Guantanamo Bay///Why is my Dad in Guantanamo?

[netprince]

Why is my dad far away in that place called Guantanamo Bay? Young boy's plea to Tony Blair

By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent

Published: 09 January 2007



Ten-year-old Anas el-Banna will walk to the door of Number 10 Downing Street this week to ask for an answer to the question he has been trying to have answered for four years: Why can't my Dad come home?
His father, Jamil, is one of eight British residents languishing among the almost 400 inmates at the American base at Guantanamo Bay, which opened five years ago to the day this Thursday - the day of Anas's protest.
Mr Banna, was taken to Guantanamo Bay four years ago after being seized in Gambia along with fellow detainee Bisher al-Rawi. He was accused of having a suspicious device in his luggage. It turned out to be a battery charger. No charges have been made.
He suffers from severe diabetes, but his lawyers say he has not been offered medication and has been denied the food he needs. His eyesight is now failing.
A year ago, his son wrote to Tony Blair for the second time to ask why the Government was not helping him return home. The then six-year-old did not even receive a reply. The second letter elicited a cursory note from the Foreign Office. It stated that because Mr Banna is not a British citizen, although his wife and children are, nothing could be done for him.
So on Thursday, carrying yet another letter, Anas and his mother Sabah will return with campaigners and MPs to demand the closure of the camp and action to free the British residents.
Their MP, the the Liberal Democrat frontbencher Sarah Teather, said the Banna children, who are of Jordanian origin but have grown up in North London, were devastated by their father's detention.
The Downing Street protest will come during a week of action to mark the fifth anniversary of Guantanamo Bay. Since its inception, the camp has drawn furious protests from across the globe. Last night, Ian McCartney, the Foreign Office minister, faced anger on the floor of the House of Commons as the MPs for Mr Banna and another detainee, Bisher al-Rawi, lambasted the Government.
Today Ms Teather will present a petition to Parliament demanding his release, while tomorrow, relatives and friends will hold a candlelit vigil outside Downing Street.
Hundreds of protesters dressed in the notorious orange boiler suits that are the uniform at Guantanamo, plan a separate protest outside the US Embassy.
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan is among a group of US activists that has travelled to Cuba to protest outside the camp, on the Cuban side. With them will be former inmate Asif Iqbal, one of the Tipton Three, who was released without charge in March 2004.
Many of the British residents have families who are British citizens, and had leave to remain in the UK, but the Government has refused to take responsibility for them. Yesterday, Ed Davey, chief of staff to the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, used the Commons debate to attack ministers for allowing British residents to "languish" in the camp.
He said: "The Government has been both hypocritical and morally bankrupt. They have condemned Guantanamo Bay but have failed to take action for the British residents." He said the US administration had offered to send the men home, but the UK had refused to accept them. He added: " The Prime Minister should stop talking about closing Guantanamo and start doing something about it."
Human rights lawyer Zachary Katznelson, senior advocate at the charity Reprieve, represents the eight men. He said several were held in solitary confinement, some in cells that were lit 24 hours a day. He added: "If they have committed any crime, of course they should be prosecuted and punished. But I have not seen evidence that they have. If it's there, let's see it."
The Foreign Office said it had agreed to make special representations on behalf of Bisher al-Rawi, but insisted that the courts had found that the Government had "no locus" to intervene of behalf of the other men.
On Thursday, Anas el-Banna will try, for the third time, to persuade them to change their minds.
British residents at Guantanamo
* JAMIL EL-BANNA, Jordanian. Held in Guantanamo since March 2003
Arrested, with Bisher al-Rawi, in the Gambia, where they had gone to set up a mobile peanut-processing plant. He was taken by the Americans to Afghanistan and then to Guantanamo Bay. He suffers from severe diabetes but his lawyers say he has not been offered medication.
* BINYAM MOHAMED, Ethiopian. Held in Guantanamo since September 2004
Came to UK in 1996 seeking asylum and was granted indefinite leave to remain. Travelled to Afghanistan in 2001 before fleeing to Pakistan. Charged in relation to an alleged dirty bomb plot at the Guantanamo Bay military tribunal. The tribunal was invalidated last year
* SHAKER AAMER, Saudi Arabian. Held in Guantanamo since February 2002
Was applying for British nationality after settling in Battersea, south London, with his wife and four children, all of whom are British citizens. Seized in Pakistan in 2002. Has been kept in isolation since September 2005 and has been on hunger strike.
* BISHER AL-RAWI, Iraqi. Held in Guantanamo since March 2003
Fled Iraq for Britain with his family 20 years ago. Arrested in the Gambia where he had travelled to help set up a peanut processing plant. Accused of taking a weapon of mass destruction.
* OMAR DEGHAYES, Libyan. Held in Guantanamo since August 2002
Became a British citizen after fleeing to the UK with his family. He appears on a "Chechnyan training video", which his lawyers insist is case of mistaken identity.
* AHMED ERRACHIDI, Moroccan. Held in Guantanamo since May 2002
Worked as a cook in London for 18 years. Seized in Pakistan and accused of attending a terrorist training camp in July 2001. His lawyers say he was working in London at the time. He is in isolation.
* AHMED BELBACHA, Algerian. Held in Guantanamo since March 2002
Lived in Bournemouth, where he worked in the hotel trade. The 37-year-old was refused refugee status in Britain, but granted indefinite leave to remain. Arrested in Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan in 2001. Alleged to have attended a training camp, which he denies.
* ABDELNOUR SAMEUR, Algerian. Held in Guantanamo since June 2002
The 33-year-old decorator, who settled in north London, was granted refugee status in 2000. Went to Afghanistan in 2001 and was shot in Pakistan trying to reach the Algerian embassy. He was arrested in hospital. Alleged to have attended a training camp, which he denies

[Nσσя'υℓ Jαииαн]

"Why Is My Dad in Guantanamo"


LONDON — "Why is my dad in prison? Why is he far away in that place called Guantanamo Bay," a ten-year-old boy asked in a poignant letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday, January 11.

"No one knows what the meaning of four years without a dad," said Anas who walked to Blair's Number 10 Downing Street with his nine-year-old brother Mohammed seeking information about their father, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The father, Jamil, was arrested with a friend during a business trip to Gambia in 2002 on suspicion of links to terrorist groups.

They were handed over to US security officers and transferred to the notorious detention camp in Cuba.

The child's letter to Blair is part of worldwide protests to mark five years since Guantanamo was opened on January 11, 2002.

Washington has been holding hundreds of detainees at the notorious detention facility, mostly arrested in Afghanistan after the toppling of Taliban following the 9/11 attacks. Only ten of them have been indicted for charges.

Guantanamo's buildings hide behind multiple rows of 12-foot chain-link fences covered in green tarpaulins and topped with tight spirals of barbed wire.

Old wooden and newer steel watchtowers dot the perimeter.

Heartbreaking

Anas, in his fourth letter to Blair, one each year for the four his father has been held, asked the prime minister if he really cares for the fate of his father.

"Your children spend Christmas with you but me and my brothers and sisters have spent `Eid alone without our dad for three years," wrote the kid.

"What do you think about that? I hope you answer me this time."

Jamil, a Jordanian, and his friend, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi, are not British citizens but have the right to reside in Britain.

He is one of eight British residents believed to be held at Guantanamo.

All British citizens were freed from the detention center by September 2004, but London insists it has no power to intervene on behalf of foreign nationals, even if they have long been resident in Britain.

"What are 350 people still doing there?" asked Asif Iqbal, a Briton of Pakistani descent who was released from the detention camp two years ago after being held for about three years.

"We believe they are innocent until proven guilty," said the 25-year-old man who used to consider the US "a beacon of hope" and now considers it "worse than any communist country."

Iqbal is one of hundreds of relatives and activists who traveled to Cuba with the hope of having a glimpse of their beloved held in the notorious camp.

"I'm very excited to be so close to my son," said a tearful Zohra Zewawi, standing by a monument to the revolution in the Cuban city of Guantanamo.

"My big wish is to release him, see him and hug him; and for all the others to be freed."

Day of Shame


Human rights groups said that the US practices at the Guantanamo Bay had weakened human rights and the rule of law around the world.

"January 11, 2007, is a national day of shame," Britain's Stop the War Coalition said in a statement.

"Guantanamo has come to symbolize the hollowness of the US government’s promise that respect for human dignity and the rule of law would lie at the heart of its response to the attacks of 11 September 2001," agreed Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

"Torture, humiliation, discrimination, bypassing of the courts and disregard for treaty obligations, with almost total impunity, are all now among the entries in the Guantanamo logbook."

The London-based human rights group, which has planned global vigils to mark the anniversary in many world countries, called for shutting down the notorious US detention camp.

"The US government must end this travesty of justice," said Khan.

"With every passing day, the cruelty of this indefinite detention regime ratchets up another notch."

Amnesty insists Guantanamo has become a "symbol of abuse and represents a system of detention that is betraying the best US values and undermines international standards."

The international rights watchdog once likened it to gulag prisons, the Soviet detention centers notorious for torturing political prisoners and suspects.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/S...News/NWELayout

You can the letter he wrote if u go to the link and scroll to the end.

[Nσσя'υℓ Jαииαн]

woops didnt know there was one already :X

[Re.TiReD]

that letter brings tears to the eyes JazakAllah for posting

www.hhugs.org.uk

www.cageprisoners.com

[RiMa AlI]

Itz such a shame.. it sucha heart breakin letter...These kaffir pple will get watz cumin 2 em.. N realise not mess wiv the innocence.. Regarding da fact that Diz world iz a test n it has onli began....But Allah does everifnk 4 the best int...

XxXxXxX xXxXxXx

[Woodrow]

People are begining to see and listen.

Marine Corps colonel among critics of new terror trial rules
Updated 1/19/2007 12:55 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | Subscribe to stories like this


Enlarge By Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images

Protesters gather near the U.S. Capitol during the International Day to Shut Down Guantanamo protest on Jan. 11, in Washington, D.C. A coalition of anti-war and human rights groups demonstrated to close the U.S.-run prison in Guantanamo Bay on the fifth anniversary of the first detainees' arrival at the prison.




By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's release of new rules for military trials of foreign terror suspects triggered a fresh round of questions and criticism Thursday about the administration's handling of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Pentagon's manual for war-crime trials is 238 pages, but much of the talk about it Thursday focused on rules for using evidence: Suspects may be convicted — and even sentenced to death — based on information from coerced confessions and hearsay evidence.

VIDEO: Coerced testimony could be considered

Coerced confessions are not allowed as evidence in traditional civilian courts or military courts martial. Hearsay evidence — testimony from a witness who merely repeats what someone else said out of court — usually is barred from both types of courts.

Those criticizing the manual for lacking traditional safeguards of military trials included Marine Corps Col. Dwight Sullivan, the chief defense lawyer for the military tribunals, or commissions. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Democrats such as Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut also expressed concern that the rules unfairly limit defendants' rights.

The new rules follow Congress' passage last October of the Military Commissions Act. The law came after the Supreme Court rejected President Bush's earlier plan to hold military tribunals to try terrorism suspects.

The court said Bush lacked the power to set up such tribunals without Congress' authorization, and declared that the procedures then in place violated the U.S. Military Code of Justice and Geneva Conventions rules aimed at protecting prisoners of war. Bush had established the tribunal system weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as U.S.-led forces were launching a worldwide hunt for terrorism suspects.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...ribunals_x.htm

[snakelegs]

when i think about guantanamo and the u.s. approval of torture, i am ashamed of my country.
many of these prisoners have never even been charged with anything.

[RiMa AlI]

Majority of people in Guantanamo Bay.. r innocent.. Making accusation against them.. Excusing them being a terrorist n giving us muslim a bad reputation. It such a shame that American hav Bush as a President n us people in England hav Blaire as priminster.. What are the comparison between them to Errrm there are no differ between them..

They both bad as each other....

[Akil]

Closing gitmo won’t solve anything. The current executive branch believes they can put human beings in some kind of legal limbo, where they are neither criminals nor prisoners of war and can be denied justice indefinably and if it weren’t for McCain the President would be trying to “define” outrages to human dignity as defined in the Geneva conventions. This makes me sad for my country and our illusion of democracy

[Keltoi]

Closing gitmo won’t solve anything. The current executive branch believes they can put human beings in some kind of legal limbo, where they are neither criminals nor prisoners of war and can be denied justice indefinably and if it weren’t for McCain the President would be trying to “define” outrages to human dignity as defined in the Geneva conventions. This makes me sad for my country and our illusion of democracy

It isn't quite as simple as you seem to believe. These prisoners in Gitmo aren't recognized prisoners of war as they do not wear a uniform or represent a nation we are presently at war with. They aren't just common criminals either. They are, in the case of their guilt, members of an organization or organizations that are enemies of the people of the United States. I do agree that there needs to be a system set up to determine the guilt or innocence of these people, and I'm sure lawyers are working to do just that.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Closing gitmo won’t solve anything. The current executive branch believes they can put human beings in some kind of legal limbo, where they are neither criminals nor prisoners of war and can be denied justice indefinably and if it weren’t for McCain the President would be trying to “define” outrages to human dignity as defined in the Geneva conventions. This makes me sad for my country and our illusion of democracy

Thank you for achnowledging this. There is absolutely no such thing as democracy, as sad as it seems "monkeys rule"

[Keltoi]

Thank you for achnowledging this. There is absolutely no such thing as democracy, as sad as it seems "monkeys rule"

I'm afraid I fail to make the connection between "no democracy" and Gitmo. Could you elaborate?

[snakelegs]

was there any excuse for these men to be put in dog pens? is it justifiable to hold people for years without even charging them with any crime? why does my country now justify torture?
from what i've heard some of these guys were simply rounded up and pressed into service by the taliban. some are no doubt bad people, but they should still be granted human respect and rights and some semblance of legal proceedings.

[Woodrow]

The problem I see has nothing to do with their guilt or innocense. They were incarcerated without due process. If they are considered as POW's they should be treated with all of the rights the Geneva convention affords a POW. If they are criminals they should be granted the rights of an expediant trial and be treated to the rights of an alleged criminal under the jurisdiction of criminal law and the arrests should have been made in accordance with law.

When the rights of one person is restricted, the rights of all suffer.

[Akil]

When the rights of one person is restricted, the rights of all suffer.

Not much else I can add

[Keltoi]

Not much else I can add

Nice bumper sticker anyway...

[IbnAbdulHakim]

I'm afraid I fail to make the connection between "no democracy" and Gitmo. Could you elaborate?

A democracy was created so every individual has a say right? So that one person doesnt decide the lives of everyone. Well unfortunately theres millions and billions marching and protesting yet all in vain. Yes i understand the democracy is mainly for the elections etc but even then, i dont believe the elections were completely fair... i find it impossible to believe...

[Woodrow]

A democracy was created so every individual has a say right? So that one person doesnt decide the lives of everyone. Well unfortunately theres millions and billions marching and protesting yet all in vain. Yes i understand the democracy is mainly for the elections etc but even then, i dont believe the elections were completely fair... i find it impossible to believe...

The biggest fault is that while many people activly protest, take part in demonstrations and are vocal. They often fail to carry their protest to the voting booths. Typicaly way less then 50% of the population ever votes in an election.

It is only at times of great turmoil and unrest do the American people excercise their right to fire the politicians that have betrayed them. As a people, to be blunt, we are lazy.

To clarify while about 80+% of the registered voters will vote in Presidential Elections, less then 70% the eligible Americans ever register to vote. So what this meas is slight over 25% of the adult population can carry an election.


oter Registration

Voter Registration is a government responsibility in most European countries; in the United States, it is a task each voter must accomplish individually. From 1968 through 2000, 87.5 percent of registered voters cast ballots in American presidential elections. But in 2000, only 69.5 percent of citizens of voting age were registered. White and black registration rates were comparable (70 percent and 68 percent), but rates for Asian American and Hispanic citizens were substantially lower, at 52 and 57 percent, respectively. It is the double barrier of achieving registration and turning out to vote that accounts for the notoriously low American participation rates: only 55 percent of voting-age citizens voted in 2000.

Personal registration is the largest remaining barrier to political participation in America. It was designed that way. Before the Civil War, only a few New England states forced voters to register. After 1865, state legislatures required men who lived in large cities, and later in smaller cities and rural areas, to register periodically, often before each major election. Adopted by 31 of the 37 northern states by 1920, the laws were touted as efforts to combat ballot fraud, but many proponents also wished to eliminate lower-class, often immigrant, voters, especially those who favored parties opposed to the reformers. They succeeded. The best estimate is that registration laws were responsible for 30 to 40 percent of the 29 percentage point decline in turnout in the northern states between 1896 and 1924.

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/voter-registration

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ i didnt know that :eek: