FD Editor’s Note: NEVER think your individual actions are not enough, or not noticed! Every action matters! This is Shaker’s wife – this is a beautiful thing – the campaign “Save Shaker” gave her some much-needed hope! Great work by the Save Shaker campaign!
The greatest message to have found in my inbox from the Save Shaker campaign this morning. 100,000 hit. #SaveShaker
Send to KindleNidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinians opened a replica of a former Israeli prison in Gaza on Tuesday to help illuminate the plight of 4,800 kin jailed in Israel after weeks of protests that have triggered clashes in the Israeli- occupied West Bank.
Murals of famous leaders of Palestinian militant groups who were once held in the Saraya prison decorated walls at the site, along with a leather banner listing the names of 12 detainees who died in what locals dubbed “the slaughterhouse”.
Send to KindleImprisoned as a Muslim in Bosnia, Sabir Bajramovic testified on Thursday that he was tortured with electricity and beaten after his arrest. Sabir Bajramovic commemorated his time in prison with this tattoo.
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Send to KindleUNITED NATIONS – The UN human rights chief Friday urged all branches of the US Government to work together to close the Guantanamo detention centre, stressing that the indefinite incarceration of detainees is a clear breach of international law.
“I am deeply disappointed that the US Government has not been able to close Guantanamo Bay, despite repeatedly committing itself to do so,” said the Geneva-based High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.
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We beg your patience as we redo this site. God willing it will be much better, and we will operate much more efficiently. Our goal is to reorganize so that you can find what you are looking for much easier. The content is still here, of course, so it is worth visiting, and your prayers are appreciated as we get this perfected, God willing.
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Send to KindleIn 2010, as WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of classified documents relating to the conduct of the US government, government defenders dismissively claimed that they revealed nothing new. Among the many documents disproving that claim were ones relating to a US policy in Iraq set forth in “Frago 242″, which ordered coalition troops not to stop or even investigate torture and other war crimes by the Iraqi forces they were training, but simply to “note” them.
And note them they did: the logs record thousands of cases of Iraqi forces severely beating, brutalizing and torturing Iraqi civilians while US forces, with rare exception, did nothing to stop it (when the documents were released, the Guardian detailed just some of the illustrative cases). As the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder wrote at the time, the documents contain “incredibly awful reports of systematized detainee abuse by Iraqi soldiers and security forces right under the noses of the American-led coalition, which appears to have had virtually no incentive to put a stop to them” (as usual, these documents were classified not to safeguard US national security but rather to conceal bad and embarrassing acts on the part of the US government: that is why it is not hard to understand why the US government is so aggressive about punishing Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and other whistleblowers and journalists who expose these secrets).
In Afghanistan on Sunday, President Hamid Karzai alleged that the US is doing something much worse: not merely standing by and watching their trained forces torture and kill, but actively and systematically participating. As the Guardian’s Golnar Motevalli reported:
“The Afghan government has ordered US special forces to leave one of Afghanistan’s most restive provinces, Maidan Wardak, after receiving reports from local officials claiming that the elite units had been involved in the torture and disappearance of Afghan civilians. . . .
“The provincial governor and other officials from Maidan Wardak presented evidence against US forces at the national security council meeting. The presidential palace later issued a statement saying: ‘After a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as US special forces stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people.
“‘A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force and in a separate incident a student was taken away at night from his home, whose tortured body with throat cut was found two days later under a bridge,’ the statement added” . . . .
“Aimal Faizi, spokesman for Karzai, said the decision came after of months of reports of abuse.
“‘People have been complaining about US special forces units torturing people, killing people in that province, and nine individuals were taken from their homes recently and they have just disappeared and no one knows where they have gone,’ Faizi said.”
Send to KindleSome Palestinian prisoners are released while solidarity continues for those on hunger strike, demonstrations target the separation wall, settlements, and school closures, and life goes on amid Gaza’s rubble.
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In the first of what was supposed to be four days of hearings in Guantanamo in the case against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri—the alleged mastermind behind the U.S.S. Cole bombing—the commissions came to a screeching halt.
Judge James Pohl granted the prosecution’s motion to examine the mental capacity of al-Nashiri and all other scheduled motions for the proceedings were held in abeyance until a determination on al-Nashiri’s capacity was finalized.
The courtroom atmosphere was contentious throughout the duration of the proceedings with what might be termed bickering between both sides and Judge Pohl.
In total, two motions were heard before Judge Pohl affirmed the prosecution’s motion on al-Nashiri’s mental capacity and effectively quashed the hearing until a yet be determined date.
Having said that, the hearing was not without drama.
AE 149 – Motion to Investigate the Ability of Third Party Monitoring of Attorney/Client information.
The morning began with a hearing on a last minute motion filed by the defense on Friday, February 1, 2013, in response to last week’s unsettling revelation that outside governmental agencies could listen to the proceedings remotely, and “close down” the the court without the Judge’s knowledge or permission.
The prosecution elected not to draft a written response to the motion, instead opting to respond on the record. Defense counsel, Commander Steven Reyes, argued that because of this undisclosed monitoring by outside agencies, the defense’s ability to have privileged conversations with their client was impaired and thereby they would not be able to provide effective representation. In addition, the defense argued that further discovery would be necessary to determine whether or not this same kind of remote monitoring system was in place in the holding areas outside of the courtroom and in the attorney conference room on the far side of the island where meetings with the detainees take place.
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Multnomah Sheriff’s Office
Mohamed Osman Mohamud in a booking shot taken upon his arrest Nov. 26, 2010. Mohamud, then 19, is accused of attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.
At the trial for Mohamed Osman Mohamud in Portland, Ore. — which began with jury selection on Thursday — no one is expected to dispute these chilling facts: The Somali-born teen tried to set off an explosion that was meant to rip through a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the city center on Nov. 26, 2010.
| “Oregonians take tremendous pride in being different, independent. They have the ability to question authority,” said Sherlag. “They are willing to say ‘prove it’.” |
The deliberations will focus on how Mohamud came to that decisive moment, when he was arrested using what turned out to be a fake detonator for fake explosives, part of a federal sting operation.
The defense will argue “entrapment” — that the federal agents lured the teen, who was 18 when they first contacted him — into a violent plot that he would not have been inclined to pursue on his own. Legal experts say this is essentially a Hail Mary pass — a legal argument extremely hard to win — but some factors in this case, including the defendant’s youth, could give the strategy a chance of success.
“The entrapment defense is that the person’s independent will was overborn by the suggestion or manipulation of the government,” said Kenneth Lerner, a criminal defense attorney and former federal public defender in Portland. “The government has to show that the person was willing to do it. That’s the tension.”
In many ways, Mohamud’s case resembles others in which U.S. citizens or residents, apparently inspired by radical websites, have tried to carry out attacks, only to be arrested in a sting featuring undercover agents or informers posing as terrorists or their liaisons.
A 36-page government affidavit says the FBI agents’ arranged a first meeting with Mohamud in July 2010, after he had suspicious email exchanges with a militant Islamist in northwest Pakistan. The document said the FBI believes Mohammad was trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to travel to the region to train for “violent jihad.”
It says that when the undercover agent, posing as a contact with the militant and referred to as UCE1, asked what Mohamud was willing to do for “the cause,” Mohamud chose violence:
“UCE1 told Mohamud that there were a number of ways that he could help, ranging from simply praying five times a day to becoming a martyr. MOHAMUD said that he wanted to become ‘operational.’ Asked to elaborate, MOHAMUD stated he thought of putting an explosion together but that he needed help doing so.”
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Palestine Diaries – Live from Palestine
