Thread: Sworn to kill Americans - and we just let them go...

Sworn to kill Americans
By Richard Samp
Wed Jun 13, 7:11 AM ET

Throughout American history, enemy combatants captured by our military have been held in captivity without full-fledged trials until the end of hostilities. Monday's 2-1 decision by a federal appeals court seeks to change that history.

It is not as though the combatant in question, Ali al-Marri, has been locked in a dungeon, never to be heard from again. To the contrary, ever since he was designated an enemy combatant in 2003, he has been represented by counsel and permitted to contest his detention by filing a habeas corpus petition in federal court. A trial judge hearing his case required the military to present its sworn allegations that al-Marri came to the USA on Sept. 10, 2001, as a well-financed al-Qaeda sleeper agent who had pledged to
Osama bin Laden that he would kill Americans.

So how did al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, respond to the government's allegations, which the trial court judge deemed sufficient to hold him? [uBy refusing to present any evidence of his own.[/u] Rather, his entire defense consisted of a claim that the Constitution prohibits the president from detaining anyone located in the USA, unless that person is charged with a crime and prosecuted in our criminal courts.

In other words, while conceding that the military is entitled to detain combatants captured overseas, al-Marri contends that by managing to get into this country before being captured, he exempted himself from the normal rules of war.

Disappointingly, two federal judges and USA TODAY agree with that position. Monday's decision conflicts with a previous decision involving Jose Padilla, whose indefinite detention as an enemy combatant was upheld by a panel made up of three different judges of the very same appeals court. Like al-Marri, Padilla was taken into custody in Illinois after returning to this country to engage in jihad. Padilla is a U.S. citizen and al-Marri is not; one would think that al-Marri's alien status should have weakened, not strengthened, his constitutional claims.


He is entitled to his day in court, but al-Marri should not be permitted to demand that the government reveal all its intelligence sources at a full-blown criminal trial.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/200...H6BfZztxOs0NUE

the Constitution prohibits the president from detaining anyone located in the USA, unless that person is charged with a crime and prosecuted in our criminal courts

as this person is NOT a citizen of the US, should he be entitiled to claim the protections of the Constitution that he professes to hate ?

Good Saturday morning America and you have a special wake up surprise courtesy of President Obama.

We wrote about this impending surprise some weeks ago and it came to fruition.

Six more unlawful enemy combatants have been released from GITMO and are now in Oman. Another violation of our rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 11.

Two of those released were bin Laden's bodyguards. Ask yourself how long is the extension of the Taliban Five's stay in Qatar -- seems that was never articulated.

Also does anyone else find it ironic that Obama had no plan or strategy to fight ISIS, but he does have one for releasing militant Islamic jihadists. Oh well so much for transparency.

U.S. Transfers Six Guantanamo Detainees to Oman[/I]
Slowly moving Obama program to close facility advances, with number of detainees down to 116 from original 242

By
Gordon Lubold

June 13, 2015 11:53 a.m. ET

5 COMMENTS

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration has sent six detainees held for more than a decade at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Oman, bringing the total number of detainees to less than half the original number, as part of an effort to close the controversial facility.

The Pentagon said late on Friday that the six detainees, all of whom are from Yemen, had arrived for resettlement in Oman. They represent the first detainees moved from the facility in about five months. Of the original 242 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, 116 now remain.

The six detainees had been cleared in 2010 to be transferred out of Guantanamo Bay. But instability inside Yemen delayed their transfer until U.S. officials reached a deal with Muscat to resettle them in Oman.

Four individuals were sent to that country in January, the previous time, before Friday, that detainees were released from Guantanamo Bay. None of the six were considered high-value detainees and none was designated to be prosecuted, a defense official said.

Defense officials wouldn’t say under what restrictions the men would be held in Oman, but such detainees typically are under kept house arrest for at least a year and their activities are monitored.

“The United States is grateful to the government of Oman for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” the Pentagon said. “The United States coordinated with the government of Oman to ensure these transfers took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures.”

The six were flown from Guantanamo Bay early on Friday by a C-17 military jet. They include: Idris Ahmad ’Abd Al Qadir Idris; Sharaf Ahmad Muhammad Mas’ud; Jalal Salam Awad Awad; Saa’d Nasser Moqbil Al Azani; Emad Abdallah Hassan; and Muhammad Ali Salem Al Zarnuki.

Beyond releasing their names, the Pentagon wouldn’t provide details of who the detainees were or the circumstances surrounding their capture. For several years, some detainees had been on a hunger strike had received forced feedings by tube, in one of the more controversial procedures at the military prison. At least one of the detainees moved Friday had been one of those who had refused food, a defense official confirmed.


The defense official said there was no reason to expect additional detainees would be let out of Guantanamo Bay anytime soon but that the U.S. would notify Congress 30 days before any additional transfers. Fifty-one detainees, most of whom are Yemeni, currently are eligible for transfer, he said.

“We are working to identify appropriate transfer locations for every detainee approved for transfer and it may be the case that resettlement to a third country is the best option,” Lt. Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

President Barack Obama’s push to close the facility, begun in the first days of his presidency, has foundered over the years. In recent weeks, the effort has seen new momentum as one of the administration’s staunchest critics, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), now chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has begun quietly working with the administration to close the facility.

Last week, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he was working with the White House to prepare a plan to submit to Congress to close Guantanamo. “It’s important to see if we can find a way forward,“ he told reporters traveling with him on a military jet on June 5, adding that it was a good opportunity.

Last year, the White House swapped five Taliban detainees in a deal to secure the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a controversial move that caught many officials by surprise. Critics of the move feared that the individuals could return to the battlefield. Those five detainees were resettled in Qatar, where they remain under house arrest, a defense official said.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-tran...man-1434210813