchos, says assessment made during negotiations

(Newser) - The back story of the Bowe Bergdahl swap gets one detail richer today by way of a Wall Street Journal report on a classified assessment that found two of the five Guantanamo detainees that were to be released would likely end up back in a senior role with the Taliban....

1 in 3 Freed Gitmo Detainees Returns to Violence

In some cases with dire results

(Newser) - Just how dangerous was the Obama administration's move to swap five Guantanamo detainees for Bowe Bergdahl ? It's hard to say, but as of January roughly 29% of the 614 Guantanamo detainees released so far had returned to the fight, the Wall Street Journal reports, based on Director...

5 Detainees Freed for Bergdahl Are...

...all ex-Taliban officials with ties to the organization

(Newser) - A fair exchange? The five Guantanamo Bay prisoners swapped for US soldier Bowe Bergdahl were all senior Taliban commanders who had been off the battlefield for at least a decade, the Washington Post reports. Analysts say they retain influence in the Taliban and may return to the group after spending...

Anguished Judge Lets Gitmo Resume Forced Feedings

Gladys Kessler criticizes Pentagon but says she has no choice

(Newser) - A federal judge today allowed the US military to resume force-feeding a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, but Gladys Kessler made clear she is not happy about it, reports the McClatchy News Service . Kessler criticized the Pentagon for refusing to budge over how it administers the force-feeding and urged authorities to...

Secret Tapes of Gitmo Force-Feedings Do Exist

Well, at least tapes of one detainee being force-fed

(Newser) - In an unprecedented ruling, non-government officials have been given the go-ahead to view secret recordings that depict force-feedings at Guantanamo Bay—a ruling that by its nature establishes the fact that these tapes actually do exist, reports the Guardian . A federal judge yesterday ruled that lawyers for Abu Wa’el...

Taliban Ends Talks With US Over POW Release

Army PFC Bowe Bergdahl has been held since 2009

(Newser) - The Taliban has put the kibosh on prisoner-exchange negotiations with the US, citing the "current complex political situation" in Afghanistan for ending what was considered America's best shot at securing the freedom of POW Bowe Bergdahl, a 27-year-old Idaho native who's been held captive since 2009. The...

9/11 Mastermind Renounces Violence

He slams Western society in new manifesto

(Newser) - After more than a decade in American custody, confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed appears to have had second thoughts about the use of violence. The former al-Qaeda propaganda chief suggests Islam should not be spread by violence in a rambling manifesto viewed by Channel 4 News . He also blasts...

US Sends Guantanamo's Last 3 Uighurs to Slovakia

It had been a struggle to resettle the Uighurs

(Newser) - Slovakia has accepted three prisoners from Guantanamo Bay who had posed a difficult resettlement challenge, helping the US government move closer to its goal of closing the prison on its base in Cuba, officials said today. The three men who left for the Central European country in recent days were...

2 Gitmo Inmates Sent to Algeria Against Will

162 detainees remain

(Newser) - Two men who had been held without charge at Guantanamo Bay for more than a decade have been sent back to their native Algeria against their will as part of a renewed effort to gradually close the prison, officials say. Both prisoners had resisted being returned to their homeland because...

CIA Secretly Turned Gitmo Inmates Into Double Agents

'Penny Lane' program led to al-Qaeda leaders' deaths: officials

(Newser) - Guantanamo Bay contained "the worst of a very bad lot," according to Dick Cheney—and it was from this pool that CIA teams handpicked potential double agents, anonymous officials tell the AP . The program at Gitmo's "Penny Lane" facility, a secret cluster of eight cottages near...

164 to Go: US Transferring 2 Gitmo Prisoners to Algeria

No details available yet about them

(Newser) - The White House plans to transfer two detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Algeria, the first movement of prisoners out since the president announced a renewed push to close the military-run detention center in Cuba. The White House said it was starting the transfers as part of Obama's goal to...

Mos Def Attempts Force-Feeding in Gitmo Protest

He's unable to complete the process

(Newser) - As force-feeding of 44 detainees continues at Guantanamo, Islamic leaders are calling on the US to halt the process during Ramadan, which begins today. (The prison has said it will perform the force-feeding at night during the holy month.) To underscore the point, actor and rapper Yasiin Bey, also...

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