Portugal to take Guantanamo inmates

December 20, 2008

http://tinyurl.com/5avxbm

Portugal is willing to receive detainees from the US-run Guantanamo
Bay detention camp in Cuba, Luis Amado, the foreign minister, has
said.

He said there had "been a clear consensus [in Europe] throughout on
the need to close this detention centre".

The detention of inmates without trial has tainted the US's human
rights record, and Barack Obama, the US president-elect, has said he
will close the camp.

The Portuguese government urged its European Union partners to also
accept to resettle detainees.

"The time has come for the European Union to step forward," a letter
produced by the Portuguese foreign ministry read.

"As a matter of principle and coherence, we should send a clear
signal of our willingness to help the US government in that regard
[closing Guantanamo], namely through the resettlement of the
detainees."

`The Guantanamo problem'

Daniel Gorevana, from Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera that the
Portuguese offer was a call to other European governments to help
solve "the Guantanamo problem".

"As part of that they [Portugal] are offering to take individuals
from Guantanamo whether they are cleared for release through the
official US system or not," he said.

"I think it's important to note that the US system of clearing
individuals at Guantanamo is fairly arbitrary and most of the
individuals who have been released from Guantanamo have not gone
through that process.

About 255 men are still held in the prison, including 50 the US has
cleared for release but cannot repatriate for fear they will be
tortured or persecuted in their home countries.

"There's a large Yemeni population [in Guantanamo] and we know that
US is in negotiations with the Yemeni government to repatriate some
of those individuals. There's a smaller number of detainees that the
US plans to charge and try," Gorevana said.

"They're currently doing that under the military commission system
and Amnesty are calling for those detainees to be transferred to the
US and charged in federal criminal courts."

Closer to the goal

Albania is the only country that has accepted detainees on
humanitarian grounds, taking in five members of China's Uighur ethnic
minority in 2006.

Portugal's offer to take in detainees will bring the US closer to its
goal of closing the offshore military prison, a US diplomat said on
Thursday.

Clint Williamson, the ambassador-at-large for war-crimes issues, said
the gesture marks a breakthrough in efforts to find new homes for
detainees who would risk persecution or torture in their native
countries.

"We certainly welcome this initiative," Williamson said in an
interview with the Associated Press news agency.

"We have approached over 70 countries at this point, and I personally
visited a number of those capitals, raising this with other
governments."

Security concerns

Obama has also pledged to move the remaining prisoners' "terrorism"
trials into regular US civilian or military courts.

Manfred Nowak, the UN's torture investigator, recommended last month
that European countries take in Guantanamo inmates who cannot be sent
home.

Williamson said governments have been reluctant to accept the men
because of security and political concerns.

"In some cases, they have just been reluctant to associate themselves
with an unpopular policy related to Guantanamo," he said.

===

Secrecy Rules Hobble Defense in Guantanamo Case

James Rowley
Bloomberg
Dec 08, 2008
http://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=2726

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Secrecy rules are hobbling the defense for
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants in their military war-
crimes case at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, lawyers advising
the men said.

Under military court rules, every word spoken or written by the five
accused Sept. 11 terror plotters is presumed classified, lawyers said
yesterday at the end of two days of pretrial hearings. That policy
prevented Mohammed from filing papers with the trial judge and
sending letters to lawyers, said David Nevin, a lawyer advising the
self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks.

Lawyers cannot even discuss among themselves what Mohammed or another
``high-value detainee'' told them without going to a secure
government-approved repository for classified information.

``Imagine the most mundane statement, anything he says,'' Nevin told
reporters. ``When we leave the room and are not with him anymore, we
can't turn to each other and say `what do you think of what he just
said?'''

Procedural snarls at the hearings exposed the difficulties the
military faces in bringing the case to trial before President George
W. Bush leaves office in January. The government seeks the death
penalty for the men if they are found guilty of plotting to finance
the 19 airline hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

Defend Themselves

During the hearing, Mohammed and two other accused al-Qaeda
operatives reaffirmed that they will forgo government-appointed
lawyers and defend themselves. Their former lawyers will stand by to
provide legal advice during the trial.

A fourth defendant, Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, said he needed
more time to make up his mind. Judge Ralph Kohlmann ordered a mental-
competency exam for the fifth man, Ramzi Binalshibh, who has been
treated with psychotropic drugs, before determining whether he will
be allowed to waive counsel.

Kohlmann, a Marine Corps colonel, heard complaints from Mohammed that
he was unable to deliver to the judge a motion he drafted this week
and can't have paper in his cell to write. ``We are not in a normal
situation, we are in hell,'' he said.

Because of the secrecy rules, there is no procedure for ``how the
written word of the defendants, which is presumptively classified,''
will be communicated to the court, said Navy Captain Prescott Prince,
also a defense lawyer.

`High-Value Detainees'

The security rules apply to the 16 ``high-value detainees'' once held
by the Central Intelligence Agency at undisclosed locations. They
were sought by the government from the judge who oversees all
Guantanamo war-crimes trials, Prince said.

Mohammed has alleged during courtroom appearances that he was
tortured in CIA custody. The CIA has acknowledged that Mohammed was
one of three detainees subjected to ``waterboarding,'' an
interrogation technique that simulates drowning. The agency says it
no longer uses the technique.

Defense Department spokesman Jeffrey Gordon, a Navy commander, told
reporters that now that three men have been granted the right to
defend themselves, prison authorities have ``implemented a process to
ensure filings and legal mail to and from the court'' are handled
properly.

In court, the defendants complained about restrictions on their
access to classified documents. Kohlmann warned that they won't have
access to classified documents to prepare for trial as would lawyers
provided by the military.

`Right to Review'

``This is my right to review and see these documents,'' defendant
Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarek Bin `Attash told Kohlmann. He complained
that he didn't receive a translated copy of an order the judge issued
July 1 until he was walking into the courtroom.

To address complaints about translations, ``it's clear that in the
future'' the Defense Department must ``develop a more structured
plan,'' Kohlmann said.

The military's chief prosecutor, Army Colonel Lawrence Morris, said
arrangements are being made to provide office equipment and other
resources to help the detainees act as their own lawyers. Court
filings must be made by computer.

Kohlmann had urged all five defendants to accept representation by
court-appointed military lawyers. The judge convened this week's
hearings after al Hawsawi's lawyer, Army Major Jon Jackson, alleged
his client was intimidated by Mohammed and others into refusing
counsel.

Yesterday Mohammed told the judge, ``I don't think anybody can
threaten me or I can threaten anybody.''

Like his co-defendants, al Hawsawi denied there was any coercion or
intimidation. Even so, Jackson told reporters he still believed al
Hawsawi wanted him to defend him in court.

Al Hawsawi doesn't want to use the trial ``to make a political
statement'' as do the other four men, Jackson said.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Guantanamo Bay
at jarowley@bloomberg.net