[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [WBPF] We give them Quarans. What the hell are they complaining about?

[Brussel Morton K.]

FYI

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Robert Palm <rpalm32 at yahoo.com>
> Date: May 1, 2008 10:00:44 PM CDT
>
> Subject: [WBPF] We give them Quarans.   What the hell are they  
> complaining about?
>
> We give them Quarans.   What the hell are they complaining about?   
> You just gotta love the Washington Consensus because not only are  
> they violent they are about as dumb as you can be.
>
> The USA should not have let this guy go.  He is going to tell the  
> truth about the USA in the Arab/Moslem media, and the truth is the  
> last thing the USA should let get out.
> Bob
>
>
> Yahoo! News
> Back to Story - Help
> Al-Jazeera cameraman freed from Guantanamo after 6 years
>
> By MOHAMED OSMAN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 19 minutes ago
>
> An Al-Jazeera cameraman was released from U.S. custody at  
> Guantanamo Bay and returned home to Sudan early Friday after six  
> years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests.
>
> Sami al-Haj, who had been on a hunger strike for 16 months,  
> grimaced as he was carried off a U.S. military plane by American  
> personnel in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. He was put on a stretcher  
> and taken straight to a hospital.
>
> Al-Jazeera showed footage of al-Haj being carried into the  
> hospital, looking feeble and with his eyes closed, but smiling.  
> Some of the men surrounding his stretcher were kissing him on the  
> cheek.
>
> "Thank God ... for being free again," he told Al-Jazeera from his  
> hospital bed. "Our eyes have the right to shed tears after we have  
> spent all those years in prison. ... But our joy is not going to be  
> complete until our brothers in Guantanamo Bay are freed," he added.
>
> "The situation is very bad and getting worse day after day," he  
> said of conditions in Guantanamo. He claimed guards prevent Muslims  
> from practicing their religion and reading the Quran.
>
> "Some of our brothers live without clothing," he said.
>
> The U.S. military says it goes to great lengths to respect the  
> religion of detainees, issuing them Qurans, enforcing quiet among  
> guard staff during prayer calls throughout the day. All cells in  
> Guantanamo have an arrow that points toward the holy city of Mecca.
>
> Al-Haj was released along with two other Sudanese from Guantanamo  
> Thursday. He was the only journalist from a major international  
> news organization held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw  
> his detention as punishment for a network whose broadcasts angered  
> U.S. officials.
>
> The military alleged he was a courier for a militant Muslim  
> organization, an allegation his lawyers denied.
>
> Al-Haj said he believed he was arrested because of U.S. hostility  
> toward Al-Jazeera and because the media was reporting on U.S.  
> rights violations in Afghanistan.
>
> Al-Haj was detained in December 2001 by Pakistani authorities as he  
> tried to enter Afghanistan to cover the U.S.-led invasion. He was  
> turned over to the U.S. military and taken in January 2002 to  
> Guantanamo Bay, where the United States holds some 275 men  
> suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, most of them  
> without charges.
>
> Reprieve, the British human rights group that represents 35  
> Guantanamo prisoners including al-Haj, said Pakistani forces  
> apparently seized al-Haj at the behest of the U.S. authorities who  
> suspected he had interviewed Osama bin Laden.
>
> But that "supposed intelligence" turned out to be false, Reprieve  
> said in a news release.
>
> "This is wonderful news, and long overdue," said Clive Stafford  
> Smith, Reprieve's director, who has represented al-Haj since 2005.  
> "The U.S. administration has never had any reason for holding Mr.  
> Al Haj, and has, instead, spent six years shamelessly attempting to  
> turn him against his employers at Al-Jazeera."
>
> Sudanese officials said al-Haj would not face any charges.
>
> The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum issued a brief statement confirming  
> the detainee transfer with Sudan and saying it appreciated Sudan's  
> cooperation.
>
> Al-Haj's lawyers said the 38-year-old has been on hunger strike  
> since January 2007 to protest conditions and indefinite confinement  
> at the prison.
>
> Attorney Zachary Katznelson of Reprieve, who met al-Haj at  
> Guantanamo on April 11, said he was "emaciated" because of his  
> hunger strike. and had recently been having problems with his liver  
> and kidneys and had blood in his urine.
>
> "Sami is a poster child for everything that is wrong about  
> Guantanamo Bay: No charges, no trial, constantly shifting  
> allegations, brutal treatment, no visits with family, not even a  
> phone call home," Katznelson said Thursday.
>
> "Sami was never alleged to have hurt a soul, and was never proven  
> to have committed any crimes. Yet, he had fewer rights than  
> convicted mass murderers or rapists. What has happened to American  
> justice?"
>
> Al-Jazeera is based in Qatar and is funded by the royal family of  
> the Persian Gulf nation. Its Arabic channel has been excoriated by  
> the Bush administration as a mouthpiece for terrorists including  
> Osama bin Laden.
>
> Wadah Khanfar, managing director of Al-Jazeera Arabic, said of al- 
> Haj's release: "We are overwhelmed with joy."
>
> Al-Haj was never prosecuted at Guantanamo so the U.S did not make  
> public its full allegations against him. But in a hearing that  
> determined that he was an enemy combatant, U.S. officials alleged  
> that in the 1990s, al-Haj was an executive assistant at a Qatar- 
> based beverage company that provided support to Muslim fighters in  
> Bosnia and Chechnya.
>
> The U.S. claimed he also traveled to Azerbaijan at least eight  
> times to carry money on behalf of his employer to the Al-Haramain  
> Islamic Foundation, a now defunct charity that U.S. authorities say  
> funded militant groups.
>
> The officials said during this period that he met Mamdouh Mahmud  
> Salim, a senior lieutenant to Osama bin Laden who was arrested in  
> Germany in 1998 and extradited to the United States. Officials did  
> not provide details.
>
> Reprieve identified the two other Sudanese Guantanamo detainees who  
> were released as Amir Yacoub Al Amir and Walid Ali.
>
> Reprieve also said Moroccan detainee Said Boujaadia, 39, was also  
> released. He was flown home on the same plane as al-Haj, which made  
> a stop in Morocco. The group said he was taken into custody in  
> Morocco.
>
>
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  
> Try it now.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20080501/fb248f1c/attachment.htm