Guantanomo inmate to appear before NY court

From Radio Netherlands Worldwide International News

Published Thursday 21 May 2009

For the first time, a suspected terrorist held at the Guantanamo detention centre will be brought before a US civil court. US media report that President Barack Obama will announce on Thursday that Tanzanian Ahmed Ghailani will have to stand trial in New York. He was allegedly involved in the attacks on the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. Ahmed Ghailani was detained in Pakistan in 2004 and later transferred to Guantánamo.

The president will today give a speech in which he will provide further details of his plans to close the infamous detention centre. On Wednesday, the Senate refused to provide funds for closing down Guantanamo. A majority fears some suspected terrorists may be released into the United States or possible escape from US prisons.

According to The New York Times [JayV edit: NYT blatant fear mongering], an undisclosed Pentagon report shows that 74 of the 534 suspected terrorists released from Guantanamo have joined terrorists or other militants. Two hundred-and-forty prisoners are still being held at Guantanamo.

RebelReports - In Closed-Door Meeting With Rights Groups, Obama Suggests He'll Use 'Preventive Detention'

By Jeremy Scahill

Just when you think President Obama’s policies on war, civil liberties and Guantanamo couldn’t possibly look any more like the Bush/Cheney regime’s than they already do, the administration goes ahead and proves you dead wrong. In a meeting Wednesday with several human rights groups including the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights Watch, Obama said he was “mulling the need for a ‘preventive detention’ system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried,” according to two participants in the “private session.” [read all of Scahill here]