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September 8, 2006

Cuba: Senior Muslim Terrorists Shipped To Guantanamo

14 senior Islamist terror suspects have been moved to Guantanamo Detention facilities in Cuba, state various news agencies. They include two of the individuals who masterminded 9/11 and also the former operational head of Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, Hambali (pictured left).

All fourteen have been transferred from secret CIA jails. The existence of these secret jails have drawn more criticism than Guantanamo, with consternation in Europe. The decision which led to the transfer of the 14 individuals was announced on September 6, following a ruling by the Supreme Court that the terms of the Geneva Convention applied to all individuals in US custody, even offshore. The first ruling of this sort was made on June 29 2006, in relation to a Guantanamo detainee called Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who had been Osama bin Laden's driver. He had been facing a military tribunal, which the Supreme Court ruled was in contravention of the Geneva Convention. But with the fourteen terror suspects in Guantanamo, they can still be tried for terrorism offenses under international law.

The biographies of all fourteen detainees can be found in a pdf document HERE.

The fourteen suspects are: Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, Hambali, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Lillie (aka Mohammed Nazir in Lep), Majid Khan, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Abu Faraj al-Libi, Zayn al-Abidin Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Zubair, Walid bin Attash (aka Khallad bin Attash), Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, and Gouled Hassan Dourad.

All of the fourteen are known to have links with Al Qaeda, but Zubair, Lillie and Hambali are members of both Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, and Gouled Hassan Dourad is a member of Al Qaeda and also al-Ittihad al-Islami a Somali-based terror group, formerly headed by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys who now runs the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) in Somalia.

Associated Press via Malaysia's Star relates that this is the first time that the US administration has admitted openly that Lillie and Zubair had been detained in secret CIA jails.

Hambali was apprehended in Thailand on 15 August 2003. His name is Nurjaman Riduan Ismuddin, also called Hambali. In January 2003, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher announced that: "information indicates that Hambali was involved in a 1995 plot to bomb 11 U.S. commercial airliners in Asia and directed the late-2001 foiled plot to attack U.S. and Western interests in Singapore." The airline plot was popularly known as Operation Bojinka.

According to News.com.au, "President George W.Bush admitted yesterday that Hambali, Jemaah Islamiah's operational commander and senior al-Qa'ida leader, had been held in a secret CIA detention system outside the US - believed to be in eastern Europe - along with 13 other high-level terrorist operatives. "

The two other high level detainees who are now at Guantanamo are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, both of whom are thought to have been involved in the plotting of the 9/11 attacks, which took place five years ago on Monday coming. As well as being the main deviser of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (right) also planned to fly planes into London targets, either at Heathrow airport or at Canary Wharf, the business center in London's Docklands. Details of this plot can be downloaded in pdf format here. This document, entitled "SUmmary of the High Value Terrorist Detainee Program", reveals that information gathered from detainees prevented this 2003 plot from taking place.

President Bush spoke of the "tough measures" which had been employed in the interrogation of some of the suspects, though he did not go into details. He said that an "alternative set of procedures" had been used when dealing with Abu Zubaydah: "The procedures were tough and they were safe, lawful and necessary."

Speaking of Ramzi Bin al-Shibh and Hambali, the president said: "It has been necessary to move these individuals to an environment where they can be held in secret, questioned by experts and, when appropriate, prosecuted for terrorist acts."

According to AKI, European Union justice and security commissioner, Franco Frattini, urged members of the European Union to renew efforts to find the existence of the secret CIA prisons, to ascertain if they are on member states' territory.

At present Romania and Poland are the countries suspected, and at the last council of Europe, Frattini, who once said that there is no such thing as Islamic terrorism, had warned that countries allowing such secret detention places would lose their membership of the EU. Romania is due to accede to the Union in 2007.

Another report made by the Council of Europe in May had stated that the CIA had carried out more than 1,000 secret flights in Europe since 2001 without any EU governments raising questions. It claimed that 30 to 50 people had been subject to "extraordinary rendition".

One of the most famous cases involved the figure of sartorial elegance pictured at left, Abu Omar of Italy, also known as Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, an Egyptian refugee. A report in the Washington Post last year claimed that Abu Omar's abduction from Milan in 2003 had prevented him from having a trial and the release of names of the radical sheikh's accomplices.

According to San Jose Mercury News Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jnr, the Navy commander in charge of Guantanamo, said that the 14 suspects arrived at the detention facility in good health.

He said: "They've undergone a physical and dental examination and will be issued the normal items provided to all detainees. They are being provided the same dietary and cultural amenities that are afforded to all other detainees here."

Currently more than 450 people are detained at Guantanamo. President Bush wants Congress to pass laws to allow suspects in Guananamo to be tried for war crimes. He has also asked for Congress to approve his domestic surveillance program.

The Washington Post reports that detainees are saying that Guantanamo is more strict. After fiascos earlier in the year, with detainees trying to hold their captors hostage and suicide attempts, there is some justification for a tough regime. The Post reports that Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a defense lawyer for some of the detainees, has said: "It appears that authorities at Guantanamo are trying to reassert control." Gitanjali Gutierrez, another lawyer has said that about 10 of her clients in Guantanamo seem to be buckling mentally. She said: "Now it's so tight and harsh that they're having mental breakdowns. The deterioration of my clients is just remarkable."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 8, 2006 7:53 AM

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