GUANTANAMO
JURIST legal news archive...

U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay has a unique posture in the Western Hemisphere in that it is the oldest U.S. base outside the continental United States, and the only one in a country that does not enjoy an open political relationship with the United States.Located in the Oriente Province on the southeast corner of Cuba, the base is about 400 air miles from Miami, Fla.In February 1903, the United States leased 45 square miles of land and water at Guantanamo Bay for use as a coaling (fueling) station. The treaty was finalized and the document was ratified by both governments and signed in Havana in December of that same year.The most recent addition to the base is the Southern Command Joint Task Force Guantanamo. Following the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, Joint Task Force Guantanamo was tasked to stand up the War on Terrorism detainee mission... [ USN ]


Obama renews pledge to close Guantanamo
May 1, 2013
US President Barack Obama on Tuesday renewed his pledge to make an effort to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. At a news conference Tuesday, Obama was asked about the ongoing hunger strike, now involving 100 of the 166 detainees. He responded, "Well, it is not a surprise to me that we....... [more]

Release the Cleared Guantanamo Detainees to End the Hunger Strike
April 30, 2013
JURIST Guest Columnist David Frakt of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that the Obama administration should release those detainees held at Guantanamo Bay who have already been declared to not be a danger to the US...One of the most vexing problems currently facing the administration....... [more]

Former Guantanamo detainee Khadr to appeal terrorism conviction
April 29, 2013
A former Canadian Guantanamo prisoner is planning to appeal his US terrorism conviction, his lawyer said Sunday. Omar Khadr, who spent 10 years in Guantanamo, is currently imprisoned in a maximum security prison in Ontario serving out six years of an eight-year sentence for war crimes. Khadr was bo....... [more]

More than half of Guantanamo detainees now on hunger strike
April 22, 2013
The US Military confirmed on Monday that 84 of the 166 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are on hunger strike, protesting their conditions and indefinite detention. The hunger strike began in February with just a few prisoners and has grown over the past weeks to include more than half of the detainees. A....... [more]

UK court allowed government one week to seek release of US intelligence
April 22, 2013
On April 22, 2009, a judge for HM Courts and Tribunals Service stated that he would allow the UK government seven days to request the release of classified information related to the detention of Binyam Mohamed from the US government, or the court would issue the request order itself. Mohamed allege....... [more]

US to notify Guantanamo prisoners' lawyers of force-feeding
April 14, 2013
Lawyers for prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay said on Monday that the US government has started to notify them when their clients participating in a hunger strike are being force-fed. The hunger strike, which has been ongoing since February, is a protest against indefinite detainment and the c....... [more]

UN rights chief calls for Guantanamo prison closure
April 5, 2013
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday called for US authorities to close down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, emphasizing the continued indefinite incarcerations of many detainees as a clear violation of international law. Of the 166 detainees in Guantanamo, about half have bee....... [more]

Yemen protesters demand release of Guantanamo detainees
April 1, 2013
Approximately 250 Yemeni demonstrators gathered Monday in front of the US Embassy in Sanna to demand the release of Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. According to media sources, 90 out the 166 remaining Guantanamo detainees are Yemeni, and several have been detained for more than a decade....... [more]

Guantanamo detainee requests immediate relief amid alleged mistreatment, hunger strike
March 28, 2013
Human rights lawyers on Tuesday filed an emergency motion in the US District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that guards at Guantanamo Bay have denied drinking water and sufficient clothing to a Yemeni prisoner. The motion was filed only a day before a fact-finding visit to the US detent....... [more]

The Government is Using al Bahlul v. US to Maintain the Political Status Quo
March 21, 2013
JURIST Guest Columnist Shane Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights argues that even if the government's petition for en banc review of al Bahlul v. US fails, it will nonetheless succeed in maintaining the political status quo of the Obama administration...There are, basically, only two way....... [more]

Pentagon prosecutor says review panel should hear 9/11 transparency challenge
March 10, 2013
The Pentagon's war crimes prosecutor has stated that a review panel should hear transparency challenges concerning the September 11 trial. Brigadier General, Mark Martins, who is the prosecutor at Guantanamo also insisted that the public must not hear about treatment of suspected 9/11 conspirators e....... [more]




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