Friday, December 21, 2012
After a surprise court ruling on Friday, Hammar was released. His family and lawmakers had pushed for Hammar's release, arguing the young man had believed he could declare an antique shotgun at the Mexican border, where he was arrested.
A former Marine imprisoned in Mexico since August for carrying an antique shotgun was abruptly released Friday night and returned safely to the United States, his lawyer said.
A former Marine imprisoned in Mexico since August for carrying an antique shotgun was abruptly released Friday night and returned safely to the United States, his lawyer said.
“He’s out. Going home,” Eddie Varon Levy, Hammar’s lawyer, wrote in a message posted to Twitter.
A Mexican judge ruled Friday to free Jon Hammar, 27, from the notorious CEDES prison where he has been jailed since August after trying to declare the weapon at the border.
“These past few months have been an absolute nightmare for Jon and his family, and I am so relieved that this whole ordeal will soon be over,” U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, one of the most vocal proponents for Hammar’s release, said in a statement. “ I am overcome with joy knowing that Jon will be spending Christmas with his parents, family and friends.”...
The FY14 NDAA (click here) includes language that will make it easier to transfer detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, home or to third countries that agree to accept them. The language, however, prohibits the transfer of any detainee onto U.S. soil for any reason. The bill also does not include funds for building new, or upgrading old, facilities at Guantanamo—an acknowledgement that the facilities are temporary. The ACLU supports the language as a necessary but incomplete step for beginning to close the military prison for good....
...Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again. The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA. In addition, the breadth of the NDAA's detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war....
A detainee that has been removed from international criminal influence for eleven years has NO NEW information for the USA government. By the time they were released, they were unable to sustain their alertness long enough to speak to anyone. Why, with men in that level of physical and mental deterioration, would the USA believe any torture would result in information that is fit for military use?
This is Tea Party USA. They are violators of human rights both domestically and internationally. Extremists don't belong in government at any level. These men should have been moved years ago and returned to their countries shortly thereafter as soon as a fair hearing of their charges were conducted. Gitmo should already be CLOSED! The Tea Party extremists should be reviewed by the World Court for their influence in USA policy that insures their politics over that of laws and human rights.
Published time: December 20, 2013 13:54
The FY14 NDAA (click here) includes language that will make it easier to transfer detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, home or to third countries that agree to accept them. The language, however, prohibits the transfer of any detainee onto U.S. soil for any reason. The bill also does not include funds for building new, or upgrading old, facilities at Guantanamo—an acknowledgement that the facilities are temporary. The ACLU supports the language as a necessary but incomplete step for beginning to close the military prison for good....
...Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again. The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA. In addition, the breadth of the NDAA's detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war....
A detainee that has been removed from international criminal influence for eleven years has NO NEW information for the USA government. By the time they were released, they were unable to sustain their alertness long enough to speak to anyone. Why, with men in that level of physical and mental deterioration, would the USA believe any torture would result in information that is fit for military use?
This is Tea Party USA. They are violators of human rights both domestically and internationally. Extremists don't belong in government at any level. These men should have been moved years ago and returned to their countries shortly thereafter as soon as a fair hearing of their charges were conducted. Gitmo should already be CLOSED! The Tea Party extremists should be reviewed by the World Court for their influence in USA policy that insures their politics over that of laws and human rights.
Published time: December 20, 2013 13:54
After years of being held (click here) at the US Naval Base in Cuba without trial, Ibrahim Idris, one of two Sudanese detainees released on Thursday, said US prison officials had "systematically tortured" him in the course of his 11-year imprisonment at Gitmo.
Idris, who has been described by US officials as mentally ill, delivered his comments in a news conference in Khartoum, just hours after returning home courtesy of a US military plane.
Appearing weak and speaking with apparent difficultly, Idris gave a brief account of his lengthy imprisonment at Gitmo.
“We have been subjected to meticulous, daily torture," he said. "We were helpless…on an isolated island, surrounded by weapons."
He praised the Sudanese government and human rights organizations for working to secure the release of prisoners at Gitmo, which has been called “the GULAG of our times” by Amnesty International. Closed-door military tribunals, for example, have been riddled with problems, including courtroom speakers that have a mysterious tendency for being blocked during key testimony.
Another released detainee, Noor Othman Muhammed, was unable to attend the conference because he was recovering in the hospital, Idris said.
