1st Declassified Iraq Documents Released

Jolie Rouge · 03-16-2006, 12:36 AM

1st Declassified Iraq Documents Released
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
20 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration Wednesday night released the first declassified documents collected by U.S. intelligence during the Iraq war, showing among other things that Saddam Hussein's regime was monitoring reports that Iraqis and Saudis were heading to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks to fight U.S. troops.

The documents, the first of thousands expected to be declassified over the next several months, were released via a Pentagon Web site at the direction of National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.

Many were in Arabic — with no English translation — including one the administration said showed that Iraqi intelligence officials suspected al-Qaida members were inside Iraq in 2002.

The Pentagon Web site described that document this way: "2002 Iraqi Intelligence Correspondence concerning the presence of al-Qaida Members in Iraq. Correspondence between IRS members on a suspicion, later confirmed, of the presence of an Al-Qaeda terrorist group. Moreover, it includes photos and names."

The release of the documents, expected to continue for months, is designed to allow lawmakers and the public to investigate what documents from Saddam's regime claimed about such controversial issues as weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaida in the period before the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003.

The Web site cautioned that the U.S. government "has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein, or the quality of any translations, when available."

A handful of prewar Iraq government documents released Wednesday had been translated into English.

They included one Iraqi intelligence document indicating Saddam's feared Fedayeen paramilitary forces were investigating rumors in the fall of 2001 that as many as 3,000 Iraqis and Saudis were going to fight in Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion.

"In the report on the status of rumors for November of 2001 regarding Fedayeen Saddam in al-Anbar, there is an entry that indicates that there is a group of Iraqi and Saudi Arabians numbering around 3,000 who have gone in an unofficial capacity to Afghanistan and have joined the mujahidin (mujahedeen, or holy warriors) to fight with and aid them in defeating the American Zionist Imperialist attack," the translated document stated.

"After presenting the matter to the Supervisor of Fedayeen Saddam, he ordered that the matter should be looked into for verification of the truth of the rumor," the translation said.

House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., requested the release of millions pages of documents and audio recordings captured during current and previous U.S. military operations in Iraq. Most have sat untranslated for years.

Last weekend, Negroponte agreed to set aside money and establish a system to make the documents available to the media, academics and other researchers.

In a statement, Hoekstra welcomed the chance to answer questions about prewar Iraq. "Whether Saddam Hussein destroyed Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or hid or transferred them, the most important thing is we discover the truth of what was happening in the country prior to the war," he said.

___

On the Net:

The declassified documents can be accessed at: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.milproducts-docex.htm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_iraq_documents

Jolie Rouge · 03-17-2006, 10:06 AM

US releases confiscated prewar Iraqi documents
By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Thursday released prewar Iraqi government documents confiscated by U.S. forces, including some it said showed Saddam Hussein's regime suspected an al Qaeda presence in the country.

Nine sets of documents, released by the office of U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte and posted to an Army Web site, are the first to be publicly released from a huge cache of materials confiscated by U.S. forces in Iraq.

The collection is comprised of 48,000 boxes of papers and tape-recorded conversations, including many involving Saddam himself, officials said.

Also released were 29 sets of al Qaeda-related documents that were the subject of a separate study by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, officials said.

Negroponte's office, under pressure from conservatives including Republican lawmakers, decided in recent days to set up a process for the material's release, which is expected to take months.

The material, housed in Qatar, has already been examined by the CIA's Iraq Survey Group and continues to be scrutinized by the U.S. military for intelligence that could be acted upon.

Republican lawmakers say the data could still address U.S. claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and had ties with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which carried out the September 11 attacks.

Both allegations helped justify a war that has become increasingly unpopular in a mid-term election year that has Republicans in Congress feeling vulnerable.

But no WMD have been located in Iraq and independent investigators have found no evidence that Saddam had a collaborative relationship with al Qaeda.

Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, Republicans who lobbied for the data's release, said it was important that the information be made available quickly to the public, including political "blogs."

"We're hoping to unleash the power of the Internet, unleash the power of the blogosphere, to get through these documents and give us a better understanding of what was going on in Iraq before the war," said Hoekstra, chairman of the House of Representatives' Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Hoekstra said the U.S. government would have linguists and intelligence analysts comb through the material to determine what information could be released.

The Web site, http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm said the government had not determined the authenticity of the documents, their accuracy or the quality of any translations.

Many documents had not been translated from Arabic, but the release included English-language synopses.

One synopsis described a series of Iraqi documents as "Iraqi intelligence correspondence concerning the presence of al Qaeda members in Iraq," adding there were exchanges between intelligence service members about a suspicion that was later confirmed of the presence of an al Qaeda group in the country.

(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Dubai)
03/16/06 17:15

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...tm&floc=NW_1-T

Jolie Rouge · 03-19-2006, 12:31 AM

DISCLAIM THIS
By Michelle Malkin · March 17, 2006 02:17 PM

So, the MSM is slowly picking up on the historic release of thousands of documents from Saddam Hussein's archives. But not without making a concerted effort to downplay and undermine the story. Readers are calling attention to the disclaimers included in this ABC News story. Example:

Quote:

"Osama bin Laden and the Taliban"
Document dated Sept. 15, 2001

An Iraqi intelligence service document saying that their Afghani informant, who's only identified by a number, told them that the Afghani Consul Ahmed Dahastani claimed the following in front of him:

That OBL and the Taliban are in contact with Iraq and that a group of Taliban and bin Laden group members visited Iraq.

That the U.S. has proof the Iraqi government and "bin Laden's group" agreed to cooperate to attack targets inside America.

That in case the Taliban and bin Laden's group turn out to be involved in "these destructive operations," the U.S. may strike Iraq and Afghanistan.
That the Afghani consul heard about the issue of Iraq's relationship with "bin Laden's group" while he was in Iran.

At the end, the writer recommends informing "the committee of intentions" about the above-mentioned items. The signature on the document is unclear.

(Editor's Note: The controversial claim that Osama bin Laden was cooperating with Saddam Hussein is an ongoing matter of intense debate. While the assertions contained in this document clearly support the claim, the sourcing is questionable -- i.e. an unnamed Afghan "informant" reporting on a conversation with another Afghan "consul." The date of the document -- four days after 9/11 -- is worth noting but without further corroboration, this document is of limited evidentiary value.)

Will we see that helpful disclaimer--"this document is of limited evidentiary value"--the next time ABC News or Newsweek or the NYTimes or the Washington Post uses unnamed, uncorroborated informants?

Hmm?

Ya gotta wonder if such a careful regard for authentication and "evidentiary value" would be present if this were a document damaging to Dubya or his administration.

( We certainly know CBS's standards. http://www.google.com/search?q=cbs+t...en-US:official )

mesue · 03-21-2006, 08:48 AM

Oh no, you are not on the everybody hates Bush kick, again are you?

Jolie Rouge · 04-03-2006, 11:59 PM

Pentagon Releases New Gitmo Transcripts
By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 24 minutes ago

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - In 2,733 pages of declassified documents released Monday to The Associated Press, men accused of helping terrorist groups or Afghanistan's former Taliban regime pleaded for freedom while U.S. military officers often painstakingly tried to find holes in their stories.

The previously classified transcripts were the second batch of Guantanamo Bay detainee hearings released by the Pentagon in response to a lawsuit by the AP. They identified more of the prisoners who have been secretly held without charges for up to four years while the U.S. military determines how dangerous they may be.

A review of the documents indicated that they contain no major revelations about high-profile detainees, but offered more insight into who has been detained and why they ended up in the custody of U.S. authorities.

Most of the men said they were innocent and would pose no threat if set free.

"My conscience is clear," said Algerian detainee Mohamed Nechla, who was accused of plotting to attack the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia. "If I left this place my only concern would be bread on the table for my wife and children."

Zia Ul Shah, a Pakistani accused of being a driver for the Taliban, said he hated his American captors at first but his feelings softened after he learned about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"In the beginning I did not like Americans at all," Shah said. "I had never seen Americans. In the beginning when I came here the interrogations were tough and I started hating them more, but then ... someone showed me pictures from 9/11. Then I realized they have a right to be angry. My hate towards Americans was gone."

Some 715 prisoners have passed through the cells of the U.S. military base since it began receiving men captured in the U.S. war on terror more than four years ago. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said 490 of them are now held at the base, which hugs the arid southeastern shores of Cuba.

Whitman told reporters at the Pentagon that authorities have gained a wealth of knowledge by interrogating detainees, who are held in cellblocks behind barbed wire.

"We've learned about al-Qaida's pursuit of WMDs," Whitman said, referring to weapons of mass destruction. "We've learned about their methods of recruitment, location of recruitment centers. We've learned about their skill sets, their terrorist skill sets, both general and specialized operative training."

A reading of some of the documents released Monday showed no such stark admissions, although any records of interrogations and the classified portions of the hearings were not included in the transcripts. The hearings — called Administrative Review Boards — were held to determine whether detainees still posed threats to the United States.

Human rights group Amnesty International, a frequent critic of U.S. policies in its war on terror, said the transcripts would most likely reveal information that was insignificant or had been previously released.

"Nevertheless, Amnesty International welcomes today's actions, as even the seemingly minor details in these documents may help shed light on the secrecy surrounding the detainees' cases," said Eric Olson, the group's acting director of government relations.

Each of the detainees who faced such a review hearing was previously determined by other Guantanamo Bay panels — Combatant Status Review Tribunals — to be an "enemy combatant," meaning they fought against the U.S. or its allies or provided support to the Taliban, al-Qaida or "associated forces."

Shah said he felt his testimony at the earlier tribunal had been ignored.

"Should I consider (you all) the same or should I expect justice?" he asked.

The presiding U.S. military officer assured Shah all the evidence would be considered fairly:

"Well, I hope that you would believe that we would do you justice after we review all the information," said the officer, whose name was censored from the transcript for security reasons.

The detainees often pleaded with the military review panels, seeking not only freedom but also money or help finding a job back home.

"In case of my release, I would like to say that I am a poor man and don't have enough money to start a business, but I will accept any jobs from the Americans or the current government of Afghanistan," said Abdullah Mujahid, an Afghan.

As in the previous release of transcripts, the names were scattered throughout the documents and many detainees were not identified. There was no indication whether any had been released.

Some detainees said they had hazy memories as they gave curt replies to the U.S. military officers presiding over the tribunal. One unidentified Yemeni said he did not recall when he was captured in Pakistan, saying it was more than four years ago.

"Was it cold?" asked the presiding officer, trying to determine if not the date, then the season.

"The weather was medium. It was not hot but it was not cold," responded the detainee.

Many detainees repeatedly denied having links to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida or the Taliban, insisting they were simply caught up in the war zone. Some were accused of being low-level members of the Taliban, who imposed strict Islamic rule from 1996 to 2001.

"I don't know bin Laden and I don't know anyone else," said an Afghan detainee named Gano Nasorllah Hussain. "I am a butcher and I have a shop in my village."

In response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the AP, the Defense Department released some 5,000 pages of transcripts March 3.

Most of those pages were from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. If a detainee is determined by the panel to be an "enemy combatant," they fall under a classification that human rights groups complain is vague and confers fewer legal protections than prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.

___

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report from Washington.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/guantanam...kxBHNlYwN0bQ--

___

On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil

Jolie Rouge · 04-04-2006, 12:56 AM

Guantánamo is not a spa, but neither is it a torture camp

Journalists are painting an outdated picture of how the US treats detainees, says Colleen Graffy

Victoria Brittain rose to defend the innocence of Moazzam Begg from her unbiased position as co-author of Begg's book, Enemy Combatant (Trial by Spin Machine, March 14). She laid out her case on how three different journalists in three different papers were wrong to question his innocence by attacking the integrity of the journalists. Those who wondered why, for example, Begg and his bookshop were under surveillance by MI5 before he went to Afghanistan are dismissed as "spin machines".

I came into her line of ire because I was allegedly in London on a "propaganda offensive". That is, unlike Brittain and the UN special rapporteurs, I had actually been to Guantánamo. But the "spin" on Guantánamo is so entrenched it is almost impossible to speak out contrary to the perceived wisdom.

Why, then, are we continually fed pictures of Camp X-Ray when it was a makeshift facility that existed for only four months more than four years ago? Why is every single detainee pictured on the BBC's website (and frequently on TV) shown in an orange jumpsuit and depicted in a stressful position, when most don't wear them and many live communally? More than 900 journalists have been to Guantánamo, yet the photos remain the same. Is it that detainees don't engage in recreation, in call to prayer five times a day, or in interrogations done over chess; or is it that those images don't fit the narrative that all seem to want to believe?

I came to London on a "detainee propaganda defensive". Before I went to Guantánamo, I had been on Radio 4's Today programme following the "interview" of current detainee Fawzi al-Odah. He described being internally fed "using a thicker tube with a metal edge". The "metal edge" is not exposed metal, as he would want us to believe, but the hospital standard, which is sheathed. It was for this reason that I brought a sample on to Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 programme. Far from Vine being "speechless", as Brittain describes, he said: "It looks like a piece of string."

Al-Odah complained of "lousy food", but the 4,200-calories daily rotating halal menu plan, adjusted during Ramadan, gives a fairer picture; Al-Odah claimed there were "no reading materials", whereas more than 1,800 books and other reading materials in 13 languages are available (including the popular Arabic versions of Agatha Christie and Harry Potter); Al-Odah refers to the "bad medical care", which must include the 45 eye exams per month, full range of immunisation shots, first-class dentistry and colon cancer screening for the over-50s.

Of equal importance to their treatment and living conditions are their habeas corpus rights. Most people are unaware that each detainee has had a combatant status review tribunal to challenge his designation as an enemy combatant as well as a yearly administrative review board, similar to a parole board.

Guantánamo is not a spa, but nor is it an inhumane torture camp. It is a prison - and, as prisons go, it is well run and humane. Before you join the "close it down" chorus, look past the spin to the facts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/st...736270,00.html

03-16-2006, 12:36 AM	#1 (permalink)
Jolie Rouge C & P Queen Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Missin' Mesue ... Posts: 33,944 iTrader: (2) Thanks: 732 Thanked 1,398 Times in 759 Posts	1st Declassified Iraq Documents Released 1st Declassified Iraq Documents Released By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago WASHINGTON - The Bush administration Wednesday night released the first declassified documents collected by U.S. intelligence during the Iraq war, showing among other things that Saddam Hussein's regime was monitoring reports that Iraqis and Saudis were heading to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks to fight U.S. troops. The documents, the first of thousands expected to be declassified over the next several months, were released via a Pentagon Web site at the direction of National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. Many were in Arabic — with no English translation — including one the administration said showed that Iraqi intelligence officials suspected al-Qaida members were inside Iraq in 2002. The Pentagon Web site described that document this way: "2002 Iraqi Intelligence Correspondence concerning the presence of al-Qaida Members in Iraq. Correspondence between IRS members on a suspicion, later confirmed, of the presence of an Al-Qaeda terrorist group. Moreover, it includes photos and names." The release of the documents, expected to continue for months, is designed to allow lawmakers and the public to investigate what documents from Saddam's regime claimed about such controversial issues as weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaida in the period before the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003. The Web site cautioned that the U.S. government "has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein, or the quality of any translations, when available." A handful of prewar Iraq government documents released Wednesday had been translated into English. They included one Iraqi intelligence document indicating Saddam's feared Fedayeen paramilitary forces were investigating rumors in the fall of 2001 that as many as 3,000 Iraqis and Saudis were going to fight in Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion. "In the report on the status of rumors for November of 2001 regarding Fedayeen Saddam in al-Anbar, there is an entry that indicates that there is a group of Iraqi and Saudi Arabians numbering around 3,000 who have gone in an unofficial capacity to Afghanistan and have joined the mujahidin (mujahedeen, or holy warriors) to fight with and aid them in defeating the American Zionist Imperialist attack," the translated document stated. "After presenting the matter to the Supervisor of Fedayeen Saddam, he ordered that the matter should be looked into for verification of the truth of the rumor," the translation said. House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., requested the release of millions pages of documents and audio recordings captured during current and previous U.S. military operations in Iraq. Most have sat untranslated for years. Last weekend, Negroponte agreed to set aside money and establish a system to make the documents available to the media, academics and other researchers. In a statement, Hoekstra welcomed the chance to answer questions about prewar Iraq. "Whether Saddam Hussein destroyed Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or hid or transferred them, the most important thing is we discover the truth of what was happening in the country prior to the war," he said. ___ On the Net: The declassified documents can be accessed at: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.milproducts-docex.htm http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_iraq_documents __________________ Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT!** Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

03-17-2006, 10:06 AM	#2 (permalink)
Jolie Rouge C & P Queen Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Missin' Mesue ... Posts: 33,944 iTrader: (2) Thanks: 732 Thanked 1,398 Times in 759 Posts	Re: 1st Declassified Iraq Documents Released US releases confiscated prewar Iraqi documents By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Thursday released prewar Iraqi government documents confiscated by U.S. forces, including some it said showed Saddam Hussein's regime suspected an al Qaeda presence in the country. Nine sets of documents, released by the office of U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte and posted to an Army Web site, are the first to be publicly released from a huge cache of materials confiscated by U.S. forces in Iraq. The collection is comprised of 48,000 boxes of papers and tape-recorded conversations, including many involving Saddam himself, officials said. Also released were 29 sets of al Qaeda-related documents that were the subject of a separate study by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, officials said. Negroponte's office, under pressure from conservatives including Republican lawmakers, decided in recent days to set up a process for the material's release, which is expected to take months. The material, housed in Qatar, has already been examined by the CIA's Iraq Survey Group and continues to be scrutinized by the U.S. military for intelligence that could be acted upon. Republican lawmakers say the data could still address U.S. claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and had ties with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which carried out the September 11 attacks. Both allegations helped justify a war that has become increasingly unpopular in a mid-term election year that has Republicans in Congress feeling vulnerable. But no WMD have been located in Iraq and independent investigators have found no evidence that Saddam had a collaborative relationship with al Qaeda. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, Republicans who lobbied for the data's release, said it was important that the information be made available quickly to the public, including political "blogs." "We're hoping to unleash the power of the Internet, unleash the power of the blogosphere, to get through these documents and give us a better understanding of what was going on in Iraq before the war," said Hoekstra, chairman of the House of Representatives' Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Hoekstra said the U.S. government would have linguists and intelligence analysts comb through the material to determine what information could be released. The Web site, http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm said the government had not determined the authenticity of the documents, their accuracy or the quality of any translations. Many documents had not been translated from Arabic, but the release included English-language synopses. One synopsis described a series of Iraqi documents as "Iraqi intelligence correspondence concerning the presence of al Qaeda members in Iraq," adding there were exchanges between intelligence service members about a suspicion that was later confirmed of the presence of an al Qaeda group in the country. (Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Dubai) 03/16/06 17:15 http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...tm&floc=NW_1-T __________________ Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT!** Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

03-21-2006, 08:48 AM	#4 (permalink)
mesue Registered User Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: not the middle of nowhere but I can see it from here. Posts: 4,313 iTrader: (0) Thanks: 26 Thanked 149 Times in 87 Posts	Re: 1st Declassified Iraq Documents Released Oh no, you are not on the everybody hates Bush kick, again are you? __________________ Ignorance is bliss but the question is can we afford it?

04-03-2006, 11:59 PM	#5 (permalink)
Jolie Rouge C & P Queen Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Missin' Mesue ... Posts: 33,944 iTrader: (2) Thanks: 732 Thanked 1,398 Times in 759 Posts	Re: 1st Declassified Iraq Documents Released Pentagon Releases New Gitmo Transcripts By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 24 minutes ago GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - In 2,733 pages of declassified documents released Monday to The Associated Press, men accused of helping terrorist groups or Afghanistan's former Taliban regime pleaded for freedom while U.S. military officers often painstakingly tried to find holes in their stories. The previously classified transcripts were the second batch of Guantanamo Bay detainee hearings released by the Pentagon in response to a lawsuit by the AP. They identified more of the prisoners who have been secretly held without charges for up to four years while the U.S. military determines how dangerous they may be. A review of the documents indicated that they contain no major revelations about high-profile detainees, but offered more insight into who has been detained and why they ended up in the custody of U.S. authorities. Most of the men said they were innocent and would pose no threat if set free. "My conscience is clear," said Algerian detainee Mohamed Nechla, who was accused of plotting to attack the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia. "If I left this place my only concern would be bread on the table for my wife and children." Zia Ul Shah, a Pakistani accused of being a driver for the Taliban, said he hated his American captors at first but his feelings softened after he learned about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "In the beginning I did not like Americans at all," Shah said. "I had never seen Americans. In the beginning when I came here the interrogations were tough and I started hating them more, but then ... someone showed me pictures from 9/11. Then I realized they have a right to be angry. My hate towards Americans was gone." Some 715 prisoners have passed through the cells of the U.S. military base since it began receiving men captured in the U.S. war on terror more than four years ago. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said 490 of them are now held at the base, which hugs the arid southeastern shores of Cuba. Whitman told reporters at the Pentagon that authorities have gained a wealth of knowledge by interrogating detainees, who are held in cellblocks behind barbed wire. "We've learned about al-Qaida's pursuit of WMDs," Whitman said, referring to weapons of mass destruction. "We've learned about their methods of recruitment, location of recruitment centers. We've learned about their skill sets, their terrorist skill sets, both general and specialized operative training." A reading of some of the documents released Monday showed no such stark admissions, although any records of interrogations and the classified portions of the hearings were not included in the transcripts. The hearings — called Administrative Review Boards — were held to determine whether detainees still posed threats to the United States. Human rights group Amnesty International, a frequent critic of U.S. policies in its war on terror, said the transcripts would most likely reveal information that was insignificant or had been previously released. "Nevertheless, Amnesty International welcomes today's actions, as even the seemingly minor details in these documents may help shed light on the secrecy surrounding the detainees' cases," said Eric Olson, the group's acting director of government relations. Each of the detainees who faced such a review hearing was previously determined by other Guantanamo Bay panels — Combatant Status Review Tribunals — to be an "enemy combatant," meaning they fought against the U.S. or its allies or provided support to the Taliban, al-Qaida or "associated forces." Shah said he felt his testimony at the earlier tribunal had been ignored. "Should I consider (you all) the same or should I expect justice?" he asked. The presiding U.S. military officer assured Shah all the evidence would be considered fairly: "Well, I hope that you would believe that we would do you justice after we review all the information," said the officer, whose name was censored from the transcript for security reasons. The detainees often pleaded with the military review panels, seeking not only freedom but also money or help finding a job back home. "In case of my release, I would like to say that I am a poor man and don't have enough money to start a business, but I will accept any jobs from the Americans or the current government of Afghanistan," said Abdullah Mujahid, an Afghan. As in the previous release of transcripts, the names were scattered throughout the documents and many detainees were not identified. There was no indication whether any had been released. Some detainees said they had hazy memories as they gave curt replies to the U.S. military officers presiding over the tribunal. One unidentified Yemeni said he did not recall when he was captured in Pakistan, saying it was more than four years ago. "Was it cold?" asked the presiding officer, trying to determine if not the date, then the season. "The weather was medium. It was not hot but it was not cold," responded the detainee. Many detainees repeatedly denied having links to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida or the Taliban, insisting they were simply caught up in the war zone. Some were accused of being low-level members of the Taliban, who imposed strict Islamic rule from 1996 to 2001. "I don't know bin Laden and I don't know anyone else," said an Afghan detainee named Gano Nasorllah Hussain. "I am a butcher and I have a shop in my village." In response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the AP, the Defense Department released some 5,000 pages of transcripts March 3. Most of those pages were from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. If a detainee is determined by the panel to be an "enemy combatant," they fall under a classification that human rights groups complain is vague and confers fewer legal protections than prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. ___ Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report from Washington. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/guantanam...kxBHNlYwN0bQ-- ___ On the Net: Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil __________________ Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT!** Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

04-04-2006, 12:56 AM	#6 (permalink)
Jolie Rouge C & P Queen Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Missin' Mesue ... Posts: 33,944 iTrader: (2) Thanks: 732 Thanked 1,398 Times in 759 Posts	Re: 1st Declassified Iraq Documents Released Guantánamo is not a spa, but neither is it a torture camp Journalists are painting an outdated picture of how the US treats detainees, says Colleen Graffy Victoria Brittain rose to defend the innocence of Moazzam Begg from her unbiased position as co-author of Begg's book, Enemy Combatant (Trial by Spin Machine, March 14). She laid out her case on how three different journalists in three different papers were wrong to question his innocence by attacking the integrity of the journalists. Those who wondered why, for example, Begg and his bookshop were under surveillance by MI5 before he went to Afghanistan are dismissed as "spin machines". I came into her line of ire because I was allegedly in London on a "propaganda offensive". That is, unlike Brittain and the UN special rapporteurs, I had actually been to Guantánamo. But the "spin" on Guantánamo is so entrenched it is almost impossible to speak out contrary to the perceived wisdom. Why, then, are we continually fed pictures of Camp X-Ray when it was a makeshift facility that existed for only four months more than four years ago? Why is every single detainee pictured on the BBC's website (and frequently on TV) shown in an orange jumpsuit and depicted in a stressful position, when most don't wear them and many live communally? More than 900 journalists have been to Guantánamo, yet the photos remain the same. Is it that detainees don't engage in recreation, in call to prayer five times a day, or in interrogations done over chess; or is it that those images don't fit the narrative that all seem to want to believe? I came to London on a "detainee propaganda defensive". Before I went to Guantánamo, I had been on Radio 4's Today programme following the "interview" of current detainee Fawzi al-Odah. He described being internally fed "using a thicker tube with a metal edge". The "metal edge" is not exposed metal, as he would want us to believe, but the hospital standard, which is sheathed. It was for this reason that I brought a sample on to Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 programme. Far from Vine being "speechless", as Brittain describes, he said: "It looks like a piece of string." Al-Odah complained of "lousy food", but the 4,200-calories daily rotating halal menu plan, adjusted during Ramadan, gives a fairer picture; Al-Odah claimed there were "no reading materials", whereas more than 1,800 books and other reading materials in 13 languages are available (including the popular Arabic versions of Agatha Christie and Harry Potter); Al-Odah refers to the "bad medical care", which must include the 45 eye exams per month, full range of immunisation shots, first-class dentistry and colon cancer screening for the over-50s. Of equal importance to their treatment and living conditions are their habeas corpus rights. Most people are unaware that each detainee has had a combatant status review tribunal to challenge his designation as an enemy combatant as well as a yearly administrative review board, similar to a parole board. Guantánamo is not a spa, but nor is it an inhumane torture camp. It is a prison - and, as prisons go, it is well run and humane. Before you join the "close it down" chorus, look past the spin to the facts. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/st...736270,00.html __________________ Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT!** Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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