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B. McPherson
Long time prisoner at Gitmo prison, Majid Khan, has pleaded guilty to all charges against him. He has been held in the offshore American prison since 2003 and was considered a high value prisoner. In exchange for a promise that Khan will be released sometime, he has agreed to talk about all he knows about al-Qaeda operations.
“Prosecutors said Khan plotted with the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to blow up fuel tanks in the US, to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, former Pakistani president, and to provide other assistance to al-Qaeda.” Al Jazeera
In spite of having confessed to crimes and agreeing to provide information about his and other’s terrorist activities, he will not know until 2016 what his prison sentence will be. It could range from a minimum of 19 years to 25. There is, of course, no guarantee that the American jailers will ever free Khan. Guantanamo is a “black” prison which means that inmates have no rights.
A Canadian, Omar Khadr, was captured after a firefight in Afghanistan when he was about 15. He spent years at the offshore prison in Cuba. He struck a deal to be released to a Canadian prison within a year if he would confess to killing an American soldier in Afghanistan. More than a year later he remains in Gitmo.
This January marks a ten year anniversary of Gitmo. There have been allegations of torture and murder of the unfortunates incarcerated there. Some people caught up in the anti-terrorism fervor that hit the US after 9/11 were ‘sold’ to the military for rewards and later found to have no connection at all to terrorist activity.
American president Obama campaigned on a platform that would close the offshore prison by 2010. Not only has Obama failed to close the facility, he has allowed the resumption of military tribunals. Obama has gone even further in signing a bill that exposes American citizens to seizure without warrants and suspends the rule of habeas corpus. The most recent example of creeping repression in the USA is the new bill that provides for the arrest of protesters if they demonstrate(peacefully) when a government official is present(whether they know it or not).
American citizens working and living within their own country are now subject to the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) which suspends their civil rights. I wonder how many shoppers at Walmart or dining at McDonalds are aware that they can now be ‘disappeared’ just like in those other totalitarian states.
"No president," said the ACLU, "should have the power to declare the entire globe a war zone and then seize and detain civilian terrorism suspects anywhere in the world---including within the United States---and to hold them forever without charge or trial." Global Research
Long time prisoner at Gitmo prison, Majid Khan, has pleaded guilty to all charges against him. He has been held in the offshore American prison since 2003 and was considered a high value prisoner. In exchange for a promise that Khan will be released sometime, he has agreed to talk about all he knows about al-Qaeda operations.
“Prosecutors said Khan plotted with the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to blow up fuel tanks in the US, to assassinate Pervez Musharraf, former Pakistani president, and to provide other assistance to al-Qaeda.” Al Jazeera
In spite of having confessed to crimes and agreeing to provide information about his and other’s terrorist activities, he will not know until 2016 what his prison sentence will be. It could range from a minimum of 19 years to 25. There is, of course, no guarantee that the American jailers will ever free Khan. Guantanamo is a “black” prison which means that inmates have no rights.
A Canadian, Omar Khadr, was captured after a firefight in Afghanistan when he was about 15. He spent years at the offshore prison in Cuba. He struck a deal to be released to a Canadian prison within a year if he would confess to killing an American soldier in Afghanistan. More than a year later he remains in Gitmo.
This January marks a ten year anniversary of Gitmo. There have been allegations of torture and murder of the unfortunates incarcerated there. Some people caught up in the anti-terrorism fervor that hit the US after 9/11 were ‘sold’ to the military for rewards and later found to have no connection at all to terrorist activity.
American president Obama campaigned on a platform that would close the offshore prison by 2010. Not only has Obama failed to close the facility, he has allowed the resumption of military tribunals. Obama has gone even further in signing a bill that exposes American citizens to seizure without warrants and suspends the rule of habeas corpus. The most recent example of creeping repression in the USA is the new bill that provides for the arrest of protesters if they demonstrate(peacefully) when a government official is present(whether they know it or not).
American citizens working and living within their own country are now subject to the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) which suspends their civil rights. I wonder how many shoppers at Walmart or dining at McDonalds are aware that they can now be ‘disappeared’ just like in those other totalitarian states.
"No president," said the ACLU, "should have the power to declare the entire globe a war zone and then seize and detain civilian terrorism suspects anywhere in the world---including within the United States---and to hold them forever without charge or trial." Global Research
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