Guantanamo

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, June 4, 2007 – In a decision that could affect the future of the military commission system, the judge in the military commission case of accused terrorist Omar Khadr today dismissed all charges against Khadr and adjourned the hearing.    » read more »

04 June 2007 -- A U.S. military judge has dismissed charges against a detainee at the Guantanamo detention center, based on a technical issue that could affect all the current and potential charges against detainees. The Defense Department says the prosecutor will appeal the ruling. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.

The military judge, U.S. Army Colonel Peter Brownback, ruled Monday during a hearing at Guantanamo that charges against Canadian Omar Khadr are invalid. Khadr is charged with murder and other crimes related to the death of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.    » read more »

30 May 2007 -- A private legal defense group is suing a U.S. aviation corporation, accusing it of helping the CIA secretly transport three terrorism suspects to overseas prisons, where they were allegedly tortured. Victoria Cavaliere reports from VOA's New York bureau.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Wednesday in a federal court in California. The suit accuses Jeppesen Dataplan, a subsidiary of the giant Boeing Corporation, of knowingly providing the CIA with flight plans and travel logistics in order to shuttle terror suspects to foreign prisons for interrogation.    » read more »

May 19, 2007 -- The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of David Matthew Hicks from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Australia.

On March 30, Hicks pled guilty and was convicted of material support to terrorism in the first trial under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The military commissions Act established procedures that fully comply with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.    » read more »

20 May 2007 -- Convicted Australian terrorism supporter David Hicks is back home and behind bars after a flight from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Hicks was the first detainee convicted of supporting extremism by the U.S. military court. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

After more than five years as an inmate at Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks is back in Australia.

He was flown from Cuba to the southern city of Adelaide on a jet chartered by the Australian government.    » read more »

May 10, 2007 -- The Department of Defense announced today that charges were referred to a military commission in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan by the Office of Military Commissions Convening Authority, Susan J. Crawford.

The convening authority referred charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism against Hamdan, a non-capital case.    » read more »

Earlier in April, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit proposing new restrictions on counsel for Guantanamo detainees contesting decisions by Combatant Status Review Tribunals that they are properly detained as enemy combatants.    » read more »

Bill requires transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to other detention facilities

April 30, 2007 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation today to close the Department of Defense detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within one year of the bill’s enactment.

It is the first measure introduced in the Senate to close the Guantanamo Bay facility.    » read more »

April 26, 2007 -- The Department of Defense announced today the transfer of one detainee from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Afghanistan and the transfer of one detainee to Morocco.

These transfers are a demonstration of the United States’ desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary. It also underscores the processes put in place to assess each individual and make a determination about their detention while hostilities are ongoing – an unprecedented step in the history of warfare.    » read more »

April 26, 2007 -- Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today called for the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Senator Clinton's call came while questioning an Administration official and outside experts at today's hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee to examine legal issues regarding individuals detained by the Department of Defense as enemy combatants.    » read more »