THE NEW YORK TIMES  --  2003

nyt_digest_2003.txt

http://www.nytimes.com/

================================================================================


December 31, 2003

SPECIAL COUNSEL IS NAMED TO HEAD INQUIRY ON C.I.A. LEAK
By Eric Lichtblau

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 -- Attorney General John Ashcroft disqualified himself on
Tuesday from any involvement in the investigation into whether Bush
administration officials illegally disclosed the identity of an undercover
C.I.A. officer. At the same time, the Justice Department brought in a special
counsel to lead the politically charged case.

The two steps suggested that the three-month-old investigation had reached a
crucial juncture at which Mr. Ashcroft's continued involvement was considered
politically untenable, officials said. Leading Democrats had pushed for months
for Mr. Ashcroft to remove himself from the case because of his close ties to
the White House, but he had consistently resisted those demands until Tuesday.

Federal investigators have been examining whether officials at the White House
or in other federal offices leaked the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie
Plame, to Robert Novak, a syndicated columnist. Mr. Novak included the
information in a column published last July.

The White House has denied that top officials there, including the president's
top political adviser, Karl Rove, had any role in leaking the information to Mr.
Novak. The Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed Mr. Rove in October,
officials said, and his relationship to the attorney general has been a source
of concern for some Justice Department officials because he was a paid adviser
to Mr. Ashcroft on several of Mr. Ashcroft's political campaigns in Missouri.

James B. Comey Jr., a former Manhattan prosecutor who was installed just three
weeks ago as deputy attorney general, will oversee the investigation following
Mr. Ashcroft's withdrawal. His first decision in that role was to name Patrick
J. Fitzgerald, who is the United States attorney in Chicago and is a friend and
former colleague of Mr. Comey's, as a special counsel who will direct the
investigation.

"The attorney general, in an abundance of caution, believed that his recusal was
appropriate based on the totality of the circumstances and the facts and
evidence developed at this stage of the investigation," Mr. Comey said in
announcing the decision at a news conference, which Mr. Ashcroft did not attend.
"I agree with that judgment. And I also agree that he made it at the appropriate
time, the appropriate point in this investigation."

Mr. Comey added that the attorney general did not believe that he had a conflict
of interest that would have prevented him from fairly overseeing the case. "The
issue that he was concerned about was one of appearance, Mr. Comey said.

White House officials said that President Bush was informed of the decision
several hours before Mr. Comey formally announced it but that the White House
played no role in it. Indeed, the decision appeared to surprise both political
figures in the White House and law enforcement officials at the Justice
Department, leaving many to speculate about what led Mr. Ashcroft to disqualify
himself from the case now after months of political pressure.

Some officials suggested that the move was driven largely by political factors
and that the Democrats' near-constant criticism over the pace of the
investigation and Mr. Ashcroft's role in it could hurt Mr. Bush as he campaigns
for re-election next year. By this theory, Mr. Comey's confirmation as deputy
attorney general three weeks ago may have allowed Mr. Ashcroft a relatively
smooth way by which to extricate himself from the case.

"The Justice Department and Ashcroft in particular have been in an impossible
situation," said one White House adviser. "Unless he finds everybody at the
White House guilty, his critics will charge that he was soft."

But some Democrats said they believed that Mr. Ashcroft's decision was evidence
that the F.B.I.'s investigation into the leak could be moving closer to key
White House personnel with whom the attorney general is closely aligned.

The Justice Department's investigation centers on accusations that unnamed Bush
administration officials disclosed the identity of Ms. Plame to Mr. Novak last
summer in order to punish the C.I.A. officer's husband, former Ambassador Joseph
C. Wilson IV, for his criticism of Mr. Bush's policies in Iraq.

Days before his wife's role with the Central Intelligence Agency was disclosed,
Mr. Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times saying that a government
fact-finding trip he took to Niger in 2002 found nothing to substantiate the
accusation that Iraq had imported uranium ore from Niger. In his State of the
Union address in January, Mr. Bush said Iraq had been seeking to buy uranium in
Africa, although he did not specifically mention Niger.

Disclosing the identity of a covert C.I.A. officer is a felony under federal
law.

Republicans were largely silent on Mr. Ashcroft's decision, but Democrats in
Congress and on the presidential campaign trail were quick to praise it,
although some saw it as belated.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who led the push for Mr.
Ashcroft's withdrawal and the appointment of an outside counsel, said, "This
isn't everything that I asked for, but it's close."

On the appointment of Mr. Fitzgerald to lead the investigation, Mr. Schumer
said: "I would have preferred to have someone outside the government altogether,
but given Fitzgerald's reputation for integrity and ability -- similar to
Comey's -- the glass is three-quarters full."

Howard Dean, who leads in polls for the Democratic presidential nomination, said
that while he was encouraged by Mr. Ashcroft's decision, "it is too little, too
late."

Dr. Dean suggested that because Mr. Comey and Mr. Fitzgerald are political
appointees named to their jobs by Mr. Bush, the Justice Department should still
appoint an outside counsel to handle the case.

In the last three months, the leak investigation has been run out of the Justice
Department by John Dion, a career lawyer who leads the department's
counterespionage unit. While Mr. Ashcroft has been briefed occasionally on the
progress of the investigation, Justice Department officials have stressed that
the unfettered authority of Mr. Dion and his staff were critical to ensuring the
fairness and independence of the investigation.

Mr. Comey, however, left open the question of whether Mr. Dion and other career
prosecutors in his unit would remain on the case. He said that decision will be
left entirely to Mr. Fitzgerald, but he added, "I wouldn't be surprised if he
thought maybe he ought to keep some or all of the career folks involved."

Mr. Comey, who earned a reputation in Manhattan as an independent prosecutor on
corporate crime and other high-profile criminal matters, said that he was giving
Mr. Fitzgerald broad authority to pursue the investigation and that he would be
allowed to issue subpoenas and grant immunity on his own authority.

"I told him that my mandate to him was very simple," Mr. Comey related. "Follow
the facts wherever they lead, and do the right thing at all times. And that's
something, if you know this guy, is not something I even needed to tell him."

* * *


December 30, 2003

ASHCROFT TO REMOVE HIMSELF FROM INQUIRY INTO C.I.A. LEAK

By David Stout

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 -- Attorney General John Ashcroft will remove himself from
an investigation into who gave the name of a Central Intelligence Agency officer
to a newspaper columnist and turn over the inquiry to a special counsel, the
Justice Department said today.

Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey said Mr. Ashcroft had decided to step
aside "out of an abundance of caution" and to avoid even the appearance of a
conflict of interest. Democrats have insisted that Mr. Ashcroft remove himself
from the case because he has close ties to some of the people who may have been
involved in the disclosure to the syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of
Illinois, has been appointed special counsel to head the investigation and will
be given complete authority to take the inquiry wherever it leads, Mr. Comey
said.

The deputy attorney general declined to comment on where the inquiry was heading
or when there might be a breakthrough. But his reply to a question hinted that
the inquiry might be making progress.

"It's fair to say that an accumulation of facts throughout the course of the
investigation over the last several months has led us to this point," Mr. Comey
said. "What those facts are and where they tell us we're going is stuff I can't
get into and that I would hope you would not speculate about."

The appointment of a special counsel strongly suggested that the controversy
would not go away soon and that the inquiry could cause considerable
embarrassment for some people. And if the identity of the leaker is established
beyond doubt, he or she could face criminal charges for disclosing the name of a
covert government agent.

Mr. Comey said the inquiry had been "moving along very quickly" and that Mr.
Fitzgerald could choose to retain some of the department investigators who have
been participating in it.

Mr. Comey described Mr. Fitzgerald, 41, as a man of "sterling reputation" and
"an absolutely apolitical career prosecutor." Some people have likened him to
"Eliot Ness with a Harvard law degree and a sense of humor," Mr. Comey said in
an allusion to the federal agent of "Untouchables" fame.

Mr. Fitzgerald, a Brooklyn native, served as a prosecutor in the United States
attorney's office in Manhattan from the late 1980's until the mid-1990's, where
his work included terrorist cases, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade
Center.

The inquiry is intended to find who leaked the name of the C.I.A. officer,
Valerie Plame, to Mr. Novak last July. Ms. Plame is married to former Ambassador
Joseph C. Wilson IV, who earlier asserted that President Bush had exaggerated
Iraq's nuclear capabilities as a pretext for going to war.

Mr. Wilson and his supporters have asserted that his wife's name was disclosed
to embarrass or intimidate him because of his criticism of the administration.

Republicans and Democrats have been arguing over whether the disclosure of Ms.
Plame's identity was spiteful but not very consequential, or a matter of
personal and national security, or something in between.

Representative Porter J. Goss, a Florida Republican who heads the House
Intelligence Committee and is himself a former C.I.A. officer, said when the
controversy was at its height a few months ago: "I would say there is much
larger dose of partisan politics going on right now than there is worry about
national security."

Some Democrats have expressed outrage.

"This betrayal by someone or some people in the administration has reached a new
low," Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said last fall. "There's
an unwritten rule in politics that no matter how rough the politics gets,
families are off limits, particularly spouses and children."

It was disclosed earlier that Mr. Ashcroft's top aides had regularly briefed him
on key details in the investigation, including the identities of people
interviewed by the F.B.I.

Mr. Ashcroft's regular, detailed briefings suggest that he has taken a more
hands-on role in the politically charged investigation than the department
acknowledged. Senate Democrats said the arrangement threatened to compromise the
independence of the investigation, a contention that Justice Department
officials rejected.

Mr. Ashcroft and his aides repeatedly emphasized that the department's career
lawyers were being left to run the investigation free of political hindrance.

But Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said today that he was
glad that Mr. Ashcroft had stepped aside. "Throughout America, there was much
concern that the investigation of the C.I.A. leak would not be conducted in a
fearless and thorough manner," the senator said. "As a result of the action by
the attorney general and the Justice Department, much of that concern can be
allayed."

* * *


December 23, 2003

Op-Ed Contributor

THE RULE OF LAW AND THE WAR ON TERROR
By Ruth Wedgwood

WASHINGTON -- In the ongoing war with Al Qaeda, America's civic ideals should
not frustrate an effective defense. What is the government to do, for example,
when it knows of catastrophic threats or dangers to Americans through
intelligence sources, yet is unable to prove its case in a criminal trial
against those planning such attacks?

Consider the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who the
government says was working for Al Qaeda in a radioactive bomb plot. The
government's main informants about Mr. Padilla are still sequestered abroad.
Without these senior Qaeda members available to appear in court, Mr. Padilla
cannot be charged with a crime. So shortly after returning to America from
abroad in May 2002, he was designated an "enemy combatant" and taken into
government custody. Last week a federal appeals court ordered him released
within 30 days.

According to government accounts, Mr. Padilla moved abroad in 1998, traveling to
Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. He wasn't traveling to see the
wonders of the world. In 2001, the government says, Mr. Padilla met in
Afghanistan with Abu Zubaydah, a senior Qaeda planner. Mr. Padilla offered to
detonate a radioactive bomb in an American city, and Mr. Zubaydah sent him to
Pakistan to learn about making bombs.

In 2002, according to a government affidavit filed in open court, Mr. Padilla
discussed how to attack the United States in terrorist operations with other
operatives of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, again with Abu Zubaydah's approval. Plans
included a "dirty bomb" attack and bombings of American hotels and train
stations.

All of these schemes might seem beyond the capacity of a street gang graduate.
But one of Al Qaeda's hallmarks has been attracting and teaching local
jihadists, marrying Al Qaeda's perverse set of skills to the moral naïveté of a
young recruit.

Mr. Padilla was told to return to the United States to carry out reconnaissance,
the government says, or to conduct attacks on American sites. On May 8, 2002, he
flew from Pakistan to Switzerland, and then to Chicago. Meanwhile, in March
2002, Abu Zubaydah was taken into custody by intelligence agents in Pakistan,
and may have spilled the beans on Mr. Padilla's involvement.

The government faced an extraordinary dilemma upon Mr. Padilla's return to the
United States. Federal rules of evidence do not permit the consideration of
intelligence reports as proof for criminal convictions, no matter how reliable
the informant. And any effort to hold Mr. Padilla as a grand jury witness was
bound to be temporary, since he could not be forced to testify without immunity.

Hence, President Bush invoked the wartime power delegated by Congress. In
response to 9/11, Congress's joint resolution, dated Sept. 18, 2001, authorized
the president to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against "those
organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided
the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001" in order to "prevent any future acts of
international terrorism against the United States" (emphasis added).

This Congressional action, together with the president's constitutional
responsibility as commander in chief to protect the United States against
attacks, authorized the American military campaign against the Taliban and Qaeda
members around the world. Congress surely intended that Qaeda operatives who are
planning direct attacks against American targets should also be restrained, at
least when no other legal method is available. Mr. Padilla was caught in hot
pursuit returning from Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit has now concluded otherwise. Congress apparently meant no
such thing. Though a lower court judge upheld the president's power to intercept
incipient attacks, subject to suitable habeas corpus review, the appeals panel
has supposed that Congress provided no means to stop Al Qaeda operatives like
Mr. Padilla from entering the United States to carry out attacks -- except by
means of a criminal prosecution. An operative of Al Qaeda must be caught
carrying "weapons or explosives," the judges said, in order to be seen as
"actively engaged in armed conflict against the United States."

This sanguine view overlooks the Eichmann-like division of labor common in Qaeda
operations. Target-spotting missions and trips to acquire munitions are part of
armed conflict. And the government says Jose Padilla volunteered to carry out
the stateside attacks directly.

The appellate court supposes, without any basis in the record, that there was no
"imminent danger" of attack, because a grand jury warrant kept Mr. Padilla at a
Manhattan correctional center for four weeks. But what the court did not say is
that had Mr. Padilla been let go after the warrant expired, he would have been
free to continue his martial tasks.

The judges appropriately considered a little-known but important guarantee
called the "Non-Detention Act" -- passed in 1971. It says that "No citizen shall
be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an
act of Congress." The puzzle is why the judges are so cocksure that Congress's
nearly unanimous vote to go to war against Al Qaeda doesn't qualify as an
authorizing act of Congress.

Of course, it would be preferable to know everything that is important in life
by standards of "beyond a reasonable doubt." But imagine if the intelligence
dots had been replete and connected on Sept. 10, 2001. What if we knew, from
out-of-court sources, the names of Qaeda operatives who were planning to hijack
the jet-fueled airplanes for attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?

Even then, we would likely have lacked admissible criminal proof. By the logic
of last week's decision, the president could not have held the hijackers as
combatants -- even after they had entered the United States, even with habeas
corpus review of the president's decision, until the moment they appeared at
Logan Airport with box cutters.

Perhaps, unconsciously, we think the war is over. The Al Qaeda network's recent
bombings in Kenya and Turkey argue the opposite. Osama bin Laden's "spider hole"
has not yet been found. The muttered warnings of his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri,
were broadcast last week, just before the government's heightened terror alert:
"We are still chasing the Americans and their allies everywhere, including their
homeland."

One would prefer to think this was bluster. But the training camps of Osama bin
Laden created a dangerous and far-flung network that criminal law alone may not
suffice to vanquish.

Ruth Wedgwood, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York,
is professor of international law and diplomacy at Johns Hopkins University.

* * *


December 21, 2003

3 COUNTS DROPPED VS. GUANTANAMO WORKER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Air Force has dropped three counts in an espionage case
against a Syrian-born airman who worked as a translator at the Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, prison camp for terrorism suspects.

The lawyer for Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, a supply clerk detailed to the
prison, said Saturday that once those charges were removed, "simply the gut of
the case was gone."

Dropped was the single count in the charge that accused al-Halabi of "aiding the
enemy," a capital offense.

Also dropped were counts that dealt with e-mailing information about Guantanamo
detainees and committing espionage by transmitting information to unauthorized
recipients.

Al-Halabi still faces 17 of the 30 charges filed against him following his
arrest in July after nine months as an Arabic translator at the prison. They
include other espionage counts, disobeying an order, making false official
statements, mishandling classified documents and lying on a credit application.

He is being held at Travis Air Force Base in California, his home base, where
his court-martial will be held.

Air Force Lt. Gen. William Welser III, commander of the 18th Air Force at Scott
Air Force Base, Ill., convening authority for al-Halabi's general court-martial,
gave no rationale for his decision to drop the charges Friday.

"A convening authority has the discretion to withdraw charges after a case is
referred for trial," Master Sgt. Scott King, a spokesman at Travis, said
Saturday in an e-mailed statement.

He said such decisions can follow a commander's decision that, "based on
additional evidence or a change in circumstances, pursuing certain charges may
no longer serve to promote justice, assist in the good order and discipline of
the armed forces or be consistent with national security."

Donald G. Rehkopf Jr., al-Halabi's civilian lawyer, said the impact of Welser's
decision was significant because it went at "the very gut charge of how he was
alleged to have done whatever it is they claim or think that he did."

"The common denominator in those three all involved his allegedly having sent e-
mails with classified materials in them. From day one we denied it ever
occurred," Rehkopf said from his home at Rochester, N.Y.

"There are still serious charges against him," Rehkopf said. When Welser threw
out charges related to e-mail transmissions, however, "the fact that this charge
... essentially was alleging an act that was consummated by computer, simply the
gut of the case was gone."

Al-Halabi, a naturalized American, was arrested July 23 at Jacksonville Naval
Air Station in Florida at the start of a leave from Guantanamo, the first of
four service personnel to be arrested by investigators looking into possible
security breaches. He was heading to Syria to be married.

Rehkopf said the al-Halabi case recalls that of a Muslim chaplain, Army Capt.
James Yee, who was arrested with documents that were said to have been
classified.

Serious charges against Yee recently were lowered to mishandling classified
information, disobeying orders, committing adultery and storing pornography on
his military computer. He has pleaded innocent.

The lawyer said both Yee and al-Halabi had documents with them that were not
stamped with security classifications but were considered classified by
investigating officers.

After al-Halabi's arrest, "They went literally berserk with the classification
stamp," Rehkopf said. "They classified anything and everything" that al-Halabi
had.

One document classified SECRET NOFORN, which means "secret, not to be viewed by
non-Americans," was a photograph of al-Halabi's Syrian fiance, who lives in
Syria.

* * *


December 19, 2003

U.S. COURTS REJECT DETENTION POLICY IN 2 TERROR CASES

By Neil A. Lewis and William Glaberson

A divided federal appeals court in New York ruled yesterday that President Bush
lacked the authority to detain indefinitely a United States citizen arrested on
American soil on suspicion of terrorism simply by declaring him "an enemy
combatant."

Within hours, a second federal appeals court, based in San Francisco, also in a
divided ruling, declared that the administration's policy of imprisoning some
660 noncitizens captured in the Afghan war on a naval base in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, without access to United States legal protections was unconstitutional as
well as a violation of international law.

The twin blows to the underpinnings of the administration's elaborate legal
strategy erected after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks make it all the more
likely that the Supreme Court will have the final say on matters that the
administration had argued did not belong in the courts in the first place.

The Supreme Court agreed just last month to hear the case of the detainees at
Guantanamo and is widely expected to rule as well on the issues raised in the
case of Jose Padilla, the American declared an enemy combatant.

The court is also expected to announce next week whether it will hear a related
case involving Yaser Esam Hamdi, who has been held alongside Mr. Padilla in the
naval brig in Charleston, S.C. Mr. Hamdi, who is believed to be a United States
citizen as well as a Saudi, was arrested in Afghanistan and is being held as an
enemy combatant, an action that was upheld by an appeals court based in
Richmond, Va.

The ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, involved
Mr. Padilla, former gang member in Chicago and convert to Islam. His case drew
wide attention when Attorney General John Ashcroft said in June 2002 that he had
been planning to explode a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States.

The majority of the three-judge panel ruled that while Congress might have the
power to authorize the detention of an American, the president, acting on his
own, did not.

"The president, acting alone, possesses no inherent constitutional authority to
detain American citizens seized within the United States, away from the zone of
combat, as enemy combatants," said the majority, composed of Judges Rosemary S.
Pooler, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, and Barrington D. Parker Jr.,
appointed by President Bush.

The appeals court gave the government 30 days to release Mr. Padilla or take
some other action. The judges said the government could then bring criminal
charges against him in civilian courts or seek to have him held as a material
witness, a procedure that has been used to detain others and that is similarly
under challenge in federal courts.

In a strong dissent, Judge Richard C. Wesley, a Bush appointee, said he believed
the president had the power to "thwart acts of belligerency on U.S. soil." Judge
Wesley called it startling that the majority would say the president lacked
authority to detain a citizen terrorist who was "dangerously close" to putting
Americans in peril.

The chief White House spokesman said the administration would seek to have the
Padilla ruling overturned.

"The president's most solemn obligation is protecting the American people," said
the spokesman, Scott McClellan. "We believe the Second Circuit ruling is
troubling and flawed. The president has directed the Justice Department to seek
a stay, and further judicial review."

In the case of the Guantanamo detainees, the ruling, by a panel of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, provides a counterweight to an
earlier ruling by a federal appeals court based in Washington, which had
unequivocally supported the administration's position that the detention camp in
Cuba was out of the reach of United States law.

Yesterday's decision out of San Francisco means that when the justices
deliberate the issues of Guantanamo as they have already agreed to do, they will
have two conflicting lower court opinions on which to deliberate.

While the Guantanamo situation has provoked anger both in the United States and
abroad, the issues raised in the New York ruling were, if anything, more
contentious. The detention of United States citizens arrested on American soil
as enemy combatants and consequently keeping them from the usual legal
protections Americans enjoy have been treated as especially alarming by civil
liberties advocates.

"This is by far the biggest legal setback the administration has faced in
conducting its war on terrorism," said David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown
University and the author of a recent book on the subject. "That's because this
is the furthest they've gone out on a limb. They had essentially asserted that
the president had unchecked authority to label U.S. citizens as enemy combatants
anywhere in the United States and lock them up."

Mr. Padilla has been held incommunicado for 18 months at a Navy brig in
Charleston. The court majority said he should be entitled to full constitutional
protections, including access to his lawyers. His lawyers have not been
permitted to see him since President Bush declared him an enemy combatant in
June 2002.

"As this court sits only a short distance from where the World Trade Center once
stood, we are as keenly aware as anyone of the threat Al Qaeda poses to our
country and of the responsibilities the president and law enforcement officials
bear for protecting the nation," Judges Parker and Pooler wrote.

"But presidential authority does not exist in a vacuum," they said, "and this
case involves not whether those responsibilities should be aggressively pursued
but whether the president is obligated" to share them with Congress.

The majority said a law known as the Non-Detention Act provides that "no citizen
shall be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant
to an act of Congress." The court said the joint Congressional resolution
authorizing operations against terrorism after Sept. 11 "contains no language
authorizing detention."

In the ruling on the Guantanamo detainees by the appeals court in San Francisco,
two judges on a three-judge panel similarly ruled against the Bush
administration, with the third dissenting.

The majority opinion, written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt and joined by Judge
Milton I. Shadur, like Judge Reinhardt an appointee of President Jimmy Carter,
based its conclusion on the notion that the naval base at Guantanamo is not part
of Cuba as the government has contended and thus outside United States
jurisdiction. The opinion said Guantanamo was clearly under the territorial
jurisdiction of the United States and thus the plaintiff, Salim Gherebi, a
Libyan, was entitled to the protections of United States law.

In dissent, Judge Susan P. Graber, a Clinton appointee, said she believed that a
1950 Supreme Court ruling precluded courts' intervention in the case.

The 58-page majority ruling is largely a discussion of the circumstances under
which the United States controls Guantanamo, which it leased from Cuba in 1903
in perpetuity as long as it maintains a presence there.

The court said that under the government's approach, detainees like Mr. Gherebi
"would appear to have no effective right to seek relief in the courts of any
nation or before any judicial body." The opinion said that in times of national
emergency like war, "it is the obligation of the judicial branch to ensure the
preservation of our constitutional values and to prevent the executive branch
from running roughshod over the rights of citizens and aliens alike."

Stephen Yagman, Mr. Gherebi's lawyer, said he brought the case in California
because that was where he was when he was approached by Mr. Gherebi's brother,
who lives in San Diego.

[ Neil A. Lewis reported from Washington for this article, and William Glaberson
from New York. ]

* * *


December 19, 2003

Editorial
THE PADILLA DECISION

In a signal 2-to-1 ruling yesterday, a federal appeals court in Manhattan struck
a blow against egregious presidential overreaching in the name of fighting
terrorism. The court, ruling in the case of Jose Padilla, the so-called dirty
bomber, denied the Bush administration's sweeping claim that the president has
executive authority to hold Americans indefinitely in secret without access to
lawyers simply by declaring them "enemy combatants."

Mr. Padilla, an American citizen, was taken into custody in Chicago in May 2002.
He is being held incommunicado at a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C, where he has
been denied access to counsel. Not long after his arrest, Attorney General John
Ashcroft announced that Mr. Padilla was part of a plot by Al Qaeda to explode a
radiological "dirty bomb." But no charges have yet been brought.

While the ruling was in the particular case of Mr. Padilla, the decision's
larger message -- that there are constitutional limits on the president's power
to deny basic civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism -- is one that
protects the liberty of all Americans.

The two-judge majority underscored that it was not denying the serious threat
that Al Qaeda poses, nor the president's responsibility to protect the nation.
The court also did not address the substance of the government's suspicions
about Mr. Padilla. Rather, the decision correctly found that the president
possesses no inherent constitutional authority as commander in chief to detain
as enemy combatants American citizens seized on American soil, away from the
zone of combat. Moreover, the detention of an American citizen under the
circumstances of Mr. Padilla's case, the ruling said, citing a 1971 statute, was
not authorized by Congress.

The dissenting judge, Richard Wesley, disagreed with that reading of the
president's power. But he, too, objected to the denial of counsel to Mr.
Padilla.

The decision now gives the government 30 days to release Padilla from military
custody. But that does not mean he will be released. The government remains free
to transfer him to civilian authorities, who can bring criminal charges or, if
appropriate, hold him as a material witness in connection with grand jury
proceedings.

At a critical moment when various aspects of the Bush administration's troubling
record of curtailing civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism are
working their way to a resolution by the Supreme Court, yesterday's ruling on
Mr. Padilla's detention could not have been more welcome.

It came just hours before another judicial repudiation of the administration's
view that fighting terrorism essentially exempts it from normal constitutional
constraints. A federal appeals court in California ruled in a separate case that
prisoners held at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba should have access to
lawyers and the American court system.

Together, these could be signs that the administration's strategy of
aggressively bypassing the traditional protections of the criminal justice
system and meaningful judicial oversight is crumbling. At least, that is our
hope.

* * *


December 19, 2003

Analysis:
IN DEBATE ON ANTITERRORISM, THE COURTS ASSERT THEMSELVES

By David Johnston

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 -- The broad presidential powers invoked by the Bush
administration after Sept. 11, 2001, to detain suspected terrorists outside the
civilian court system is now being challenged by the federal courts, the very
branch of the government the White House hoped to circumvent.

The two separate appellate court rulings on Thursday swept away crucial parts of
the administration's legal strategy to handle terrorist suspects outside the
criminal justice system and incarcerate them indefinitely without access to
lawyers or to the evidence against them.

The rulings are by no means a final judicial verdict on the administration's
approach. But the rulings demonstrated powerfully the willingness of the courts
to challenge the administration's procedures, which were put in place without
Congressional approval in the tumultuous months that followed the Sept. 11
attacks.

The issue of whether the administration has gone too far will not be decided
definitively until the cases reach the Supreme Court. The court has agreed to
decide whether detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are entitled to access to
civilian courts to challenge their open-ended detention.

Nevertheless, in one sense the administration has already lost an important
point by the courts' willingness to ignore assertions that the issues are
exclusively within the discretion of the executive branch.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the two decisions
were a serious setback for the administration's legal approach.

"The Padilla decision emphasized the Bush administration's unilateralism versus
Congress," Mr. Roth said, referring to an appellate court ruling on Thursday in
the case of a United States citizen, Jose Padilla, arrested on American soil on
suspicion of terrorism.

"The Ninth Circuit decision said that you can't create a legal black hole in
territory controlled by the United States," Mr. Roth added, referring to a
second ruling on Thursday related to noncitizens captured in the Afghan war and
detained at a naval base in Guantanamo Bay.

"Both attacked the Bush administration's view that a war metaphor can justify
restrictions on basic criminal justice rights away from a traditional
battlefield," Mr. Roth said.

The rulings suggested the possibility that the administration could be forced to
redefine its strategy, possibly by seeking Congressional authorization or by
returning to established legal procedures to deal with suspected terrorists.

But on Thursday, administration officials gave no sign that they would retreat
from their approach. "Actually these rulings are an aberration," said a senior
Justice Department official. "The administration has been upheld time and time
again."

The official cited rulings supporting presidential authority to freeze assets of
organizations that help finance terrorists and allowing the government to close
immigration hearings in cases related to Sept. 11.

The arrangement for detaining terrorist suspects was developed against a
backdrop of fear as American military planners prepared for war in Afghanistan.
Mr. Bush's legal advisers worried that if terror cases were tried in the
existing civilian and military justice systems, prosecutors would be forced to
give away too much information to terrorist enemies.

In criminal courts, defendants are entitled to lawyers, have a right to a speedy
trial and must be advised of the evidence and witnesses against them --
concessions that the Bush administration did not want to grant to combatants in
a war with adversaries who recognized none of the traditional rules of combat.

In New York on Thursday, a federal appeals court opinion in the case of Mr.
Padilla struck at the heart of that aggressive strategy. The panel's 2-to-1
opinion said that the president lacked the authority to exercise such broad
coercive powers against American citizens without the consent of Congress.

Specifically, the judges attacked the government's designation of Mr. Padilla as
an enemy combatant, a category of detainee that was created shortly after Sept.
11 to hold suspected terrorists without the rights that criminal suspects are
routinely granted in the civilian court system.

Mr. Padilla has been identified as a lower-level Qaeda operative who entered the
United States to plan an attack involving a so-called dirty bomb, which spews
radiological material using conventional explosives.

Government officials have said that it was Abu Zubaydah, a senior Qaeda
operative detained in an unknown location who provided the information that led
to Mr. Padilla's arrest. Later, officials said that Mr. Padilla was dispatched
to the United States by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, another top Qaeda operational
leader, who was also captured earlier this year.

The officials said that in a criminal trial they would be forced to disclose
information about Mr. Padilla that Mr. Zubaydah or Mr. Mohammed had provided to
interrogators, a step that intelligence analysts say would pose a risk to
national security.

In the case in San Francisco, a 2-to-1 panel said on Thursday that the detention
of 660 noncitizens at Guantanamo Bay without the protection of the American
legal system was unconstitutional and a violation of international law.

* * *


December 19, 2003

COURT RULINGS SLAM BUSH'S TERROR STRATEGY

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Two federal courts ruled that the U.S. military cannot
deny prisoners access to lawyers or the American courts by detaining them
indefinitely, dealing twin setbacks to the Bush administration's strategy in the
war on terror.

One of Thursday's rulings favored the 660 "enemy combatants" held at the U.S.
naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The other involved American citizen Jose
Padilla, who was seized in Chicago in an alleged plot to detonate a radioactive
"dirty bomb" and declared as an enemy combatant.

In Padilla's case, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered
the former gang member released from military custody within 30 days and if the
government chooses, tried in civilian courts. The White House said the
government would appeal and seek a stay of the decision.

In the other case, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
should have access to lawyers and the American court system.

The White House said the ruling was inconsistent with the president's
constitutional authority as well as with other court rulings.

"The president's most solemn obligation is protecting the American people,"
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday. "We believe the 2nd
Circuit ruling is troubling and flawed."

An order by President Bush in November 2001 allows captives to be detained as
"enemy combatants" if they are members of al-Qaida, engaged in or aided
terrorism, or harbored terrorists. The designation may also be applied if it is
"the interest of the United States" to hold an individual during hostilities.

The Justice Department this week said such a classification allows detainees to
be held without access to lawyers until U.S. authorities believe they have
disclosed everything they know about terrorist operations.

But Padilla's detention as an enemy combatant, the New York court ruled 2-1, was
not authorized by Congress and Bush could not designate him as an enemy
combatant without such approval.

Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland School of Law professor and former
Clinton administration Justice Department official, said the government "is
being painted into a corner that is not very favorable. How bad of a corner will
be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court."

The court, Greenberger said, did not address the broader question of whether
constitutional rights would be violated if Bush had congressional authority to
designate somebody as an enemy combatant.

Padilla, a convert to Islam, was arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare
airport as he returned from Pakistan. Within days, he was moved to a naval brig
in Charleston, S.C. The government said he had proposed the bomb plot to Abu
Zubaydah, then al-Qaida's top terrorism coordinator, who was arrested in
Pakistan in March 2002.

In ordering his release from military custody, the court said the government was
free to transfer Padilla to civilian authorities who can bring criminal charges.
If appropriate, Padilla also can be held as a material witness in connection
with grand jury proceedings, the court said.

Padilla's lawyer, Donna Newman, did not immediately return a telephone message
for comment.

Chris Dunn, a staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the
ruling "historic."

"It's a repudiation of the Bush administration's attempt to close the federal
courts to those accused of terrorism," Dunn said.

Thursday's 2-1 decision out of San Francisco was the first federal appellate
ruling to rebuke the Bush administration's position on the Guantanamo detainees
who have been without charges, some for nearly two years. The administration
maintains that because the 660 men confined there were picked up overseas on
suspicion of terrorism and are being held on foreign land, they may be detained
indefinitely without charges or trial.

The Supreme Court last month agreed to decide whether the detainees, who were
nabbed in Afghanistan and Pakistan, should have access to the courts. The
justices agreed to hear that case after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia ruled that the prisoners had no rights to the American
legal system.

"Even in times of national emergency -- indeed, particularly in such times -- it
is the obligation of the Judicial Branch to ensure the preservation of our
constitutional values and to prevent the Executive Branch from running roughshod
over the rights of citizens and aliens alike," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for
the majority.

Stephen Yagman, the Los Angeles civil rights lawyer who filed the suit on behalf
of Libyan detainee Faren Cherebi, said if the decision survives, the government
"has to put up some evidence that there is a reason to hold these people and
charge them, or give them up."

Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the government's position is that
"U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over non-U.S. citizens being held in military
control abroad."

The Defense Department announced Thursday that the Pentagon had appointed a
military defense lawyer for a terrorism suspect held at Guantanamo. Salim Ahmed
Hamdan of Yemen becomes the second Guantanamo prisoner to be given a lawyer.
Australian David Hicks got a lawyer earlier this month and recently met with an
Australian legal adviser.

* * *


December 18, 2003

COURTS DEAL BLOW TO BUSH ON TREATMENT OF TERROR SUSPECTS

By David Stout

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/18/politics/18CND-DETA.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 -- Bush administration tactics in the campaign against
terrorism suffered a pair of setbacks today in two federal appeals courts
thousands of miles apart.

An appellate court in San Francisco ruled that prisoners held at the Guantanamo
Bay naval base in Cuba should have access to lawyers and the American court
system.

Hours earlier, an appellate court in Manhattan ruled that President Bush does
not have the power to detain as an enemy combatant a United States citizen who
was seized on American soil and to deny him a lawyer.

Both decisions, by three-judge panels from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit, in San Francisco, and from the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,
in Manhattan, were by 2-to-1 margins.

The Justice Department said today that it would seek a stay of the Manhattan
ruling as government lawyers consider whether to appeal to the full Second
Circuit or try to go directly to the Supreme Court. The White House spokesman,
Scott McClellan, called the ruling "troubling and flawed" and "really
inconsistent with the clear constitutional authority of the president and his
responsibility."

There was no immediate administration reaction to the San Francisco ruling, but
an appeal to the full Ninth Circuit or to the Supreme Court is very likely.

Taken together, at least for the moment, the decisions amounted to a day of
stinging judicial defeats for the administration, which has also experienced
several recent embarrassing episodes in its approach to fighting terrorism. The
decisions also constituted the latest chapters in a constitutional drama that
has been playing out since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Second Circuit panel rejected the administration's treatment of Jose
Padilla, who is accused of plotting to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb."

The Ninth Circuit rejected the administration's arguments that because the 660
men being held at Guantanamo were picked up overseas on suspicion of terrorism
and being held on foreign soil, they might be held indefinitely, without charges
or trial.

"We share the desire of all Americans to ensure that the executive enjoys the
necessary power and flexibility to prevent future terrorist attacks," Judge
Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the Ninth Circuit majority, ruling on a suit brought
by a California relative of a Libyan being held in Cuba.

"However," Judge Reinhardt said, "even in times of national emergency -- indeed,
particularly in such times -- it is the obligation of the judicial branch to
ensure the preservation of our constitutional values and to prevent the
executive branch from running roughshod over the rights of citizens and aliens
alike." He was joined in his ruling by Judge Milton I. Shadur.

At one point, the majority decision amounted to a rebuke. "In our view," the
decision said, "the government's position is inconsistent with fundamental
tenets of American jurisprudence and raises most serious questions under
international law."

But the dissenting Ninth Circuit judge, Susan P. Graber, argued that a 1950
Supreme Court decision makes it clear that an enemy alien detained overseas by
the American military does not have standing in American civilian courts.

In the Second Circuit case, the issue was somewhat different, since it deals
with an American citizen held on American soil.

Mr. Padilla, a convert to Islam, was arrested last year at O'Hare International
Airport near Chicago on his return from Pakistan after extensive travel in the
Middle East. Attorney General John Ashcroft drew worldwide attention soon after
when he said the government believed that Mr. Padilla, who has a long criminal
record as a gang member in Chicago, had been planning to explode a bomb that
would use conventional explosives to disperse radioactive particles over a wide
area.

Subsequently designated an "enemy combatant" by the government, Mr. Padilla was
briefly held in Manhattan before being sent to a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.,
where he has been denied access to a lawyer and held incommunicado ever since --
treatment that the Second Circuit panel said today was wrong despite the fact
that the government had ample reason to charge Mr. Padilla.

"As this court sits only a short distance from where the World Trade Center once
stood, we are as keenly aware as anyone of the threat Al Qaeda poses to our
country and of the responsibilities the president and law enforcement officials
bear for protecting the nation," Judges Barrington D. Parker Jr. and Rosemary S.
Pooler declared today.

"But presidential authority does not exist in a vacuum," two jurists wrote, "and
this case involves not whether those responsibilities should be aggressively
pursued, but whether the president is obligated, in the circumstances presented
here, to share them with Congress."

Alluding to the constitutional import of the Padilla case, the majority wrote:
"Where, as here, the president's power as commander in chief of the armed forces
and the domestic rule of law intersect, we conclude that clear Congressional
authorization is required for detentions of American citizens on American soil."

Today's ruling does not mean that Mr. Padilla will go free, even if the ruling
is sustained on appeal. The two judges said, rather, that Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld should release Mr. Padilla from military custody within 30
days, after which he could be prosecuted in civilian courts or held as a
material witness.

"Under any scenario, Padilla will be entitled to the constitutional protections
extended to other citizens," the appellate court majority wrote today, a clear
reference to access to counsel.

In dissent, Judge Richard C. Wesley wrote, "In my view, the president as
commander in chief has the inherent authority to thwart acts of belligerency at
home or abroad that would do harm to United States citizens."

At another point, Judge Wesley said the majority had failed to cite
constitutional precedent for the notion that Congress is given "exclusive
constitutional authority to determine how our military forces will deal with the
acts of a belligerent on American soil.

"There is no well-traveled road delineating the respective constitutional powers
and limitations in this regard," Judge Wesley wrote.

The administration has encountered several embarrassing episodes related to the
campaign against terrorism. A federal judge in Virginia recently ruled that the
government could not seek the death penalty against Zacarias Moussaoui, the only
person charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. That ruling is being
appealed.

The administration has also been criticized at home and abroad for its handling
of detainees at the Guantanamo naval nase in Cuba. And most recently, the
government's case against Capt. James J. Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at
Guantanamo, has seemed unsteady, as prosecutors have had trouble sustaining
charges that he may have been guilty of security violations.

Mr. Padilla is the only American who has been taken into custody on American
soil and declared an "enemy combatant." While the Second Circuit majority said
it had no conclusion on his guilt or innocence, it pointedly noted that "the
government had ample cause to suspect Padilla of involvement in a terrorist
plot."

The dissenter, Judge Wesley, contended that the Congressional resolution passed
shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, gave President Bush all the authority he needed to
hold Mr. Padilla as an enemy combatant, his American citizenship
notwithstanding. The judge rejected any suggestion that the resolution was a
broadside attack on basic constitutional rights.

"The president is not free to detain U.S. citizens who are merely sympathetic to
Al Qaeda," Judge Wesley said. "Nor is he broadly empowered to detain citizens
based on their ethnic heritage. Rather, the joint resolution is a specific and
direct mandate from Congress to stop Al Qaeda from killing or harming Americans
here or abroad."

The words of the majorities and dissenters in the two cases made it abundantly
clear that the issues do not concern just the separate, sometimes conflicting
powers of the president and Congress, but something perhaps even more
fundamental -- the delicate balance between personal freedoms and the security
of the nation, especially in wartime.

* * *


December 18, 2003

HUSSEIN ENTERS POST-9/11 WEB OF U.S. PRISONS

By James Risen and Thom Shanker

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 -- Saddam Hussein is now prisoner No. 1 in what has
developed into a global detention system run by the Pentagon and the Central
Intelligence Agency, according to government officials.

It is a secretive universe, they said, made up of large and small facilities
scattered throughout the world that have sprouted up to handle the hundreds of
suspected terrorists of Al Qaeda, Taliban warlords and former officials of the
Iraqi government arrested by the United States and its allies since the Sept. 11
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the war in Iraq.

Many of the prisoners are still being held in a network of detention centers
ranging from Afghanistan to the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in
Cuba. Officials described it as a prison system with its own unique hierarchy,
one in which the most important captives are kept at the greatest distance from
the prying eyes of the public and the media. It is a system in which the jailers
have refined the arts of interrogation in order to drain the detainees of
crucial information.

Mr. Hussein's new address is still a closely guarded secret, although he is
still inside Iraq, American officials said Wednesday. No one will say precisely
where, but it seems likely that he is at a highly secure detention facility
established at Baghdad International Airport, where the United States is holding
the other top Iraqi leaders it has captured. When asked if Mr. Hussein was at
airport, American officials declined to comment.

The C.I.A. has quietly established its own detention system to handle especially
important prisoners. The most important Qaeda leaders are held in small groups
in undisclosed locations in friendly countries in the developing world, where
they face long interrogations with no promise of ever gaining release. For
example, at least two of the top Qaeda figures captured since the Sept. 11
attacks -- Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi bin al-Shibh -- were held for a time in a
secure location in Thailand. They were later moved to another country, officials
said.

C.I.A. officials refuse to say precisely how many Qaeda operatives the agency
has in detention, but they say about 75 percent of the top two dozen Qaeda
leaders in place at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks have been killed or
captured. That suggests the agency's detention capacity is far smaller than the
large system established by the Pentagon.

In dealing with its captives, the C.I.A. has the advantage of almost complete
isolation. Officials say that allows the agency's interrogators to alter the
physical surroundings of the Qaeda detainees to try to disorient them and also
convince them that they are being held by Arab security services feared for
their use of torture. Guards are sometimes dressed in the uniforms of the native
countries of the detainees, a technique that may be particularly effective on
captives who have experienced jail time back home. Officials said the C.I.A.
might not be able to use the full range of interrogation techniques on Mr.
Hussein that have been employed with Qaeda leaders. Unlike Qaeda operatives, Mr.
Hussein seems destined to face some sort of public judicial review, either
through an international war crimes tribunal or other trial, and so the agency's
handling of him may eventually come under scrutiny.

Pentagon and C.I.A. officials have denied that they use torture against
detainees captured in either Iraq or the wider campaign against terror. The
agency's officials have declined to comment on the techniques they use with
detainees, but a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday that interrogations
conducted by the Pentagon followed "well-established techniques" that do not
violate the human rights of the detainees.

Certain techniques that interrogators may wish to apply to elicit information
from important detainees require "a higher level of scrutiny" by officials
before they can be used, the Pentagon official said.

One military officer said the use of sleep deprivation, for example, must be
approved by senior Pentagon officials.

American military officials said Wednesday that 38 of the 55 most wanted Iraqi
leaders had either been killed or captured, and several hundred lower-level
government officials and Baath Party operatives are also being held. While the
most senior officials captured are being held at the Baghdad Airport, many of
the lower-level Iraqis are now in Abu Gharib prison west of Baghdad, which was
infamous as a torture den under Mr. Hussein's rule but has since been
refurbished by American forces. Smaller, regional facilities have also been set
up around Iraq temporarily to handle Iraqis caught up in street-level military
operations intended to stem the insurgency.

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, the United States military is running a large
detention center at Bagram Air Base, where Taliban, Qaeda and other foreign
fighters caught in the country are held and questioned. Smaller, short-term
detention centers have also been run in both Kandahar and Kabul.

Many of those caught in Afghanistan were eventually flown to Guantanamo, which
has become the best-known prison in the global campaign against terror.
Guantanamo now holds about 660 prisoners, although that number is expected to
decline as some of them are turned over to their home countries.

Still, Guantanamo's inmates are among the least significant of any detainees
captured since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to several American
counterterrorism experts. The C.I.A. has not sent any of the highest-ranking
Qaeda leaders it has captured to the base, officials said.

A final category of detainees are those Qaeda operatives who really are being
held by Arab countries, like Egypt, which then provide debriefing reports to the
United States.

* * *


December 18, 2003

LAWYER FOR TALIBAN DETAINEE SAYS HIS CLIENT IS DEPRESSED

By Neil A. Lewis

The first civilian lawyer allowed to visit a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
said on Wednesday that his client was depressed, was enmeshed in an inadequate
legal system that violated his rights and had been ill served by his home
government of Australia.

The lawyer, Stephen Kenny of Adelaide, Australia, said he had spent the last
five days meeting with the detainee, David Hicks, an Australian who joined the
Taliban in 1999 and was captured at the end of the Afghan war. Mr. Hicks has
been at the United States naval base at Guantanamo for nearly two years, and he
is one of 6 detainees among the 660 held there to be designated by President
Bush as eligible to face charges before a military commission.

"It appears that Saddam Hussein is being afforded better treatment and more
rights than my client," Mr. Kenny told reporters at the Center for
Constitutional Rights, a civil liberties group that has opposed the government's
detention policies at Guantanamo.

He said that while Mr. Hicks had not been mistreated "apart from the isolation
and restricted access to the outside world," he was imprisoned in a moral and
legal black hole.

While Mr. Hussein has the protections of a prisoner of war, the United States
military has said that Mr. Hicks and his fellow detainees are not entitled to
that status because they were illegal combatants -- that is they did not comply
with requirements of the Geneva Conventions, like wearing identifiable uniforms.

Mr. Kenny said he first greeted Mr. Hicks with the cheery Australian salutation:
"G'day, mate." And he delivered chocolates and a jar of Vegemite, a savory
spread favored by some Australians.

Mr. Kenny said Mr. Hicks had not "killed or injured any U.S. or Australian
government" personnel. He said he expected that Mr. Hicks might face some kind
of conspiracy charge but had no sense of when or if that might occur.

Mr. Kenny would not comment directly on whether the military authorities had
discussed a plea bargain with Mr. Hicks before he had a lawyer, but he said such
an action would be reprehensible.

Maj. John Smith, a spokesman for the military commissions, said no prosecutor or
judge had engaged in plea bargain talks with Mr. Hicks.

* * *


December 14, 2003

Editorial

CAPTAIN YEE'S ORDEAL

The military's mean-spirited and incompetent prosecution of Capt. James Yee, the
former Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, illustrates the danger of allowing the
war on terrorism to trump basic rights. After holding Captain Yee in solitary
confinement for nearly three months, and smearing him with adultery and
pornography charges, the military is now uncertain whether the documents whose
confidentiality he is charged with breaching were even confidential. In the
interest of justice, and of resurrecting their own reputation, military
prosecutors should drop the case.

The charges against Captain Yee, who was arrested in September, have always been
murky. The military seems to have suspected him of being part of a plot to
infiltrate Guantanamo, and to have been concerned about contacts between him and
two other military men it was keeping under watch. But rather than bring serious
conspiracy charges, the military merely accused Captain Yee of taking home, and
improperly transporting, classified material. Military officials have been
unforthcoming about the nature of the material, but at least some, and perhaps
all of it appears to be documents, such as maps of the camp and lists of
prisoners who have been interrogated, that a chaplain might have for job-related
reasons.

Rather than put the questions about the charges to rest right away, the military
led off its case against Captain Yee last week with evidence he had an affair
with a female officer, testimony that his wife and child had to listen to as
they sat in court. It has also accused him of keeping pornography on a
government computer. These charges in no way suggest that he was a security
threat, and they are the kind the military generally does not bother to bring.
They seem to be motivated, in this case, by a desire to embarrass Captain Yee,
and by frustration that the larger case against him is so weak.

The proceedings quickly broke down when it became clear that the military had
not even determined that the documents found in Captain Yee's possession were
confidential. It is inexcusable that Captain Yee was dragged through the mud,
and imprisoned for more than 70 days, before this basic determination was made.
The 120 days for acting against Captain Yee, which started at his Sept. 10
arrest, are about to run out, and the military is seeking additional time. But
given its poor handling of the case, there is no reason to drag it out any
further.

It is already clear how much harm the military's misguided prosecution has done
to Captain Yee and his family. What is less obvious, but no less real, is the
threat this sort of prosecutorial mentality poses to all Americans. The specter
of terrorism cannot become an excuse for the government to railroad people
first, and ask questions later.

* * *


December 13, 2003

TRY DETAINEES OR FREE THEM, 3 SENATORS URGE

By Neil A. Lewis

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 -- After visiting the military's detention center for some
660 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, three senators, including the onetime
prisoner of war John McCain, sent a pointed letter on Friday telling Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that it was time to release the detainees or bring
them to trial.

Mr. McCain, who as a naval aviator spent more than five years held prisoner by
North Vietnam, said in an interview that he believed the continued detention of
the prisoners violated basic human rights precepts.

"They may not have any rights under the Geneva Conventions as far as I'm
concerned," said the senator, an Arizona Republican, "but they have rights under
various human rights declarations. And one of them is the right not to be
detained indefinitely."

On the tour of Guantanamo, and in the letter to Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. McCain was
joined by Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another Republican, and
Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington.

The letter emphasized that the senators believed the prisoners were being
treated humanely by the military and not being abused in any way.

"The treatment of the detainees is not an issue," they wrote. "However, a
serious concern arises over the disposition of the detainees -- a considerable
number of whom have been held for two years."

"It is now time to make a decision on how the United States will move forward
regarding the detainees," the letter said, "and to take that important next
step. A serious process must be established in the very near term either to
formally treat and process the detainees as war criminals or to return them to
their countries for appropriate judicial action."

Mr. McCain said he believed that an excess of bureaucracy at the Defense
Department was producing gridlock that had left the detainees in unfair limbo.

Mr. Rumsfeld has yet to reply to the letter, and a spokesman at the Pentagon
said this evening that it had no comment now. But the secretary has said in the
past that the detainees will be sorted out as soon as possible. More than 80
have already been released to their home countries.

Some military officials have said that an active collection of intelligence
continues at Guantanamo. But Mr. McCain said he believed that most useful
operational intelligence information goes stale after about four months, meaning
that the detainees can provide little information of value.

The senators' complaints mirror those of many human rights organizations,
notably the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Like the senators, the Red Cross has found no cases of abuse in the treatment of
the prisoners. But earlier this year it declared that the United States' holding
them indefinitely was not acceptable. In October, Christophe Girod, the director
of the international committee's Washington office, said that "the open-
endedness of the situation and its impact on the mental health of the population
has become a major problem."

President Bush has identified six detainees as likely candidates for the first
round of military tribunals. But only one of the six, David Hicks, an
Australian, has been assigned a lawyer, and there is no indication when any
proceedings will begin

* * *


December 12, 2003

MARINES PLAN TO USE VELVET GLOVE MORE THAN IRON FIST IN IRAQ
By Michael R. Gordon

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Dec. 10 -- No force has a tougher reputation than the
United States Marines. But the marines who are headed to Iraq this spring say
they intend to avoid the get-tough tactics that have been used in recent weeks
by Army units.

Marine commanders say they do not plan to surround villages with barbed wire,
demolish buildings used by insurgents or detain relatives of suspected
guerrillas. The Marines do not plan to fire artillery at suspected guerrilla
mortar positions, an Army tactic that risks harming civilians. Nor do the
Marines want to risk civilian casualties by calling in bombing strikes on the
insurgents, as has happened most recently in Afghanistan.

"I do not envision using that tactic," said Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, the
commanding general of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, who led the Marine
force that fought its way to Baghdad and will command the more than 20,000
marines who will return to Iraq in March. "It would have to be a rare incident
that transcends anything that we have seen in the country to make that happen."

The increase in guerrilla attacks on American troops in Iraq has prompted Army
units in the so-called Sunni triangle in central Iraq to adopt a hard-nosed
approach -- and spawned a behind-the-scenes debate within the American military
about the best way to quash the insurgents.

While some Army commanders insist the hard-nosed tactics have been successful in
reducing enemy attacks, other military officers believe they are alienating
Iraqis and thus depriving American commanders of the public support and human
intelligence needed to ferret out threats.

In an interview at his headquarters at Camp Pendleton, General Conway was
careful not to criticize the Army. Still, he indicated that he plans to pursue a
very different strategy.

"I don't want to condemn what people are doing," General Conway said. "I think
they are doing what they think they have to do. I'll simply say that I think
until we can win the population over and they can give us those indigenous
intelligence reports that we're prolonging the process."

The Marines, General Conway says, will try to design their raids to be "laser
precise," focused on the enemy with a maximum effort made to avoid endangering
or humiliating Iraqi civilians.

After American forces invaded Iraq last spring, United States marines fought
some of the fiercest battles of the war at Nasiriya and at a mosque in eastern
Baghdad. After Saddam Hussein was ousted, the Marines assumed the responsibility
for stabilizing south-central Iraq, where most of the inhabitants are Shiite
Muslims who were persecuted under Mr. Hussein and were glad to see him gone. In
contrast to the Army's experience, no marine was killed in action after mid-
April.

The Marines insist their success also reflected their energetic efforts to work
with the local population, an effort guided by their "Small Wars" manual, which
derives from their 20th-century interventions in Central America.

There were several parallels between the Marine experience in southern Iraq and
how the Army's 101st Airborne Division has approached northern Iraq -- and many
differences from the aggressive tactics of the Army's Fourth Infantry Division
and other Army units in the Sunni triangle.

On their return to Iraq now, the Marines will be dealing with a much more
challenging area which includes restive towns like Falluja, west of Baghdad.

In that region, American military units have come and gone so often that they
have had little time to understand their surroundings. Falluja was initially
occupied by the 82nd Airborne Division, which was soon replaced by the Third
Armored Cavalry Regiment, which was in turn replaced by the Second Brigade of
the Army's Third Infantry Division. In early summer, the Third Infantry Division
had some success in helping to establish the local police. But it returned to
the United States, handing the town back to the Third Armored Cavalry, which was
soon replaced by the 82nd Airborne.

In Iraqi society, which emphasizes personal relationships, the constant
rotations have made a difficult job that much harder. So have some tactics: in
April, soldiers from the 82nd Airborne based themselves in Falluja and were
fired on during an anti-American demonstration. The troops fired back. Iraqis
say 17 people were killed and more than 70 wounded, many of them civilians who
never fired on the American troops. The 82nd Airborne has disputed that account.

Starting next March, nine battalions of marines will be deployed. In addition to
infantry, the Marine force will include light armored reconnaissance units,
engineers and attack helicopters. The Marines will also take command of a
brigade from the Army's First Infantry Division, which is also going to Iraq in
the spring.

Success, Marine commanders say, will ultimately depend winning the trust of a
wary Iraqi population. The measure of progress, General Conway says, will not be
the number of American raids or enemy dead. It will be tips about potential
threats that are provided to the Marines by ordinary Iraqis.

"The program we used in the south was a maturing Iraqi police, supported by an
Army M.P. company in each of the cities, supported by a Marine quick reaction
force," he said, defining this as a Marine infantry battalion. "That worked very
well for us. That is the model we intend to use."

Toward this end, the Marines are planning to work with the Iraqi police and also
train and equip an Iraqi military force to take on the insurgents. "We intend to
create an Iraqi Marine battalion, maybe a brigade," General Conway said.

Marine commanders have stressed the need to be sensitive to local traditions.
Marines here have been told to remove their sunglasses and look Iraqis in the
eye when they speak with them. A select group of marines also been selected for
intensive Arabic language training. The marines will use Iraqi, not American
names, to delineate the zones assigned to specific Marine units and will try to
align them with Iraqi administrative districts. To limit the disruption to the
local populations, the Marines also plan to set up their bases outside of Iraqi
cities.

But the marines at Camp Pendleton are also prepared to fight.

"We carry an embedded offensive capability in every convoy," said Maj. Gen.
James N. Mattis, the commander of the First Marine Division. "To us you don't
drive on through, you stop, you hunt them down and you nail them."

"We will try to go and restore a degree of civility," said General Mattis. "If
they choose to fight, they are going to regret it, but we also believe that part
of the physicians' oath that says first do no harm. If to kill a terrorist we
have got to kill eight innocent people, you don't kill them."

General Conway added: "We will be as vicious with the resistance as we have to
be. It is not that we intend to go in and coddle everyone. Our marines just have
to be able to be aggressive and hostile one moment and the next moment be able
to play soccer with the kids."

General Conway said, for instance, that if marines fire artillery shells, they
will be special illumination rounds to light up terrain, not destroy targets.

"Right now, in some of the sectors they are firing artillery missions against
radar hits," General Conway said. "That will not be our method of operation."

* * *


December 9, 2003

ACCUSED MUSLIM CHAPLAIN FACES HEARING

FORT BENNING, Ga. (AP) -- The lawyer for a Muslim chaplain accused of security
breaches at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, contends he cannot
properly defend his client without seeing documents confiscated by the Army.

Eugene Fidell made his argument Monday to the military judge, Col. Dan Trimble,
who is presiding over the preliminary hearing of Capt. James Yee. The proceeding
continues Tuesday.

"I have a lot of frustration," Fidell said. "The government's cart is before the
horse. It's crazy."

Fidell told Trimble the documents he needs to see include two small notebooks, a
typewritten page and a term paper on Syria that Yee had written for a college
course on international affairs.

The defense also requested access to two detainees referenced in some of the
documents. Trimble said he would not rule at this point in the proceeding.

The Army is reviewing the confiscated documents, prosecutors said.

Yee is charged with storing pornography on his government laptop computer,
making a false statement and adultery, a crime under military law. He was
arrested Sept. 10 when he returned to the United States for a holiday from
Guantanamo, where he worked with suspected terrorists. He was held in a Navy
brig for 76 days before being released and charged.

The hearing will determine if there is enough evidence against Yee to warrant a
court-martial.

In court Monday, a specialist with the Army's Computer Crime Unit testified by
telephone that she found what she considered pornographic pictures on Yee's
laptop. Warrant Officer Jennie Callahan said some pictures were similar to those
in lingerie catalogs, while others were more explicit.

Callahan said she also found evidence that the computer had been used to access
some adult Web sites.

Under a grant of immunity, Navy Reserve Lt. Karen Wallace testified that she had
sex with Yee about 20 times at his quarters in Guantanamo and at a motel in
Orlando, Fla., where he was attending a conference. She said she knew he was
married.

Yee's wife, Huda, who arrived at the courthouse Monday along with her 4-year-old
daughter and Yee's parents, sat stone-faced during Wallace's testimony. But
during a break, she sat on a bench outside the courtroom and dabbed at her eyes
with a tissue. Yee's mother comforted her.

Yee is a 1990 West Point graduate who left the military for four years to study
Arabic and Islam in Syria. After his return to the Army as a chaplain, he
counseled some of the 660 suspected terrorists from 44 nations being held at the
remote base on the eastern tip of Cub

* * *


December 9, 2003

LAWYER SAYS CUBA APPEAL PROMPTED PENTAGON

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Supreme Court decision to hear a case involving terror
suspects held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have prompted the Bush administration
to allow lawyers to meet with an Australian in the prison, the suspect's
attorney said.

Stephen Kenny, the Australian lawyer representing David Hicks, met Monday in
Washington with Hicks' military attorney, Marine Corps Maj. Michael Mori. They
plan to spend five days in Guantanamo Bay starting Thursday.

The Pentagon had long refused to allow terror suspects in Guantanamo to meet
with lawyers. But on Dec. 2 it said it would arrange for a lawyer to visit Yaser
Esam Hamdi, a U.S.-born suspect. The next day, Hicks became the first foreign
terrorist suspect to be given a military lawyer.

Asked why the Pentagon allowed him to visit Guantanamo, Kenny said: "I assume it
has something to do with the action of the Supreme Court in agreeing to hear our
appeal. I think that has spurred the administration to take some action on this
matter."

The court agreed in November to consider whether foreigners held at the base
should have access to American courts. Appeals had been filed by Hicks and
British and Kuwaiti citizens. They are among more than 660 prisoners in
Guantanamo suspected of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Most of the prisoners
were captured in Afghanistan.

Kenny said his main purpose in visiting Hicks is "to see David and to discuss
what has happened, what his rights are, what may happen in the future and to
advise him of what his options are."

He is also seeking permission to show Hicks a brief videotaped message from his
family.

Hicks is one of six prisoners designated by President Bush as possible
candidates for trial by a special military tribunal. Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz will decide which Guantanamo prisoners, if any, will face trial.

* * *


December 9, 2003

CASE AGAINST EX-CHAPLAIN OPENS FOCUSING ON AFFAIR

By Neil A. Lewis

FORT BENNING, Ga., Dec. 8 -- The military opened its case on Monday against
Capt. James J. Yee, who was once billed by Pentagon officials as part of a major
espionage plot, not with evidence of any significant security breaches but with
detailed testimony about a two-month extramarital affair he had with a female
officer this year.

In a spare and harshly lighted military courtroom at the base here, prosecutors
led off their case against Captain Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, by calling Karyn Wallace, a Navy lieutenant who said she had met him
at Guantanamo's bachelor quarters. Under precise questioning from a prosecutor
and the military judge, Lieutenant Wallace recounted how she and Captain Yee had
gone from being close friends to having an intimate relationship in the summer,
both at Guantanamo and in Orlando, Fla., where they took leave together.

Captain Yee's wife, Huda, their 4-year-old daughter in her arms, loudly and
emotionally confronted Lieutenant Wallace outside the courtroom after the
testimony. Captain Yee, along with his elderly parents, who were in the
courtroom, seemed stunned and drained by the testimony.

Captain Yee was arrested on Sept. 10 at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville,
Fla., on suspicion of espionage after customs inspectors found papers in his
luggage that they said were suspicious and might have contained classified
information. He was charged with an offense far less serious than espionage,
transporting classified information without a required secure container, at the
time and confined in solitary in a naval brig for nearly three months while the
military completed its investigation.

When the investigation was finished last month and he was released, the
military's new charges involved keeping pornography on his government computer
and having an extramarital affair, both violations of the Military Code of
Justice.

The military does not contend that either of those offenses is related to any
security breaches but that they were violations discovered in the course of the
investigation. But Captain Yee's civilian defense lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, has
said the charges were added vindictively as part of an effort to cover up the
military's mistake and overreaction.

"I think it is quite disgraceful that this officer's reputation was tarnished in
a way that can never be repaired," Mr. Fidell said on Monday. He said he hoped
the presiding judge would recommend dismissal of the charges, which he called
"trivial and inconsequential."

However inconsequential the charges might be, the testimony of Lieutenant
Wallace produced great anguish for Captain Yee and his family and probably for
the lieutenant as well. Under questioning by a prosecutor and the judge,
Lieutenant Wallace identified a series of photographs of her and Captain Yee
embracing. Lieutenant Wallace, who testified under a grant of immunity from
prosecutors for her own behavior, said the relationship was social and romantic.
"Was it sexual?" asked Col. Dan Trimble, the presiding officer.

"Yes, sir," she replied.

"What does it mean to have a sexual relationship?" Colonel Trimble asked.

"We had sex together," she said, estimating having done so about 20 times at his
quarters and hers. She said she knew he was married because he told her.

Mrs. Yee, a Palestinian from Syria who wore a Muslim head covering, left the
courtroom and began sobbing on a bench. When she saw Lieutenant Wallace walk
out, she went after her with her daughter, Sarah, in her arms. "You happy now,"
Mrs. Yee shouted, inches from the lieutenant. "Destroying a family?"

As Mrs. Yee turned away, Lieutenant Wallace stepped toward her and lightly
touched her arm, and said: "You know what? You need to speak with him."

Mrs. Yee drew herself free and as she walked back into the courtroom, shouting
at Lieutenant Wallace.

During her testimony, Lieutenant Wallace was alternately cheerful and somber.
She and Captain Yee did not exchange glances. She said that as far as she knew,
no one else knew of their relationship. But when she was interviewed during the
security investigation as a friend of Captain Yee's, the interrogator asked her
if they had been intimate and she answered truthfully.

Army officials said there had been about 60 cases of adultery prosecuted in the
last two years, always as part of some larger set of criminal charges, like
rape. The military, in guidelines to commanders, suggests that adultery is
principally a problem when it affects discipline and order as in cases where it
involves people who are in a subordinate-commander relationship.

The court also heard testimony from law enforcement officials at Jacksonville
who detained Captain Yee on Sept. 10. One, Sean Rafferty, a customs inspector,
testified by telephone hookup that he had been told in advance to scrutinize
Captain Yee when he got off the flight from Jacksonville because he might be
carrying classified information. Mr. Fidell, Mr. Yee's lawyer, said such
testimony showed that the discovery of any suspicious papers was not a result of
a random search. Captain Yee's friends have suggested that the authorities at
Guantanamo resented him because of the way he ministered to and looked out for
the interests of the mostly Muslim prison population there.

As the Muslim chaplain at the facility, used to detain some 660 inmates, most of
whom were captured in the Afghan war, Captain Yee was responsible for seeing to
their religious needs. He arranged for the Muslim call to prayer to be played
over the camp's sound system five times a day and for meals to be served outside
the fasting hours of Ramadan.

Captain Yee graduated from West Point in 1990 and converted to Islam after he
left the Army, returning later as a chaplain.

At the end of the hearing, Colonel Trimble is to make a recommendation from a
list of options that range from a general court-martial to an acquittal. Captain
Yee faces up to 13 years in prison if tried and convicted on all six counts.

* * *


December 8, 2003

HEARING STARTS FOR MUSLIM ARMY CHAPLAIN

By Neil A. Lewis

FORT BENNING, Ga., Dec. 8 -- The military opened its case today against Capt.
James J. Yee, whom it once portrayed as part of a major espionage plot, not with
evidence of any significant security breaches but with detailed testimony about
his two-month extramarital affair with a naval officer this year.

In a spare and harshly lit military courtroom at this Army base, prosecutors
began their case by calling the naval officer, Lt. Karyn Wallace, who said she
had been a neighbor of Captain Yee's when they lived in the bachelor officer
quarters at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Under precise questioning from a prosecutor and the military judge, Lt. Wallace
recounted how she and Captain Yee, a Muslim chaplain for the Army, went from
being buddies to having an intimate relationship in the late summer, both at
Guantanamo and in Orlando, Fla., where they took leave together.

Captain Yee's wife, holding their 4-year-old daughter in her arms, loudly and
dramatically confronted Lieutenant Wallace outside the courtroom after her
testimony. Captain Yee, along with his elderly parents, who were in the
courtroom, seemed stunned and drained.

The proceedings that began today are intended to determine whether Captain Yee
should face a court martial or whether the charges should be dropped.

Captain Yee was arrested on Sept. 10 at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in
Florida on suspicion of espionage after customs inspectors said his luggage
contained papers that they thought were suspicious and possibly contained
classified information.

Captain Yee was charged with an offense far less serious than espionage --
mishandling classified information -- and was held in solitary confinement in a
naval brig for three months while the military conducted an investigation. When
that inquiry concluded last month and he was released, the military's only new
charges involved keeping pornography on his government computer and having an
extramarital affair, both violations of the military code of justice.

The military does not contend that either of those charges are related to any
security breaches but that they were violations discovered in the course of the
investigation. But Captain Yee's civilian lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, has said the
charges were vindictively added as part of an effort to cover up the military's
mistake and initial overreaction.

"I think it is quite disgraceful that this officer's reputation was tarnished in
a way that can never be repaired," Mr. Fidell said today, adding that he hoped
that the presiding judge would recommend dismissal of the charges, which he
characterized as "trivial and inconsequential."

After the new charges were announced late last month, Mr. Fidell said the fact
that they appeared to have nothing to do with national security demonstrated
that the military authorities had made a major error when they held up Captain
Yee early on as a potential spy at Guantanamo, where he ministered to the mostly
Islamic prisoners held there in connection with the United States' campaign
against terrorism.

However inconsequential those charges may be, the testimony of Lieutenant
Wallace today produced great anguish for Captain Yee and his family. Under
questioning by a prosecutor and the judge, Lieutenant Wallace identified a
series of photos showing her and Captain Yee intimately embracing.

Lt. Wallace who testified under a grant of immunity from prosecution for her own
conduct, said that that the relationship was social and romantic. "Was it
sexual?" asked Col. Dan. Trimble, the presiding officer. "Yes, sir," she
replied.

"What does it mean to have a sexual relationship?" Colonel Trimble asked. "We
had sex together," she said, estimating that the couple had done so about 20
times, at his quarters and hers. She said that she knew he was married because
he had told her.

Captain Yee's wife, Huda, who was born in Syria and wore a Muslim head covering
today, left the courtroom and began sobbing on a bench. When she saw Lieutenant
Wallace walk out shortly afterward, she pursued her with her daughter, Sarah, in
her arms. "You happy now," Mrs. Yee shouted at Lieutenant Wallace. "Destroying a
family?"

As she turned away, Lieutenant Wallace stepped toward her, lightly touched Mrs.
Yee's arm and said: "You know what. You need to speak with HIM." Mrs. Yee
responded with a mild epithet.

During her testimony, Lieutenant Wallace was alternately cheerful and quiet. She
and Captain Yee did not appear to exchange glances.

The court also heard testimony from law enforcement officials at Jacksonville
who had detained Captain Yee on Sept. 10. One, a customs inspector, testified
via a telephone hook-up that he had been told in advance to scrutinize Captain
Yee when he got off the flight from Jacksonville because he might be carrying
classified information.

Mr. Fidell, Mr. Yee's lawyer, said that such testimony showed that the discovery
of any suspicious papers was not a result of a random search. Captain Yee's
friends have asserted that the authorities at Guantanamo resented him because of
the way he ministered to and looked out for the interests of the mostly Muslim
prison population there.

* * *


December 8, 2003

AFGHAN VILLAGERS TORN BY GRIEF AFTER U.S. RAID KILLS 9 CHILDREN
By Carlotta Gall

HUTALA, Afghanistan, Dec. 7 -- Their embroidered caps, shredded with shrapnel,
lay beside a half-dozen small rubber galoshes and caked pools of blood. Seven
boys and two girls died here on Saturday morning in an American airstrike, and
their bodies were still lying in the dust when American soldiers arrived by
helicopter to assess the results of the attack three hours later, villagers and
American soldiers at the scene said Sunday.

A 25-year-old Afghan man was also killed, the villagers said, while the intended
target, a Taliban suspect who lived here and bragged about attacking foreign aid
workers, might have gotten away, contrary to official accounts that he, too, was
among the dead. Some villagers said the suspect and his family, whose house was
unscathed in the attack, had not been seen for weeks.

The attack has raised questions about the quality of American military
intelligence and the effectiveness of using air power to kill fugitive members
of the Taliban and Al Qaeda who are hiding in villages. Afghanistan's president,
Hamid Karzai, said he was "profoundly shocked" at the deaths of the children and
had sent a delegation to investigate and to offer help to the families. In an
interview with the BBC, Mr. Karzai said future military operations should be
better coordinated with the Afghan government.

The American military command expressed regret for the killings and sent
officers to this village in a remote area of southern Ghazni Province on Sunday
to apologize. But that did little to erase the shock, grief and anger over the
dead children.

"As a human, what would you think?" said Khial Muhammad Hoseini, the deputy
governor of the province. "Everyone would be angry at this. We cannot afford
this sort of thing, killing innocent Afghans."

Villagers said the dead boys, who were 8 to 12 years old, had been in front of a
house, and the girls, 9 and 10, had been fetching water from a stream alongside
it when two American A-10 attack jets firing rockets and machine guns struck at
10:45 a.m.

"The boys were playing marbles," said one villager, thrusting forward a gnarled
hand with three chipped glass marbles he said he had retrieved from the dust.

The rockets made 30 to 40 small craters in the ground around where the children
had died. The 10th victim, an uncle of the two girls, rushed toward the stream
after the first plane struck and was cut down beside them, said a woman who
identified herself as the man's mother and the dead girls' grandmother.

Villagers in this small hamlet about 185 miles south of Kabul in southeastern
Afghanistan said they buried the victims on Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon,
the men were mourning in an open-air mosque and the women were weeping inside
the houses. As some men showed journalists and a government delegation around
the scene of the killings, they wondered aloud how the Americans could attack so
indiscriminately when searching for just one man who, they said, was not even in
the village.

"They bombed this place and said we were giving sanctuary to the Taliban and Al
Qaeda, but there are no Taliban or Al Qaeda here," said Abdul Majid Farooqi, the
school principal and local mullah. "We all support the government."

American officials have said the intended target was a man named Mullah Wazir, a
Taliban member believed to have been behind several attacks on aid workers in
the region and on construction engineers working on a major American project to
rebuild the Kabul-Kandahar road.

The American ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said at a news
conference on Sunday in Kabul that Mr. Wazir was a "financier, organizer and
facilitator of attacks on aid workers and workers on the highways." Two Indian
workers employed on the construction project were reported to have been
kidnapped Saturday evening in Zabul Province. There has been a rash of
kidnappings and shootings in the area along the road, especially in Zabul
Province, just south of here, all apparently attacks by the Taliban to disrupt
the reconstruction.

Villagers said Mr. Wazir had left the village two weeks ago with his family
after an American airstrike on a nearby field.

American soldiers pointed out the house where the family had been living, which
they said had been searched, but was otherwise untouched by the bombardment.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in American airstrikes in the two years
since the United States began its military campaign against the Taliban and Al
Qaeda in Afghanistan. After several disastrous raids last year in which planes
bombed officials loyal to the Karzai government and after one incident that
killed 48 civilians at a wedding party last July, the United States had appeared
to restrict air assaults to more precise attacks, and only when groups of
militants were engaged by coalition troops.

Nevertheless, the Saturday attack is at least the third this year in which
civilians have been killed or wounded. Eleven members of one family were killed
in April in Paktika, in eastern Afghanistan, when American forces called in
airstrikes on militants escaping toward the Pakistani border. Eight people,
including women and children, were killed in a village in the northern province
of Nuristan on Oct. 30 when American planes bombed their village at night. The
United States military acknowledged the April bombing but has not confirmed
responsibility for the Nuristan bombing.

This time American soldiers were sent into the village within three hours of the
airstrike to assess the scene, Capt. Jorge Cordeiro, the company commander, said
in an interview at the scene. Standing amid fruit trees in an orchard slightly
away from the village, he spoke as a Chinook helicopter escorted by an Apache
helicopter gunship landed. "We came in to secure the site and do an assessment
and allow for another team to come in and do the investigation," he said.

The investigation team arrived Sunday and had left by midafternoon, he said. The
rest of the company was ready to pull out too, he said, after his men had
exploded a number of munitions found in the village. The soldiers had also
detained four armed men but said they would probably be released.

There was no further official statement from the United States military, pending
the results of the investigation, but Mr. Khalilzad and the Afghan interior
minister, Ahmed Ali Jalali, both said Sunday that Mr. Wazir had been killed.

Yet on the ground in the village, residents contradicted that assertion. Captain
Cordeiro confirmed that the soldiers had found nine dead children and one dead
adult who could have been the target, he said. But he said that the soldiers had
not talked to villagers or identified the dead man.

Villagers said he was Abdul Muhammad, 25, who had returned 10 days earlier from
Iran, where he had been working for three years digging wells. The woman who
identified herself as his mother said she had finally arranged his wedding and
he had returned for his engagement party, which was just five days away. "I was
so pleased to have my son back," said the woman, who said her name was Guldana.
"And now he is dead."

She had lost not only her son in the airstrike but her two granddaughters, Bibi
Toara, 10, and Bibi Tamama, 9.

Two brothers in the village, Sarwar Khan and Hamidullah, lost three children
between them, they said. "The Americans are all the time making these mistakes,"
said Mr. Khan, who two sons, Faizullah, 8, and Obeidullah, 10, were killed.
"What kind of Al Qaeda are they? Look at their little shoes and hats. Are they
terrorists?"

* * *

December 8, 2003

MISTAKEN U.S. ATTACK UPSETS AFGHANS

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan officials warned Monday that an American
military attack that mistakenly killed nine children playing in a remote village
could make it harder to persuade ordinary people to support Afghanistan's U.S.-
backed government.

"Every innocent who is killed has brothers, uncles, sisters and nephews -- and
behind them the tribe," said Sadokhan Ambarkhil, deputy governor of Paktika, one
of the most dangerous provinces for coalition troops and their Afghan allies.
"If ten people are killed, how many people are saddened?"

Saturday's warplane attack came as coalition forces are fighting a growing
Taliban insurgency across the southern and eastern provinces, and as Kabul, the
capital, prepared for this week's loya jirga, or grand council, to debate and
approve the country's new constitution.

The attack, aimed at a local Taliban militant accused of attacking aid workers,
also was criticized outside Afghanistan.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "profoundly saddened" by the children's
deaths and called for a thorough investigation. "The fight against terrorism
cannot be won at the expense of innocent lives," Fred Eckhard, Annan's
spokesman, said in New York.

Seven boys and two girls, the oldest aged 12, died when the A-10 warplane
sprayed a dusty field with 30mm high-explosive rounds in Hutala village, 150
miles southwest of Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The attack also killed a man that U.S. officials say was Mullah Wazir, a former
district Taliban commander suspected of attacking aid groups and workers on the
Kabul-Kandahar road -- a top U.S.-funded reconstruction project.

But villagers say the dead man was Abdul Hamid, a laborer in his twenties who
had returned from Iran just days before his death, and that Mullah Wazir cleared
out days before.

Residents and local officials suggested the Americans were fed bogus
intelligence -- a suspected cause of earlier deadly bombings of civilians -- and
criticized what they called a careless use of military might.

"I don't know why the U.S. forces did this," said Khial Mohammad, the deputy
governor of Ghazni province where the attack took place. "Mullah Wazir wasn't
there. He's not a famous commander, but he is famous for smuggling."

Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a coalition spokesman said Sunday that DNA had been
taken from the scene to try to prove the strike had hit its target.

On Monday, at a briefing at the U.S. military headquarters in Bagram, north of
Kabul, Hilferty said only that the coalition "was still working on identifying
that man."

Aware of the damage such incidents can do to their own image, senior U.S.
officers flew into the village on Sunday to offer condolences and help.

"Such mistakes could make the Afghan people think ill of the coalition,"
Hilferty said.

U.S. officials insist they had prepared the attack carefully and were unaware of
the children when the order was given to fire.

Officials said funeral services for the ten victims, already buried locally,
were expected to be held Monday.

"If they are killing children and innocent people, they will create a big
problem for the present government," Mohammad said. "Especially over the
presence of coalition forces."

* * *


December 7, 2003

TOUGH NEW TACTICS BY U.S. TIGHTEN GRIP ON IRAQ TOWNS
By Dexter Filkins

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/middleeast/07TACT.html?th

BU HISHMA, Iraq, Dec. 6 -- As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents
intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in barbed
wire.

In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be
used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected
guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents to turn themselves in.

The Americans embarked on their get-tough strategy in early November, goaded by
what proved to be the deadliest month yet for American forces in Iraq, with 81
soldiers killed by hostile fire. The response they chose is beginning to echo
the Israeli counterinsurgency campaign in the occupied territories.

So far, the new approach appears to be succeeding in diminishing the threat to
American soldiers. But it appears to be coming at the cost of alienating many of
the people the Americans are trying to win over. Abu Hishma is quiet now, but it
is angry, too.

In Abu Hishma, encased in a razor-wire fence after repeated attacks on American
troops, Iraqi civilians line up to go in and out, filing through an American-
guarded checkpoint, each carrying an identification card printed in English
only.

"If you have one of these cards, you can come and go," coaxed Lt. Col. Nathan
Sassaman, the battalion commander whose men oversee the village, about 50 miles
north of Baghdad. "If you don't have one of these cards, you can't."

The Iraqis nodded and edged their cars through the line. Over to one side, an
Iraqi man named Tariq muttered in anger.

"I see no difference between us and the Palestinians," he said. "We didn't
expect anything like this after Saddam fell."

The practice of destroying buildings where Iraqi insurgents are suspected of
planning or mounting attacks has been used for decades by Israeli soldiers in
Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli Army has also imprisoned the relatives of
suspected terrorists, in the hopes of pressing the suspects to surrender.

The Israeli military has also cordoned off villages and towns thought to be
hotbeds of guerrilla activity, in an effort to control the flow of people moving
in and out.

American officials say they are not purposefully mimicking Israeli tactics, but
they acknowledge that they have studied closely the Israeli experience in urban
fighting. Ahead of the war, Israeli defense experts briefed American commanders
on their experience in guerrilla and urban warfare. The Americans say there are
no Israeli military advisers helping the Americans in Iraq.

Writing in the July issue of Army magazine, an American brigadier general said
American officers had recently traveled to Israel to hear about lessons learned
from recent fighting there.

"Experience continues to teach us many lessons, and we continue to evaluate and
address those lessons, embedding and incorporating them appropriately into our
concepts, doctrine and training," Brig. Gen. Michael A. Vane wrote. "For
example, we recently traveled to Israel to glean lessons learned from their
counterterrorist operations in urban areas." General Vane is deputy chief of
staff for doctrine concepts and strategy, at the United States Army Training and
Doctrine Command.

American officers here say their new hard-nosed approach reflects a more
realistic appreciation of the military and political realities faced by soldiers
in the so-called Sunni triangle, the area north and west of Baghdad that is
generating the most violence against the Americans.

Underlying the new strategy, the Americans say, is the conviction that only a
tougher approach will quell the insurgency and that the new strategy must punish
not only the guerrillas but also make clear to ordinary Iraqis the cost of not
cooperating.

"You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander
with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu
Hishma. "The only thing they understand is force -- force, pride and saving
face."

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top military commander in Iraq, announced the get-
tough strategy in early November. After the announcement, some American officers
warned that the scenes that would follow would not be pretty.

Speaking today in Baghdad, General Sanchez said attacks on allied forces or
gunfights with adversaries across Iraq had dropped to under 20 a day from 40 a
day two weeks ago.

"We've considerably pushed back the numbers of engagements against coalition
forces," he said. "We've been hitting back pretty hard. We've forced them to
slow down the pace of their operations."

In that way, the new American approach seems to share the successes of the
Israeli military, at least in the short term; Israeli officers contend that
their strategy regularly stops catastrophes like suicide bombings from taking
place.

"If you do nothing, they will just get stronger," said Martin van Creveld,
professor of military history and strategy at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He
briefed American marines on Israeli tactics in urban warfare in September.

The problems in Abu Hishma, a town of 7,000, began in October, when the American
military across the Sunni triangle decided to ease off on their military
operations to coincide with the onset of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

In Abu Hishma, as in other towns, the backing off by the Americans was not
reciprocated by the insurgents. American troops regularly came under mortar
fire, often traced to the surrounding orchards.

Meanwhile, the number of bombs planted on nearby roads rose sharply. Army
convoys regularly took fire from a house a few miles away from the village.

The last straw for the Americans came on Nov. 17, when a group of guerrillas
fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the front of a Bradley armored personnel
carrier. The grenade, with an armored piercing tip, punched through the
Bradley's shell and killed Staff Sgt. Dale Panchot, one of its crewmen.

The grenade went straight into the sergeant's chest. With the Bradley still
smoldering, the soldiers of the First Battalion, Eighth Infantry, part of the
Fourth Infantry Division, surrounded Abu Hishma and searched for the guerrillas.
Soldiers began encasing the town in razor wire.

The next day, an American jet dropped a 500-bomb on the house that had been used
to attack them. The Americans arrested eight sheiks, the mayor, the police chief
and most members of the city council. "We really hammered the place," Maj.
Darron Wright said.

Two and a half weeks later, the town of Abu Hishma is enclosed in a barbed-wire
fence that stretches for five miles. Men ages 18 to 65 have been ordered to get
identification cards. There is only way into the town and one way out.

"This fence is here for your protection," reads the sign posted in front of the
barbed-wire fence. "Do not approach or try to cross, or you will be shot."

American forces have used the tactic in other cities, including Awja, the
birthplace of Saddam Hussein. American forces also sealed off three towns in
western Iraq for several days.

"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I
think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," Colonel
Sassaman said.

The bombing of the house, about a mile outside the barbed wire, is another
tactic that echoes those of the Israeli Army. In Iraq, the Americans have
bulldozed, bombed or otherwise rendered useless a number of buildings which they
determined were harboring guerrillas.

In Tikrit, residents pointed out a home they said had been bulldozed by American
tanks. The occupants had already left, they said.

"I watched the Americans flatten that house," said Abdullah al-Ajili, who lives
down the road.

American officers acknowledge that they have destroyed buildings around Tikrit.
In a recent news conference, General Sanchez explained the strategy but ignored
a question about parallels to the Israeli experience.

"Well, I guess what we need to do is go back to the laws of war and the Geneva
Convention and all of those issues that define when a structure ceases to be
what it is claimed to be and becomes a military target," General Sanchez said.
"We've got to remember that we're in a low-intensity conflict where the laws of
war still apply."

In Abu Hishma, residents complain that the village is locked down for 15 hours a
day, meaning that they are unable to go to the mosque for morning and evening
prayers. They say the curfew does not allow them time to stand in the daylong
lines for gasoline and get home before the gate closes for the night.

But mostly, it is a loss of dignity that the villagers talk about. For each
identification card, every Iraqi man is assigned a number, which he must hold up
when he poses for his mug shot. The card identifies his age and type of car. It
is all in English.

"This is absolutely humiliating," said Yasin Mustafa, a 39-year-old primary
school teacher. "We are like birds in a cage."

Colonel Sassaman said he would maintain the wire enclosure until the villagers
turned over the six men who killed Sergeant Panchot, though he acknowledged they
may have slipped far away.

Colonel Sassaman is feared by many of Abu Hishma's villagers, who hold him
responsible for the searches and razor wire around the town. But some said they
understood what a difficult job he had, trying to pick out a few bad men from a
village of 7,000 people.

"Colonel Sassaman, you should come and live in this village and be a sheik,"
Hassan Ali al-Tai told the colonel outside the checkpoint.

The colonel smiled, and Mr. Tai turned to another visitor.

"Colonel Sassaman is a very good man," he said. "If he got rid of the barbed
wire and the checkpoint, everyone would love him."

* * *


December 7, 2003

AN AFGHAN VILLAGE MOURNS 9 CHILDREN KILLED BY U.S.
By Carlotta Gall

PITAWI, Afghanistan, Dec. 7 -- Their embroidered caps, shredded with shrapnel,
lay in the dust beside half a dozen children's rubber galoshes and caked pools
of blood. Nine children died here Saturday morning in a United States air
strike, and were still lying in the dust when American soldiers flew in by
helicopter to investigate the consequences three hours later, villagers and U.S.
soldiers at the scene said today.

A young man of 25 was also killed, they said, while the intended target, a
Taliban suspect, appeared to have gotten away.

"The boys were playing marbles," said one man, thrusting forward a gnarled hand
with three chipped glass marbles he had picked up the from the dust. Seven boys,
ages 8 to 12, were playing marbles in front of a house, and two girls ages 9 and
10 were fetching water from the stream alongside when the planes struck at 10:45
a.m.

Their rockets made 30 to 40 small craters in the ground around where the
children died. The young man, their uncle, rushed toward the stream after the
first plane struck and was cut down beside them, his mother said.

Shocked and angry, villagers were mourning their children in this small hamlet
some 300 kilometers south of Kabul in southeastern Afghanistan this afternoon,
the men gathered in the open-air mosque and the women weeping inside the houses.

As the men showed journalists and a government delegation around the scene of
the attack, they wondered aloud why the Americans attacked so indiscriminately
when searching for just one man and why innocent civilians had to die when the
man was not even in the village.

The attack, which does not seem to have netted the suspected Taliban member it
was aiming at, raises questions as to the effectiveness of using air power to
catch fugitive Taliban and Al Qaeda sheltering in villages.

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said he was "profoundly shocked" at the
deaths of nine children and said he had sent a delegation to investigate and
offer help to the families, a presidential spokesman said. In an interview with
the BBC he said future operations should be better coordinated with the Afghan
government so it should never happen again.

Villagers and local officials echoed his sentiments. "They bombed this place and
said we were giving sanctuary to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but there are no
Taliban or Al Qaeda here," said Abdul Majid Farooqi, the school principal and
local mullah. "We all support the government."

American officials have said the attack was aimed at a member of the Taliban,
Mullah Wazir, who is believed to be behind a number of attacks on aid workers in
the region and construction engineers working on the major United States project
to rebuild the Kabul-Kandahar road.

The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said at a news
conference today in Kabul that Mullah Wazir was a known "financier, organizer
and facilitator of attacks on aid workers and workers on the highways."

Two Indian workers employed on the construction project were reported to have
been kidnapped Saturday evening in Zabul province. There has been a rash of
kidnappings and shootings in the area along the road, especially in Zabul
province just south of the village of Pitawi, all apparently attacks by Taliban
to disrupt the reconstruction effort.

Villagers said Mullah Wazir did indeed live in the village but that he had left
two weeks ago with his whole family after an earlier air strike when planes
fired into the field. American soldiers pointed out Mullah Wazir's house, which
they had searched, but was otherwise untouched by the bombardment. The children
had been killed just 10 yards in front of the house by the stream.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in American air strikes in the two years
since the United States launched its campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda
in Afghanistan. After several disastrous raids last year when planes bombed
officials loyal to the Karzai government and in one incident killed some 48
civilians in a raid on a wedding party in July last year, the United States
military had appeared to restrict its air assaults to more precise attacks only
when groups of militants were engaged by coalition troops.

Nevertheless, Saturday's attack was at least the fourth this year in which
civilians have been killed or injured. Eleven members of one family were killed
in April in Paktika in eastern Afghanistan when American forces called in air
strikes on a group of militants escaping toward the Pakistani border and a bomb
landed on a house. Eight people, including women and children, were killed in a
village in the northern province of Nuristan on Oct. 30 when American planes
bombarded their village at night. The military acknowledged the April bombing
but has not confirmed responsibility for the Nuristan bombing.

This time American soldiers were sent into Pitawi within three hours of the air
strike to assess the scene, Capt. Jorge Cordeiro, the company commander, said in
an interview at the scene. Standing amid fruit trees in an orchard slightly away
from the village, he spoke as a Chinook helicopter covered by an Apache came in
to land. "We came in to secure the site and do an assessment and allow for
another team to come in and do the investigation," he said.

The investigation team came in today and had left by midafternoon, he said. The
rest of the company were ready to pull out too, he said, after his men had
exploded a number of mines and bullets found in the village. The soldiers had
also detained four armed men but said they thought they would be released since
it appeared they had come from a nearby village to find out what had happened
and assist the villagers.

There was no further official statement from the military pending the results of
the investigation, but Mr. Khalilzad and Afghan interior minister Ahmed Ali
Jalali both said today that Mullah Wazir had been killed. Yet on the ground in
the village it did not appear to be the case.

Captain Cordeiro confirmed that they had found nine children killed and one
adult, who could have been the suspect targeted, he said. But he admitted that
they had not talked to villagers or actually identified the dead man.

Villagers, including the man's mother, said the dead man was Abdul Muhammad, 25,
who had just returned from Iran 10 days ago, where he had been working for three
years digging wells. She had finally arranged his wedding and he had returned
for his engagement party, which was just five days away.

"I was so pleased to have my son back. And now he is dead," said his mother,
Guldana, standing outside her simple home. She had lost not only her son but her
two granddaughters, Bibi Toara, 10, and Bibi Tamama, 9, who were fetching water
by the stream and were killed instantly.

Two brothers in the village, Sarwar Khan and Hamidullah, lost three children
between them, they said. "The Americans are all the time making these mistakes,"
said Mr. Khan, who lost his two sons, Faizullah, 8, and Obeidullah, 10. "What
kind of Al Qaeda are they? Look at their little shoes and hats. Are they
terrorists?"

* * *

December 7, 2003

COALITION STRIKE IN AFGHANISTAN KILLS 9 CHILDREN
By Carlotta Gall and John H. Cushman, Jr.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sunday, Dec. 7 -- United States warplanes attacking a
suspected member of the Taliban killed nine children in the southeastern
province of Ghazni on Saturday, Afghan and American military officials confirmed
Sunday morning. One man was also killed in the attack, they said.

In a statement issued early on Sunday from the headquarters of the American-led
military forces at Bagram Air Base near Kabul, the military said ground forces
searching the area after the attack found the bodies of the children as well as
the body of the suspect.

"Coalition forces regret the loss of any innocent life," the statement said. It
said the troops remaining in the area "will make every effort to assist the
families of the innocent casualties and determine the cause of the civilian
deaths."

The statement said a commission was being set up to investigate the incident. It
did not describe the air attack in any detail.

Maj. Christopher E. West, an Army spokesman at Bagram, said the aircraft
involved was an A-10 attack jet, a type that flies low and fires guns and
rockets in support of infantry. A-10's are frequently in action over
Afghanistan.

Haji Masud, an official in the governor's office in Ghazni, confirmed the attack
and said it had been aimed at Mullah Wazir, a former member of the Taliban
movement. "They bombed Mullah Wazir's house and civilians were also killed," he
said in a telephone interview on Sunday morning. He gave no further details and
said an official Afghan delegation had gone to the area to investigate.

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai in Kabul said that when first reports
arrived from the region, the American military had denied that the attack
occurred. Mr. Karzai has frequently asked the United States military to take
greater care with bombing raids on civilian areas and with they intelligence it
receives, which has often proved erroneous. There have been hundreds of civilian
casualties from bombing raids during the past two years. At least 48 people were
killed in July 2002 when American planes fired on a village where a wedding
party was in progress.

In another incident, eleven people from one family were killed when a bomb
landed on their house near the Pakistani border in Paktika Province. The United
States military quickly acknowledged the mistake, saying the attack was aimed at
a group of militants whe were trying to escape across the border.

On Oct. 30. American planes bombed a village in the northern province of
Nuristan, killing six members of one family, most of them women and children,
and two religious students in the village mosque. The military has not yet
confirmed that its planes were in the area that night.

In their statement, the United States military said it the targeted man had been
involved in the killings of two contractors working on Afghanistan's main
highway connecting the capital with the cities of Kandahar and Herat. There have
been no reported killings of contractors. Several Afghan security policemen were
killed in an attack on the road in September.

An officer at the main headquarters of Central Command in Tampa, which runs the
military operations in Afghanistan as well as Iraq and elsewhere in the region,
referred questions to the Bagram headquarters.

American and allied forces in Afghanistan "follow stringent rules of engagement
to specifically avoid this type of incident while continuing to target
terrorists," the statement said.

The aircraft opened fire on the suspect in what whas described as "an isolated
rural site" south of the town of Ghazni, the statement said.

The attack came about 10:30 on Saturday morning. Ghazni is about 80 miles
southeast of Kabul on the road to Kandahar, the former stronghold of the Taliban
movement that governed Afghanistan before the United States and Afghan
opposition forces overthrew it two years ago.

The military said the strike on Saturday was carried out "after developing
extensive intelligence over an extended period of time" that determined the
suspect's whereabouts.

[ Carlotta Gall reported from Kabul and John H. Cushman, Jr. from Washington. ]

* * *


December 4, 2003

News Analysis
SUDDEN SHIFT ON DETAINEE

By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 -- When the Pentagon said this week that it would let an
American being held as an enemy combatant meet a lawyer, which it had refused to
do for months, it appeared on the surface to be a major concession to the
critics of the policy of detaining terrorism suspects.

But it may be that the action was less of a substantive change than merely a
calculated gesture to help the administration shield its policies from criticism
and reversal by the courts. The American, Yaser Esam Hamdi, a Louisianan of
Saudi descent captured in fighting in Afghanistan, is under indefinite detention
in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

Viet Dinh, a former assistant attorney general who had a major role in drafting
antiterror policies, said in an interview on Wednesday that the decision to give
Mr. Hamdi access to a lawyer was "a significant development in the case, one
that moves the government to a more sustainable position before the court."

But Mr. Dinh, who has returned to his professorship at the Georgetown University
Law School, also said the administration needed to provide some better form of
due process "to make its case bulletproof."

The Pentagon made its statement about Mr. Hamdi's ability to confer with a
lawyer a day before the Justice Department was obliged to file a brief with the
Supreme Court asking it to uphold a ruling by an appeals court that President
Bush was within his rights as a wartime president to detain Mr. Hamdi
indefinitely without access to a lawyer.

The brief itself, however, does not retreat from the hard-line position the
administration has taken all along, that the president has the authority to
detain an American citizen indefinitely without consulting a lawyer.

The administration does not concede in the brief that it has any obligation to
allow Mr. Hamdi to meet with his lawyer, Frank W. Dunham Jr., the federal public
defender in Virginia, although a footnote in the brief does say the two will
soon be able to meet.

The Pentagon explicitly said its decision was at its discretion and was taken
only because intelligence officials had finished questioning Mr. Hamdi and no
longer felt the need to keep him incommunicado.

"They are trying to change at least the perception of unfairness that existed
and show that they are giving this U.S. citizen some kind of rights," Pamela S.
Falk, a professor of international law at the City University of New York, said.
"This is clearly an attempt to defuse some of the reasonable fear among the
public that the government was seeking extraordinary new powers to detain
citizens in the war against terrorism."

The president of the American Bar Association, Dennis W. Archer, said on
Wednesday that although he was encouraged at the decision to let Mr. Hamdi see
his lawyer, he was disappointed that the Pentagon said it was doing so only as a
discretionary matter and not setting a precedent.

Nonetheless, the permission may help the government's case in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court case involves not only the issue of whether an enemy combatant
may consult with a lawyer, but also whether the combatant may be detained solely
on the assertion of the president and the executive branch with no recourse to
judicial review.

Professor Dinh has suggested since leaving the government that the process needs
to be reviewed.

"Two years into the war against terror, along with the luxury of the relative
safety that the administration has provided, has afforded an opportunity to have
a conversation about a more systematic and sustainable set of procedures" for
enemy combatants, he said.

Those comments underline the fact that allowing Mr. Hamdi to see his lawyer does
not necessarily mean anything will come of it. The administration still contends
in its brief that Mr. Hamdi is not entitled to challenge his detention nor his
designation as an enemy combatant.

A second senior former official in the Justice Department, Judge Michael
Chertoff, has also called for new methods of dealing with enemy combatants'
rights of due process. Judge Chertoff, who was the assistant attorney general in
charge of the criminal division, is on the United States Court of Appeals for
the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia.

A senior administration official said on Wednesday that letting Mr. Hamdi see a
lawyer did not represent a stark change, because the government has always
contended that detainees needed to be kept in isolation only until their
questioning had ended. The administration first hinted at that view publicly
last month, when it argued before a federal appeals court in New York that Jose
Padilla, another American held as an enemy combatant, might be permitted to see
a lawyer when his questioning had ended.

The administration has argued that letting a detainee consult a lawyer before
questioning is complete would render ineffective all efforts to obtain usable
information. Not only might a lawyer advise a detainee not to cooperate, but the
consultation, officials say, would also disturb the relationship between the
detainee and the questioners.

In addition to the decision to let Mr. Hamdi consult his lawyer, the
administration has made other seeming concessions to foreign allies as to the
circumstances in which their citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, might be
tried before military commissions. Last month, Australia said Washington had
agreed to allow an Australian defense lawyer meet directly with and participate
in the defense of David Hicks, 26, an Australian who joined the Taliban in 1999
and was captured with it. Mr. Hicks, who is at Guantanamo, who may soon face a
tribunal.

Australia and Britain have been assured that their citizens will not face the
death penalty from any tribunals. At the same time, the administration is
negotiating with other governments on their citizens at Guantanamo. Defense
Department officials have said they may soon modify some of the rules
established for military tribunals to satisfy some foreign critics.

After reaching the accord with Australia, the first foreign government to
declare that it was satisfied with the procedures for a military tribunal, the
Pentagon said on Wednesday that it had assigned a military lawyer to represent
Mr. Hicks, one of six detainees designated eligible for a tribunal.

Pentagon officials acknowledged last weekend that they might soon release many
the 660 people detained at Guantanamo. The detention of people, most of whom
were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan at the end of the Afghan campaign, has
been a major irritant in relations with foreign governments.

* * *


December 1, 2003

U.S. IN TALKS TO RETURN SCORES HELD AT BASE
By Neil A. Lewis

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 -- Senior Defense Department officials said Sunday that the
military may soon release to their home countries scores of detainees, perhaps
more than 100, who are being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

One senior official said negotiations were under way with the home nations of
dozens of the detainees over the terms of transferring custody from the United
States military to their home governments and eventual repatriation.

"We've identified a number that we think could be released to their home or host
countries," one senior Pentagon official said. "We are negotiating with these
countries" over the specific terms under which the prisoners might be
transferred to the custody of their home countries.

The negotiations, a second senior official said, have been over issues like
whether the detainees will be freed once they return home or just reimprisoned
locally.

The first official declined to give the exact number being considered for
release and cautioned that no final decisions had been made.

The possibility of an impending large-scale release from Guantanamo -- which
currently houses about 660 prisoners, most of whom were captured during and
after the Afghan war -- was first reported by Time Magazine. Time quoted
American officials as saying that some of the detainees being considered for
release had been captured by Afghan warlords and sold for the bounty offered by
Washington for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

The detention of people captured in Afghanistan has been a major irritant in
relations between the United States and several of its allies. The captives are
being held at a prison facility at the United States naval base at Guantanamo
Bay, on the southeastern tip of Cuba, and have remained in legal and political
limbo for nearly two years. The issue of those captives was a major item on the
agenda when President Bush conferred in London recently with Prime Minister Tony
Blair of Britain. Nine Britons are detained at Guantanamo, and the British
government -- which has faced public pressure over the situation -- has sought a
series of concessions.

The United States has declined to give the detainees access to lawyers, and it
has not charged any of them with crimes. Officials have said the detainees were
not entitled to formal prisoner-of-war status, which would carry such rights,
because they were "illegal combatants." The officials have said that when the
men were captured they were not adhering to some requirements of the Geneva
Conventions, like wearing clearly marked uniforms.

Those arguments by the United States have not proved persuasive with its allies.

In a speech last Tuesday, one of Britain's most senior judges, Johan Steyn,
offered a scathing criticism of the United States' continued detention of
prisoners at Guantanamo, the latest of several protests from top international
lawyers.

"The question is whether the quality of justice envisaged for the prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay complies with the minimum international standards for the conduct
of fair trials," Lord Steyn said. "The answer can be given quite shortly. It is
a resounding, `No.' " The speech was notable because it is extraordinary for
sitting judges to comment directly on current situations.

He also said that "authoritarian regimes with dubious human rights records" have
seized upon Washington's example to justify their own improper behavior.

While a large release of detainees from Guantanamo could lessen some of the
international criticism, it might also provide support for those who have said
the United States held the prisoners for a long time with no evidence of any
wrongdoing.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said that military officials have been
trying to determine which prisoners should face charges before military
commissions.

* * *


November 29, 2003

IN GUANTANAMO, TEENS AWAIT THEIR FATE

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- It looks like a summer camp with
manicured lawns, a dusty soccer field and a library of kids' movies, but the
fenced compound of Iguana House holds three teenagers accused of fighting
alongside Afghanistan's ousted Taliban.

Human rights advocates say the U.S. military should long ago have released the
boys, between the ages of 13 and 15, but detention mission commander Maj. Gen.
Geoffrey Miller said this week their freedom is being held up at higher levels.

Soldiers guard them day and night, never shutting their bedroom doors and
monitoring them on wide-angle mirrors on the walls. The bathroom remains open, a
small curtain covering part of the doorway for privacy.

"We're concerned that a prolonged separation from their families may cause a
deterioration in their mental health," said Jo Becker, of the New York-based
group Human Rights Watch.

The boys, who wear orange jumpsuits, undergo more than an hour of group therapy
twice a week and also meet with psychiatrists.

Miller recommended in August that they be sent back to their home countries. The
request is awaiting approval by the Pentagon and other agencies, Miller said,
adding he expects a decision soon.

"They are no longer a threat to U.S. interests," said Army Lt. Col. Pamela Hart,
a spokeswoman.

Miller has acknowledged there are a few other juveniles, ages 16 and 17, held
with adults in the main maximum-security prison but he declines to say how many.
Some 660 detainees from 44 countries are held at the base on suspicion of links
to the Taliban or al-Qaida terror network.

Unlike the main prison, which is ringed in razor wire, the cinderblock duplex
holding the three youngest detainee has fences covered in green netting except
for an opening allowing views of cliffs and the ocean.

Guards say the teenagers often kick soccer balls in the yard, though it has no
goals. Dozens of balls have been lost when the boys kicked them into the sea,
said one guard, who identified himself as Master Sgt. P.

Taking journalists through one side of the air conditioned duplex Thursday,
military officials kept the three boys out of sight.

Their days are regimented, with their routine posted on a wall: wake up at 6
a.m., then breakfast, room inspection, studies and counseling. They have a half
hour of recreation, time for board games and movies, followed by lights out at 9
p.m.

The boys study their native languages, social studies and geography. Officials
decline to specify their citizenship. The three are all Muslims, officials said.

The boys exchange censored mail with relatives through the International
Committee of the Red Cross, the only independent group allowed access to the
detainees.

Guards say the boys have picked up basic English, but an interpreter is always
present. Two have been here since the beginning in January 2002, and the other
arrived later.

The teenagers are generally respectful, and are considering becoming a religious
cleric and a doctor, Sgt. P said. The guard, a middle school teacher in civilian
life, said he has never seen the boys cry.

They enjoy films including National Geographic nature films, "Call of the Wild,"
"Free Willy" and "White Fang." The Tom Hanks film "Cast Away" is also a
favorite.

The teenagers have a refrigerator stocked with apples, oranges, pears and dates.
Those who cooperate get snacks and extra movie time. Those who don't are sent to
their rooms for "time out."

They are still interrogated from time to time, officials said.

Few details about interrogations have been revealed, but on Friday officials
allowed reporters into rooms once used for interrogations at Camp X-Ray, a now-
closed compound of temporary, chain-link cells.

One room had words scrawled on the walls in Arabic and English: "liar, coward,
failure, weak, proud, stubborn." Maps of places from Saudi Arabia to Germany
were strewn about.

The detainees have no access to lawyers, and none have been charged.

"We were told six months ago that the U.S. government was aware that the
detention of children was problematic," said Alistair Hodgett of Amnesty
International. "Nothing has happened in their case."

* * *


November 25, 2003 - 07:47 GMT

U.S. FIGHTING INTELLIGENCE WAR IN CUBA

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is fighting a "raging intelligence war"
with suspected terrorists held at a high-security prison at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, a senior Pentagon official says.

"It's being conducted with a great sense of urgency," Thomas O'Connell, who
oversees Pentagon policy on the holding, interrogation and release of suspects
at Guantanamo, said in an interview Monday.

Interrogations and related work are conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
O'Connell said. He asserted that satisfactory progress is being made in
extracting useful information, despite the wall of hatred and defiance the
prisoners throw daily at their questioners.

Several of the approximately 660 suspects being detained have provided timely
information that has helped avert terrorist attacks and led to additional
arrests, he said. But others refuse to cooperate and in some other cases, U.S.
officials have been unable to obtain basic information to determine whether
prisoners are in a position to know much of value.

"Time is a double-edged sword because we're finding that the longer some stay,
the more they talk," said O'Connell, a former Army intelligence officer whose
has been assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity
conflict since late July. On the other hand, the longer it takes to get them
talking, the more outdated their information becomes.

Intelligence gleaned from interrogations there and from arrests in Europe is
believed to have helped thwart several attacks planned against U.S. targets in
Italy, Britain and Singapore. Last February, the FBI said it based a public
warning of a possible terrorist attack against U.S. interests in Yemen on
information from detainees at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan.

An undisclosed number of suspects have been held at Guantanamo since it opened
in January last year with the arrival of suspected al-Qaida and Taliban
terrorists captured in the war in Afghanistan.

Of the 88 released so far -- including 20 last Friday -- the United States has
agreed that 84 could be freed once they arrived in their home countries. The
other four were repatriated to Saudi Arabia several months ago, to continue in
detention there under a U.S.-Saudi agreement.

Officials say there are plans to send dozens more home soon. They likely will
get out of the Guantanamo Bay only on condition that their governments continue
to investigate and imprison them upon repatriation, two senior U.S officials
said.

The additional repatriations stem from negotiations sped up after allies
complained the Bush administration was taking too long to resolve the cases of
hundreds captured in the global war on terrorism and held incommunicado, without
charges and without access to lawyers, one official said.

Another senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
Washington is quietly discussing with China the terms under which an undisclosed
number of Chinese Muslim separatists would be released from Guantanamo and
returned to China. The Turkic-speaking ethnic Uighurs are waging a low-intensity
campaign of bombings and armed attacks in Xingjiang, in China's far northwest,
to win greater autonomy from the central government in Beijing.

The U.S. official said the Uighurs at Guantanamo Bay were captured in
Afghanistan, but the United States has no further interest in holding them
because they are not believed to pose a threat to U.S. interests. Their main aim
is to return to Xingjiang and fight for independence -- a goal they apparently
sought to further by training in Afghanistan.

However, the United States is concerned that if the Uighurs were released to
Chinese authorities, they would be mistreated. The U.S. official said Washington
is seeking assurances from Beijing on humane treatment.

The official would not disclose the number of Uighurs held at Guantanamo but
apparently there are more than a dozen.

The Pentagon's policy is to not disclose the exact number of prisoners at
Guantanamo or say where they are from.

U.S. officials in July said they had identified six prisoners at Guantanamo who
might go before U.S. military tribunals authorized especially for the war on
terror. The process stalled after the British government, with two citizens
facing trial, sought negotiations to change some tribunal rules considered by
critics to fall short of acceptable standards of justice.

The U.S.-U.K. talks are entering their fifth month and have expanded to seek
resolution of the cases of seven other Britons held at Guantanamo as well,
officials said.

* * *


November 24, 2003

U.S. RELEASES 20 GUANTANAMO PRISONERS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government released 20 more prisoners from its high-
security jail for terrorist suspects in Cuba, the Pentagon said Monday.

After they were returned Friday to their home countries, the U.S. military
Sunday brought some 20 new suspects to the facility from an undisclosed
location, officials said. The Sunday transfer means the prison on the U.S. naval
base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba still holds some 660 people suspected of taking
part in terrorist activity -- many believed al-Qaida and Taliban figures
captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan two years ago at the start of the global
war on terrorism.

Senior officials at the Defense Department, in consultation with other U.S.
government officials, determined that the 20 freed "either no longer posed a
threat to U.S. security or no longer required detention," said a Pentagon
statement Monday.

Officials have said for a year that they have been culling through the prisoners
to determine final status -- that is which can be freed, which tried and which
held for continued imprisonment.

So far 88 people have been transferred out of Guantanamo -- 84 to be released in
their countries and four transferred into Saudi Arabian prisons for continued
detention.

In keeping with their secretive policy regarding the prisoners, officials Monday
did not identify those released Friday, nor their countries. But it already had
become known over the weekend that five were Pakistani prisoners who arrived
home Saturday.

The men were captured in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led campaign to oust the
Taliban in late 2001, and were later shifted to Guantanamo Bay to investigate
their suspected links to al-Qaida, an Interior Ministry official told The
Associated Press.

The official said the men will remain in Pakistani custody for a few days before
being allowed to go free.

"We believe that they had no links with any militant groups, but we want to
satisfy ourselves before allowing them to go to their homes," said the official,
who spoke in Pakistan on condition of anonymity.

Since the Guantanamo prison opened in January, 2002, prisoners from 42 countries
have been taken there for interrogation and detention. U.S. officials said their
priority was to get intelligence to help avoid future terrorist attacks and keep
dangerous people out of circulation.

The State Department has been holding talks with an unknown number of those
countries, helping work out agreements under which, for instance, the Saudis are
keeping four imprisoned in their country.

Officials in July said they had identified six prisoners who might go before
military tribunals. But the process stalled after the British government sought
negotiations to change some trial rules considered by critics in the
international community to be unfair and below acceptable standards of justice.

Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S ambassador at large for war crimes, was in
Madrid last week to discuss with officials from Spain's interior, justice and
foreign ministries to discuss the case of a Spanish citizen held at Guantanamo.
Prosper confirmed Friday that the man was not among those newly released.

Prosper said discussions with the Spanish government were focused on whether the
Spaniard should remain in Guantanamo or be prosecuted in Spain. He acknowledged
that Madrid had pressured the United States to study the case.

Likewise, a number of other countries have pressed the United States to try or
release suspects, some of whom have been held two years and all of whom are
incommunicado and have not been allowed lawyers.

In addition to those released Friday, Prosper said several dozen others will be
sent to their home countries at an undisclosed time for a lengthy process of
investigation, detention and prosecution. He described them as posing "a medium-
level threat" to the world.

* * *


November 21, 2003

PAUL MARTIN SIGNALS MAHER ARAR CASE NOT OVER,
SIMILAR CASES MUST BE PREVENTED

OTTAWA (AP) -- Incoming prime minister Paul Martin says Maher Arar's account of
torture in a Syrian prison is "both tragic and very, very compelling," a signal
that the controversy in Canada-U.S. relations won't likely soon disappear.

Martin's comments Friday came a day after U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
said he'd received assurances from Syria that Arar, a Canadian citizen, wouldn't
be tortured during his 10-month detention after being deported from the United
States.

"I must say that I certainly can understand the American position," Martin said
during a meeting with his transition team now working on the transfer of power
scheduled Dec. 12.

"But at the same time what Mr. Arar has said is both tragic and very, very
compelling and we've got to make sure that this kind of an issue does not arise
ever again."

Aides to Martin said he's "dissatisfied with the circumstances" and conflicting
accounts of Arar's deportation. They added he's awaiting information from the
RCMP complaints commission and from U.S. officials before deciding his next
move.

"This is an entirely unacceptable circumstance," said one aide on condition of
anonymity. "The confusion requires some kind of clarification."

Arar, a 33-year-old Ottawa computer software engineer, has described months of
torture during his 10-month imprisonment.

* * *


November 21, 2003

U.S ENVOY SAYS GUANTANAMO TO FREE 24 SOON

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- The United States will release two dozen prisoners from
Guantanamo Bay in the coming weeks, an American envoy said Friday.

Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S ambassador-at-large for war crimes, said several
dozen other prisoners will be transferred to the custody of authorities in their
native countries.

More than 600 prisoners are being held incommunicado at the U.S. naval base in
Cuba, accused of links to al-Qaida or the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Some 60 former suspects have been freed and sent home.

"We expect to see almost two dozen individuals released in the coming weeks who
no longer pose a threat to the international community," Prosper told a news
conference at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid.

He declined to say what nationalities the detainees were or to specify the date
of their expected release. Regarding the several dozen detainees to be
transferred but not freed, he said they pose "a medium-level threat" and will be
prosecuted in their own countries.

Prosper was in Madrid to discuss the case of a Spanish citizen held in
Guantanamo. The man, from Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, was not among
those scheduled for release.

"We believe he poses a significant threat to Spain, to the U.S. and to the
international community," Prosper said. "We're disturbed by the information we
have and the depths of the contacts we know he has with al-Qaida."

Prosper, who is meeting with officials from the interior, justice and foreign
ministries, said discussions will focus on whether the Spaniard should remain in
Guantanamo or be prosecuted in Spain. He acknowledged that Madrid had pressured
the United States to review the case.

Although Spain has been a staunch supporter of the war on terror, Foreign
Minister Ana Palacio recently complained about the indefinite detentions at
Guantanamo. Human rights groups also have complained that the suspects are being
held without charges or legal representation.

* * *


November 19, 2003

Editorial

'ENEMY COMBATANT' SHAM

The Bush administration insists that it can hold American citizens in secret as
long as it wants, without access to lawyers, simply by calling them "enemy
combatants." A New York federal appeals court heard a challenge to that policy
this week by the so-called dirty bomber, Jose Padilla. The administration's
position makes a mockery of the Constitution and puts every American's liberty
at risk. It is important that the court strike it down, and give Mr. Padilla the
rights he has been denied.

Mr. Padilla is an American citizen who was taken into custody in Chicago in May
2002. The government suspects him of being part of a "dirty bomb" plot by Al
Qaeda, but it has not charged him. Instead, it has labeled him an enemy
combatant and locked him up in a naval brig in South Carolina. He has been held
there nearly 18 months, with no indication of when he will be tried or released.
He has not been allowed to meet with a lawyer, despite a lower court ruling that
he should be.

Of all the post-Sept. 11 denials of civil liberties, the enemy combatant
doctrine is among the worst. It gives the president untrammeled authority to
lock up Americans merely by asserting that they are part of a terrorist plot. In
its argument to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit this
week, the government insisted that military-style rules like the enemy combatant
doctrine now apply to American citizens, even on American soil, because Al Qaeda
has "made the battlefield the United States."

Governments are always tempted to detain perceived enemies without charges, hold
them incommunicado and deny them counsel. But the framers of the Constitution
knew that if the government was allowed to act on those impulses, the result
would be tyranny. That is why they built into this nation's founding document
the very rights the Bush administration is intent on taking away.

Fortunately, it appears from this week's argument that the appeals court panel
saw through the administration's spurious justifications. "As terrible as 9/11
was," Judge Rosemary Pooler observed, "it didn't repeal the Constitution."

* * *


November 18, 2003

JUDGES QUESTION DETENTION OF AMERICAN
By William Glaberson

Two federal appeals court judges were hostile to the Bush administration's
position yesterday as the government argued that the requirements of the
antiterror effort meant that the president could indefinitely detain an American
who was arrested in this country as an "enemy combatant" and deny him contact
with his lawyer.

"As terrible as 9/11 was, it didn't repeal the Constitution" one judge, Rosemary
S. Pooler, said.

The judges made their comments as a three-judge panel of the United States Court
of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan, began considering the case of
Jose Padilla, an American arrested last year at O'Hare International Airport
near Chicago. The case drew worldwide attention when Attorney General John
Ashcroft announced in June 2002 that the government believed that Mr. Padilla
was planning to explode a radiological "dirty bomb" in the United States.

Another judge on the panel, Barrington D. Parker Jr., said that if the courts
accepted the government argument "we would be effecting a sea change in the
constitutional life of this country."

A lawyer for the government, Paul D. Clement, said the nature of the conflict
meant that military principles, not the usual rules of the American criminal
courts, had to be applied to protect the country properly.

"Al Qaeda made the battlefield the United States," Mr. Clement told the panel in
a crowded courtroom. "And there's every indication they want to make the
battlefield the United States again."

The third judge on the panel, Richard C. Wesley, at times sparred with the other
judges, suggesting that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were different
from other conflicts.

"This happened on our soil," Judge Wesley said.

Mr. Clement, the deputy solicitor general, expanded arguments that government
lawyers made when a federal district judge began considering the case last year.
He said the president's power as commander in chief had always included the
power to detain military enemies.

Lawyers arguing on behalf of Mr. Padilla told the judges that the government was
distorting principles of American liberty by expanding battlefield concepts to
civilian life.

One lawyer, Jenny S. Martinez, said, "The president seeks an unchecked power to
substitute military power for the rule of law."

Both sides appealed parts of rulings by Michael B. Mukasey, chief judge of the
Federal District Court in Manhattan. Judge Mukasey said President Bush had the
authority to detain Mr. Padilla if there was "some evidence" he was involved in
terrorism, but also said Mr. Padilla had a right to meet with his lawyers.

Mr. Padilla, a former gang member in Chicago and a convert to Islam with a long
criminal record, was arrested after traveling from Pakistan. On May 8, 2002, he
was taken to New York on a material witness warrant. In June, Mr. Bush declared
him an enemy combatant, and he was moved from a federal jail in Lower Manhattan
to a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. He has been held incommunicado since then.

Yesterday, all three judges on the panel indicated that they viewed the case as
a crucial test of government powers. The appeal on Mr. Padilla's behalf has
attracted wide attention because he is the only American taken into custody in
this country and declared an "enemy combatant."

The appeal drew added interest after the Supreme Court decided last week to
consider whether the detainees at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could
challenge their status in civilian courts. That decision was seen by some
experts as an expression of a new willingness by the courts to challenge the
administration's contention that the nature of the antiterror effort made the
administration the final arbiter on many questions over treating detainees.

Judge Pooler and Judge Parker were appointed to the federal bench by President
Bill Clinton. Judge Parker, who was elevated to the appeals court from the
Federal District Court in Manhattan by Mr. Bush, at times suggested that he was
also alarmed by the government's arguments.

Judge Parker made several of those comments after Mr. Clement argued that the
court would be mistaken to test Mr. Padilla's detention against usual civilian
rules. Mr. Clement is the principal deputy to Solicitor General Theodore B.
Olson. The government has said Mr. Padilla was "associated with Al Qaeda," met
officials of the group in Afghanistan and received training in explosives in
Pakistan.

"The normal system does not apply," Mr. Clement said.

Judge Parker then said that "what troubles me" was what he described as "the
ease with which" Mr. Clement transposed military rules into the civilian sphere.
Judge Parker said he believed that only Congress could make what he described as
an unprecedented decision that would permit the indefinite detention without
charges of an American arrested in this country.

Mr. Clement answered that the government was proposing no change at all, because
the detention without charges of people captured in war had been recognized
"over and over again in military engagement after military engagement."

At times in the more than two hours of legal arguments, it appeared that Judges
Parker and Pooler were debating as much with Judge Wesley as they were with the
lawyers.

* * *


November 17, 2003

Editorial

THE COURT AND GUANTANAMO

The Supreme Court took a welcome step when it agreed last week to decide whether
the Guantanamo detainees could challenge their status in civilian courts. Over
the objections of the Bush administration, the justices will review a lower
court's refusal to hear their claims. The Supreme Court should hold that the
detainees have a right to a legal proceeding to challenge their confinement.

Hundreds of detainees have been held at a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
since their capture in the Afghanistan war, with no idea of when they will be
released. Those who may have been captured in error have had no chance to make
that case. After more than a year and a half, 16 of the detainees are suing.
They are not asking for full-blown civilian trials, but they argue that they
should be given a chance to contest their detainment before an impartial
tribunal.

The administration had urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case, arguing
that the detainees' status is "constitutionally committed to the executive
branch." The administration contends that the Guantanamo base is not part of the
United States, and it invokes a 1950 Supreme Court decision holding that federal
courts lack jurisdiction over the military detention of foreigners outside the
United States.

When the Supreme Court rules next year, it should vindicate two important legal
principles. First of all, it must send a forceful message that the detainees
have a right to challenge their confinement before a tribunal. Given the
absolute control the United States exerts over the Guantanamo naval base, and
the terms of the 1903 lease giving it that control, it is disingenuous for the
government to argue that the detainees are outside its jurisdiction.

It is no less important that the court make clear to the administration that it
is not above the law when it wages its war on terrorism. Rather than arguing
that its detainee policies are lawful, the administration boldly asserted that
the courts had no right to review them. The Supreme Court will undoubtedly be
hearing similar arguments in the days ahead. Now is the time to say clearly that
the court, not the president, has the final word on what the Constitution
permits.

* * *


November 15, 2003

JUDGE BARS 9/11 SUSPECT FROM BEING OWN LAWYER

By PHILIP SHENON

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 -- A judge on Friday barred the terrorism suspect Zacarias
Moussaoui from continuing to represent himself in court, saying he had
repeatedly violated her orders by filing court papers that were "frivolous,
scandalous, disrespectful or repetitive."

The ruling, by Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Federal District Court in
Alexandria, Va., brought an end to a 17-month period in which Mr. Moussaoui, a
confessed member of Al Qaeda who is the only person charged in an American court
with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, had been allowed to serve as his own
lawyer and file his own court papers.

He has used much of that time to flood the docket with rambling, sometimes
incoherent and often anti-Semitic and racist filings that insulted Judge
Brinkema and the court-appointed defense team he tried to fire last year.

Judge Brinkema said the court-appointed lawyers, who had continued to file
motions on Mr. Moussaoui's behalf even without his cooperation, would now
formally resume control of the case. In trying to dismiss those lawyers last
year, Mr. Moussaoui accused them of conspiring with the government to ensure his
execution, calling them the "death team."

Judge Brinkema said in her order that recent filings by Mr. Moussaoui, who has
acknowledged that he is loyal to Osama bin Laden, included "contemptuous
language that would never be tolerated from an attorney and will no longer be
tolerated from this defendant."

In recent handwritten court filings, Mr. Moussaoui said he wanted "anthrax for
Jew sympathisers only," referred to Judge Brinkema as "Leonie you Despotically
Judge" and called himself a "suicide pilot ready for action."

In one filing earlier this year, he said Attorney General John Ashcroft "must be
sent to Alexandria jail so I can torture him."

"After all," he added, "torture is now part of the American way of life."

The judge's decision is unlikely to have any immediate effect on the case
against Mr. Moussaoui, which has been stalled for months over the issue of
whether he can have access to captured Qaeda members who might provide testimony
in his defense.

That issue is now before the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., after a
ruling by Judge Brinkema that would sharply limit the government's case because
of the Bush administration's refusal to make the detainees available for
questioning.

While Mr. Moussaoui has had formal control of his case for more than a year, the
court-appointed defense lawyers have won important victories on his behalf, and
it is their legal maneuvering on the issue of the Qaeda witnesses that has
thrown the case into the appeals court.

The defense lawyers said on Friday that Mr. Moussaoui's filings had left Judge
Brinkema few options other than to forbid continued self-representation and
place the case back in their hands.

"I don't think the court had any other choice," said one of them, Frank W.
Dunham Jr., the chief federal public defender in eastern Virginia. "I think the
judge gave him as much latitude as she possibly could before taking this
dramatic step."

Mr. Dunham said he had mixed feelings about retaking control of the defense.

"It's like watching your mother-in-law go off a cliff in your new car," he said.
"It's the most awkward situation I've ever been in, but it will not change the
zealousness with which we will defend the case."

Mr. Moussaoui, a citizen of France, was arrested in August 2001 on immigration
charges after arousing the suspicion of a flight school in Minnesota, where he
had sought training on passenger planes.

He was charged in December 2001 with participating in a broad conspiracy with
other Qaeda members that resulted in the Sept. 11 attacks. While acknowledging
his support for Al Qaeda, he has insisted that he had no participation in
planning for the attacks.

* * *


November 15, 2003

QAEDA PAWN, U.S. CALLS HIM. VICTIM, HE CALLS HIMSELF.

By Clifford Krauss

MAHER ARAR has been back from Syria for five weeks now, with his wife and two
children in their simple apartment, earnestly pleading to all who will listen
that he is an innocent casualty of the Bush administration's war on terror.

As Mr. Arar tells it, American officials detained him on circumstantial evidence
during what was supposed to be a brief stopover at Kennedy Airport on Sept. 26,
2002. Within days, they packed him off to Syria where, he says, he was locked in
squalor and tortured for nearly a year. Though he holds dual Canadian and Syrian
citizenship, he had not lived in Syria for 16 years.

"After what happened, I started asking myself questions," Mr. Arar, 33, said in
a calm voice in an interview in his living room. "How can a country like the
United States send me to a country where they know torture is commonplace, where
they know there is no law?"

His story has proved deeply embarrassing to American officials, even if they
continue to insist, privately, that Mr. Arar is not just the mild-mannered
computer consultant he seems, but a man with ties to a probable cell of Al Qaeda
in Canada, though he has never been charged with a thing.

Whatever the truth, Mr. Arar's soft, steady voice has touched the conscience of
Canada and raised disturbing questions about whether Washington's pursuit of
terror suspects has trampled judicial due process, or swept up guiltless
bystanders.

In his short time home, Mr. Arar's sad, bearded face has become a staple of
Canadian television news shows. He has been the subject of newspaper editorials
and angry debate in the House of Commons, whose foreign affairs committee called
for a public investigation.

Today Mr. Arar appears a determined but shattered man. He says his limp comes
from almost a year of beatings and sleeping on a cold tile floor. Though he lost
40 pounds, he has little appetite. He still paces his living room, a habit he
picked up in his tiny cell.

At night, he wakes from nightmares in which a guard slaps him and tells him he
must return to Syria. In the day, his mind wanders to a world so distant he does
not hear his wife, Monia, pleading for him to return.

Bush administration officials concede that the entire episode has been a public
relations disaster. "The damage has been done," one official said. "We need to
say something because 'Arar' is going to become shorthand for excess in the name
of security, running roughshod over the rule of law."

While the administration has yet to make its case publicly, American officials
who spoke on condition of anonymity said the evidence was strong that Mr. Arar
had associated with suspected Islamic militants over a long period in Canada.
They say he confessed under torture in Syria that he had gone to Afghanistan for
terrorist training, named his instructors and gave other intimate details.

In the interview, Mr. Arar said that he would have said anything to stop his
beatings, so intense that he urinated on himself twice, and that he had never
been to Afghanistan or Syria or anywhere nearby since he came with his family to
Montreal at 17.

At least part of the evidence against him, he said, was a 1997 apartment lease
that was witnessed and signed by Abdullah Almalki, another Syrian-Canadian
immigrant suspected of having terrorist links.

American officials, Mr. Arar said, showed him a copy of the lease at the
airport, where he was to make a connecting flight on his way home from a
vacation in Tunisia, his wife's family home. His answer, he said, was that he
had wanted Mr. Almalki's brother to sign, but that he had not been available.

He said his request for a lawyer was ignored. Taken to the Metropolitan
Detention Center in Brooklyn, he said, he was strip-searched and given an
injection that prison officials refused to identify.

During his interrogations in Brooklyn, he said, he was asked about his politics.
"I had nothing to hide," he recalled, and said he told the Americans that he
supported the Palestinian cause but abhorred the tactics of Osama bin Laden. He
said in the interview that he had never associated with any radicals.

Mr. Arar said he pleaded with American officials not to send him to Syria for
fear he would be tortured. The officials said they had the discretion to deport
him to Canada or Syria, but did not explain why they chose Syria, or why they
did not keep him in the United States.

WITHIN two weeks of his detention, on Oct. 8, 2002, Mr. Arar said, he was put on
a private jet with Americans whom he described as C.I.A. agents. He was flown to
Amman, Jordan, where he was blindfolded, chained and put in a van destined for
Syria. His beatings began in the van, he said, and only intensified at the hands
of his Syrian captors, with thrashings on his palms, wrists, lower back and hip
with a cable.

Mr. Arar said he whiled away the days thinking about how his two young children
might be growing up, worrying about his family's financial well-being. He became
so desperate, he said, that he banged his head against the wall.

He was visited by Canadian consular officials, who told him there was not much
they could do because he was a dual citizen, he recalled. "During every visit, I
used to cry and say I want to go back to Canada," he said.

The Syrian government finally released him without explanation on Oct. 5. Syrian
officials say their investigators found no direct link between Mr. Arar and Al
Qaeda, and deny he was tortured.

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has rejected calls for a public inquiry into what
role the Royal Canadian Mounted Police played in handing over information to
American authorities that led to Mr. Arar's arrest.

An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell has asked Attorney General John Ashcroft and the director
of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, for a clarification of what happened.

For now, Mr. Arar's American lawyers are preparing a suit against the United
States as he tries to restore his life. "I look at life differently now," he
said. "I would never have imagined before that human beings could do such things
to other human beings."

Worst of all, he says, is knowing that he may never be able to bury the
suspicions that he is a Qaeda agent; he may never get his family off welfare and
restart his career.

Mr. Arar graduated from McGill University with a degree in computer engineering
and earned a master's in telecommunications from the National Institute of
Scientific Research in Montreal. He worked in Boston as an engineer at
MathWorks, a high-tech company, before setting up a consulting company in
Ottawa. Those achievements, he fears, may not mean much now.

"My life and career are destroyed," he said matter-of-factly. "To brand someone
as a terrorist after 9/11 -- I don't think it will be easy to return to normal
life."

* * *


November 12, 2003

ANALYSIS: GUANTANAMO CASE ABOUT FEDERAL TURF
By Linda Greenhouse

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/12/national/12SCOT.html?hp

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 -- In its decision to accept the Guantanamo Bay prisoners'
appeals despite the Bush administration's objections, the Supreme Court brushed
past the "judges keep out" fence the administration had tried to erect around
its open-ended detention policy.

No matter how the court eventually rules, that action alone may well come to
define a singular moment in the relationship between the White House and the
Supreme Court, two inherently powerful institutions that for the last several
years have been in alpha mode, each intent on exercising its power to the
maximum extent possible.

Though it may not have been clear that the court was ready to join the post-
Sept. 11 debate, it now appears that the administration laid down a challenge
the justices were unwilling to ignore. This was a moment long in coming: the
imperial presidency meets the imperial judiciary.

There were less confrontational ways for the administration to defend its view
that the Guantanamo policy does not violate any constitutional or statutory
rights. It could have defended the policy on its merits, taking the position
that the detainees are receiving all the due process to which they are entitled
under the circumstances and summoning the deference that the Supreme Court and
other courts have traditionally given to executive branch claims of military
necessity.

Or it could have defended the position it took successfully before the lower
courts -- that the federal courts have no jurisdiction over the detention of
foreigners held in military custody outside the country's borders -- while
conceding that this jurisdictional question was itself sufficiently important to
merit the Supreme Court's attention. Parties to Supreme Court cases, who have
won in the lower courts, do occasionally acquiesce to the court's review while
continuing to defend their victory.

Instead, the administration drew an uncompromising line at the threshold of the
entire debate, insisting in the brief filed by Solicitor General Theodore B.
Olson that these were not cases that the Supreme Court should even hear. The
implication was that there was nothing to discuss.

Yet the question of jurisdiction -- whether the courthouse doors are open to
various categories of cases and claimants -- goes to the heart of the Supreme
Court's role, as the court's critics as well as its friends have always
understood.

There have been periodic efforts in Congress to strip the federal courts of
jurisdiction over questions -- abortion, school busing for integration, prayer
in the classroom -- to which lawmakers think the courts are giving the wrong
answers. Senator Wayne Allard, Republican of Colorado, recently introduced a
bill to strip the lower federal courts of oversight on cases involving the
Pledge of Allegiance, display of the Ten Commandments on public property and
other touchy church-state questions.

Jurisdictional questions, in other words, lie not at the margins but at the core
of the judicial function. The question the justices framed on Monday for their
review of the Guantanamo cases -- "Whether United States courts lack
jurisdiction to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of foreign
nationals captured abroad in connection with hostilities and incarcerated at the
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba" -- may have appeared at first glance to reflect
only a technical or preliminary slice of the larger debate.

But to the justices, that is the question from which all else flows. If indeed
there is no jurisdiction -- if a 1950 precedent, issued in a quite different but
unmistakably related context, really means that the federal courts may not
review the Guantanamo detentions -- then it will be the Supreme Court and not
the White House that says so.

The administration's argument that the Supreme Court should not even hear the
cases was thus a direct challenge to the court's sense of itself, a battle
joined on the court's own most sacred ground.

"I'm surprised the administration chose to defend such a hard-line position,"
David A. Strauss, a former assistant solicitor general who now teaches at the
University of Chicago Law School, said on Tuesday. "It's almost as if they are
interested in vindicating an abstract point." Mr. Strauss signed one of the
"friend of the court" briefs urging the justices to accept the cases.

The administration's stance was consistent with its uncompromising position in
disputes with other branches of government. It refused a Congressional request
for information about the energy policy task force Vice President Dick Cheney
ran early in the administration, and recently appealed to the Supreme Court to
block a federal district judge's ruling that two outside groups, Judicial Watch
and the Sierra Club, were entitled to some information about the task force. The
administration characterizes the lower court's ruling as threatening to "violate
fundamental principles of the separation of powers."

As for the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, it has been
extremely jealous of its prerogative to "say what the law is," in the words of
the chief justice's judicial hero and predecessor 12 times removed, Chief
Justice John Marshall in the landmark case of Marbury v. Madison.

In a series of recent decisions, the court has made it clear that it regards
constitutional interpretation as an exercise for itself alone, not to be shared
with the other branches. In a recent article, two Yale law professors, Robert C.
Post and Reva B. Siegel, wrote that the court's current "juricentric" view of
its role departs substantially from recent tradition.

The battle over who gets the last word in this round may have little bearing on
the fate of the Guantanamo detainees. Even if the court finds jurisdiction, it
is highly unlikely that any federal judge would order a detainee's release over
military objections. But that does not diminish the importance of what happened
on Monday, when the Supreme Court could have turned away but decided, instead,
to decide.

* * *


November 11, 2003

CARTER: U.S. MISSTEPS EMBOLDEN DICTATORS

ATLANTA (AP) -- Perceived human rights violations by the United States during
the war on terrorism could allow dictators in other nations to justify their own
abuses, former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday.

Opening a conference of international human rights workers, the Nobel Peace
Prize winner said an erosion of civil liberties in the U.S. has "given a blank
check to nations who are inclined to violate human rights already."

He cited the indefinite detention of hundreds of terrorism suspects from
Afghanistan at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo and a post-Sept. 11 roundup of
roughly 1,200 U.S. immigrants -- many of whom were held for months without being
formally charged with any crime.

"I say this because this is a violation of the basic character of my country and
it's very disturbing to me," Carter said.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether foreigners held at the Navy
base in Cuba should have access to American courts. The Bush administration has
cited World War II-era laws stating that foreign prisoners detained during
wartime have no such right.

The conference, which began Tuesday at The Carter Center, attracted more than 40
human rights activists from across the world, including United Nations acting
High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertran Ramcharan. Attendees planned to craft
a document calling for renewed attention to human rights as nations draft anti-
terrorism laws.

Saad Ibrahim, a professor at the American University in Cairo who was jailed for
seven years after exposing fraud in the Egyptian election process, said the
United States' actions cast a long shadow over the rest of the globe.

"Every dictator in the world is using what the United States has done under the
Patriot Act ... to justify their past violations of human rights and to declare
a license to continue to violate human rights."

The Bush administration is asking Congress to further expand the Patriot Act,
which expanded government's surveillance and detention power. Attorney General
John Ashcroft says the law has helped prevent more terrorist attacks.

The Patriot Act was passed overwhelmingly by Congress after Sept. 11 but has
been under attack by liberals and even many conservatives who say the law
intrudes too much into Americans' lives in the name of fighting terror.

Democrats have been trying to build support in the Senate to rolling back
portions of the law, and some Republicans say it needs to be changed.

* * *


November 11, 2003

SPANIARD CRITICIZES U.S. OVER GUANTANAMO

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- In a rare admonishment of the United States, Spain's
foreign minister said Tuesday the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects at
the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay was a "major error."

Foreign Minister Ana Palacio told Spanish television channel Telecinco she hoped
the U.S. Supreme Court would "open a path" that would remove the prisoners from
"legal limbo." Palacio, along with the governing Popular Party, is known for her
consistent support of the Bush administration and its war on terror.

The minister spoke one day after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal
asking whether foreigners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba may contest their
captivity in American courts.

The case concerns more than 650 prisoners held essentially incommunicado at
Guantanamo Bay following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Bush
administration maintains that because the men were picked up overseas on
suspicion of terrorism and are being held on foreign land, they may be detained
indefinitely without charges or trial.

Palacio said the Spanish government had been "very clear" on its position on the
Guantanamo Bay detainees.

She said authorities were in contact with a Spanish national held at Guantanamo
Bay for suspected ties with al-Qaida, and were conducting "a critical dialogue"
with the American authorities.

Palacio told Telecinco that a U.S. delegation would travel to Madrid in the
coming days to meet with Spanish officials "to see what solution can be found"
in the case of the Spaniard because "this situation cannot continue."

* * *


November 5, 2003

DEATH BY OPTIMISM

By Nicholas D. Kristof
nicholas@nytimes.com

In a visit to Saddam's Iraq a year ago, I wrote a column that outraged his
government. It described officials burning a Muslim leader's beard and then
driving nails through his head.

The next day I was summoned to a government ministry and menacingly denounced by
two of Saddam's henchmen. But neither man could speak English, and they hadn't
actually read the offending column. (Imagine officials who don't read papers but
rely on underlings for briefings!)

At that point, my government minder took my column and translated it for them. I
saw my life flash before my eyes. But my minder's job was to spy on me, and he
worried that my tough column would reflect badly on his spying. Plus, he was
charging me $100 a day, and he would lose a fortune if I was expelled, or worse.

So he translated my column very selectively. There was no mention of burning
beards or nails in heads. He left out whole paragraphs. When he finished, the
two senior officials shrugged and let me off scot-free.

That episode underscored to me how difficult it was for Saddam's government to
get accurate information. Ultimately, Saddam's rule collapsed in part because he
couldn't read Iraq and made decisions based on hubris and bad information.

These days, President Bush and his aides are having the same problem. Critics
complain that they lied to the American public about how difficult the war would
be, but I fear the critics are wrong: they didn't just fool us -- they also
fooled themselves.

Evidence suggests that Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney may have actually believed that
our troops would be, as Mr. Cheney predicted, "greeted as liberators." The
administration chose to rely not on intelligence but on wishful thinking, and it
became intoxicated by the siren calls of Ahmad Chalabi, a silver-tongued
charlatan.

I wish administration officials were lying, because I would prefer hypocrisy to
delusion -- at least hypocritical officials make decisions with accurate
information.

Policy by wishful thinking is crippling our occupation. Initially, U.S.
officials didn't restrain looting because they regarded it as celebratory high
jinks. Then, confident that security was in hand, they disbanded the Iraqi Army.
They didn't push hard to bring in international forces.

The foreign forces they suggest introducing are Turks, which adds to my fear
that administration officials have been more deluded than duplicitous. It is a
crazy scheme: anyone who has spent time in Iraq knows that Iraqis will never
accept their former colonial power policing them.

Mr. Cheney has cited a Zogby International poll to back his claim that there is
"very positive news" in Iraq. But the pollster, John Zogby, told me, "I was
floored to see the spin that was put on it; some of the numbers were not my
numbers at all."

Mr. Cheney claimed that Iraqis chose the U.S. as their model for democracy
"hands down," and he and other officials say that a majority want American
troops to stay at least another year. In fact, Mr. Zogby said, only 23 percent
favor the U.S. democratic model, and 65 percent want the U.S. to leave in a year
or less.

"I am not willing to say they lied," Mr. Zogby said. "But they used a very tight
process of selective screening, and when they didn't get what they wanted they
were willing to manufacture some results. . . . There was almost nothing in that
poll to give them comfort."

Sure, we're making some progress in Iraq. A hand grenade sells for $2.50 now,
compared with 10 cents a few months ago. But U.S. troops now face 25 to 30
attacks daily, compared with 15 to 20 in September. Last month 33 Americans were
killed, twice as many as in September.

One of Mr. Bush's strengths as a politician is his optimistic nature, but I now
fear it is also his central weakness in governing. Reckless overconfidence led
him to adopt fiscal policies that will leave our children indebted, and this
same cockiness led us into Iraq. Brash optimism perhaps has its roots in Mr.
Bush's hometown, Midland, Tex., an oil town that regularly rewarded hard work
with a gusher, a place where everybody you meet displays this same hearty can-do
confidence. In Midland, Mr. Bush unfortunately absorbed the lesson that risks in
the desert pay off.

So the scary thing is, Mr. Bush and his aides may not be lying when they look at
Iraq and boast of a cheering population that a Western press sourly refuses to
acknowledge. There's a precedent: Saddam Hussein.

* * *


October 26, 2003

SUPREME COURT BIDES TIME IN TERROR CASES

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has stayed out of judging the Bush
administration's terrorism-fighting strategy, but that soon could change.

Lower courts have kept busy with challenges to the imprisonment of "enemy
combatants" in the United States, government spying, secrecy about immigrants
arrested after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the detention of terrorism suspects in
Cuba.

Several justices have said they eventually expect to take cases related to the
fight against terrorism.

"It's going to get harder and harder I think for the Supreme Court to stay out
of these," American Civil Liberties Union legal director Steven Shapiro said.

The justices' next chance comes early in November, when the court is expected to
announce whether it will review cases involving the detention of foreigners at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

About 660 men from some 40 countries, mostly said to be al-Qaida and Taliban
foot soldiers, have been held for as long as two years without access to
lawyers.

Dozens of heavy-hitters -- former ambassadors and judges, retired military
officers, ex-prisoners of war, human rights groups, foreign leaders -- want the
court to hear appeals filed on the prisoners' behalf.

Three terrorist-related appeals were rejected by justices last spring without
explanation, but the cases were not as sweeping as those now at or near the high
court's doorstep.

The court is warned in filings that America's international reputation is at
stake, as well as the safety of U.S. soldiers who might find themselves detained
by another country.

The court has selected most of the cases it will hear this term, but could add
at least one terrorism appeal to its docket.

Three pending appeals give the court its best opportunity:

--The Guantanamo cases, which ask if U.S. courts can consider whether the
detentions violate international law and are unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the terror suspects held in
Cuba have no right to hearings in American courts because they are foreigners
being held in a foreign land.

--An appeal on behalf of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a 22-year-old U.S.-born man who lived
most of his life in Saudi Arabia. He was captured during the fighting in
Afghanistan and is now held in America. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
said U.S. citizens captured overseas could be treated as enemy combatants, who
may be detained without access to courts, lawyers and sometimes even their
families.

--A challenge to the government's refusal to release names and other details
about hundreds of foreigners detained in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The appeals courts in Washington, D.C., said the disclosure could help
terrorists.

When the Supreme Court does agree to hear a terror case, it walks into a murky
area of court oversight of executive branch decision-making. The Bush
administration has successfully maintained in most lower courts that judges lack
the power to second-guess the government's wartime decisions.

Even more difficult, the court would be forced to revisit precedent set in a
series of World War II-era cases that gave the executive branch broad power to
do what it wants in such a crisis. For example, a 1944 ruling upheld holding
100,000 Japanese-Americans in camps during World War II.

The administration's Supreme Court lawyer, Theodore Olson, told justices in a
filing that the Guantanamo appeal "challenges the president's military
detentions while American soldiers and their allies are still engaged in armed
conflict overseas against an unprincipled, unconventional, and savage foe."

The detainees have been classified enemy combatants and are being interrogated
for information about terrorism. Critics argue that without court oversight,
they could be held forever.

"The war on terror may go on for decades, and we will not know, at the time,
when it is finally over. This war will not end with a surrender ceremony,"
Chicago lawyer James Schroeder wrote in a filing on behalf of three retired
military leaders. They are two former Navy Judge Advocate Generals -- Rear Adms.
Donald Guter and John Hutson -- and Marine Brig. Gen. David Brahms, who was a
legal adviser on prisoner-of-war matters.

Most Supreme Court watchers say the question is when, not if, the court will
step in.

Scott Silliman, director of Duke University's Center on Law, Ethics and National
Security, predicts the court will bypass the Guantanamo appeals, viewing them as
more political than legal.

But he said justices may be inclined to consider an after-the-fact challenge to
a military trial of an enemy combatant, which so far has not happened, or review
the government's treatment of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member accused
of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb.

Among the cases that have not reached the court yet are those attacking the USA
Patriot Act. The law gives the government wide-ranging search and seizure
powers, allowing the FBI to secretly obtain records from organizations including
libraries.

* * *


October 25, 2003

To the Editor:

Re "Swift-Footed W.," by Nicholas D. Kristof (column, Oct. 22):

Not only do I agree with Mr. Kristof's sentiment, but his use of classical Greek
literature to make his point also gladdened my heart. For years I've been
teaching my students that the past shouts across time to us, that the classics,
especially Homer, are the bedrock of Western civilization, if for no other
reason than that they give us a shorthand of common experience.

Here's another ancient comment on American policy in Iraq. It's from Aristotle's
"Politics": "For a state with a body of disfranchised citizens who are numerous
and poor must necessarily be a state which is full of enemies."

JOSHUA B. STEIN
Bristol, R.I., Oct. 22, 2003
The writer is a professor of history at Roger Williams University.

*

To the Editor:

Classical allusions are a weakness of mine, so I enjoyed Nicholas D. Kristof's
Oct. 22 column on Homer.

Mr. Kristof argues that "Homer's most powerful lessons" for President Bush
"include the need to restrain hubris, to cooperate with allies, to engage the
real world rather than black-and-white caricatures."

There are two other lessons that, arguably, override the ones Mr. Kristof
listed: that when faced with unacceptable behavior by an enemy, sometimes even
peaceable leaders may find that the only reasonable option is to take up arms;
and that sometimes, despite the best of plans, the gods will see fit to trip
them up for the simple pleasure of watching the resulting chaos.

PAUL HIGGINS
Madison, Wis., Oct. 22, 2003

*

To the Editor:

"Afghanistan was a brilliantly executed war," Nicholas D. Kristof says in
"Swift-Footed W." (column, Oct. 22). In Afghanistan, we had the opportunity to
invade in force, surround Al Qaeda and put an end to that organization. Instead,
we sent in a small force, paid local warlords to do our fighting and watched
helplessly as they allowed Al Qaeda to slip across the border into Pakistan.
Where's the brilliance?

WILLIAM SLATTERY
Los Angeles, Oct. 22, 2003

* * *


October 24, 2003

LAWYER SAYS CHAPLAIN CASE DELAY SOUGHT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Military prosecutors claim they are so overworked they need
to delay proceedings against a Muslim chaplain accused of mishandling secrets at
the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorist suspects, the chaplain's lawyer said
Friday.

Military speedy trial rules require hearings for Capt. James Yee by Dec. 10,
defense lawyer Eugene Fidell said. No hearings have been scheduled, and military
prosecutors want that deadline delayed by another 45 days, Fidell said.

"Among other things, they say they don't have the resources to pursue the case,"
said Fidell, a civilian expert in military law. "We have objected to any
delays."

Military spokesman Raul Duany said Friday he could not confirm that prosecutors
had asked for a delay.

Duany, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command, said Guantanamo Bay commander Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey C. Miller will decide whether to drop the charges, hold
proceedings against Yee in Guantanamo or send the case to Southern Command
officials for consideration of a general court-martial.

Yee, who also has used the first name Yousef, is charged with two counts of
mishandling classified information from the prison for terrorism suspects at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The 35-year-old chaplain is being held in solitary
confinement at a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

Yee is one of three people to be charged with alleged security breaches at
Guantanamo Bay. About 660 suspected members of al-Qaida and the Taliban from
more than 40 countries are being held at the Navy base.

Military authorities arrested Yee Sept. 10 as he arrived in Jacksonville, Fla.,
on a flight from Guantanamo Bay. He's charged with carrying classified documents
to his home at the base in Cuba and with him on the flight to Florida. Each
count carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a bad conduct
discharge.

Fidell said Yee's lawyers have asked Miller to release the Muslim chaplain from
prison.

"The notion that you would keep an officer in maximum security based on these
charges is preposterous," Fidell said.

Yee is scheduled to have visits from relatives for the first time this weekend,
Fidell said. He has been allowed to read only the Quran, Fidell said.

Two other former workers at the prison have been arrested. A former Air Force
interpreter, Senior Airman Ahmed I. al Halabi, faces more than 30 charges,
including espionage and aiding the enemy. He has pleaded innocent.

A civilian interpreter, Ahmad F. Mehalba, was arrested last month in Boston
while returning to the United States from his native Egypt. He's charged with
lying to federal agents by denying computer discs he was carrying had classified
information from Guantanamo on them. Mehalba also has pleaded innocent.

* * *


October 23, 2003

BLAIR PUSHING FOR GUANTANAMO RESOLUTION

LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday he expected to resolve
differences with the United States over the detention of nine Britons at
Guantanamo Bay "within the next few weeks."

"It's a question of, as I said in the House of Commons yesterday, either you get
a trial of these people which we can be satisfied meets the obligations that
we've got, or alternatively they will come back here," Blair told a news
conference.

The fate of the terrorism suspects held without charge or access to lawyers at
the U.S. base in eastern Cuba has been a sticking point between close allies
Britain and America for months.

Nine Britons are among the 660 people held at the Caribbean prison camp. The
United States agreed in July to suspend legal action against them while
officials discussed concerns about planned military tribunals.

Britain and other nations whose citizens are being held -- some for as long as
two years -- have raised concerns about the military courts and about possible
death penalties.

"I think we are going to bring this to closure one way or the other within the
next few weeks," Blair said at a monthly news conference at his 10 Downing St.
office.

The prime minister emphasized that those held at Guantanamo had to be handled
carefully because they could pose a danger to Britain's national security

"The people who are out in Guantanamo Bay are people that got there via a
particular process," he said. "I just ask people to be a little understanding of
the fact that there are also issues to do with our national security."

International impatience has been growing over the slow pace of deciding what to
do with the detainees.

American and Afghan forces began capturing prisoners shortly after the war
against al-Qaida started in Afghanistan in October 2001. They began transferring
them to Guantanamo in January 2002.

Two Britons -- Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg -- were among six suspects whom
President Bush said in July were possible candidates for military tribunals. The
trials were put on hold almost immediately when Britain asked for negotiations
on the rules.

* * *


October 23, 2003

BUSH SAYS AUSTRALIA AL QAEDA SUSPECTS WELL TREATED

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Two Australian al Qaeda suspects held at a U.S. naval base
in Cuba were being properly cared for and would be dealt with according to
United States rules and regulations, President Bush said on Thursday.

Bush said it was "utterly ridiculous" for anyone to suggest Australians David
Hicks and Mamdouh Habib were being tortured at Guantanamo Bay, where the pair
have been held since late 2001 along with around 600 other detainees.

"There is an ongoing process to deal with these two people who were picked up
off a battlefield of war," Bush told reporters while having his photograph taken
with Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the Australian parliament.

Hicks was captured fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan in November 2001.
Habib was not arrested in battle, but seized as he crossed from Pakistan into
Afghanistan in October 2001, three weeks after the September 11 attacks in
Washington and New York.

"The prime minister and I have talked about the procedures and I assured him
these people will be taken care of in a way that conforms with our rules and
regulations," Bush said.

But this was of no comfort to Mamdouh Habib's wife, Maha, and her 18-year-old
son Ahmed, who were in parliament in Canberra to hear Bush's address earlier on
Thursday.

"I was hoping to achieve something today, but unfortunately I was really
disappointed that Mr George Bush was saying wonderful things about freedom,
democracy, justice and dignity but where does my husband stand," a tired and
pale Maha told reporters.

NO SYMPATHY

Maha, a mother-of-four, had written a letter to the president pleading for the
return of her husband. Greens politician Kerry Nettle unsuccessfully tried to
deliver it to Bush as he left the parliament following his address.

"It has affected (my family) so much from my eldest one who is 18 to my youngest
one who is three and three months -- she doesn't even know her father, she only
knows him from when she sees him on television," Maha said.

Brown and Nettle disrupted Bush's speech, asking for Hicks and Habib to be
returned and for the United States not to bully Australia into an unfair free
trade deal. Ahmed was dragged out of the public gallery by security guards after
yelling out.

"Hey Bush, what about my dad?" he stood and yelled, before security guards
removed him with his arms pinned behind his back.

Following Bush's speech, parliament voted to suspend Brown and Nettle from
parliament for 24 hours, which will bar them on Friday when Chinese President Hu
Jintao addresses the parliament during a three-day trip.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told television on Thursday that Australia was
currently holding talks with the United States about Hicks and Habib, but said
he did not feel "overly sympathetic" toward the pair.

"These two people...are people who are detained as combatants and illegal
combatants in the war against terrorism. These are people who are supporting al
Qaeda and the Taliban...that doesn't elicit from me a great deal of sympathy,"
Downer said.

* * *


October 22, 2003

SWIFT-FOOTED W.

By Nicholas D. Kristof

On the eve of our invasion of Iraq, I went to ancient Troy in Turkey. It's a
haunting spot, quiet and deserted, though if you scrunch up your eyes you may
still catch a glimpse of Helen on the walls. Those walls include a gate that
shows signs of having been widened -- or so my guide claimed, probably
fancifully -- as if to accommodate a giant wooden horse.

At the time, I wrote about the lessons of the Trojan War for Iraq, but now I
find my mind wandering back to Troy again. Homer seems even more relevant today:
In "The Iliad," he describes how the Greeks are sapped by a prolonged, dreary,
unnecessary conflict that does not go nearly as well as it was supposed to,
partly because their leader antagonizes his allies. And in "The Odyssey," we
have a king who inherited his throne and whose arrogance and impulsiveness cost
the lives of his soldiers.

"The Iliad" is the greatest war story ever told, but it's not fundamentally
about war -- after all, it never mentions the Trojan horse and covers only a few
weeks in a war that lasted 10 years. No, "The Iliad" is ultimately not about war
but rather about how great men confront tragedy, learn moderation and become
wise.

In case "The Iliad" isn't lying around the Oval Office, let me recap for our
warriors in Washington. Achilles is both the mightiest warrior and a petulant,
self-righteous, arrogant figure. A unilateralist, he refuses to consult with
allies; he dismisses intelligence about his own vulnerability; he never reads
the newspapers.

So the Greeks are nearly defeated, and while Achilles sulks in his tent, his
dearest friend, Patroclus, is killed. Then the impulsive Achilles careers into
action and overdoes it in the other direction, desecrating Hector's body, but in
the end he returns to his tent, calms down and shows a new sense of his own
limits, a new compassion, a new moderation and a new wisdom.

That is a constant theme in the classics: ancient heroes like Achilles and
Odysseus do not avoid mistakes, but they learn from them. Through their errors,
they come to understand moral nuance as well as moral clarity, and to appreciate
moderation. Indeed, the subtitle for "The Iliad" could be "Achilles Grows Up."

Unfortunately, until recently this administration hasn't shown much signs of
growing. Yet over the last few weeks, there have been a few hints of a rosy-
fingered dawn, signs that President Bush may be learning from his mistakes and
moderating his impulsiveness. I'm hoping that's the case, and it's reassuring to
remember what happened in the last electoral cycle: Mr. Bush turned his campaign
upside-down after his loss to John McCain in New Hampshire in 2000.

It helps that Mr. Bush has made plenty of mistakes to learn from. Just look
around the globe:

Afghanistan was a brilliantly executed war, but the peace was flubbed because of
a failure to provide security outside Kabul. Iraq was a well-planned war and an
unplanned peace. A refusal to negotiate with North Korea led it to ramp up its
nuclear production lines. And haughtiness (the same problem Achilles had) has
nurtured more anti-Americanism than Al Qaeda ever did.

The clearest sign of a new willingness to learn from error is Mr. Bush's
pirouette on North Korea. Mr. Bush has now abandoned his position that we will
not negotiate with North Korea until it gives up its nuclear programs. While it
may be too late to reach a deal, he is taking the first steps toward
constructive diplomacy by discussing a security guarantee for North Korea.

Then we have the White House's seizing control over Iraq policy from the
Pentagon ideologues. That's potentially a very important shift because it
empowers pragmatists like Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, who, unlike the
civilian leaders at the Pentagon, don't filter all information through
ideological sieves.

To pursue the classical parallel, Don Rumsfeld can be compared to Ajax, the
Greek warrior who had great force projection -- but was so deluded that he laid
waste to what he perceived to be his enemies and turned out to be a herd of
cattle. (But a prominent classics scholar called the comparison daft, noting
that Ajax "has such nobility of spirit.")

Homer's most powerful lessons include the need to restrain hubris, to cooperate
with allies, to engage the real world rather than black-and-white caricatures.
If Achilles and Odysseus can learn those lessons, maybe there's hope for Mr.
Rumsfeld or even the mighty Mr. Bush.

* * *


October 21, 2003

GUANTANAMO TROOPS MUST SURRENDER LAPTOPS

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Guantanamo troops are being ordered to surrender
their laptop computers for security sweeps 72 hours before leaving the U.S. base
in Cuba, officials said Tuesday.

The new security precautions were announced as a team of military investigators
wrapped up their assessment of security gaps at the Guantanamo base where 660
suspected terrorists are being held.

The team arrived earlier this month after two interpreters and a Muslim chaplain
were arrested on charges ranging from espionage to disobeying orders. Other
security precautions were expected after the team briefed military officials at
the base this week.

"We all recognize it's a necessary process," said Army Lt. Col. Pamela Hart,
detention mission spokeswoman. "There haven't been any complaints."

Troops in the Joint Task Force, responsible for the detention mission, have been
asked to surrender laptops they own and other personal items such as electronic
organizers before departing the base. If the items clear inspection, they will
be returned to the troops at the airport terminal.

Inspectors will be searching for classified materials or other documents meant
to stay on the base. All personal information -- including e-mails or pictures
-- can be viewed by inspectors.

"Everything on the hard drive would be accessible for security personnel to look
at," Hart said.

Translator Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, 31, was arrested last month and accused of
making a false statement to U.S. Customs officials and FBI agents when they
asked him if he had any classified information.

A review of one compact disc found 368 documents labeled "SECRET" or "SECRET/NO
FORN," and officials later determined they were classified.

Mehalba had security clearance to see classified documents through his job as a
translator at Guantanamo.

Another Arabic translator, Air Force Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, has been
charged with espionage and aiding an unspecified enemy. A Muslim chaplain, Army
Capt. Yousef Yee, has been charged with disobeying orders for improperly
handling classified information.

* * *


October 21, 2003

GUANTANAMO INMATES CONCERN RIGHTS GROUPS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon won't say how many prisoners it holds at the
U.S. jail for terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The State Department
won't estimate the prospects that other nations will take inmates home and deal
with them themselves.

Two years after a U.S.-led coalition began capturing suspects in the war on
terror, international impatience is growing over the pace of progress at
Guantanamo.

"The word that occurs to me is stalled. It has stalled," Amnesty International's
Alistair Hodgett said.

Diplomats of countries whose citizens are being held suggest U.S. officials have
been sidetracked by their own problem -- an investigation of possible espionage
by prison staff at the U.S. Navy facility.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross says the mental health
of a large number of inmates is deteriorating. The organization didn't give
numbers, nor does the Pentagon, saying only there are "about 660" inmates.

Senior U.S. officials deny progress is stalled. They say authorities are working
quickly to determine which prisoners will be prosecuted in U.S. military
tribunals and who will be released, held indefinitely or sent to their own
countries for trial or continued detention.

President Bush has said his administration is talking with several countries.
The effort is being expedited, but the public is unaware of it, according to one
official speaking on condition of anonymity.

Six months ago, authorities appeared to be making strides.

Dozens of cases were resolved after Secretary of State Colin Powell complained
to the Defense Department that allies were being alienated over the long
detentions of their citizens, without charges or benefit of lawyers. From May to
early July, 40 detainees were freed, most to Afghanistan. In addition, four
Saudis went home for continued detention.

Despite a statement in August that three juveniles would be recommended for
release "very soon," they remain imprisoned. There are no other cases known to
have been resolved in nearly three months.

In July, Bush announced he'd chosen six possible candidates for military
tribunals. But the trials were put on hold almost immediately when Britain
sought negotiations on tribunal rules, written by the Pentagon and decried as
unfair by U.S. friends and critics alike.

The prisoners come from some 40 countries, and several foreign governments have
said publicly that they're willing to take their citizens home to prosecute.
Some say they're pressing to resolve the cases, but what that means is unclear
since few give details about talks with Washington.

Legal experts say repatriation is turning out to be difficult. They say the
United States will have a hard time sending many detainees back to their home
countries because they don't have laws under which to prosecute the men, mostly
said to be al-Qaida and Taliban foot soldiers. The long detentions and repeated
interrogations without attorneys will make trials impossible in some places as
well, lawyers say.

American and Afghan forces began capturing prisoners shortly after the war
against al-Qaida started in Afghanistan in October 2001. They began transferring
them to Guantanamo in January 2002.

The detainees are questioned for information on any future terrorist attacks.
Releases are possible for those whom officials decide won't be prosecuted, those
no longer a threat and those no longer useful for intelligence, officials have
said.

Officials complained last year that it took months to make headway in
interrogations because of prisoner stonewalling and deception.

Cases are being reviewed by agencies including the Justice and State
departments, the Pentagon, the CIA and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services -- each with its own interests.

In addition, the espionage investigation, which involved the arrests of two
translators, forced U.S. officials to review past interrogations for fear they
may have been tainted.

Human rights groups said they want the prisoners tried or released. They said
they also want inmates told when to expect some decisions.

And the Red Cross took the unusual step in recent months of publicly airing its
concerns.

"After more than eighteen months of captivity, the internees still have no idea
about their fate, and no means of recourse through any legal mechanism," the Red
Cross said.

* * *


Letter sent by Charles Gittings to the NY Times:

October 16, 2003

Re "The American Prison Camp" (editorial, Oct. 16):

I agree with your general position on Guantanamo, but you are mistaken here:

    "The Bush administration has two justifications. One is, in essence, self-
    defense: in the war on terrorism, in which the security of the United States
    is in mortal danger, normal rules cannot apply. The other, more narrow, is
    about legality: the Taliban and Al Qaeda are not combatants in traditional
    or legal terms, and are therefore not eligible for the protections due to
    prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.

    "Both arguments miss the point."

In fact, both are false.  The first is a non-sequitur, the second is a fraud,
and it is you who are missing the point:

The truth is that the US government is committing grave breaches of the Geneva
Conventions, and any such breach is a violation of 18 USC 2441, The War Crimes
Act of 1996. The statute applies both inside and outside the United States,
which includes Guantanamo Bay and every other place on Earth. The Times and the
rest of the news media have largely failed to notice that the statute even
exists.

It's time to quit mincing words over these crimes and report the facts fully and
accurately.

Charles Gittings
Oakland, California

* * *


October 16, 2003

Editorial

THE AMERICAN PRISON CAMP

The International Committee of the Red Cross recently took the unusual step of
publicly criticizing the United States over the confinement of the roughly 660
detainees at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. After visiting the base, Red
Cross officials said there was a "worrying deterioration" in the mental
condition of the detainees, largely because they have no idea how long they will
be held or what will happen to them.

Other reports are equally dismaying: there have been 32 suicide attempts by 27
detainees. And while it is true that there have been recent, worrying reports
about infiltration -- three staff members, a Muslim chaplain and two Arabic
interpreters, have been charged with crimes ranging from disobeying orders to
espionage -- this does not relieve the administration of the obligation to treat
the detainees with justice.

Why are the men still without trial, still without rights? The Bush
administration has two justifications. One is, in essence, self-defense: in the
war on terrorism, in which the security of the United States is in mortal
danger, normal rules cannot apply. The other, more narrow, is about legality:
the Taliban and Al Qaeda are not combatants in traditional or legal terms, and
are therefore not eligible for the protections due to prisoners of war under the
Geneva Conventions.

Both arguments miss the point. The men held at Guantanamo are prisoners of the
United States. While they may not have the same rights as American citizens,
they should be treated in the highest tradition of American justice. That means
they must be given some forum in which to contest their imprisonment, and there
must be reasonable rules and some individualized proof for the detentions to be
upheld.

That the Pentagon should be allowed to run this prison camp in total secrecy and
in utter disdain of what America stands for should be heavy on the conscience of
all Americans, whether libertarian or liberal, Republican or Democrat. For this
reason alone, the detainees should be brought to justice or released.

The justifications offered by the administration are equally unpersuasive. The
argument that the detainees are not prisoners of war because they are not
uniformed members of a regular armed force has no foundation in the Geneva
Conventions.

As for the claim of self-defense, it simply cannot be applied indefinitely. We
accept that there are extraordinary times -- Sept. 11 was one of them -- when a
government must take extraordinary measures to protect the nation. But with
Guantanamo, the administration has gone far beyond the needs of the moment,
seeking to ensure in every way possible that the prisoners remain indefinitely
beyond the reach of law or scrutiny.

* * *


October 15, 2003

GUANTANAMO TRANSLATOR HAD HUNDREDS OF SECRET FILES

By Reuters

WORCESTER, Mass. (Reuters) - A civilian translator at the Guantanamo Bay prison
camp for al Qaeda and Taliban suspects had hundreds of documents labeled
"secret" in his possession when he was arrested last month, an FBI agent said
on Wednesday.

Prosecutors have accused Ahmed Fathy Mehalba of lying to federal officials about
classified information he was carrying on Sept. 29 when he arrived in the United
States from Egypt, where he had been visiting relatives.

The arrest of Mehalba, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Egyptian descent, brought
to three the number of people detained after being assigned to work at the U.S.
naval base in Cuba where more than 650 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members
are held without being charged.

At a probable cause hearing before a federal magistrate judge in Worcester,
Massachusetts, FBI Special Agent John Van Kleeff testified that government
computer experts had since determined that 368 of 725 files found on a computer
disc in Mehalba's possession were labeled "secret."

Some of those 368 files were also labeled "secret/noforn" -- a security term
that means no representative of a foreign government is allowed to see the
contents, Van Kleeff said in reply to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ricciuti.

Neither Van Kleeff nor Ricciuti described in more detail what information was
contained in the "secret" files, which were found alongside personal documents
stored on one of more than 130 computer discs Mehalba was carrying when arrested
at Boston's Logan International Airport.

ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

Mehalba was charged with making false statements after he initially told customs
agents he was not carrying classified information when he arrived in Boston. The
agents then found files on the disc suggesting otherwise.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Swartwood said he would determine by the end of
the week whether there was probable cause for charging Mehalba, who is being
held without bail. If convicted on the charge, Mehalba faces a maximum penalty
of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Both prosecutors and Mehalba's attorney, Michael Andrews, agree that the
Egyptian-born linguist had access to a wide range of classified information as
part of his work at Guantanamo Bay.

However, Ricciuti submitted into evidence several security clearance forms
signed by Mehalba indicating the translator knew he was not authorized to travel
with such information.

"He was well-advised of the rules regarding disclosure of (classified)
information," Ricciuti told the court. "This disc is his own (and had) a huge
amount of classified information on it."

Andrews said Mehalba does not know how the information came to be stored on the
disc and was "shocked and surprised" when customs agents found it.

Speaking with reporters after the hearing, Andrews said it is possible Mehalba
may have "unknowingly" stored the information on the disc when backing up the
hard drive of his personal computer, which he sold earlier this year.

Van Kleeff testified that government computer experts had since recovered
Mehalba's old computer and found classified documents stored on its hard drive.

The Boston Globe reported earlier this month that the names of suspected
terrorists were among the classified information found on the disc, and that
federal investigators are trying to track Mehalba's movements over the past two
months to see if he may have shared the information.

* * *


October 12, 2003

NY Times Magazine Essay

MINISTERING TO THE ENEMY
By Ted Conover

There are serious charges laid out in the case against Senior Airman Ahmad I.
al- Halabi, the Air Force translator at the Guantanamo prison camp -- among them
espionage, punishable by death. But the charge that stands out is unlawfully
delivering baklava to detainees. Apparently, al-Halabi was being nice to these
people. Apparently, he liked some of them. And this, in the eyes of military
prosecutors, stands as damning evidence. Al-Halabi showed sympathy for the
Devil. As did, supposedly, Capt. James J. Yee of the Army, the West Point
graduate who served as Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo during some of the same
period that al-Halabi was a translator. Yee told me that he had arranged for
detainees to be served dates during Ramadan, a traditional way to break the
daily fast. But he did it officially, and that, I imagine, is why he could admit
to it. We don't know yet what Yee is accused of having done wrong.

Of the nearly three dozen soldiers made accessible for interviews during my
visit to Guantanamo in the spring, I thought that Captain Yee would prove to be
far and away the most interesting. A Muslim chaplain at a U.S. military prison
filled with Muslims, he would know more about the prisoners than practically
anybody there, I thought. And yet he was one of us. I imagined a fascinating
figure who occupied the no man's land between Us and Them, one of only 12 Muslim
chaplains in the entire U.S. military. But the conversation was a
disappointment. Was he Sunni or Shiite? I asked. "I'm a Muslim," he replied
curtly. Didn't the detainees want to know? He ignored the question and said,
"Chaplain is the most preferred title of what I do here . . . facilitator of
worship." Did he speak Arabic well enough to converse with the detainees? He
spoke just a little, he replied: "But we have a whole section of linguists --
they do a great job. I work very closely with them." What about their anger
toward the United States -- the belief that we're against Islam. Did that make
it difficult to minister to them? Yee didn't seem to understand. I repeated the
question: Was it hard to act as imam when you represent the Man? "It doesn't
prevent me from doing what I have to do," he said blandly. Exasperated by his
stiffness, I finally commented on it. Yee looked at the first lieutenant from
the press office, who had been monitoring the meeting, and both of them laughed.
"I'm a good interview, huh?" Yee said to him, to my chagrin.

The job of translator may seem more mundane than that of chaplain, but if I were
to write a play about Camp Delta, I would make a translator the main character.
Both al-Halabi and Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, the civilian translator arrested after
him, stood at the immediate interface between Us and Them. This is because,
besides being a detention camp, Guantanamo is an "interrogation mission" -- and
the hundreds of intelligence personnel at the base, the scores of interrogators,
need translators in order to speak with the prisoners. Imagine this job: your
boss is the interrogator, but in some significant way you have more in common
with the prisoner. In addition, you perhaps mean more to the prisoner than you
do to the interrogator: you are one of his few links to the outside world. Over
the past 21 months, detainees have been subject to interrogation not just by
U.S. military intelligence but also by the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Justice
Department, the State Department, the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
representatives from at least 16 friendly countries -- even the N.Y.P.D.
Translators must know certain prisoners' answers to particular questions before
the interrogator is even finished asking them. What translator, then, might not
feel twinges of sympathy for the prisoner, for so many devout brother Muslims
locked up for so long without any adjudication, so far from home and family?
Though these men, so hateful of our country, may not deserve sympathy, it seems
that at Guantanamo we have created precisely the kind of conditions most likely
to elicit it.

I spoke with Captain Yee only once and never met al-Halabi or Mehalba. But the
situation of all three reminded me of another American Muslim I met, in
Lackawanna, N.Y. Lackawanna, of course, is the suburb of Buffalo from which hail
a handful of young men who a year after 9/11 were discovered by the government
to have spent time at a camp for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan the preceding summer.
My acquaintance -- who does not wish to be named -- proudly served in the U.S.
military during the first gulf war and organized an American flag-raising in
Lackawanna after 9/11. He is also a devout Muslim. It pained him to learn what
his childhood friends had done, made this "knuckleheaded trip" inspired by
another neighborhood kid who returned from a stay in Yemen a religious zealot.
But he was dismayed to see the way federal agents then stormed through his
neighborhood, roughed up and frightened people and set up a surveillance camera
outside his mosque. I can think of few things that are harder to be right now
than a Muslim and an American patriot. There seems to be less and less space for
that crucial middle ground.

[ Ted Conover is the author, most recently, of "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing." He
wrote about Guantanamo for the magazine in June. ]

* * *


October 12, 2003

AID WORKERS LEAVING IRAQ, FEARING THEY ARE TARGETS
By Ian Fisher and Elizabeth Becker

BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 -- The great majority of foreign aid workers in Iraq, fearing
they have become targets of the postwar violence, have quietly pulled out of the
country in the past month, leaving essential relief work to their Iraqi
colleagues and slowing the reconstruction effort.

Projects that have been abandoned, at least temporarily, because of the exodus
include efforts to dig village wells, repair electrical systems and refurbish
health clinics and local hospitals -- all of which could bring much needed
services to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

The largest reduction in staff has been at the United Nations operation in Iraq,
which after two bombings at its main compound since August cut its work force to
35 from a peak of 600 in August.

Nearly every other relief organization has made some reductions, saying that
parts of Iraq are now highly risky, between unpredictable spasms of bombing and
shooting and high levels of street crime. There have been two killings of aid
workers since July, three grenade attacks on aid groups in the last month and at
least two carjackings.

Doctors Without Borders, founded by a French group, is weighing whether to
proceed with plans to build two more medical clinics, in addition to the three
it already runs. Another French group shut down a program for children. The
International Committee of the Red Cross has greatly reduced its system to help
Iraqis find missing relatives and has cut back on medical assistance to
hospitals and clinics.

The United Nations Development Program has put off major reconstruction of
electrical systems, and some groups, like Oxfam International, a private charity
concerned with fighting poverty, have pulled out their foreign workers
altogether.

Charles Heatly, a spokesman for the American-led interim administration in Iraq,
played down the effect on the overall reconstruction in Iraq, saying the major
infrastructure repairs were being carried out by large contracting companies.

"Yes, its regrettable that some of the most accomplished N.G.O.'S, such as the
I.C.R.C., have scaled back their efforts," he said. "But they are still here and
we are committed to continue to work with them."

It is a difficult choice, aid groups say, whether to stay in Iraq now that most
of their work has shifted from immediate life-saving measures to longer-term
reconstruction projects that could nonetheless improve Iraqis' lives
considerably.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is normally the first to
join these dangerous situations and the last to leave, has reduced its work
force to 30 from 130 at its peak. The committee, based in Geneva, has been
committed to Iraq since 1980, offering its services throughout the Persian Gulf
war of 1991, the ensuing years when Iraq was under United Nations sanctions, and
during the war last spring. But it began pulling out its staff after a Sri
Lankan technician was killed in July.

"We are absolutely committed to staying on and carrying on but we have to react
to the current situation," said Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the group in
Geneva. "One of the most regrettable consequences is that with fewer staff we
carry out fewer activities."

The group now restricts itself to providing help in medical emergencies and
visiting detainees and prisoners of war to ensure that they are afforded their
rights under the Geneva Conventions. "If we don't visit the detainees and help
them stay in touch with their relatives, no one else can do it," Mr. Westphal
said.

The violence against foreigners continues. On Thursday, José Antonio Bernal
Gómez, the deputy intelligence officer at the Spanish Embassy, was assassinated
after he opened the door of his home to a man dressed as a Shiite cleric.

Normally proud to show off their achievements in the press and to donors, aid
workers have taken down signs in front of their offices and stickers off their
cars. They seldom speak to reporters. Few among them are willing to say how many
are based in the country, admitting only that more than half have left, leaving
mainly managers overseeing budgets and teams of Iraqi workers.

The aid workers who remain are taking greater precautions, traveling less,
increasing protection at their homes and offices, relying more on two-way radios
and staying away from the larger hotels. Most say they have not yet hired armed
guards.

They say the atmosphere can be deceptively calm. "You don't feel insecurity,"
said Thomas Dehermann, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders, which has
maintained a limited program in Iraq. "You feel like you are just working and --
boom! -- it happens."

A further complication is the question of whether smaller aid groups, unlike the
United Nations, are actual targets for terror attacks, or mistaken as part of
the American occupation forces. "There is some confusion, which is the biggest
difficulty working here," Mr. Dehermann said. "Everybody is considered a
subcontractor working for the U.S., which is completely wrong."

Enfants du Monde, a French aid group, closed down a center for street children,
after a dispute with some of the children led an angry neighbor to tell people
in the area that the group was part of the American-led occupation.

"After that, we were quite afraid," said Michel Savel, the group's program
coordinator. In recent weeks, the group scaled back in a telling way: Three of
six foreign aid workers left, one replaced with a full-time security adviser.

The biggest hole was caused by the flight of more than 550 United Nations
workers.

After the bombing on Aug. 19 of the United Nations headquarters here that killed
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of mission, and 21 other people, the
organization has come to rely on its 4,233 Iraqi employees to deliver essential
services. That includes bringing about 110,000 tons of food a month through the
World Food Program; about 3 million gallons of water a day to Baghdad and Basra
through the United Nations Children's Fund, and more than 550,000 tons of
fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides for winter crops.

"One of the fallouts of our evacuation is we lost some of our most skilled
professionals in the field," said William Orme, a spokesman for the United
Nations Development Program, which repairs infrastructure. "On the positive
side, we have Iraqis in positions of responsibility who are able to carry out
the bulk of the immediate repairs."

Aid officials said Iraqis were more than capable of assuming greater roles in
their country's recovery. The country director for CARE, Margaret Hassan, is an
Iraqi citizen who oversees 8 foreign staff members and 60 Iraqis.

"Even though security remains a major concern -- not only for foreigners but for
Iraqis -- I do think the rebuilding of Iraq must be done overwhelmingly by
Iraqis," said Peter D. Bell, president of CARE U.S.A.

* * *


October 11, 2003

GUANTANAMO TERROR PRISON CHAPLAIN CHARGED

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay prison for
terrorism suspects has been charged with disobeying orders for improperly
handling classified information, the military announced.

Army Capt. James Yee, who also has used the name Yousef Yee, was charged with
two counts of failing to obey a lawful order, U.S. Southern Command said Friday.
He is charged with taking classified information home and wrongly transporting
classified information.

The charges, as outlined on an Army document released by Southern Command, say
Yee was carrying classified information when he was arrested last month and had
taken secret materials to a housing unit while serving as chaplain at the base
from November 2002 until last month.

Yee is one of three former workers at the high-security military base to be
arrested in a probe of alleged espionage there. Yee is not charged with
espionage.

Conviction of disobeying orders carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison
and a bad conduct discharge.

Authorities arrested Yee Sept. 10 as he arrived at a Jacksonville, Fla., naval
base on a flight from the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba.

He is being held at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

Telephone messages left at the office of Yee's defense lawyers were not
returned. Friday was a training holiday for the Army so Yee's military defense
lawyers were unavailable for comment, Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Barbara
Burfeind said.

"The Army continues to investigate Yee's conduct, and if warranted, additional
charges could be forthcoming," Southern Command said in a statement.

Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison, will
decide on the next step. Miller's options include dismissing the charges or
convening a special court-martial, which, regardless of the charges, could only
impose a penalty of up to a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge. Miller
also could send the case to an Article 32 hearing, a kind of mini-trial in which
prosecutors present evidence for commanders to decide whether to send the case
to a general court-martial, which could impose a sentence of up to two years and
a bad conduct discharge.

A team of military investigators arrived at Guantanamo Bay Thursday to probe
security at the facility. Miller has ordered a security crackdown in the wake of
the three arrests, and military officials have said others who have not been
arrested are under suspicion.

The most serious charges are against Senior Airman Ahmed I. al-Halabi, an Air
Force supply clerk who worked as an Arabic translator at the prison for about
nine months. Military prosecutors accuse al-Halabi of gathering classified
information and messages from prisoners with plans to send that information to
Syria and an unidentified enemy. The charges, espionage and aiding the enemy,
could carry the death penalty.

Al-Halabi's lawyers say their client is innocent.

Also charged is a former civilian Arabic interpreter at the base, Ahmad F.
Mehalba. Agents arrested Mehalba last month as he arrived in Boston after
visiting his native Egypt. Mehalba is accused of lying to investigators by
denying that computer discs he carried with him had classified information from
Guantanamo Bay on them.

About 660 suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist network or Afghanistan's
former Taliban government are being held at the Guantanamo Bay base. Military
officials are investigating whether the three arrested men were working
together.

* * *


October 10, 2003

MUSLIM CHAPLAIN AT GUANTANAMO BAY CHARGED WITH DISOBEYING ORDERS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay prison for
terrorism suspects has been charged with disobeying orders for improperly
handling classified information, the military announced Friday.

Army Capt. James Yee, who also has used the name Yousef Yee, was charged with
two counts of failing to obey a lawful order, U.S. Southern Command announced.
He is charged with taking classified information home and wrongly transporting
classified information.

Yee is one of three former workers at the high-security military base to be
arrested in a probe of alleged espionage there. The charges against Yee are
lesser than those against the others.

Authorities arrested Yee Sept. 10 as he arrived at a Jacksonville, Fla., naval
base on a flight from the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba. Officials have said he
was carrying classified information about the base with him when he was
arrested.

He is being held at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

"The Army continues to investigate Yee's conduct, and if warranted, additional
charges could be forthcoming," Southern Command said in a statement.

Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison, will
decide on the next step. Miller's options include dismissing the charges or
convening a special court-martial, which could impose a penalty of up to a year
in prison and a bad conduct discharge. Miller also could send the case to an
Article 32 hearing, a kind of mini-trial in which prosecutors present evidence
for commanders to decide whether to send the case to a general court-martial.

* * *


October 10, 2003

RED CROSS CRITICIZES INDEFINITE DETENTION IN GUANTANAMO BAY

By NEIL A. LEWIS

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Oct. 9 -- A senior official of the International Committee
of the Red Cross said on Thursday that the holding of more than 600 detainees
here was unacceptable because they were being held for open-ended terms without
proper legal process.

Christophe Girod, the senior Red Cross official in Washington, said on Thursday
in an interview at the United States Naval Base here, "One cannot keep these
detainees in this pattern, this situation, indefinitely."

Mr. Girod spoke as he and a team of officials from the international
organization were completing their latest inspection tour of the detention camp.
Although he did not criticize any physical conditions at the camp, which houses
660 detainees, most of them captured in the Afghan conflict, he said that it was
intolerable that the complex was used as "an investigation center, not a
detention center."

He said the International Red Cross was making the unusual statements because of
a lack of action.

United States officials have said they have begun moving to sort the detainees,
choosing which to release and which to take before military tribunals on
criminal charges.

Some officials, notably Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, have said the
detainees may be held until the effort against terrorism ends.

Mr. Girod said, "The open-endedness of the situation and its impact on the
mental health of the population has become a major problem."

In 18 months, 21 detainees have made 32 suicide attempts, and human rights
groups have said the high incidence of such events, as well as the number of
detainees being treated for clinical depression, was a direct result of the
uncertainties of their situations.

Mr. Girod said that in meetings with members of his inspection teams, detainees
regularly asked about what was going to happen to them.

"It's always the No. 1 question," he said. "They don't know about the future."

Camp officials have said most of the detainees' mental health problems existed
before they arrived.

Mr. Girod's comments departed from the usual reluctance of the International Red
Cross to issue public criticism. The International Committee of the Red Cross,
based in Geneva, is the sole group outside the government allowed to inspect the
main detention center and meet the detainees.

Under longstanding procedures, the committee agrees that in exchange for access
it will not generally publicize its findings but rather take complaints or
criticisms to the government in charge in the hope that they can be addressed.
Only when the Red Cross decides that its views are not being heeded does it
publicize its concerns.

Mr. Girod said the views he was expressing had recently been placed on the Red
Cross Web site, www .icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf /html/5QRC5V?OpenDocument.

He said the International Red Cross had been urging the Bush administration for
months to make significant changes in operations here if it intended to keep
using the site as an investigation center. The administration, Mr. Girod added,
should consider establishing a policy under which most, if not all, of the
detainees have some idea of when they can learn whether they will be charged or
released.

The military has released 68 detainees to their home countries. Most of those
sent to Afghanistan were freed. Those sent to Saudi Arabia were imprisoned
there.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller of the Army, commander of the task force that runs
the detention center and oversees the questioning of the detainees, said in an
interview, "We don't want the enemy combatants here to stay one day longer than
is necessary."

General Miller said the inmates had been kept in custody because they had
valuable information to impart.

"There is intelligence of enormous value to the nation that is received every
day" from the questioning, he said. The efficiency of the investigation teams
has greatly improved, the general said, adding:

"We've gotten better at what we do. But as we go about developing intelligence,
it takes some amount of time."

General Miller said officials were trying to determine whether the arrests on
suspicion of espionage of three men who worked here and had contact with
detainees indicated a wider effort to infiltrate the camp. Defense Department
officials have said they plan to review tapes of some of the questioning to see
whether they were mistranslated as part of a sabotage effort by translators. Two
translators, one an enlisted member in the Air Force and the other a contract
employee, have been arrested on suspicion of espionage.

Officials said that they were found with classified information that they were
trying to take off the base and that they were suspected of an effort to carry
messages from detainees to people abroad.

More strikingly, the Islamic chaplain at the base, Capt. James J. Yee of the
Army, also known as Youssef Yee, was arrested on Sept. 10 after customs officers
found a map of the base in his belongings as he was starting on home leave. The
officials also said Captain Yee might have had messages from detainees, as well
as notes about which detainees had been questioned by which investigators and on
what subjects.

General Miller said investigators were trying to assess "the seriousness and
breadth" of the problem. A team of about 24 investigators from the Army Southern
Command in Miami began work on Wednesday to determine whether there was a wide
conspiracy to infiltrate the base.

It was unclear whether the new investigation would further slow releasing
detainees or taking them to military tribunals. In July, the administration
designated six detainees who it said President Bush had deemed eligible for
military tribunals. The group includes two Britons and one Australian. Their
governments have objected to their being tried in a proceeding, without the
usual safeguards, that could theoretically impose the death penalty.

Military tribunals, solely for noncitizens, are much more tightly controlled
than civilian courts.

American officials offered assurances that the crimes with which the suspects
would be charged would not carry the death penalty. But disapproval, especially
in Britain, has produced a drawn-out negotiation that has delayed any trial.
American officials said they were sensitive to the problem and did not want to
create new political difficulties for Prime Minister Tony Blair, an ally in the
Iraq war.

* * *


October 8, 2003

MILITARY UNUSUALLY SECRETIVE IN SPY CASE

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Military authorities have taken unusual steps to protect
evidence in an espionage investigation at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp,
including classifying routine court documents and forcing visiting reporters to
promise in writing not to ask about the case.

Air Force officers tried to close to the public a preliminary hearing for Senior
Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, an Air Force translator facing 32 charges including
espionage. His lawyers challenged the closure in the Air Force Court of Criminal
Appeals, and the judges agreed to close only parts of the hearing that dealt
with classified information.

Court staff refused to give out copies of the ruling, relying on Air Force
officials to do so. The copies the Air Force released have signatures of court
officials and telephone numbers of al-Halabi's defense lawyers blacked out.

The recommendations of the officer who presided over that hearing, Col. Anne
Burman, also are classified. Reporters traveling to the prison camp in Cuba this
week were required to sign a pledge not to ask questions about the
investigation.

"It looks like it's going to be a fight from here until the end to keep this an
open process," Maj. James Key III, one of al-Halabi's lawyers, said Tuesday.

Some secrecy is to be expected in the military's most high-profile espionage
case in more than a decade. Military law experts say the Pentagon has gone to
extreme lengths, however, to protect secrets in the cases of al-Halabi and the
Army captain and civilian translator arrested on suspicion of espionage at the
prison.

"The court clerk's signature is not a secret. Why would they black it out in
this case? I can't understand that," said Kevin Barry, a Virginia lawyer who is
a military law expert and former Coast Guard appeals court judge.

"There does appear to be an effort with regard to anything having to do with
Guantanamo Bay to reveal less rather than more," Barry said.

Unusual secrecy has shrouded the main military prison for suspected terrorists
since before the first prisoners arrived in 2002. Even the number of inmates at
the base in Cuba is classified -- authorities will say only that about 660
suspected members of the al-Qaida network and Taliban, former rulers of
Afghanistan, are held there.

This week, the form military officials made reporters who traveled to the base
sign said they could not ask questions about "ongoing operations, future
operations or investigations that are pending." The military had not insisted
upon such ground rules in the past.

The Air Force did not announce al-Halabi's July 23 arrest until two months
afterward, when reporters learned about it from Pentagon sources. Al-Halabi, a
naturalized U.S. citizen who worked as an Arabic translator at the prison camp,
is accused of collecting secrets about the base and messages from prisoners with
plans to transmit them to an unspecified enemy in his native Syria.

The most serious charges against al-Halabi carry a possible death sentence upon
conviction.

The admission of al-Halabi's arrest came after news broke of the Sept. 10 arrest
of Army Capt. Yousef Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay. Yee has not been
charged.

Military officials have said they wanted to keep the arrests secret to protect
an investigation of possible security breaches at Guantanamo Bay. At least one
other member of the military, who is in the Navy, is being watched, Pentagon
officials have said.

Federal agents also arrested a civilian translator at the base, Ahmed Mehalba,
last month for allegedly bringing Guantanamo Bay secrets with him on a flight to
the United States from his native Egypt.

Mehalba faces charges in federal court, where most high-profile spy cases have
been handled. Al-Halabi and Yee are in the military justice system, where
espionage cases are more rare, although not unique.

Before a court-martial, a military defendant gets an "Article 32" hearing,
similar to arraignment in civilian courts, after which the hearing officer sends
a report to the accused's commander. The commander decides whether to impanel a
court-martial or order a lesser form of military discipline.

Brig. Gen. Bradley S. Baker, al-Halabi's commander, had closed his "Article
32" hearing, saying "virtually all of the evidence presented during this
Article 32 hearing can compromise current ongoing investigations that are of
concern to national security."

Al-Halabi's lawyers objected, arguing that military court hearings, like federal
court proceedings, should be closed only when absolutely necessary. The Air
Force appeals court order then issued its order closing only hearings dealing
with classified information.

The hearing was last month at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., where al-Halabi
has been held, and most of it was closed, attorney Key said. Some of al-Halabi's
relatives attended the open portions, mostly involving testimony by the
relatives, Key said. No reporters were there.

Military law allows court proceedings to be closed to protect government secrets
and vulnerable witnesses such as children.

* * *


October 7, 2003

FEAR OF SABOTAGE BY MISTRANSLATION AT GUANTANAMO
By Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 -- American interpreters at the military prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, who are under suspicion of espionage may have sabotaged interviews
with detainees by inaccurately translating interrogators' questions and
prisoners' answers, senior American officials said on Monday.

It is unclear in how many cases, if any, this may have happened, the officials
said. But military investigators are taking the issue seriously enough to review
taped interrogations involving the Arabic-language interpreters under scrutiny
to spot-check their accuracy.

If the investigators' worst fears are realized, officials said, scores of
interviews with suspected Qaeda or Taliban prisoners at the Cuban detention
center could be compromised, and military officials could be forced to
reinterview many of the camp's 680 detainees.

"There are enough suggestions that give us cause to compare the audiotapes with
the translations," said one senior American official familiar with the inquiry.
The official declined to say what those suggestions were, and other senior
American officials similarly refused to cite any specific evidence of deliberate
mistranslation by the interpreters.

The concerns about the reliability of some of the camp's 70 military and
civilian linguists only add to the growing mystery surrounding the motives and
objectives of as many as 10 people who worked at the camp, had contact with the
prisoners and now are under suspicion in the widening inquiry, military
officials said.

Pentagon officials are saying very little publicly about the cases, in part
because they are still baffled about whether there was a conspiracy to
infiltrate the camp, and in part because of the nature of the investigation, a
sensitive matter involving military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Top defense officials have yet to explain publicly what any of the accused spies
might have been trying to achieve at Guantanamo Bay, a heavily guarded camp on
an American naval base.

The most serious charges have been leveled against an Air Force interpreter,
Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, 24, who is accused of committing espionage by
trying to deliver information to Syria, including 180 messages from prisoners,
many of their names, and flight schedules in and out of the camp.

Military officials have privately suggested a range of theories, including the
possibility that the interpreters sabotaged the interrogations. This theory was
first reported by CNN on Saturday.

One senior Air Force official said Monday that terrorists who might gain inside
information from American confederates at the camp could have been trying to
disrupt flights to and from the base. Another official said that terrorist
leaders, by learning from the confederates which prisoners were in custody and
what they were telling American interrogators, could try to mitigate the damage
to their operations.

On one level, each branch of the military is investigating the espionage-related
accusations against members of its own service. But a senior defense official
said these inquiries were being coordinated as part of a broader investigation
involving numerous government agencies that he would not discuss in detail.

"The worst fear is that it's all one interrelated network that was inspired by
Al Qaeda," said a senior Air Force official. "But we don't have any concrete
evidence of that yet."

There are also tantalizing clues that the military knows much more about at
least some of the suspects than it is letting on. For instance, court documents
filed in Airman al-Halabi's case show that Air Force authorities were monitoring
the airman, a Syrian-born supply clerk, before he was sent to Guantanamo Bay in
November 2002. But the documents do not say why he was under investigation. Most
of the documents in the case are classified.

Other senior officials, including Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, have also hinted that authorities at Guantanamo may know
more about the suspects than they are saying.

"We had, I'll just say, things in place, counterintelligence capabilities in
place to try to prevent this," General Myers told reporters on Thursday.

The growing concerns over the magnitude of potential security breaches at
Guantanamo came as Pentagon officials said Monday that a Navy sailor who worked
at the prison camp was questioned by naval investigators over the weekend and
released. They gave no details.

That questioning brought to four the total number of people the military has
interrogated in relation to possible espionage at the Cuban detention facility,
but a senior military official said about 10 people altogether are under
scrutiny.

So far, three men -- an Army chaplain and two Arabic-language interpreters,
including Airman al-Halabi -- who worked at the base with the suspected Qaeda
and Taliban prisoners have been arrested, separately. They are all being held on
suspicion of espionage.

The most recent arrest happened last week in Boston, involving Ahmed Fathy
Mehalba, a civilian translator, who was detained after authorities found that a
compact disc he was carrying contained government documents marked "secret."

About three other people are under active surveillance, including the sailor
questioned over the weekend and an Air Force service member who was a linguist
at the base, two defense officials said. There are about three or four other
people who may have had close contacts with the other six, said one of the
officials who declined to described them further.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials have in
recent days sought to give the impression that the military is on top the
investigation.

"Historically we know that when you are in a war and you have enemies, that they
are going to seek to find ways to advantage themselves and disadvantage you,"
Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters last Thursday. "It's been so throughout history."

Mr. Rumsfeld also defended the commander of the military interrogation center at
the Cuban detainee camp, Maj. Gen. Geoff Miller of the Army.

Privately, however, military officials voice deeper concerns about the scope of
any possible spy penetration at the prison camp, and the ultimate goal of any
conspiracy. A team of investigators from the United States Southern Command in
Miami arrived at the camp last week to review security procedures.

* * *


October 1, 2003

GUANTANAMO INQUIRY WIDENS AS CIVILIAN TRANSLATOR IS HELD

By Neil A. Lewis

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 -- Federal officials said on Tuesday that they had arrested
a civilian Arabic-language translator at Logan International Airport in Boston
on suspicion of espionage at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he
helped the military interview prisoners suspected of being members of the
Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The man, identified as Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, was the second translator and third
person arrested in connection with possible espionage at the base, which houses
some 680 prisoners, most of them from the Afghanistan war. One administration
official said there was no known connection between Mr. Mehalba, who was a
contract employee, and the other two espionage suspects, both members of the
military. At least one other serviceman under suspicion of espionage has not
been arrested but is being kept under surveillance, officials have said.

Some officials said, however, that they were still unsure whether there was any
concerted effort to infiltrate the prison, known as Camp Delta.

Asked about the arrests, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was cryptic,
telling reporters on Capitol Hill, "What is actually taking place there, we'll
know more about later."

Meanwhile, court documents filed in the case of a prominent American Islamic
leader arrested on Monday showed that he had ties to detainees at Guantanamo.
The leader, Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was charged on Monday with having improper
financial dealings with Libya, had a document authorizing a lawyer based in the
Mideast to act on behalf of 22 people whose families said they were detainees at
Guantanamo Bay. Law enforcement officials said they were investigating the link
and looking at checks Mr. Alamoudi appeared to have written to people linked
with what officials believe was a terrorist cell in Portland, Ore.

Mr. Mehalba, 31, a naturalized citizen of Egyptian descent, was not under any
special surveillance or suspicion when he was searched at the Boston airport on
Monday after getting off a flight from Cairo via Milan. During what officials
called a routine search, inspectors turned up a compact disc that "contained
information that appeared to be classified," the Department of Homeland Security
said in a statement.

Customs inspectors first "found a military ID identifying Mehalba as a contract
linguist at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," the statement said.

During the search of his baggage officials found 132 compact discs, which Mr.
Melhaba said contained "only music and videos," much of it recorded in Egypt,
where he said he had gone to visit family members, said an affidavit of an
F.B.I. agent who was called to the airport.

Mr. Mehalba was arrested after the officials loaded a disc labeled "backup #3
for M.O.'s profile" into the computer and discovered pages of a document marked
secret. The disc also contained other classified information, law-enforcement
officials said.

Mr. Mehalba was charged with making false statements because he had repeatedly
denied that he had any classified information from Guantanamo in his possession.
A federal magistrate ordered him held without bond until an Oct. 8 hearing.

Mr. Mehalba was identified by Pentagon officials as having enlisted in the Army
in 2000. He was assigned to a training course for military interrogators at Fort
Huachuca in Arizona, which houses a counterintelligence school. He failed to
complete the course, the officials said. He was given a second chance, but he
failed that as well and was eventually medically discharged for obesity.

The affidavit from John F. Van Kleeff, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agent
who questioned him, said that Mr. Mehalba said several times that he he had no
classified material on the discs. When shown several printed pages of the
document marked secret, he said he had no idea how the information had come to
be there.

He said he bought the blank disc at Guantanamo as well as a computer. Agent Van
Kleeff, in his affidavit, said the information could not have been downloaded
accidentally because doing so involved several deliberate steps.

The affidavit also said Mr. Mehalba had reluctantly acknowledged under
questioning that he had an uncle in the military intelligence arm of the
Egyptian army. The affidavit also said Mr. Melhaba at first denied knowing a
woman named Deborah M. Gephart but eventually acknowledged that she was his
girlfriend at Fort Huachuca.

Ms. Gephart was a student at the counterintelligence school there but was
discharged on less than honorable conditions. The affidavit said that she was
arrested for stealing a car and a subsequent search of her quarters found a
stolen laptop computer and classified information about her training.

Military officials at the United States Southern Command in Miami, the
headquarters for the Joint Task Force that administers the Guantanamo prison,
declined to say anything about the timing of his service as a translator there.

Despite his discharge, Mr. Mehalba was able to get a job as a translator for the
military, through a contractor, the Titan Corporation of San Diego. Ralph
Williams, a spokesman for Titan, said the company was not responsible for
checking and certifying Mr. Mehalba's background. Mr. Williams said the contract
to provide translators for the military had gone back many years and that he
could not say how large it was or how many people from Titan were used in
Guantanamo or elsewhere.

"We're a $1.7 billion company," he said. "We have over 2,500 contracts with
various government agencies and the Department of Defense, and I have no idea
what an individual contract is worth."

There are about 70 translators at Camp Delta, officials there said, both
civilian and military. The other translator who was arrested was Senior Airman
Ahmad I. al-Halabi, 24, who worked from about November 2002 through July 2003.
He is accused of committing espionage by trying to deliver information to Syria,
including 180 messages from prisoners and many of their names and maps of the
camp.

In addition to Airman al-Halabi, the military has arrested Capt. James Yee, also
known as Youseff Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo. Officials have said that
Captain Yee was found with maps of the prison area as well as notes detailing
which prisoners were interviewed by which interrogators and on what subjects. He
has not been yet been charged with any crime.

* * *


October 2, 2003

SECURITY INVESTIGATORS ARRIVE AT GUANTANAMO

By Neil A. Lewis

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Several military investigators arrived on Wednesday at the
naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with more to follow this week to examine
security at the prison, which houses some 680 detainees, most of whom were
captured in the Afghanistan war.

In the last two weeks, the military has announced that three men who worked at
the base with the suspected Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were arrested. Although
they were arrested separately, they are all being held on suspicion of
espionage.

The team of investigators is expected to "immediately recommend reinforcement or
correction of established procedures," said a statement released by the United
States Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the prison camp.

Gen. James Hill, who heads the Southern Command, declined to comment further on
Wednesday. But other military and law enforcement officials said they remained
largely puzzled as to whether the three arrests suggested any kind of conspiracy
to infiltrate the base. There is no evidence that the men knew one other,
officials said.

One law enforcement official said the occupations of the three men were
intriguing. Two are Arabic-language translators, one a civilian and the other an
Air Force enlisted man; the third was the prison camp's Muslim chaplain.

The official said those two jobs provide for direct and sometimes unmonitored
contact with the prisoners, who are usually isolated, one to a cell. The most
serious charges have been leveled at the military translator, Senior Airman
Ahmad I. al-Halabi, 24, who worked at the base from about November 2002 through
July 2003. He is accused of committing espionage by trying to deliver
information to Syria, including 180 messages from prisoners and many of their
names and maps of the camp.

The military has also detained Capt. James J. Yee, also known as Youseff Yee, a
Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo. Officials have said that Captain Yee was found
with maps of the prison area as well as notes detailing which prisoners were
interviewed by which interrogators and on what subjects. He has not been charged
with any crime.

The most recent arrest occurred on Monday at Logan International Airport in
Boston. It involved Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, a translator, and came after customs
inspectors called in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and discovered that one
of the compact discs in Mr. Mehalba's baggage contained government documents
marked "secret."

One military official said that what was most troubling about the Mehalba case
was that he was arrested after he had traveled to the Middle East, meaning that
he could have delivered information.

Mr. Mehalba was returning to his home in the Boston area on a flight that
originated in Egypt, where he was born and where he still has family. Although
he failed to pass courses when he was in the Army to be a military interrogator
and was given a medical discharge, he became an employee of a civilian
contractor that supplies translators to the military.

The chaplain often had direct one-on-one contact with the detainees, and the
translators were accompanied by military interrogators who presumably did not
speak the language of the person to be interviewed.

* * *

October 1, 2003

GUANTANAMO PLAGUED BY FEARS OF ESPIONAGE

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The U.S. detention mission for terror suspects at
Guantanamo got off to a rocky start nearly two years ago with few Arabic
speakers, computers or savvy interrogators -- and now it is plagued by fears of
enemies from within.

The center holding about 660 mostly Muslim, non-English-speaking suspected
terrorist fighters was expanded last year, drawing specialized personnel and a
new general who ordered sweeping changes. But with two former translators and a
former chaplain at Guantanamo under arrest, details are emerging of a troubled
mission.

"The whole thing was a mess," Bill Tierney, a former interpreter at Guantanamo
and a military intelligence veteran, told The Associated Press on Tuesday by
telephone from his Florida home.

He said the prisoners were masters at manipulation, bullying Muslim servicemen
and staging hunger strikes or suicide attempts to get attention. Sometimes, the
detainees would rib the Muslim troops, criticizing them for taking paychecks
from the "infidels."

"These guys would know who the Muslims were, who spoke Arabic, and would do
everything to push their buttons," Tierney said.

Tierney, who was an interpreter in Guantanamo in February and March of 2002,
described an amateur interrogation operation that began after the first
detainees arrived in January 2002, shackled and disoriented after being flown
halfway around the world to be held in cage-like cells open to the elements.

The detention center has since grown to include trailer-style quarters where
detainees have a metal bed, a sink and toilets that flush.

Professor Richard Kohn, former chief Air Force historian at the Pentagon, said
the military confused the roles of jailer and interrogator.

"The military was essentially the jailer down there. And that's not the
intelligence gathering business. It's not the cultural sensitivity business,"
said Kohn, who chairs the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Tierney said the mission had few computers and fewer interrogators who knew
Arabic or how to crosscheck information.

He also described a folly of errors with young troops not knowing basic
geography, or trained in classical Arabic rather than the numerous other
languages such as Pashto or Dari spoken in Afghanistan.

Tierney, who was working as a contractor with Worldwide Language Resources, was
ordered out of the remote Naval base in eastern Cuba. Officials say he was
interfering with the interrogation process; he says he simply told an
interrogator the location of Karachi, the Pakistani port city.

Interrogators were seldom left alone with detainees, he said.

The U.S. Southern Command in Miami, which oversees Guantanamo, has refused to
allow interviews with interrogators or interpreters.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller took over the Guantanamo mission late last
year and instituted a system of rewards for detainees that was meant to jolt the
interrogation process into high gear.

Some changes, which included moving cooperative detainees to a medium-security
wing where they get more exercise, books and other liberties, were seen by some
critics as being too easy on the detainees and jeopardizing security.

Although U.S. officials say efforts are ongoing to improve the lives of
detainees, who have yet to be charged with any crime, it is unclear how the
conditions actually have changed other than the construction of proper cells.

Miller says the system of rewards has been a success, saying three-fourths of
the detainees had confessed.

"We have a large number of detainees who have been very cooperative describing
their actions, either terrorist actions or in support of terrorism -- more than
75 percent," Miller said recently.

The arrest of a second translator on Monday has raised new concerns about
espionage and questions about how the military checked the dozens of translators
needed to help with interrogations of al-Qaida and Taliban suspects from more
than 40 countries.

A new assessment team traveled to the prison this week to study procedures and
make recommendations on security, defense officials said Tuesday.

Civilian interpreter Ahmed Mehalba, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Egypt, was
arrested Monday with classified documents from Guantanamo. Last week authorities
charged Air Force Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi with espionage for allegedly sending
classified information about Guantanamo to an unspecified "enemy." Another
suspect is Army Capt. Yousef Yee, a Muslim chaplain being detained without
charge at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C.

* * *


September 30, 2003

GUANTANAMO BAY AIDE IS ARRESTED AT BOSTON AIRPORT

BY Terence Neilan

A naturalized American of Egyptian descent who works at a United States prison
camp for captured militants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been arrested in Boston
after he was found to be in possession of what appeared to be classified
information, the Department of Homeland Security said today.

The arrested man, Ahmed Mehalba, appeared in United States District Court this
afternoon and was charged with making false statements, according to The
Associated Press. He entered no plea and was held pending another hearing on
Oct. 8.

During the hearing, Mr. Mehalba said little, although he told the judge that he
could not afford a lawyer.

Before his arrest on Monday, Mr. Mehalba arrived at Logan Airport on a flight
from Cairo by way of Milan.

Homeland Security officers from Customs and Border Protection began a routine
examination of Mr. Mehalba in Boston and found compact discs in his baggage, the
department said in a statement. One of the discs contained the apparently
classified information, the department added.

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland
Security and the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force then arrested Mr. Mehalba.

Authorization for the arrest was given by the United States Attorney's Office in
Boston, the department said.

A press officer for the attorney's office, Christina Sterling, said Mr. Mehalba
would appear in court in Boston this afternoon. The charges are under seal until
after the hearing.

Mr. Mehalba, who was described as a contract linguist, both translating and
interpreting, at Guantanamo Bay, is the third person detained recently in an
investigation of suspected espionage at the camp.

Last week another linguist at the camp, Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, was
charged with espionage and passing military secrets to Syria, the Pentagon said.
A military lawyer for Airman al-Halabi, Maj. Kim E. London, disputed the
military's accusations.

An Islamic chaplain in the Army, Capt. James J. Yee, also known as Youssef Yee,
was taken into custody on Sept. 10 at a naval air station in Jacksonville, Fla.,
but he has yet to be charged. Captain Yee, also known as Youssef Yee, is being
held at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., under suspicion that he, too, was
spying for Syria at Guantanamo Bay. The Army is investigating his activities at
the camp, military officials said.

Pentagon officials said last week that it was likely that Airman al-Halabi and
Captain Yee knew each other, given the camp's small size and the need for
Arabic-speaking interpreters in many of the camp's daily operations.

Captain Yee, a 1990 graduate of West Point who converted to Islam, was one of
the few camp officials to have unrestricted access to prisoners, but at times he
used an interpreter, the authorities said. It was unclear whether the arrests
were related.

* * *

September 28, 2003:

PENTAGON SAYS IT WILL REVIEW CHAPLAIN POLICY

By Laurie Goodstein

For the past five years, Qaseem A. Uqdah, a Marine Corps veteran, has been
visiting military bases around the world in search of Muslim officers and
enlistees who might make suitable chaplains.

In his role as a recruiter, Mr. Uqdah is not employed by the military. Instead,
he is an independent middleman who runs a group that is authorized by the
Pentagon to nominate Muslim chaplain candidates. He said he is paid nothing for
his efforts and is motivated by his belief in Islam.

One of the clerics Mr. Uqdah recommended to the Pentagon -- Capt. James J. Yee,
a Chinese-American convert to Islam and a graduate of West Point -- is now
locked in a brig in South Carolina as government officials investigate whether
he engaged in espionage while ministering to Muslim prisoners at the military
camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"I wholeheartedly believe in his innocence," Mr. Uqdah said. "I would never
abandon my chaplains, but if I believed Yee was guilty of something, then I
would say something."

Neither military nor civilian authorities have brought formal charges against
Captain Yee, but after his arrest the Pentagon says it has begun a review of the
admittedly ad hoc process it has used for years to select and train chaplains of
all faiths.

Whether the chaplains are Christian or Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist, the military
relies on religious groups themselves to recommend and to educate their own
candidates. The military says that because of the constitutional provisions that
govern the division of church and state, only churches and religious
organizations can ordain or appoint their own clergy.

With Muslim chaplains, however, this has proved particularly problematic,
especially since Islam has no centralized hierarchy. Most other faiths and
denominations have a single authority responsible for chaplains, like the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services. But in the absence of such an
equivalent Islamic authority, the military has relied on grass-roots Muslim
groups.

"Because of the separation of church and state, and the decentralized nature of
Islam, we are dependent on loosely affiliated Islamic groups to certify the
credentials of Muslim clergy in order for them to apply to be chaplains in the
military," the Pentagon said in a statement.

After more than 10 years of accepting the recommendations of Muslim groups, the
military says it will now re-evaluate the requirements for individual chaplains
and the religious groups that nominate chaplain candidates to the military.

The military says the review was not prompted by the arrest of Captain Yee. But
there is no question that the arrest brought the chaplaincy process under fresh
scrutiny.

Mr. Uqdah and another person who did not want to be identified said some Muslim
chaplains had told them that they had recently been pressured by military
intelligence officials to share information about Muslim military members.
Information that military chaplains learn in counseling sessions or in
confession is supposed to be confidential.

Two senators -- Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Jon Kyl,
Republican of Arizona -- have begun a Senate investigation into how the
government chooses Muslim clerics, or imams. Mr. Schumer has been saying for at
least six months that the Muslim groups now responsible for choosing and
training chaplains are all affiliated with a militant form of Islam popular in
Saudi Arabia that some call Wahhabism.

"The people who believe in Islam should have a right to a chaplain of their own
religion," Mr. Schumer said in an interview. "But what the military has done is
taken a narrow, fundamentalist and extreme band of the spectrum and said those
groups have a monopoly on who becomes an imam in the military."

While Mr. Schumer contends that the groups that are currently or were previously
involved in the chaplaincy process have a common purpose, they are in many ways
rivals of each other. American-born and foreign-born Muslims said in interviews
that they were suspicious of the other, and even among the groups dominated by
Middle Easterners, there are disagreements.

But leaders of the Muslim groups interviewed on Friday, and several scholars who
study Islam in America, said Mr. Schumer was engaged in a witch hunt. The
leaders said they would welcome any review by the military because they are
confident it will prove that they are not Wahhabis, are loyal to the American
government and have served the military well.

"If I was a Wahhabi or a religious fundamentalist, I don't think I would have
the relationships I do with the military right now, nor would I have spent 21
years in the military," said Mr. Uqdah, an African-American convert to Islam who
was a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant.

Yvonne Haddad, a professor of history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at
Georgetown University, said Mr. Schumer was getting bad advice about the
theological and political affiliations of the Muslim groups he cites and had
thrown the net of suspicion too wide.

"They are not Wahhabi," Professor Haddad said. "For people like Senator Schumer
to make a blanket judgment is just ludicrous."

The first Muslim chaplain was commissioned in the Army in 1993, and there are
still only 12 in the American armed forces -- seven in the Army, three in the
Navy and two in the Air Force, the Pentagon says.

Military chaplains must be nominated by a "certifying agent" with a religious
organization approved by the military. There are two religious organizations now
approved to nominate Muslim chaplains. One is the Islamic Society of North
America, a large umbrella group based in Plainfield, Ind. The other is Mr.
Uqdah's group, the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council,
which is based in Virginia and, he said, operates on such a shoestring that he
had to take out a second mortgage on his house to keep the organization afloat.

The chaplain candidates are also vetted by the military: they must meet age,
height and weight requirements, pass a physical and a background check to
qualify them for a security clearance.

They must also have a bachelor's degree and at least 72 hours of graduate
education in religious studies and related disciplines. For Muslims, this has
proved an obstacle. There are no well-established and fully accredited graduate
schools or seminaries devoted to Islamic learning in the United States. Many
imams in the United States are trained overseas, and in mosques without a
cleric, laypeople often lead the prayers.

Most of the Muslim chaplain candidates received their graduate training at the
Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, a small school in Leesburg, Va.,
that was trying to win accreditation as a center for Islamic higher education.
The graduate school did not train Captain Yee -- who studied Islam in Syria --
but it did provide him with a letter testifying that the courses he took at a
Muslim school in Syria were equivalent to what he would have received at their
institution, a school spokesman said.

In March 2002, the graduate school was among about two dozen Muslim groups, most
in Northern Virginia, that were raided by customs agents, who said they were
looking for evidence of terrorist financing.

Another group raided by custom agents last year was the American Muslim
Foundation. The foundation is run by Abdurahman Alamoudi, who says he became the
first Muslim certifying agent for the military in 1991. Mr. Alamoudi, who turned
his responsibility for certifying chaplains over to Mr. Uqdah several years ago,
was criticized by some as an anti-Israel extremist after he was filmed at a
rally in front of the White House several years ago shouting a pro-Hezbollah
slogan.

Since the raids, no charges have been filed against the graduate school, the
foundation or the other Muslim groups.

"That raid was ill-advised, inappropriate and has led to nothing," said Nancy
Luque, a lawyer for the graduate school. "And the reason is, we have no
connection to terrorism or terror financing."

The school remains open and has retained the military's sanction to educate
chaplain candidates. But for at least two years, no chaplains have chosen to be
trained there, Ms. Luque said.

Now, most Muslim candidates study at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, which
also trains chaplains for hospitals and prisons. The Hartford Seminary once
specialized in preparing missionaries, but now houses a center for Christian-
Muslim relations. There are at least two Muslims now studying at the seminary in
preparation for military chaplaincy, one of them a woman, several sources said.
But Mr. Uqdah questioned whether the students would drop out after all the
scrutiny following the arrest of Captain Yee.

"Why would they want to go through all this?" he said.

* * *


September 28, 2003

U.S. PROBING LEAK OF CIA OFFICER'S IDENTITY

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating charges that
administration officials leaked the identity of an undercover intelligence
officer to a journalist in July, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Citing unnamed administration officials, the newspaper said the probe centers on
the alleged public disclosure of the wife of former U.S. ambassador Joseph
Wilson. He was sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to investigate a report that
Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Niger, but returned to say it was highly
doubtful.

President Bush made the Iraq uranium claim in his January State of the Union
speech. Critics have said the Iraq-Niger assertion, which later was found to be
based partly on forged documents, showed the administration had tried to hype
intelligence to make a case for going to war.

Wilson said in August that there had been several attempts to discredit him but
mainly through an article by Chicago columnist Robert Novak that said two senior
administration officials said Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to
investigate the uranium report.

Novak's column named Wilson's wife and said she was a CIA operative on weapons
of mass destruction.

A CIA spokesperson declined to comment on the investigation and an attempt to
reach a Justice Department spokesperson was unsuccessful. White House
spokeswoman Claire Buchan repeated previous dismissals of claims that
administration officials had revealed a CIA operative's identity.

According to The Washington Post, a senior administration official said two top
White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and revealed
the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife.

Administration officials said CIA Director George Tenet sent a memo to the
Justice Department raising questions about the alleged leak, which could mean
prison time and a fine, the Post reported.

The newspaper report said administration officials who are familiar with the
matter said the Justice Department is determining whether a formal investigation
is warranted.

Senate democrats have called for an investigation into the leak.

* * *


September 26, 2003

SPY SUSPECT EYED BEFORE GUANTANAMO POSTING

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Air Force translator accused of espionage at the prison
camp for terror suspects was under investigation before he arrived at the
Guantanamo Bay base, a military investigator says.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations began looking into the case of
Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi in November 2002 while he was a supply clerk at
Travis Air Force Base in California, the agent wrote in court documents. Al-
Halabi was sent to the Cuban base weeks later as an Arabic language interpreter
for the al-Qaida and Taliban suspects there.

Al-Halabi, 24, now is charged with espionage for allegedly e-mailing classified
information about the prison camp to an unspecified "enemy" and planning to
give other secrets about the prison to someone traveling to Syria. He is one of
two military members at the prison camp to be arrested during an investigation
of possible security breaches there.

The other suspect, Army Capt. Yousef Yee, a Muslim chaplain, is being held
without charge at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. Al-Halabi is behind bars at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., forbidden to speak Arabic.

The military has tightened security at Guantanamo Bay since the arrests, with
officials making sure that restrictions on handling documents, making phone
calls and sending e-mails are being followed, said Army Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a
base spokeswoman.

OSI Special Agent Lance R. Wega asked a federal court in Sacramento, Calif., for
a warrant to collect a package al-Halabi sent from Guantanamo Bay to his home
address at Travis Air Force Base. Federal magistrate Gregory G. Hollows granted
the search warrant on Sept. 5.

An Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Rob Koon, said Thursday he had no information
on why al-Halabi was allowed to work at Guantanamo Bay when he had been under
suspicion before arriving at the prison camp.

Al-Halabi says he is innocent. One of his lawyers, Air Force Maj. James Key III,
said al-Halabi is a naturalized U.S. citizen and a patriotic American.

The most serious of the 32 charges against al-Halabi carries a possible death
sentence. Brig. Gen. Bradley S. Baker, the commander of al-Halabi's unit, has
not decided whether al-Halabi will be tried by court-martial or, if he is
convicted, face a possible death sentence.

While at Guantanamo Bay, al-Halabi "made statements criticizing United States
policy with regard to the detainees and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle
East," Wega wrote. The agent wrote that al-Halabi also "expressed sympathy for
and has had unauthorized contact with the detainees."

The charges against al-Halabi include an accusation that he lied to
investigators when he denied making anti-American statements. Al-Halabi also is
charged with violating military orders by having improper contact with the
prisoners.

Military investigators made a secret search of al-Halabi's quarters at
Guantanamo Bay on July 19, five days before he was arrested in Florida on his
way back to California, Wega said.

The investigators found several pieces of mail belonging to al-Qaida and Taliban
suspects at the prison camp, Wega stated. They took pictures of the letters and
made a copy of the hard drive of al-Halabi's computer and left.

On that hard drive, agents found about 186 classified Defense Department
documents related to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, according to Wega, who
said those documents were found on his laptop computer hard drive when al-Halabi
was arrested.

Computer evidence indicates al-Halabi e-mailed or posted to the World Wide Web
four of those documents, the special agent alleged.

The implication is that al-Halabi was helping the prisoners communicate among
themselves and with the outside world. Military officials will try to determine
whether the messages from the prisoners would have damaged the war on terrorism
and whether the inmates are trying to organize resistance to their
interrogations.

Before he left Guantanamo Bay, al-Halabi mailed a Dell computer box to himself
that investigators believe contained other classified information, Wega alleged.
The agent sought a search warrant for the post office at Travis Air Force Base
to seize that package and a letter to al-Halabi from the Syrian Embassy.

Al-Halabi also is charged with failing to report improper contact with the
Syrian Embassy. Syrian officials deny al-Halabi was a Syrian spy or passed any
classified information to the government in Damascus.

Key said al-Halabi had planned to fly to Syria in late July to get married. Al-
Halabi's contacts with the Syrian Embassy were related to that trip and his
efforts to make sure his new wife could return to the United States with him,
Key said.

[ Associated Press writers Juliana Barbassa and Don Thompson in Sacramento,
Calif. contributed to this story. ]

* * *


September 25, 2003

U.S. MUSLIMS, MILITARY TRADE SUSPICIONS

By The Associated Press

The suspicions run both ways.

Muslims trying to prove their community is truly patriotic see their fellow
believers accused of being spies. The U.S. military questions who it can trust
-- with arrests of two Muslim military men who worked at Guantanamo Bay and a
larger investigation brewing.

Efforts to build bridges between Muslims in America and a government at war with
terrorism cross rivers of doubts and miscommunication.

"We always encourage people to be part of America, including the military,
including intelligence. We see ourselves as Americans like everyone else," said
Imad Hamad, who co-chairs a monthly meeting between Detroit-area Arab-Americans
and law enforcement.

But people in his home of Dearborn, Mich., where accused Senior Airman Ahmad I.
al-Halabi went to high school, are skeptical of the espionage allegations, Hamad
said Thursday. And other Americans seem quick to accept them, he said.

"We're damned if you do, damned if you don't," Hamad said.

The allegations pose dilemmas for the military, too, as it reaches within its
ranks to those with knowledge of Middle Eastern and Muslim cultures for
translation, policing overseas and more.

"When you face a challenge like that, you turn to that community for help," said
Michael Vickers, a former Army Green Beret and CIA officer who spent 13 years
overseas.

"The problem is you either could have occasionally divided loyalties, or, more
usually, the other side targets those individuals. They may have, if not
sympathies, vulnerabilities -- family ties and such things. That's the cost of
doing business."

Besides al-Halabi, military officials have arrested Army Capt. Yousef Yee, a
Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay. Yee, 35, has not been charged. Al-Halabi, 24,
is charged with espionage and aiding the enemy for allegedly e-mailing
information about the Cuban base and its prisoners to someone he knew was "the
enemy."

The airman, a native of Syria, also is accused of having improper contacts with
the Syrian government, which denies any connection to al-Halabi.

A third member of the military also is under investigation at Guantanamo, where
some 660 alleged members of al-Qaida, the Taliban militia and other terrorist
suspects are being detained.

Past cases raised similar concerns: Ali Mohamed, a member of Osama bin Laden's
inner circle, who became a sergeant in the Army Special Forces in the 1990s. He
pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in
Africa.

Other military veterans said that while the investigation of al-Halabi and Yee
is just beginning, larger questions can't be avoided.

"Is this just the few, or does it represent the many?" said Harlan Ullman, a 20-
year Navy officer who saw combat in Vietnam and now is a senior adviser with the
Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He urged a thorough review at the Pentagon, but cautioned against focusing on
any one religion, noting the case of Jonathan Pollard, the Navy intelligence
analyst convicted of spying for Israel.

After all, Arab-Americans play a significant role in today's military with the
highest profile example being Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command
and commander of all forces in Iraq.

Still, on Thursday Arizona Republican Jon Kyl, the chairman of a Senate
subcommittee, announced that he would hold hearings into whether the U.S.
military had been infiltrated by Muslim extremists or terrorists.

Also, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., urged the Pentagon to investigate the Muslim
organization that certified Yee as a military chaplain candidate, alleging it
was linked to a group that had been investigated for financial ties to
terrorism.

The military isn't alone in turning to Arab-American and Muslim communities. Law
enforcement, from local police to the FBI, have spent months trying to build
relationships and trust.

Over the past two years, FBI recruiting booths have become a common sight at
American Muslim meetings and conventions, along with booths collecting funds for
relief programs overseas and selling halal food.

Whether pursuing investigations or simply trying to obtain information, pitfalls
are easy to miss, law enforcement officials said.

"There are certain customs and practices that law enforcement may have no idea
could be offensive," said U.S. Attorney Jeff Collins, the head of the eastern
region in Michigan covering Detroit and Dearborn. One example: Don't enter a
religious Muslim home if a woman is home alone.

A. David Fawal understands the tensions well. He spent 13 years in the Navy and
Naval Reserves, and served in the Persian Gulf war in 1991. He is also
Palestinian-American, raised in Birmingham, Ala.

"From the military side of it, I got concerned about the espionage -- Do we have
some people down there that for whatever reason switched sides and have been
aiding the enemy?" he said in a thick drawl. "As an officer in the Navy, that
causes me great concern."

"On the other hand, do we have a situation of people who are Muslim and are
being unfairly singled out, (a violation that) for someone who's not Muslim it
would've been blown off?"

"I think the military will be fair about it," he said. He should know. Fawal is
a JAG in the Navy reserves -- a Navy lawyer.

* * *


September 25, 2003

SPY INVESTIGATION WIDENS TO INCLUDE A NAVY SAILOR

By Eric Schmitt

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 -- Military authorities investigating possible security
lapses at the prisoner camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have widened their inquiry
to at least a third member of the armed services, Pentagon officials said today.

The third person, an enlisted Navy sailor, is under scrutiny but has not been
arrested, two senior defense officials said. The officials did not identify the
sailor or his job at Guantanamo Bay, a detention center for captured militants
and suspected terrorists.

The arrests of an Army chaplain and an Air Force interpreter, both of whom
worked at the camp and are being investigated for possible espionage and ties to
Syria, have jolted officials in Washington and at Guantanamo, which houses 660
prisoners from 40 countries.

"We don't presume that the two we know about is all there is to it," Gen. Peter
Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters this
morning. General Pace added that there was no hard proof pointing to other
serious suspects.

But new concerns have been raised because the Army chaplain, Capt. James J. Yee,
had been seen with at least two other people under surveillance as espionage
threats, a military officer said today. Both of those people are service
members, the officer said, but it was unclear if they were the Air Force and
Navy enlisted men now under scrutiny.

Military officials also said it was still unclear to what extent the Air Force
interpreter, Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, crossed paths at the prison camp
with Captain Yee, also known as Youssef Yee, who is being held at the Navy brig
in Charleston, S.C., under suspicion that he, too, was spying for Syria at
Guantanamo Bay.

The officials said it was possible that the inquiry could expand.

The Air Force said in a statement late Tuesday that it had delayed making public
the detention of Airman al-Halabi "to protect ongoing investigations." Air Force
officials declined to elaborate today.

Lawmakers expressed alarm over the possibility of serious security breaches at
the prison camp. The Senate Armed Services Committee has asked the Pentagon for
a full briefing on the issue. Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who heads
the Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism and domestic security, said he would
hold a hearing in the next week on the potential for Wahhabi fundamentalists or
other Islamic groups to recruit American service members.

General Pace said military authorities had reviewed security procedures at
Guantanamo Bay, standard procedure in such situations, among other things to
make sure that they had not fallen into predictable patterns.

"By virtue of the fact that we have a potential spy problem, it makes you go
back and relook at the way you do business and make modifications," he said.
"And that's a healthy thing."

He was pressed about the Syrian connection but declined to speak about possible
links because the case was under way. But he said, "We will chase these rabbits
as far as we need to find out where they lead."

So far, charges have been filed only against Airman al-Halabi, 24, who worked as
an Arabic language interpreter at the camp for nine months, from about November
2002 through July 2003, when he was taken into custody at a naval air station in
Jacksonville, Fla.

A soft-spoken native of Syria who moved to the United States as a teenager,
Airman al-Halabi joined the Air Force after graduating from Fordson High School
in Dearborn, Mich., in 1999. He was quickly promoted ahead of his peers, awarded
airman of the year in his unit and became an American citizen. Last year, he was
assigned to be an Arabic language interpreter at the Cuban prison camp.

But the Pentagon says there is another side to Airman al-Halabi. It accuses him
of committing espionage by trying to deliver information to Syria, including 180
messages from prisoners, maps of the camp and names of many of the camp's 660
detainees.

He lied about all this to investigators when he was detained in July, Pentagon
officials charge.

Airman al-Halabi now sits in a detention center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in
California, facing the death penalty if convicted in one of the stranger
chapters in the military's campaign against terrorism.

Whether his case adds up to a serious espionage matter is now under intense
debate in Washington and, to some degree, in the Arab-American neighborhoods of
suburban Detroit, where he lived before enlisting in the Air Force.

The Syrian Embassy in Washington flatly denied that the Damascus government had
anything to do with Airman al-Halabi.

"We do not have any connection with this guy," said an embassy spokesman, Ammar
Arsan.

Military officials and Mideast experts who have reviewed the charges against the
airman note that he is accused of trying to pass secrets "to a citizen of a
foreign government by carrying such notes stored in his personal laptop computer
en route to Syria."

"Syrian intelligence is good, but not good enough to penetrate a place like
Guantanamo Bay with a 24-year-old guy," said Murhaf Jouejati, a Syrian-born
specialist on Mideast affairs at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "It's
more reasonable to guess that if his intention was to pass along information, it
was not to the Syrian government but other individuals in Syria."

Syria is on the State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Airman al-Halabi's lawyers say the government has not shared any evidence with
them that supports the spying charges, and they say military investigators are
seeing conspiracies behind the most benign corners.

For instance, his lawyers say, Airman al-Halabi contacted the Syrian Embassy in
Washington last year because he needed permission to return to marry his fiancée
and take her back to California.

"Airman al-Halabi is no spy," said Maj. James E. Key III, one of Airman al-
Halabi's military lawyers.

For a case with such potential seriousness, it seems to have caught much of
official Washington off guard.

A senior State Department official said today that the agency was still "playing
catch up" in gathering information about the espionage case. The official said
that the United States had not yet registered any complaint to the Syrian
government about the case and that no action had been taken against Syrian
diplomats in the United States.

* * *


September 25, 2003

ARMY CHAPLAIN IN DETENTION SOUGHT TO TEACH ABOUT ISLAM

By Sarah Kershaw

[ This article was reported by Laurie Goodstein, Sarah Kershaw and Neil A. Lewis
and was written by Ms. Kershaw. ]

SEATTLE, Sept. 24 -- Within days of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Capt. James
J. Yee, a Muslim chaplain stationed at the Fort Lewis Army base south of here,
dedicated himself to a new mission. He would tell anyone who would listen,
according to people who heard his sermons, that Islam was not a violent
religion, and he would deliver that message at the base, in churches and
mosques, on college campuses and on the streets of Olympia, where he lived with
his wife and young daughter.

Captain Yee, 35, would apply that same determination -- an intensity of purpose
that had made him a star wrestler in high school, a graduate of West Point and a
deeply dedicated convert to Islam -- when he was sent last year to minister to
Muslim detainees at the American prison camp for militants and suspected
terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There, it was Captain Yee who arranged for
the muezzin's call to prayer to ring through the camp over a loudspeaker five
times a day, and when the compact disc player broke, he chanted the prayers
himself into a microphone.

Part of his job, he said in an interview there last April, was to deal with the
misunderstandings between the prisoners and the authorities.

"I advise the base commander with respect to religion and help facilitate
worship here," Captain Yee said. "But most importantly, I am utilized to defuse
tensions within the camp."

Captain Yee left Guantanamo two weeks ago to return home, but he has yet to
arrive. On Sept. 10 military officials arrested him on a layover in Florida and
locked him in a military brig in South Carolina while he is being investigated
in a growing military inquiry into spying at Guantanamo. Military officials have
declined to say precisely why Captain Yee, who has not been charged with a
crime, is being investigated. But other law enforcement officials have said the
investigation was aimed at suspicions of espionage, improperly assisting the
prisoners or possibly another breach of military duties.

One military official said today that Captain Yee was found to have hand-drawn
maps of where the prisoners were kept in the camp, lists of which interrogators
had interviewed which prisoners and notations on the subjects of the interviews.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one reason that Captain
Yee had come under suspicion was that he was seen in the company of two other
military people who had been under surveillance. It was unclear whether one of
those people was Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, a one-time translator at
Guantanamo who has been charged with espionage and passing military secrets to
Syria.

Military officials would not provide the names of lawyers representing Captain
Yee, who under military law must be given a trial within 120 days of his arrest.

Those who knew Captain Yee in Olympia, where he had lived for four years and
where he was active in a local mosque, sometimes leading Friday Prayers as a
substitute for the imam, said they were baffled by the news of his arrest. As
strongly as he felt about correcting what he felt were misrepresentations of
Islam after Sept. 11, 2001, Captain Yee, a chaplain with the 29th Signal
Battalion at Fort Lewis, also spoke frequently of his fierce loyalty to the
United States and to the military, they said.

"I think he is the opposite of a spy," said Imam Mohamad Joban of the Olympia
Islamic Center, where Captain Yee worshiped and led prayers for a congregation
of about 300, mostly Cambodians. "He is loyal to his country. He tried to help
this country understand Islam better, that Islam is not a violent religion, as
many people think."

Imam Joban said he was shocked when he heard of Captain Yee's arrest. "All the
congregation was shocked," he said in an interview today. "This is not the kind
of man who would do that. If you see Yee, you don't believe this. He is so quiet
and humble, I don't think he would hurt the country."

Imam Joban said Captain Yee returned to Olympia from Guantanamo in March, after
six months, and was informed by the Army that he was being sent back.

"I said to him, 'What do you think?' " the imam recalled. "And he told me it was
difficult to be away from his family, but he said, 'I am in the military and I
have to serve the country.' "

Imam Joban said Captain Yee never described conditions at Guantanamo or
expressed concern about the detainees, focusing instead on how he worked to
provide them with what they needed spiritually.

In the interview in April, Captain Yee said he made sure the meat served to the
660 or so prisoners was blessed in keeping with Islamic rules. He told Imam
Joban that he insisted that every prisoner must have a copy of the Koran and
that every cell should have a surgical mask attached to the ceiling, where the
Koran could be tucked away to prevent it from touching the ground.

Captain Yee, the son of Chinese immigrants, was raised a Lutheran in
Springfield, N.J., about 20 miles west of Manhattan. After converting to Islam
in the early 1990's, he studied in Syria, where he met his future wife, a
Syrian, and solidified his conversion while serving in the military in Saudi
Arabia, he said in an interview with The New York Times in October 2001.

He said his education in Syria did not meet the qualifications for a military
chaplain, so he was given a "letter of equivalency" by the Graduate School of
Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Va., which has been certified by the
military to train chaplains.

But the president of the graduate school, Dr. Taha Jabir al-Alwani, said in an
interview today that although his school had trained nine Muslim military
chaplains, it had neither trained nor certified Captain Yee. "We didn't even
know this person," Dr. Taha said. "We have nothing to do with him."

Captain Yee's parents, who live in Springfield, where he grew up, declined to
comment, as did several other family members. A sign on the front door of his
parents' home read, "No reporters or media please."

Captain Yee's wife, Whoda Yee, who was at the couple's Olympia apartment today
with Captain Yee's mother, Fong Yee, declined to discuss his case. But she said
she wanted to correct an error that she said had appeared in several newspapers,
that her husband had changed his name to Youseff, saying it was her name for him
and the Arabic name for his father, Joseph, which Mrs. Yee found easier to
pronounce than James.

"All the newspapers say that he changed his name," she said. "It's not true --
he never changed his name. He likes his name."

Imam Joban said Captain Yee's wife called him a few days ago and was "extremely
worried," having waited for him for hours at the Seattle-Tacoma airport, and not
learning until a few days later from a lawyer that he had been arrested. She has
still not spoken to him, Imam Joban said.

In the Times interview, Captain Yee, who was born in Naperville, Ill., said he
first became interested in Islam in 1991, after getting to know Egyptian army
officers in vehicle maintenance classes with him at Fort Knox, Ky. After
observing the Egyptians fasting during the monthlong Muslim holiday of Ramadan,
he said, "that just kind of inspired me to go and study more on my own."

He said he converted to Islam in April of 1991, and by August found himself
deployed to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

Captain Yee said he often visited a Saudi sponsored tent at the Khobar Towers
military base to pick up Islamic books and texts translated into English.

In 1993, he said, the Saudi Air Force and the Saudi royal family paid for him
and other Americans to make the pilgrimage to Mecca that is known as the hajj, a
trip that every Muslim is required to make at least once.

He made the pilgrimage a second time two years later, and looked around for a
program in the Middle East where he could study Islamic theology and sciences
and Arabic.

"I didn't want to study my religion in a secular institution," he said. "I
wanted to go and study it from the traditional method, which is studying with
Islamic scholars in the Middle East."

He settled on the Abu Nour center in Damascus, Syria, which is run by Sheikh
Ahmad Kuftaro, Syria's grand mufti, or supreme religious leader, and is
affiliated with the Syrian government. It draws Muslim students from around the
world.

Ingrid Mattson, a professor at the McDonald Center for Islamic Studies and
Christian-Muslim Relations at the Hartford Seminary, said that the Damascus
school was oriented toward Sufism, a nonmilitant and more spiritual stream of
Islam, and avoids politics for fear of arousing its government sponsors.

"My understanding and from my conversations with American Muslims who have
studied there is that the school teaches a very traditional and spiritual form
of Islam, and that the Syrian government in fact doesn't allow a politicized
form of Islam to be taught in its schools," Ms. Mattson said.

After four years in Damascus, Captain Yee returned to the United States in
December 1999. He said he was soon invited to attend a Ramadan program at the
Pentagon by a former Marine gunnery sergeant he had met on the hajj, Qaseem A.
Uqdah, who encouraged him to apply for the military chaplaincy. By then Mr.
Uqdah had become a central figure in recruiting and nominating the few
candidates that could be found to become Muslim military chaplains. Mr. Uqdah
did not return telephone calls or e-mail messages today.

In Captain Yee's hometown of Springfield, there was plenty of talk today of the
mysterious situation of "Jimmy," remembered by classmates and by his former
wrestling coach as an intense, no-nonsense boy who worked a newspaper route and
was admired for his wrestling prowess.

Rick Iacono, Captain Yee's wrestling coach, said he had recruited Captain Yee,
who weighed only 100 pounds in high school, and that he had quickly made an
impression as someone who could deeply focus on what he was doing. Captain Yee
kept in close touch with Mr. Iacono and would return sometimes to the high
school, Jonathan Dayton High School, to speak to students about wrestling.

Mr. Iacono said he would receive e-mail messages from Captain Yee after Sept.
11, asking those on his long group e-mail list not to judge all Muslims by the
terrorist attacks.

"He was really into that, which I'm not comfortable with," Mr. Iacono said.

"I have to believe in my kids," he said. "But if that religion has brainwashed
him to change his thinking, then maybe I am wrong. I am like my wife -- we want
to believe Jimmy is innocent, but if he is not innocent, then I am devastated."

* * *


September 25, 2003

MILITARY EXPANDS PROBE AT GUANTANAMO BAY

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon is looking into security procedures at its main
prison for terrorism suspects after the espionage-related arrests of two men
stationed there.

Defense officials said Wednesday that a third service member also was being
investigated in the security probe at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, base. That Navy
member has not been arrested, officials said.

The arrests of an Air Force translator and a Muslim Army chaplain -- both were
stationed at the Cuban base and have ties to Syria -- have shaken Defense
Department officials. About 660 suspected Taliban or al-Qaida members are being
held at the high-security base.

"We don't presume that the two we know about is all there is to it," Gen. Peter
Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

On Capitol Hill, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said security
procedures at Guantanamo Bay were being reviewed.

"Any time you have allegations like this, you always look at your procedure and
process," Myers said.

So far, charges have been filed only against Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi,
24, who worked as an Arabic translator for the detainees. He is accused of
espionage, aiding the enemy, lying to investigators and trying to pass
classified information about prisoners and base security to "the enemy" and to
his native Syria. The most serious charges carry a possible death sentence.

Al-Halabi denies the charges, said his lawyer, Air Force Maj. James Key III. He
is also accused of not reporting unauthorized contacts with the Syrian Embassy,
but Key said those contacts were to arrange for a trip to Syria to get married.
Al-Halabi had his plane ticket for that trip with him when he was arrested July
23 after arriving in Florida from Guantanamo Bay, Key said.

Syrian government spokesmen denied links to the airman, who was arrested in
July, more than six weeks before the arrest of the chaplain, Army Capt. Yousef
Yee, 35. Yee has not been charged but is being held in a Navy brig in
Charleston, S.C., on suspicion of breaching Guantanamo Bay security.

Yee also has ties to Syria: He learned Arabic and studied Islam there for four
years in the early 1990s. Al-Halabi lived in Syria at the time, but he was still
a boy; he traveled with his family to the Detroit area in 1996 and went to high
school in a Detroit suburb.

The two men served at Guantanamo Bay at the same time and knew each other,
though the extent of their relationship is unclear, said military officials and
Key.

Senior law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there
is no evidence of involvement by individuals in the United States who are not
part of the U.S. military.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on
Wednesday urging an investigation of security measures at Guantanamo Bay.
Schumer said the arrests indicate security measures "are incredibly lax at some
of our supposedly most secure military facilities."

Guantanamo Bay is meant to house some of the worst suspected terrorists, the
Pentagon says. Shortly after the first prisoners were moved there, Myers
responded to criticism of the prisoners' heavily shackled transport by saying
they were the kind of men who would gnaw through hydraulic cables of a transport
plane to try to bring it down.

The Pentagon has never said precisely how many prisoners are held at the base,
nor does the military identify any of the detainees or which countries they come
from. Arrivals and departures of prisoners from the base are announced, if at
all, after their transport is complete.

Word of Yee's Sept. 10 arrest leaked over the weekend, and military officials
acknowledged al-Halabi's arrest Tuesday. Air Force Brig. Gen. Bradley S. Baker
had ordered al-Halabi's preliminary court hearing closed, but the Air Force
Court of Criminal Appeals ordered some of the proceedings to be opened, Key
said.

Al-Halabi was a supply clerk before being pressed into service as a translator
at Guantanamo Bay, according to Key and military records. He is accused of
failing to report improper contacts between prisoners and other, unidentified
members of the military.

Military authorities say he took pictures of the base and stole information such
as maps, flight schedules and prisoners' cell numbers to give to someone going
to Syria and an unidentified "enemy." The Air Force hasn't told defense lawyers
who that "enemy" is, Key said.

Al-Halabi is being held at a prison on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Authorities have imposed restrictions on him, including banning him from
speaking Arabic, Key said. That means he has to speak to his father through a
translator when the father visits, Key said.

Al-Halabi also has talked on the phone -- through translators -- to his fiance,
who remains in Syria, Key said. He said al-Halabi's family is shocked at the
allegations.

"Airman al-Halabi's father testified at the hearing ... how much Airman al-
Halabi loved the United States, how important being in America was to him," Key
said in a telephone interview. "They're shocked at the allegations he may have
done something contrary to the United States' interests."

[ AP writers Pauline Jelinek and Curt Anderson contributed to this report. ]

* * *


September 24, 2003

ACCUSED GUANTANAMO SPY HAILS FROM MICHIGAN

By The Associated Press

Ahmad I. al-Halabi liked to fiddle with robots in high school. He lived in one
of the nation's biggest Arab-American communities, and went straight into the
Air Force after graduation. He planned to marry his fiancee days after his tour
as an Arabic translator ended on Guantanamo Bay.

But now al-Halabi, a senior airman -- once honored as "Airman of the Year" -- is
in custody at an Air Force base in California, facing allegations of espionage
that could bring the death penalty for the 24-year-old son of Syrian immigrants.

The supply clerk-turned-translator is the second member of the U.S. military to
be arrested for actions at Guantanamo, the U.S.-run military base in Cuba
housing some 660 alleged members of al-Qaida, the Taliban and other terrorism
suspects. A Muslim Army chaplain was arrested this month; a third military
person is under investigation, authorities said Wednesday.

"I have never made any anti-American or anti-United States statements,"
al-Halabi told Air Force Special Agent Lance Wega, according to federal
documents of the 32 military charges against him.

He also denied having unauthorized contacts with detainees, taking any
detainees' letters to his residence, or taking any prohibited pictures at the
base's Camp Delta.

A portrait of al-Halabi's personal life is slowly emerging: a typical high
school yearbook photo, a trip to Disney World, his engagement to marry a woman
in Syria, from where his family emigrated in 1996.

The family settled in Dearborn, Mich., a suburb of Detroit where mosques, Arabic
store signs and cafes with thick coffee and Middle Eastern sweets greet the
area's Arab Americans. Some 300,000 live in the region. He joined Fordson High
School's 10th grade, and the school's robotics club.

Drivers license records indicate the family lived in Dearborn and later moved to
Detroit, to a tree-lined street in a working-class neighborhood with an
elementary school at the end of the block. Neighbors said they've said hello but
never really talked with family members.

"We don't really know them. Every now and then, I see (a woman) coming out
dressed head to toe ... with just her eyes showing," said Christina Burton, who
lives across the street.

A high school picture from the 1999 yearbook shows a smiling al-Halabi, video
camera in hand, with club members at Disney World, where they took part in a
national robotics competition.

His yearbook portrait shows a clean-cut young man with brushed-back black hair,
hints of a mustache and a wide grin.

Al-Halabi went straight into the Air Force after graduating that year, and
worked as a supply clerk before being pressed into service as a translator, Maj.
James Key III, one of his attorneys, told The Associated Press.

He did well, named Airman of the Year one year and promoted fairly quickly to
senior airman, his attorney said. He had served in Kuwait prior to the war in
Iraq, and spent nine months at Guantanamo.

Al-Halabi had been engaged to a woman from Syria. Key did not recall her name.

When he was arrested on July 23 as he arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., on a flight
from the prison camp, he was holding a plane ticket for Syria, where he planned
to marry in Damascus, Key said.

There's also a Syrian connection with Army Capt. Yousef Yee, the arrested
chaplain who gave religious guidance to suspected Muslim terrorists on
Guantanamo. After attending West Point, Yee spent four years in Syria, studied
Arabic, converted to Islam, and reportedly married a Syrian woman. Yee hasn't
been charged, but is being held in a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., on suspicion
of breaching Guantanamo Bay security.

Key said al-Halabi's pending marriage explained the contacts with the Syrian
embassy cited in the charges.

Now al-Halabi is being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Charges include that
he carried two handwritten notes from detainees that he intended to turn over to
someone traveling to Syria, and that his personal laptop computer contained
classified information about detainees and 180 messages from detainees he
intended to send to Syria or Qatar.

One of the allegations is that he conducted "unauthorized communications with
detainees" because he brought them baklava pastries.

Now, behind bars, al-Halabi is barred from speaking Arabic and must rely on a
translator to speak with his father and his fiance, since both only speak
Arabic.

His father, Ibrahim al-Halabi, spoke at the military equivalent of a grand jury
hearing in California last week.

"He testified how much Airman al-Halabi loved the United States, how important
being in America was to him," Key said. "They're shocked at the allegations he
may have done something contrary to the United States' interests."

[ Contributing to this report were AP writers David Goodman and Tarek El-Tablawy
in Michigan and Matt Kelley in Washington. ]

* * *

September 24, 2003

AIRMAN IS CHARGED AS SPY FOR SYRIA AT GUANTANAMO CAMP

By Eric Schmitt

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 -- An Air Force translator at the United States prison camp
for captured militants and suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has
been charged with espionage and passing military secrets to Syria, according to
Pentagon officials and military court papers.

The translator, Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, faces 32 criminal charges,
including accusations that he tried to slip prison maps, cell-block information,
names of prisoners and messages from them to an agent of the Syrian government.
If convicted of the spying charges, he could face the death penalty.

A military lawyer for Airman al-Halabi, Maj. Kim E. London, disputed the
military's accusations. "We don't believe we've seen sufficient evidence to
support those charges," Major London said in a telephone interview tonight.

Airman al-Halabi is one of two American servicemen detained in recent weeks in
an investigation of suspected espionage at the camp. An Islamic chaplain in the
Army, Capt. James J. Yee, also known as Youssef Yee, was taken into custody on
Sept. 10 at a naval air station in Jacksonville, Fla., but he has yet to be
charged. The Army is investigating his activities at the camp, military
officials said.

Pentagon officials said today that it was likely that Airman al-Halabi and
Captain Yee knew each other, given the camp's small size and the need for
translators in many of the camp's daily operations. Captain Yee was one of the
few camp officials to have unrestricted access to prisoners, but at times he
used a translator, the authorities said. It was unclear whether the arrests were
related.

Military officials in Washington and in Cuba said today that they were reviewing
procedures at the camp to prevent any security breaches. "We take security
measures seriously here," Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman for the military
operation that runs the prison, said in a telephone interview tonight. "We are
looking into our security procedures and insuring we strengthen all of our
practices."

Airman al-Halabi, 24, was an Arabic language translator at the camp for about
nine months after being transferred from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where he
had been assigned to a logistics unit, said Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon
spokesman. He has been in the Air Force nearly four years, officials said.

He was arrested on July 23 at the naval air station in Jacksonville after
getting off a military flight from the Navy base in Cuba, but the Pentagon
acknowledged this today only after it was reported by CNN.

Mr. al-Halabi was flown to Travis the day after his arrest and transferred to
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., where he is being held. Pentagon officials
said he faced 9 counts related to espionage, 3 counts of aiding the enemy, 11
counts of disobeying a lawful order and 9 counts of making a false official
statement.

Neither Air Force officials nor papers filed in court on behalf of Mr. al-Halabi
specifically identify the "enemy" that he is said to have aided. But the most
severe charges relate to activities involving Syria, a country with which
Washington maintains normal relations. Syria, however, is on the State
Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism, and the Bush
administration has accused it of helping terrorists and foreign fighters who are
attacking American troops in Iraq.

Papers filed in a military court in California say the charges range from
wrongfully taking photographs of the camp sites and transferring classified
information to an unclassified computer, to unlawfully delivering baklava
pastries to detainees.

The most serious accusations focus on charges that Airman al-Halabi tried to
pass sensitive information to the Syrian government. These communications
included efforts to deliver two handwritten notes from detainees and more than
180 electronic versions of written notes.

The military also accused the airman of trying to pass on information about
military and prisoner movements at the naval base in Cuba. The military said he
did "knowingly communicate with the enemy by writing and transmitting secretly
through unsecured e-mail to an unauthorized person or persons whom he, the
accused, knew to be the enemy."

Many details surrounding the case were murky tonight. It was unclear how much,
if any, of the information Airman al-Halabi is accused of trying to deliver was
actually passed along, and, if so, to what extent security and operations at the
camp were compromised, officials said.

There are 680 prisoners from more than 40 countries being held at the Guantanamo
Bay naval base.

The military sought to keep Airman al-Halabi's arrest and legal proceedings
secret, but his case has stirred an uproar inside Air Force legal circles.

In an unusual move, the Air Force on Sept. 15 tried to close the proceedings of
the airman's Article 32 hearing, the equivalent of a grand-jury proceeding. His
lawyers objected, and the next day, the United States Air Force Court of
Criminal Appeals upheld the protest and ordered the government to open the
proceedings to the public, except for parts involving classified information.
The hearing continued in both open and closed sessions through Sept. 18.

The Air Force investigating officer in the case, Col. Anne Burman, will prepare
a report from the hearing and submit recommendations to Brig. Gen. Bradley S.
Baker, commander of the 60th Air Mobility Wing at Travis. General Baker could
take actions ranging from dismissing all charges to ordering further court
proceedings, including court-martial.

"The charges do not represent a trial," said Eugene Fidell, president of the
National Institute of Military Justice and an authority on military law. "It's
quite urgent that there be no rush to judgment, particularly given the highly
charged atmosphere we're in."

So far, the investigations into Airman Al-Halabi and Captain Yee are being
handled by their respective branches of the military, despite several
similarities in the two cases.

Captain Yee, a 1990 graduate of West Point who converted to Islam, is also being
investigated on suspicions of espionage, improperly assisting the prisoners or
some other breach of military duties, a civilian law enforcement official said.

Other law enforcement officials have said that the military opened its inquiry
into Captain Yee before he left Guantanamo and that when he was searched upon
arriving at the Jacksonville naval station, investigators found what seemed to
be sketches or diagrams of the prisoner facilities at the base. He is being held
at a military prison in Charleston, S.C.

Military officials said Captain Yee left the Army in the mid-1990's and moved to
Syria for several years. He returned to this country and re-entered the Army as
an Islamic chaplain. Investigators are looking into the possibility that he was
sympathetic to prisoners there and was preparing to aid them in some
undetermined way.

* * *


September 21, 2003

ARMY CLERIC WHO MINISTERED TO DETAINEES IS ARRESTED

By Eric Lichtblau

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 -- An Islamic chaplain in the United States Army who
ministered to detainees at the camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the military
holds captured militants and suspected terrorists is now himself under arrest
while the Army investigates his activities, military and law enforcement
officials said today.

The chaplain, Capt. James J. Yee, also known as Youssef Yee, has not been
charged either by the military or by civilian authorities, the officials said.
His case is being investigated by the Army and if he is charged, it would most
likely be under the military justice code, they said.

Military officials declined to say why Captain Yee, a 1990 graduate of West
Point who converted to Islam, was being investigated. But a civilian law
enforcement official said that the investigation was aimed at suspicions of
espionage, improperly assisting the prisoners or some other breach of military
duties.

The arrest was reported in The Washington Times today.

A second law enforcement official said that the military had opened its
investigation of Captain Lee before he left Guantanamo and that when he was
searched upon arriving at the naval air station in Jacksonville, Fla.,
investigators found what appeared to be sketches or diagrams of the prisoner
facilities at Guantanamo.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that he was sympathetic to
prisoners there and was preparing to aid them in some undetermined way.

"That's the fear and the suspicion that the Army is pursuing," the second law
enforcement official said.

The camp at the American naval base at Guantanamo, where Captain Yee was
stationed, holds mostly foreigners captured in fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan
or elsewhere after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Most of them are Muslims, and
the military has provided them with Islamic clerics since the camp was
established.

The military prison at Charleston, S.C., where Captain Yee was transferred after
being arrested in Jacksonville, has also been used to hold suspects facing
charges as enemy combatants who might be subjected to trial by military
antiterrorism tribunals. But Captain Yee's case is unlikely to be handled that
way, officials said.

Instead, as an American citizen and an active duty officer, he might be
subjected to charges of violating military law, if the investigation finds
grounds for any such charges.

Spokesmen for the Army's Southern Command, confirming that Captain Yee was
arrested on Sept. 10 and held since then, said that he had been provided
military lawyers to defend himself but declined to give their names. Under
military law, they said, he must be given a trial within 120 days of his arrest.

Captain Yee was raised in Springfield, N.J. After graduating from West Point, he
served on active duty as an air defense artillery officer, a military spokesman
told The Associated Press. He left the Army in the mid-1990's and moved to
Syria, the spokesman said. He returned to the United States and re-entered the
Army as an Islamic chaplain.

Captain Yee's father and sister declined to comment on the case.

Military officers refused to discuss the reasons for his arrest, saying that
would violate his rights.

Civilian officials involved in the case said that their role was secondary, as
agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation assisted in the arrest itself and
sat in on interviews conducted by military investigators in Jacksonville. The
F.B.I. also executed a search warrant in Miami at an apartment that was
apparently used by Captain Yee, officials said.

The prisoners at the camp are held under strict supervision but are given some
religious amenities. As chaplain, Captain Yee arranged to have recordings of the
ritual calls to prayer broadcast through the camp, and to reassure the prisoners
their food was prepared according to Islamic dietary guidelines.

Captain Yee has been portrayed in news accounts as a model of a Muslim cleric in
American uniform. He occasionally spoke to journalists visiting Guantanamo and
was cited as a source before going there. In a typical interview, published by
Scripps Howard News Service a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, he said: "An act
of terrorism, the taking of innocent civilian lives is prohibited by Islam, and
whoever has done this needs to be brought to justice, whether he is Muslim or
not."

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said
that while he was not familiar with the facts of the case, "we certainly hope
that this man is given all his rights to due process."

Mr. Hooper added, however, that "there are those in our society who love to
question the patriotism of American Islamics and this unfortunately will give
them ammunition to do that, no matter what the facts of the case are."

* * *


September 20, 2003

GUANTANAMO BASE CHAPLAIN IS IN DETENTION, OFFICIALS SAY

MIAMI, Sept. 20 (AP) -- An Islamic Army chaplain who counseled prisoners at
Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba who were members of Al Qaeda has been detained as
part of a military investigation, Southern Command officials said today.

The chaplain, Capt. Youseff Yee, has been confined since Sept. 10 but has not
been charged with any crimes, Capt. Thomas Crosson, a spokesman for the Southern
Command, said.

Captain Crosson said he did not know the nature of the investigation. "If
charges were formally filed, then we'd be able to tell you," he said.

The captain said he did not know if an Article 32 hearing, similar to a grand
jury, had been scheduled for Captain Yee.

Captain Crosson said Captain Yee was taken into custody at a naval station in
Jacksonville. But he said he did not know where the chaplain was being held.

A senior law enforcement official, said that F.B.I. agents had confiscated
classified documents Captain Yee was carrying and questioned him before he was
handed over to the military.

Captain Yee is a Muslim chaplain who was assigned to the naval base at
Guantanamo Bay in November 2002 as the Islamic adviser to the Joint Task Force
commander, Captain Crosson said.

The base, in eastern Cuba, is overseen by the Southern Command, which is based
in Miami. About 650 men from 43 countries are being held there, all of them
accused of having links to the Qaeda terrorist network or Afghanistan's fallen
Taliban regime.

Captain Yee, a Chinese-American who graduated from West Point in 1990, converted
to Islam in college and became a chaplain after spending several years in the
Army.

* * *


September 17, 2003

6 HELD IN IRAQ BY U.S. CLAIM TO BE AMERICAN

By IAN FISHER

KHALDIYA, Iraq, Sept. 16 -- Six people identifying themselves as Americans, and
two others saying they are British, are being held prisoner in connection with
guerrilla attacks in Iraq, a United States general said today.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who is in charge of prisoners in Iraq, provided no
details on the men, except to say they are among 4,400 "security detainees," a
category distinct from prisoners of war or common criminals. She said the
"security detainees" were suspected of carrying out or planning attacks on
American or other troops in Iraq, Agence France-Presse reported.

Her reference to the men, the first mention of possible Westerners among some
10,000 prisoners, was made during a tour of Abu Ghraib prison, where they are
being held. American forces took over the prison, just west of Baghdad, which
was notorious during the Saddam Hussein government.

Law enforcement officials in Washington said today that there was little
certainty about the men's identities, nationalities or even what they were doing
in Iraq, questions that are being investigated in Iraq and the United States.
But they said there was no obviously American figure among them like John Walker
Lindh, the Californian who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"The truth is that the folks that we've scooped up have, on a number of
occasions, multiple identifications from different countries," Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld said today at a briefing in Washington. "They're quite
skilled at confusing people as to what their real nationality is or where they
came from or what they're doing."

Agence France-Presse quoted General Karpinski as saying the detainees "didn't
fit into any category" and that Secretary Rumsfeld had ordered her to
"categorize" them about a month ago. She said classifying the prisoners as
security detainees gave the military a right to interview them that it did not
have with prisoners of war, according to Agence France-Presse.

"It's not that they don't have rights," General Karpinski said. "They have fewer
rights" than prisoners of war.

Mr. Rumsfeld said he could not explain what she meant by "security detainees."
He said the prisoners generally fell into two categories, those arrested for
ordinary crimes and those being detained because of their roles as members of
Mr. Hussein's government or as combatants against American forces.

A Pentagon official said the prisoners the general spoke of were being
questioned to assess whether they were fedayeen, Baathist, foreign terrorists or
some other category that could be a threat to United States interests and to
those of the new Iraqi government.

During the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon sent "enemy combatants" suspected of
having ties to the Taliban or Al Qaeda to a prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
for questioning and possible trial before military tribunals.

On a day of comparative quiet in Iraq, the military reported scattered attacks
against the occupying forces, but no soldiers' deaths. In the northern city of
Mosul, the military said, one Albanian soldier, part of a contingent of 70
Albanians in Iraq, was wounded on Monday along with 13 Iraqis in a grenade
attack in front of the city hall building. Later on Monday, officials said, two
American soldiers were also wounded in separate attacks there.

Amid dozens of raids around Tikrit, the hometown of Mr. Hussein, the military
also reported it had killed two Iraqis in a firefight overnight near an
ammunition dump.

Here in Khaldiya, 45 miles west of Baghdad, the small and beleaguered police
department vowed to stay on duty despite the slaying the day before of its new
chief, Col. Khudheir Mikhlif Ali, who was shot as he drove to his home in the
restive Sunni city of Falluja. Even before the killing, the work of the new
police officers here had been stymied by accusations that they were
collaborating with the American military.

"This is our place," said Maj. Mohammad Farhan, 36, sitting in a police station
nearly empty because of looting. "We will stay no matter what."

The death of Colonel Ali was seen as a blow to the American efforts to create a
functional police force and establish a stronger sense of order north and west
of Baghdad. It is there, in the so-called Sunni Triangle, that loyalty to Mr.
Hussein runs deep and that most of the attacks against American soldiers have
taken place. Sentiment against Americans has run high from the time the
occupation began last spring, a feeling that spiked four days ago, when soldiers
killed 10 new police officers in Falluja in an incident that American officials
later apologized for.

Still unsettled today was the question of whether the killing of Colonel Ali, a
former army officer who took the job of police chief less than two months ago,
was an act of common criminals or those who considered themselves anti-American
resisters.

"We bless the guy who killed this colonel," said Said Ibrahim, 33, a resident of
Khaldiya. He and several other men complained that Colonel Ali had been
confiscating vehicles from residents and had passed along the names of
townspeople to the American soldiers, who had provided the police with weapons.

"We consider it collaborating with the Americans," said one man who would give
his name only as Samar.

Strongly denying that Colonel Ali was a collaborator, Major Farhan and friends
and members of the police chief's family said he had confiscated two cars, but
ones that had been looted by criminals. Major Farhan said, however, that Colonel
Ali had made no arrests in his short tenure -- in part because, even with the
weapons given by the Americans, the police were still badly outgunned by the
criminals.

A funeral for Colonel Ali was held in Falluja today, although he was buried on
Monday night, in accordance with Muslim tradition, as soon as possible after his
death. During the ceremony, Sheik Khalf Tarmoz Al Sharqi, a tribal leader,
suggested that Colonel Ali would not be dead but for his association with the
Americans. The only solution, he said, was for American troops to withdraw from
the area and let Iraqis sort out their problems alone.

"They didn't restore security to the city," he said. "They failed. So they
better leave."

* * *


September 17, 2003

'LACKAWANNA SIX' CASE NOT FADING AWAY

LACKAWANNA, N.Y. (AP) -- Ahmed al-Bakri shakes his head and looks down when
asked about his brother. Sharifa Galab speaks haltingly through a window about
her son. At other homes, doorbells go unanswered even as eyes peer from windows.

Relatives of the so-called "Lackawanna Six" and others who live here push away
uncomfortable memories of last September, when agents swarmed to round up young
men on terrorism charges in the shadow of Sept. 11, 2001, remembrances. But the
case is not ready to fade away.

--In December, the six men are to be sentenced for providing material support to
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. Admitting to attending a terrorist training camp in
the months before the attacks were: Mukhtar al-Bakri, 23; Sahim Alwan, 30;
Faysal Galab, 27; Yahya Goba, 26; Shafal Mosed, 25; and Yasein Taher, 25.

--Jaber Elbaneh, a seventh man who went with them, is the target of an
international manhunt and a $5 million reward.

--Investigators were still looking into who paid for the travels and helped
along the way, and were seeking a second group of men who considered going to
the Afghanistan camp.

--The jailed six face recurrent questioning by authorities in other terrorism
cases as part of plea deal promises.

"Obviously, there's so much that the government doesn't know," said Irv Schwary,
a terrorism expert in New Orleans. "You look at it as a vacuum. If you have
nothing at all, no information about anything, anything at all is going to be
useful -- whether it's locations or names of people or ideas."

One by one in plea deals, the Yemeni-American men -- all of them raised in this
working-class city near Buffalo -- described being trained in explosives and
rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and of hearing bin Laden speak about "50 men
on a suicide mission."

But those who know them as brothers, husbands, fathers and high-school soccer
standouts bristle at suggestions the group was a terror "cell."

Many say they were manipulated into going to the camp by high-pressure
recruiters who came to their mosque with a message of religious service -- then
were pressured again by the government to plead guilty.

"Most people feel bad about it, especially for the families," said Mohamed
Abdulla, who called the arrests an "overreaction."

"The families say they were put on the spot to admit something," said Abdulla,
who rents the home where Alwan lived, across the street from Elbeneh and Goba.

"It was his only choice," Ahmed al-Bakri said of his younger brother's plea. The
family and al-Bakri's attorney, John Molloy, wanted to bring the case to trial.

Authorities say there may not have been a plan in the works, but that doesn't
mean the men weren't dangerous.

"If they were duped into going over there thinking it was for religious purposes
... I think they could have been brainwashed or duped again into doing
something, too," Police Chief Dennis O'Hara said. "I'm not saying it would have
happened. I'm saying the potential is there."

Molloy said defense attorneys would have challenged whether their clients'
presence at the camp rose to the legal definition of "providing material
support" to an enemy organization.

They also wanted to question alleged recruiter Juma al-Dosari, who is reportedly
being held by U.S. forces at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The second alleged recruiter,
Kamal Derwish, was killed by a U.S. missile in Yemen.

But "I don't think the government would allow that," Molloy said. The defendants
did not want to risk longer prison terms at trials. Under the agreements, they
face seven to 10 years.

Galab's attorney, Joseph LaTona, said he insisted on guarantees in the plea
deals over concerns the defendants could be deemed "enemy combatants" and
removed from the U.S. judicial system.

The case had been watched closely from Washington, with President Bush seeking
daily briefings before the arrests, investigators said. It prompted the raising
of America's terror alert level on the eve of the first anniversary of the
attacks, officials said. The group was arrested in raids three days later.

The experience has left the community numb, said Mohamed Albanna, vice president
of the local American Muslim Council chapter and Elbaneh's uncle.

After the investigation, Albanna was accused of running an unlicensed business
that helped immigrants wire large amounts of money to relatives in Yemen. His
case is pending.

The community has moved on, Albanna said.

"But," he said, "it's not going to come back to normal until this whole thing is
concluded."

* * *

September 11, 2003

YEMEN REPORTS SIX AL - QAIDA ARRESTS

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- Yemen has arrested six Saudis who are suspected of
belonging to the al-Qaida terror group, a security official said Thursday.

The six will be deported to Saudi Arabia next week along with Bandr Abdel Hakim
al-Ghamdi, recently arrested on suspicion of playing a role in deadly bomb
attacks in the Saudi capital, the official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.

The official would not say when the six alleged militants were detained.

Yemen and Saudi Arabia are co-operating against Islamic extremists, having both
suffered suicide bombings and other attacks.

Al-Ghamdi is accused by the Saudi authorities of belonging to a cell of 19
militants connected to the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh, which killed 26
bystanders.

Several other Saudis wanted for the Riyadh bombings are believed to have crossed
into Yemen. It was not disclosed whether the six slated for deportation Thursday
were among the Saudis wanted for the May attacks.

Separately, Deputy Foreign Minister Abdullah al-Radi was quoted Thursday as
saying Yemen wants the United States to extradite 110 Yemeni suspects detained
at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Speaking to the state-run Al-Wihda newspaper, al-Radi said Yemen would try the
suspects once they have been extradited.

The interview was the first time the Yemeni government had said the number of
its citizens held in Guantanamo exceeds 100. Last year a government official
spoke of some 70 Yemenis at the facility reserved for U.S. captives in the war
on terror.

* * *


September 2, 2003 - 12:39 p.m. ET

HIGH COURT URGED TO TAKE GUANTANAMO CASE

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to consider whether the
Bush administration has violated the Constitution by holding 660 terrorist
suspects in Cuba without charges or access to attorneys.

The appeal was being filed on behalf of some detainees at the U.S. military
prison in Guantanamo Bay, and their families.

The government is interrogating the prisoners, who were captured in Afghanistan
and elsewhere, before determining whether they should be sent back to their
homelands or face military tribunals. They are suspected of ties to the al-Qaida
terrorist network or Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.

Without court oversight, the government could abuse the inmates, the Supreme
Court was told in the appeal, "or it may simply forget them, in the vain hope
the world will as well."

An appeals court in Washington ruled earlier this year that the inmates have no
rights to hearings in American courts, or other constitutional protections,
because they are aliens held outside U.S. territory. The military has said the
interrogations are yielding important intelligence tips.

President Bush has recommended that six of the detainees, including Australian
David Hicks, be the first to face tribunals established for the global war on
terror.

Hicks is one of the four inmates named in the case which would affect the rights
of all 660 detainees. He was captured while allegedly fighting with the Taliban
in Afghanistan.

Many of the inmates have spent 18 months in confinement, without seeing their
families or lawyers, at the Guantanamo prison, the Supreme Court was told. They
are unaware of the case filed on their behalf.

Detainees from 42 countries are being held at the prison, and military officials
have said more than 30 inmates have attempted suicide.

Justices will likely announce this fall whether they will consider the case. The
Supreme Court has already rejected one appeal involving the detentions, filed by
clergy, lawyers and others.

The Bush administration "needs to hear from the courts, and the courts should
not duck their responsibility under the Constitution to control executive
actions that are outside the Constitution," said Michael Ratner, president of
the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the
detainees.

The administration has about a month to file a response at the high court, if it
chooses to.

The case is Rasul v. Bush.

* * *


August 29, 2003

U.S. REJECTS PLEA ON AL QAEDA PRISONER TREATMENT

By Alister Doyle, Reuters

OSLO (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, saying the war on terror
was far from over, rejected a fresh plea on Friday to give prisoner of war
status to alleged al Qaeda fighters held at a U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Ashcroft, on a visit to Norway, said the 660 prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay
after the U.S. war to oust al Qaeda and the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2002
were treated with "respect for their humanity" but signaled they could be held
indefinitely.

"When you detain unlawful combatants in time of war, generally throughout
history there has been the capacity to maintain those individuals as detainees
pending the outcome of the conflict," he told a news conference.

"I will concede this is a different and unique kind of conflict. But it's pretty
clear that the war is very active," he said, noting bombs in India last week
that killed 51 people and deaths of 22 in a bombing of a U.N. compound in
Baghdad.

"Terrorism is rearing its ugly and vicious head around the world on a recurrent
basis," he said. "We are going to continue to fight the war against terror
effectively and aggressively."

Norwegian Justice Minister Odd Einar Doerum said he had urged Ashcroft to step
up legal protection for the prisoners -- called "detainees" by the Pentagon.

"They must be looked upon as prisoners of war until their status is decided upon
by a tribunal which is accepted in accordance with the Third Geneva Convention,"
he said.

The convention lays out terms for humane treatment of prisoners, for instance,
states that trials "shall take place as soon as possible" and that prisoners
should get legal aid.

INNOCENT CIVILIANS

But Ashcroft branded the detainees were "unlawful combatants" who did not
qualify as prisoners of war because they had "attacked innocent civilians
without warning" and had, for instance, operated without uniforms.

He declined to give details of talks with Doerum about Mullah Krekar, a founder
of radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam based in northern Iraq and who has had
refugee status in Norway with his family since 1991.

Diplomats say Washington has been aghast that Oslo has not permanently locked up
Krekar, who says Ansar is not a threat. Secretary of State Colin Powell has
called his Norwegian counterpart at least twice to express concern.

"Ansar al-Islam is a group in which we have a great interest, to the extent to
which we reject the idea of terror as a means of shaping public policy,"
Ashcroft said.

He also praised cooperation with Saudi Arabia in combating attacks. "I believe
that progress is being made and I think not only that it (cooperation) is good
but it continues to improve," he said.

And he rejected suggestions that Washington's reasons for the war to topple
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been undermined because U.S.-led forces had
failed so far to find any weapons of mass destruction.

"I believe that we have already found a number of things that are very
troublesome, things that relate to the evil chemistry and the evil biology that
could be very dangerous to mankind," he said

* * *


August 26, 2003

Suspect at Guantanamo Attempts Suicide

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Another inmate at the U.S. detention center at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has tried to kill himself, bringing to 32 the number of
detainees that have attempted suicide, the military said Tuesday.

The detainee, one of about 660 from 42 countries being held on suspicion of
links to Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network, was
being treated by medics, Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said.

"He is going to be looked at by mental health personnel more carefully, but
physically he's fine," Hart told The Associated Press in a telephone interview
from the base in Cuba.

Hart declined to say how the man tried to kill himself but most attempts have
been with men trying to hang themselves with garments or sheets provided in
their 8-by-6 foot metal cells.

It was the 32nd attempt since the detention mission began in January 2002. None
has been successsful.

U.S. officials announced on Sunday they are expanding the facility to make room
for 100 more detainees, increasing the mission's capacity to 1,100.

* * *


August 22, 2003

U.S. GENERAL TO RECOMMEND TEENS' RELEASE

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The American general in charge of terrorist
suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, plans to recommend the release of three
juvenile detainees, even as preparations continue for possible military
tribunals, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Three teens aged 13-15 have been held at Guantanamo since February, provoking a
storm of additional criticism of the U.S. detention without trial of some 660
men from 42 countries.

News of the possible release first came in a BBC interview with Maj. Gen.
Geoffrey Miller aired Friday. "These juvenile enemy combatants were impressed,
were kidnapped into terrorism (by) despicable people who are using juveniles as
a part of this scourge of terrorism," Miller told the BBC.

Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, in a telephone interview from the naval base, confirmed
that "Maj. Gen. Miller is planning to recommend that we do release the three
detainees."

She could not say when: "I don't have any time frames, but it will be very
soon."

Miller told the BBC the three youths had provided "very viable intelligence."

Sixty-four detainees, mainly Pakistanis and Afghans, have been released over the
past year but only after it is determined they can offer no more intelligence
and pose no threat to the United States, officials say.

Meanwhile, preparations continue for possible military tribunals, with a
courthouse and permanent detention center for any convicts. The tribunals also
have power to impose the death sentence.

Since last month, the makeshift courtroom has been ready with its 70-year-old
electrical wiring revamped, close-circuit cameras in place, windows masked by
yellow paint, brass-tacked upholstered chairs in front of signs saying
"prosecution" and "defense," and the U.S. seal and flags flanking the wooden
table set up for military judges.

Hart denied that a death chamber was being readied, though officials last month
suggested they were making such preparations. "We do not have an execution
chamber, and we are not building one," she said.

Amnesty International on Tuesday urged the United States to cancel its plans for
tribunals, saying they would provide "second-class justice for foreign
nationals."

Also in question is whether detainees will get equal treatment. U.S. officials
said last month that two Britons and an Australian among the first six detainees
designated to go before tribunals would not face the death penalty. Nothing has
been said about the other three, reportedly from Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen.

Human rights groups and countries of detained nationals have criticized the
United States for refusing to designate the detainees as prisoners of war under
international conventions.

Miller and other officials have said the prisoners are treated humanely and in
line with the conventions except that they are denied access to lawyers, denied
access to U.S. courts and are being held indefinitely -- some since January 2002
-- without charges.

* * *


August 22, 2003

US GENERAL WANTS TO SEND GUANTANAMO JUVENILES HOME

MIAMI (Reuters) - The general in charge of the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, wants to send home three boys under 16 whose detention provoked an
outcry from human rights groups, a military official said on Friday.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller will recommend that the Defense Department release the
three to their home countries because they can provide no further useful
information, a Guantanamo spokeswoman said.

"It is true that when we do get the intelligence that we need from certain
detainees that we do recommend that they're released, returned back to their own
countries," said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman for the detention operation
at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo.

The boys were pressed into battle by Afghan warlords and captured in Afghanistan
during the war to oust al Qaeda and the Taliban, U.S. officials said previously.

The three designated for release are the only juveniles among the 660 prisoners
at Guantanamo, Hart said. About 60 other prisoners have been released since the
United States began sending them to Guantanamo in January 2002.

News that there were teen-agers at the camp prompted an outcry from human rights
groups that have long urged the United States to either charge the prisoners
with crimes and try them promptly, or let them go.

They accused the United States of violating international treaties and the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires that
detained juveniles have access to lawyers and speedy resolution of their legal
status.

U.S. military officials said that despite their youth, the teen-agers were
dangerous and were detained for safety reasons.

"They may be juveniles, but they're not on a Little League team anywhere.
They're on a major league team and it's a terrorist team," Gen. Richard Myers,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in April.

Amnesty International questioned that statement in the light of Miller's
recommendation to release them. "With this long overdue release, it's quite
clear that these guys aren't a threat," said Amnesty spokesman Alistair Hodgett.
"Are you sure that you're not wrong about everybody else there?"

The juveniles have been housed together, separately from the adult prisoners and
have been receiving schooling, counseling and medical care, Guantanamo officials
said.

President Bush has authorized military tribunals in what he has called the "war
on terrorism," and has designated six Guantanamo prisoners as eligible for
trial. However, no charges have been filed against any Guantanamo prisoners.
Rights activists have criticized the tribunals in advance, saying they would not
give defendants the legal rights they would find in civilian courts.

* * *



August 22, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/22/opinion/22FRI2.html

Editorial
INJUSTICE IN GUANTANAMO

As the prisoners in Guantanamo approach their second anniversary in captivity,
the Bush administration is finally talking about bringing them to trial. The
delay in holding trials, and releasing the innocent, is unacceptable. So are the
rules the administration has outlined for conducting their trials. The Defense
Department should heed the calls of respected voices in the legal community,
including that of the American Bar Association, and develop fairer procedures.

The detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on suspicion of involvement in
terrorism have been in custody so long it may seem that they have been found
guilty of something. But the detainees, most of them captured in the Afghanistan
war, have not had trials, and it is not clear when they will. Relatives and
human rights groups say many were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,
or were picked up based on bad intelligence.

The administration has indicated that it intends to start putting the detainees
before military tribunals soon. The procedures that have been adopted for these
proceedings are unfair. The trials themselves may be held in secret, and lawyers
can be prevented from speaking publicly about the proceedings. Secret trials
make it impossible for the outside world to determine whether justice is being
done.

The military tribunal rules also contain restrictions on lawyers that will make
it difficult, if not impossible, for them to mount effective defenses. The
government reserves the right to deny detainees and their civilian lawyers
access to the evidence being used at trial. The rules authorize the Defense
Department to monitor communications between civilian lawyers and clients, and
require lawyers to reveal information that they learn from their clients
relating to future criminal acts. The American Bar Association, at its annual
meeting this month, urged Congress and the executive branch to revise these
rules substantially. Finally, the appeals process laid out in the military
tribunal rules falls far short of what fairness requires.

The Bush administration has already denied each of the Guantanamo detainees one
basic right guaranteed in the civilian justice system: a speedy trial. Now it
appears determined to deny many more. Before these prosecutions go any further,
the administration should overhaul its procedures until it has a system capable
of exonerating the innocent, and of showing a skeptical world that those who are
convicted are in fact guilty.

* * *


August 18, 2003

AMNESTY INT'L OPPOSES MILITARY TRIBUNALS

LONDON (AP) -- Amnesty International on Tuesday urged the United States to call
off plans to try terrorist suspects before military tribunals, and to give
international observers access to prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

The international human rights organization said it was seriously concerned
about persistent allegations of ill-treatment and the refusal of U.S.
authorities to grant access to independent human rights organizations and
lawyers.

"Allegations of abuses such as arbitrary arrests, prolonged incommunicado
detention, ill-treatment, interrogations without legal counsel and threats of
unfair trials by military bodies are raised each year in the U.S. State
Department's reports on human rights practices in other countries," Amnesty
International said.

"Now they are being made against the U.S. government in the context of its 'war
on terror.' "

A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. Defense Department would have no comment on
the report until Tuesday.

"Concern about the interrogations or the possibility of coerced plea bargains is
heightened by the USA's ongoing plans to try selected detainees in front of
military commissions," Amnesty said. "These executive bodies will allow a lower
standard of evidence than would be admissible in the ordinary courts and will
have the power to hand down death sentences."

* * *

August 16, 2003 - 9:24 pm ET

GUANTANAMO BRITONS IN PLEA BARGAIN DEAL - PAPER

By Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Two Britons held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay will
admit to supporting al Qaeda in a plea bargain deal to secure short sentences,
according to Britain's Independent on Sunday newspaper.

Feroz Abbasi, 23, and Moazzam Begg, 35, were named by President Bush last month
on a list of the first six prisoners to face military trial.

The fate of Britons held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba has become a tense
political issue, and this week Britain's attorney general, Lord Goldsmith,
sought assurances from the United States that the pair would receive fair
trials.

The paper quoted their lawyer in the United States, Clive Stafford Smith, as
saying that they were selected for an early trial because they were prepared to
admit to supporting al Qaeda, and the Pentagon wanted its first trials to be
quick and successful.

"The U.S. wants to have a few guilty pleas, so they're not going to designate
people for trial until they've agreed to plead guilty," he was quoted as saying.
"They have to agree to plead in order to get this far."

It quoted Abbasi's lawyer in Britain, Louise Christian, as saying: "That's what
I'm hearing as well."

In all, there are nine British nationals among the more than 600 foreign
captives held at the U.S. naval base -- designated "enemy combatants" by
Washington.

* * *


August 13, 2003

PENTAGON PRESSURED ON TERROR TRIAL RULES
By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Friends and critics alike are pressing the Bush
administration to change its new rules for trying suspects in the global war on
terrorism -- rules for the first military tribunals planned by the United States
since World War II.

And it appears the Pentagon is prepared to bend a little.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon's top lawyer held a third round of negotiations through
which Britain is seeking special treatment for its two citizens facing trial --
talks that critics say smack of political favoritism.

The American Bar Association said Tueday the administration should drop plans to
let agents eavesdrop on conversations between terrorism suspects and defense
lawyers and should ease other restrictions to ensure military tribunals are fair
and open.

The ABA's policy-making House of Delegates took no position on whether
individual lawyers should participate in tribunals, although another lawyers'
organization has already said it would be unethical to represent terrorism
suspects under the current rules.

Though some charge the administration is playing foreign policy favorites with
close friends (ally Australia also is negotiating for its suspect), legal and
human rights experts say the London talks could set a good precedent by forcing
more changes in a newly created tribunal system that is seen internationally as
secretive, unfair and full of rights abuses.

Diplomats from other countries whose nationals are being held as terrorism
suspects say they are waiting to see how many changes and concessions Britain
and Australia are able to negotiate.

So far, the Pentagon has said one Australian and two British suspects will not
be subject to the death penalty and will be afforded several exceptions to
tribunal rules.

Neal Sonnet, chairman of the ABA's task force on the treatment of detainees in
the counterterror war, said in a recent interview, "That clearly sounds like a
political favor to Tony Blair," the British prime minister. Sonnet warned that
the Bush administration would draw "international scorn if they play foreign
policy favorites with the death penalty."

His comment echoed the suspicion voiced by other lawyers and several diplomats
whose countries also have nationals at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.

Top British lawyer Lord Goldsmith twice traveled to Washington -- and Defense
Department general counsel William Haynes on Tuesday was in London -- after the
British asked for changes they said were needed to assure fair trials for
suspects. One round of talks with Australia has been held; those negotiations
continue, though another round is not yet scheduled.

Besides eliminating the question of the death penalty, negotiators have decided
the Australian and two Britons will be allowed lawyers from their homelands as
"consultants" despite a rule that lawyers before the tribunals must be U.S.
citizens. The defendants' conversations with their defense teams won't be
monitored, though Pentagon rules allow such monitoring for national security
reasons.

It was agreed no tribunal proceedings on the three will go forward until the end
of negotiations. Their countries also are seeking more access by the prisoners'
families and the right of the defendants to serve any sentences in their own
countries if they are convicted, among other assurances.

The talks were quickly arranged after a personal promise from President Bush to
Blair, his most important ally in the invasion of Iraq. Britain and Australia
were the two main countries that contributed troops to the U.S.-led war.

"If they do this for the British, they've got to do this for everybody,"
attorney Tom Wilner said of the talks. He is the attorney for about a dozen
Kuwaitis detained at Guantanamo.

About 660 prisoners captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere are being held at
Guantanamo without charges or access to lawyers -- some since January 2002. Bush
has recommended six, including the Australian and two Britons, to be the first
to face tribunals established for the global war on terror. It has not
definitely been decided that they will be tried, nor on what charges.

The Pentagon has refused to say what countries the other three are from, though
press reports say they are a Sudanese, a Yemeni and a Pakistani. A senior
defense official said on condition of anonymity that the Pentagon hasn't talked
to the three other countries because "they didn't ask."

Still, Maj. John Smith, spokesman for the Defense Department's office on
military commissions, says the Pentagon does intend to do so.

"We were asked to look at those three specific cases (of the Australian and
Britons) ... and we'll do that with every detainee," Smith said.

The Australian is David Hicks and Britons are Feroz Abbasi and Moazzem Begg.
Smith indicated the Pentagon rejects the idea that the same concessions given
them will have to be made for the others, saying the decisions were based on the
merits of their individual cases.

Prosecutors looked at the evidence against Abbasi, Begg and Hicks and decided
they wouldn't have sought the death penalty against them anyway, Pentagon
officials said. Likewise, intelligence officers reviewed their cases and decided
their conversations with attorneys wouldn't have been monitored anyway,
officials asserted.

[ Pauline Jelinek covers military and defense issues for The Associated Press. ]

* * *


August 12, 2003

ABA URGES CHANGES IN MILITARY TRIBUNALS
By The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The Bush administration should drop plans to let agents
eavesdrop on conversations between terrorism suspects and defense lawyers and
should ease other restrictions to ensure military tribunals are fair and open,
the nation's largest lawyers' organization said Tuesday.

"We must defend those whom we dislike or even despise," Miami defense lawyer
Neal Sonnett told colleagues before the American Bar Association voted to ask
the administration to change its rules for any tribunals.

The ABA's policy-making House of Delegates took no position on whether
individual lawyers should participate in tribunals, although another lawyers'
organization has already said it would be unethical to represent terrorism
suspects under the current rules.

"The world will be watching us as we bring these accused terrorists to trial,"
Sonnett said.

The Pentagon will provide a free military lawyer to anyone brought before a
tribunal, but also will allow defendants to choose outside civilian lawyers.
Despite earlier misgivings about the fairness of military tribunals, it has been
assumed that prominent defense lawyers would volunteer.

Sonnett has said he could not agree to do so unless the Pentagon changes the
rules. Earlier this month the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
said lawyers could not fulfill their ethical duty to fully and zealously defend
a suspect under the current rules.

"We have every intent of these being full and fair trials and believe the rules
do allow defense counsel to prepare and investigate the case," said Maj. John
Smith, a Pentagon spokesman for the office setting up tribunals.

Recommendations for changes are outlined in a report adopted by the ABA at its
annual meeting in San Francisco. Besides the eavesdropping rule, the ABA
objected to restrictions on civilian defense lawyers' access to information and
to a requirement that such lawyers pay their own travel, lodging and other
expenses.

The Pentagon has insisted that security and intelligence agents must be able to
listen in on attorney-client conversations but has said the information will not
be used against the defendant at trial. Outside the military setting, defense
lawyers assume that their conversations with clients are private.

The Pentagon has agreed not to eavesdrop on lawyers' conversations with British
detainees who may be the first suspects brought before tribunals.

More than 660 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects are at the military prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Though no charges have been filed, President Bush has
named six candidates for a tribunal, which is a trial similar in many respects
to a civilian trial but with fewer rights for defendants. The United States has
not used military tribunals since World War II.

The ABA sets ethical and policy guidelines for its 410,000 members, but its
positions do not carry any force of law.

The delegates temporarily put off a vote on another national security issue
involving the military.

The ABA had been asked to oppose war crime trials in one country against
uniformed military personnel of another nation without international consensus
about the severity of the alleged conduct. A proposal also would have put the
ABA be on record opposing war crime trials overseas that could be conducted by a
defendant's home government.

Backers said the policy would protect both U.S. and foreign soldiers from facing
show trials or trumped-up charges.

"Our soldiers are out there every day making decisions in the heat of battle
that could come back to haunt them in a criminal court," said Suzanne Spaulding,
chairwoman of the ABA's national security committee.

In other votes Tuesday, ABA delegates:

-- Clarified when corporate lawyers who discover internal corruption or
wrongdoing should report it up the company chain of command and when the lawyer
should notify outside authorities. The ABA made it easier for lawyers to blow
the whistle without violating ethical guidelines. Opponents said changes in ABA
ethics rules go against the traditional goal of protecting a client's
confidences.

-- Easily approved a recommendation that states and courts allow gay partners
and unmarried heterosexual couples to adopt children together. About half the
states have allowed such adoptions, which give both parents legal rights and
allow children to qualify for inheritance and other benefits from both parents.

The adoption recommendation did not address whether gay people should be
eligible to marry. The ABA is already on record supporting the right of gay
people to adopt.

* * *


August 8, 2003

LAWYER GROUP MAY OPPOSE TRIBUNAL LIMITS

By The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Defense lawyers want guarantees from the Bush
administration that outside attorneys will not be hamstrung by the Pentagon if
they represent terrorism suspects before military tribunals.

The American Bar Association may object to restrictions the administration
placed on civilian lawyers who defend accused terrorists. One point of
contention is the government's ability to listen to conversations between
suspects and their lawyers.

In a vote expected next week, the lawyers' group probably will ask the
administration and Congress to loosen some rules and agree to new conditions
before civilian defense lawyers join military lawyers in any military tribunal.

An ABA panel's report released Friday at the group's annual meeting in San
Francisco outlines problems that some lawyers said would prevent a civilian
lawyer from fulfilling the ethical duty to do everything possible to defend a
client. The report said that defendants should "receive the zealous and
effective assistance" of civilian defense attorneys.

"We are saying these rules restrict the ability of lawyers to fully
participate, and that they should be modified," said Neal Sonnett, a principal
author of the report.

Sonnett, a Miami defense lawyer who once represented deposed Panamanian leader
Manuel Noriega, said he could not agree to the Pentagon's conditions and so does
not plan to volunteer as a tribunal defense lawyer.

Maj. John Smith, a spokesman for the Pentagon office organizing the tribunals,
said the goal of the rules is "to provide a full and fair trial while
protecting national security information."

The Pentagon has set no date for the first tribunal, which is a trial similar in
many respects to a civilian trial but with fewer rights for defendants. The
United States has not used military tribunals since World War II.

More than 660 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects are housed at the military prison at
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Though no charges have been filed, President Bush has
named six of the prisoners as candidates for the first tribunals.

Any defendant brought before a tribunal will have at least one military lawyer
provided free. The Pentagon will allow outside civilian lawyers to help, under
conditions that a second lawyers' group has called intolerable.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said it is unethical for
civilian lawyers to participate under the current rules.

Many of the nation's best-known defense lawyers are members of both the ABA and
the defense lawyers' organization, including that group's new president, Barry
Scheck, who once represented O.J. Simpson.

The ABA sets ethical guidelines for its 408,000 members but its positions do not
carry any force of law. State bar associations generally regulate the day-to-day
conduct of lawyers.

Objections outlined in the forthcoming ABA report center on lawyers' contact
with defendants and access to information, including the Pentagon's insistence
that attorney-client conversations could be monitored for security purposes or
to collect intelligence.

Smith, the Pentagon official, said no information collected that way would be
used against a defendant at trial, and that prosecutors would not even know that
monitoring had taken place.

The ABA panel said that was not good enough. The ABA also may object to a
requirement that tribunal lawyers get government permission before talking about
the case outside the courtroom.

There is little chance the Pentagon will make the biggest changes the ABA report
recommends, lawyers on both sides of the issue said.

The ABA is seeking "fundamental changes in the military commission system which
would not be made, and therefore they are fundamentally rejecting the system as
it has been brought into existence," said David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer who
has written and lectured in support of the Pentagon rules.

Civil liberties groups and some lawyers object to tribunals as inherently
unfair, and the prospect of a U.S.-administered military trial has angered other
countries, including some allies.

The Pentagon has relaxed some rules for two Britons held at Guantanamo. Amid
outcry in Britain that the trials would be a sham, the British government won
agreement that two of its subjects would not face the death penalty if
convicted. Their conversations with their lawyers will not be monitored and they
may have British consultants at trial -- exceptions to tribunal rules.

The Pentagon's top lawyer, William J. Haynes, will fly to London soon for the
next round of negotiations over treatment of the British citizens.

* * *


August 8, 2003

U.S. PROMISES GUANTANAMO DETAINEES A FAIR TRIAL

By Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department's top lawyer said on Friday
President Bush had not yet decided whether prisoners from the "war on terrorism"
would appear before military tribunals, but added that any trials would be "full
and fair."

"I can assure you that the military officers who swear to uphold and defend the
Constitution of the United States ... will do a very good job in representing
the interests of their clients," Pentagon General Counsel William Haynes told
reporters, adding that the president had not "necessarily" decided to use the
tribunals.

Bush on July 3 designated six foreign captives held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba
eligible to be tried before U.S. military commissions. While none were named,
two have been reported to be British and one Australian.

In all, more than 600 people from 42 nations are being held at the U.S. naval
base in Cuba, where they have been interrogated without being charged or being
allowed to contact lawyers.

The United States says it suspects most of the prisoners are members of the al
Qaeda network, which was blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on American
cities.

"All I can say is that I am confident, which may be small comfort to you, that
one thing the military in the United States does very well is take and follow
through with lawful orders from superiors," Haynes said in response to a
question from a BBC reporter about the British detainees.

"The president has instructed the Secretary of Defense that if he tries anybody
using military commissions he shall conduct full and fair trials. That's what
will be done," said Haynes, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute in
Washington.

After pressure from Britain and Australia, last month the Pentagon said it would
not seek the death penalty in any military trials held for two British subjects
or an Australian national at Guantanamo Bay.

Haynes declined comment when asked if the United States would transfer custody
of the two British detainees to Britain.

* * *

August 3, 2003

AL-QAIDA BOSS WARNS U.S. OVER DETAINEES

KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- A new audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden's top
deputy warns the United States that it will pay dearly if it harms detainees at
Guantanamo Bay. The tape, broadcast Sunday, urges Muslims everywhere to avenge
the prisoners.

The Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya said the tape was from Ayman Al-Zawahri, a
top official in bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. According to the tape, the
threat was a response to Washington's announcement that it will start putting
the detainees on military trials that could result in death sentences.

"I swear by the almighty God ... that crusader America will pay dearly for any
harm done to any of the Muslim prisoners it is holding," the recording said.

It was not immediately possible to authenticate the tape. The reference to the
Guantanamo trials indicates it was made within the past month.

An editor for the Dubai-based TV station, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Al-Arabiya received the tape late Saturday, but he did not say how or where
the channel got it. He also did not elaborate on why the station believed the
tape was authentic.

But Montasser el-Zayat, a prominent Egyptian lawyer who represents Islamic
fundamentalists, said he believed the voice on the tape was al-Zawahri's because
it had the same tone and "expressions."

"He is my friend and I know his voice well," el-Zayat told The Associated Press.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said
he did not know if the tape was authentic, but said it signaled to America "that
the war is still under way, that al-Qaida still has the same intentions toward
the United States that it did when it unleashed its savage attack on Sept. 11."

"If it is authentic, it would be an indication that they still hate the United
States and want to inflict great harm."

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, speaking on CNN Sunday, said
officials were reviewing the tape to determine whether the voice was al-
Zawahri's.

The tape said all those who handed the prisoners to America or to any of its
"agents" will also pay. "Let it be clear to those who conspire with America,
that America cannot defend itself, let alone defend others."

The Arabic recording said every prisoner held by the "infidels" should know that
his release is a "debt hanging from the neck of every" Muslim fighter and that
"his brothers have not forgotten that they will avenge him from the new
crusaders.

"But we tell America one thing: what you have seen so far is nothing but the
first skirmishes. The real battle hasn't started yet."

Al-Zawahri's whereabouts are not known. U.S. officials believe bin Laden, who
was not mentioned in the audio tape, and al-Zawahri are hiding in the wilderness
at the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

On July 3, the Pentagon announced President Bush had designated six prisoners to
become the first terrorism suspects who could be tried before military
tribunals. Trial dates have not been set. The six were not identified, but some
were believed held at Guantanamo, where U.S. officials are preparing a makeshift
courtroom, a permanent detention facility and an execution chamber.

The tape's reference to the Guantanamo trials indicates it was made within the
last month.

The tape warned the American people that if they were "keen on their future and
the future of their generations ... to follow reason and logic before it is too
late."

"America and its agents are torturing your prisoners, show them how you will
avenge them," the speaker said.

Some 660 terror suspects from 42 countries have been held for nearly two years
at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. The detainees were arrested during the U.S.-led
war on Afghanistan, launched after the Sept. 11 attacks, blamed on al-Qaida.

Guantanamo Bay's location puts the detainees out of the jurisdiction of American
courts, an arrangement criticized by lawyers and human rights groups.

The Bush administration has protested to Arab TV stations in the past over the
broadcast of tapes purportedly released by al-Qaida leaders, ranging from al-
Zawahri to bin Laden, fearing the tapes may contain coded messages and heighten
tensions in the Middle East.

The previous tape attributed to al-Zawahri was broadcast May 21 on the Qatar-
based Al-Jazeera satellite station. The voice believed to be that of the
Egyptian-born doctor urged Muslims to stage terrorist strikes against Jews,
Americans and U.S. allies. U.S. officials said at the time that it was plausible
that the speaker was al-Zawahri.

* * *


August 3, 2003

TEXT OF ALLEGED AL - QAIDA AUDIOTAPE

By The Associated Press

Text of remarks purportedly made by top al-Qaida official Ayman Al-Zawahri in an
audiotape aired Sunday by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television. The text is
translated from the Arabic by The Associated Press. There was no immediate way
to confirm the tape's authenticity.

Muslim brothers everywhere ... America has announced it will start putting
Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo on trial before military courts that could
sentence them to death. I swear by the almighty God ... that Crusader America
will pay dearly for any harm done to any of the Muslim prisoners it is holding.
With God's help, all those who helped it (America) capture a prisoner or hand
him to it or to any of its agents will also pay the price. Let it be clear to
those who conspire with America that America cannot protect itself, let alone
protect others.

Let every prisoner held by the infidels be sure that his release is a debt
hanging from the neck of every mujahedeen (fighter), and that the end of the
ordeal is close, God willing. (And let every prisoner) know that his brothers,
the mujahedeen, have not forgotten that they will avenge him from the new
Crusaders. When America shackles the Muslim prisoners and tortures them, it is
torturing itself. When it puts them on trial, it is putting its children on
trial, and when it convicts them it is convicting its people.

We don't expect any justice, fairness, or commitment to morals or beliefs from
America. It has shown the world an example of making light with principles, even
those they were bound to by agreements. But we tell America one thing: what you
have seen until now is nothing but the first skirmishes. The real battle has not
started yet.

The American people whose armies have killed our women and children, if it is
keen on its future and the future of its generations, has to take initiative and
follow reason and logic before it is too late. They have been forewarned ...
Muslims everywhere, America and its agents are torturing your prisoners. Show
them how you will avenge them.

* * *


July 28, 2003

U.S. DELEGATION VISITS GUANTANAMO

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A congressional delegation has visited the prison
for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay amid complaints of abuse by inmates.

The six representatives toured the U.S. Navy base in Cuba on Saturday, viewing
interrogation rooms and discussing techniques for questioning, said Rep. C.A.
Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Maryland.

Two of 16 Afghan prisoners who were released a week ago said that they were
beaten, kept restrained or placed in cold, overcrowded rooms. The U.S. military
has denied mistreating inmates.

Ruppersberger, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,
said military officials took him into interrogations rooms and explained what
techniques they used. He said he was not present for any questioning and did not
see any evidence of abuse.

"They went to great lengths to show us the how they (interrogations) were
handled," Ruppersberger said by phone after returning to Washington.

The United States holds about 660 prisoners from 42 countries on suspicion of
links to the al-Qaida terrorist network or Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.
None have been allowed to meet with attorneys.

U.S. authorities have released about 70 detainees and moved about 120 to a
medium-security wing where they get more exercise, books and other liberties for
cooperating in interrogations.

"The entire operation is very impressive," Ruppersberger said.

The prison's location at the U.S. naval base at the eastern end of Cuba puts the
detainees out of the jurisdiction of American courts and constitutional
protections, a situation that has been criticized by lawyers and human rights
groups.

Ruppersberger, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,
said he saw interrogation rooms but was not present for any interrogations.

* * *


July 21, 2003

U.S. WON'T SEEK DEATH FOR AUSSIE SUSPECT

By The Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- The United States has assured Australia it will not
seek a death sentence against an Australian terror suspect detained at
Guantanamo Bay if he is convicted, Australia's defense minister said Monday.

The comments by Defense Minister Robert Hill came as Justice Minister Chris
Ellison arrived in Washington to join a British delegation lobbying U.S.
officials for a fair trial for their detained nationals.

The United States agreed last week to temporarily suspend legal action against
Australian David Hicks and two British citizens held at the U.S. base in Cuba.
The three were among six men set to face military tribunals as "enemy
combatants" against the United States.

"We are confident as a result of our discussions with the U.S. that he wouldn't
face the death penalty," Hill told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television.

Hicks was captured while allegedly fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan and
has been imprisoned without charge at Guantanamo Bay for 18 months.

According to U.S. authorities, Hicks trained with the al-Qaida terrorist group
for several months, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday.

"More than that, the training was during the period during 2000 and 2001 over a
number of months and it included weapons training ... it included surveillance
training and so on," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio

Australia has been one of Washington's closest allies since the Sept. 11, 2001,
terror attacks, sending troops to the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Australian officials have said they are satisfied with the legal process
followed by the U.S. military in regard to Hicks and a second Australian --
Mamdouh Habib, 46 -- who was arrested last year in Pakistan for allegedly
training with al-Qaida and is also held at Guantanamo.

However, the government is under pressure from opposition parties, church and
human rights groups to lodge a stronger protest with Washington.

* * *


July 20, 2003

AUSTRALIA WITHHELD INFO ON TERROR SUSPECT

BY The Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia's government refused to release
information on a terror suspect held by the United States for fear of harming
relations with Washington, the defense minister said Monday.

The Australian newspaper filed a Freedom of Information request with the
government for details on the legality of David Hicks' detention but was denied.

Hicks, 27, was allegedly captured fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan and
has been imprisoned without charge at Guantanamo Bay for 18 months.

Defense Minister Robert Hill said the government can refuse a Freedom of
Information request if it could harm Australia's relationship with a foreign
government.

"As I understand it, that's one of the reasons why the application has been
declined," Hill told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

Australia has been one of Washington's closest allies since the Sept. 11, 2001,
terror attacks, sending troops to the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Australian officials have said they are satisfied with the legal process
followed by the U.S. military in regard to Hicks and a second Australian --
Mamdouh Habib, 46 -- arrested last year in Pakistan for allegedly training with
al-Qaida and also held at the U.S. base in Cuba.

However, the government is under pressure from opposition parties, church and
human rights groups to lodge a stronger protest with Washington.

The United States agreed last week to temporarily suspend legal action against
Hicks and two British citizens held at Guantanamo Bay. The three were among six
men set to face military tribunals as "enemy combatants" against the United
States.

* * *

July 20, 2003

Kuwaitis: U.S. Should Release Prisoners

By The Associated Press

KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- The United States should show its appreciation for Kuwait's
support in the war on Iraq by freeing 12 Kuwaitis held at Guantanamo Bay or
giving them a fair trial, a spokesman for their families said Sunday.

Khaled al-Oda, a retired military pilot, complained that he hasn't heard from
his son in three months. Fawzi al-Oda, 25, is one of about 660 prisoners at the
U.S. base in Cuba.

"Put them on trial in a fair court, give them the chance to defend themselves,
and if you don't have any evidence against them, set them free," al-Oda said.

The United States is preparing military tribunals for those accused of links to
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network, Afghanistan's former Taliban regime
or other terrorism offenses.

Relatives say the 12 Kuwaitis were in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan to
perform charity work, but not to fight with al-Qaida or the Taliban.

Kuwait allowed U.S. forces to use its territory as a launch pad for the war on
neighboring Iraq.

* * *


July 20, 2003

PAKISTANI CLAIMS $10 MILLION IN GUANTANAMO DAMAGES

By Reuters

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani released from the U.S. detention center at
Guantanamo Bay last year has demanded $10.4 million in damages from the U.S.
government for suffering and losses caused, his lawyer said on Sunday.

Muhammad Ikram Chaudhry, a lawyer of former inmate Muhammad Sagheer Khan, said
the demands had been sent via the U.S. embassy to the U.S. secretaries of
defense, state and justice.

The compensation claimed was for "mental suffering, financial losses and
physical and religious victimization," he said.

Linda Cheatham, an official at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, confirmed the
embassy had received a letter from Khan's lawyer.

"We received a letter and passed that to the Department of State, to
Washington," she said.

Muhammad Sagheer Khan was released in October from Guantanamo Bay, where the
U.S. government has been holding al Qaeda and Taliban suspects captured in
Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Khan said he was caged in a tiny cell and kept in solitary confinement for
weeks.

"They would ask: 'are there any al-Qaeda among you or not?; where is Osama?;
where is Mullah Omar?'. And I told them I have heard these names in here, I
don't know anything."

Chaudhry said he would give the U.S. government four weeks to respond. "If
there is no response, then we will think to file a case either in a U.S. court
or in a Pakistani court."

Khan, who owns a saw mill, said he was seeking 2.5 million rupees ($44,000) for
lost income. He said he was in Afghanistan preaching when he was detained in
Kunduz province.

On Thursday a second batch of Pakistanis released from Guantanamo arrived back
in Islamabad.

Pakistani officials have said most of the up to 50 Pakistanis detained at
Guantanamo Bay were not linked to the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, which
is blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States. Sixteen have been
freed so far.

Many Pakistanis went to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban, which
sheltered al Qaeda, and were caught there when it was attacked by U.S.-led
coalition forces.

* * *


July 16, 2003

GUANTANAMO DETAINEE ATTEMPTS SUICIDE

By The Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A detainee tried to kill himself again in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where U.S. authorities are preparing for military
tribunals to try terror suspects, officials said Wednesday.

Tuesday's attempt was the 29th since the detention mission began 1 1/2 years
ago, said spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

Most attempts occurred this year, a sign that the indefinite detentions are
beginning to take their toll on detainees, who have not been formally charged or
allowed to see attorneys.

"This was an individual who was receiving treatment for mental illness,"
Johnson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Guantanamo. "He
has been returned to his cell with no injuries."

The man, in his 20s, tried to hang himself during an exercise break, Johnson
said. He is among 18 who have made repeated attempts.

U.S. authorities are holding some 680 detainees from 42 countries at Guantanamo
on suspicion of links to the al-Qaida terrorist network or Afghanistan's fallen
Taliban regime.

President Bush earlier this month designated six detainees who could be tried
before military tribunals. The next step is for a chief prosecutor to draft
charges.

Among the six who could be tried are Australian David Hicks and Britons Moazzam
Begg, 35, and Feroz Abbasi, 23.

Hicks, a Muslim who fought with the Kosovo Liberation Army, called his parents
17 days after the Sept. 11 attacks to say he was with the Taliban, British
officials said. He also allegedly threatened to kill an American upon his
arrival at Guantanamo, U.S. officials said.

Moazzam Begg, 35, has been held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly five months and was
previously detained in Afghanistan for a year, according to the London-based
pressure group Fair Trials Abroad. It said the father of four was seized in
Pakistan in February 2002 and may be the victim of mistaken identity.

Abbasi has been in U.S. custody since January last year. A British court ruled
last November that the British government could not intervene on his behalf
though his imprisonment was "legally objectionable."

U.S. officials have refused to reveal the identities of the others eligible for
military tribunals, which lawyers and human rights groups see as a red flag for
the legitimacy of such proceedings.

The proceedings of military tribunals can be kept secret. The United States has
not convened such a tribunal since World War II.

Officials at Guantanamo Bay have begun planning for court facilities and an
execution chamber, since the tribunals may impose death sentences.

Pentagon officials have said the military might continue to hold suspects even
if they were acquitted.

* * *


July 13, 2003

RULES FOR TERROR TRIBUNALS MAY DETER LAWYERS

By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, July 12 -- United States officials say that when they begin military
tribunals for prisoners charged with terrorism, they greatly want the trials to
be seen as fair, both in the nation and throughout the world.

But as the Pentagon prepares for the first such proceedings in more than 50
years, it is encountering a potent criticism: many lawyers and bar groups say
the conditions for civilian defense lawyers are so restrictive that they might
not agree to participate in the process and thereby lend it legitimacy.

The issue of whether lawyers should agree to defend prisoners in proceedings at
the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been raised most forcefully so far
by Lawrence S. Goldman, president of the National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers, which has 11,000 members -- including most of the nation's
prominent defense lawyers.

Mr. Goldman, a New York lawyer, wrote in the association's magazine this month
that his group had considered soliciting people for a task force of experienced
defense lawyers who would volunteer their services to tribunal defendants. But
his group was troubled by restrictions on issues like information gathering and
the privacy of lawyer-client conversations.

"In view of the extraordinary restrictions on counsel, however, with
considerable regret, we cannot advise any of our members to act as civilian
counsel at Guantanamo," he wrote. "The rules regulating counsel's behavior are
just too restrictive to give us any confidence that counsel will be able to act
zealously and professionally."

In an interview, Mr. Goldman said his concern was that lawyers could be "lending
their legitimacy to what would otherwise be a sham proceeding." He said his
group had not flatly advised lawyers not to participate but would take up the
issue at the group's annual meeting next month.

Anyone charged before a military commission would be provided a lawyer from the
military, but the complaints are about the conditions under which they could
hire an additional civilian lawyer.

The restrictions that have troubled Mr. Goldman, as well as officials of the
American Bar Association, include a requirement that defense lawyers acknowledge
that their conversations with defendants may be monitored by the military. The
Pentagon says none of the information collected that way may be used in the
prosecution.

The Pentagon has been sensitive to some of the criticisms and has modified two
regulations in recent days. Under the original regulations, defense lawyers
would have been required to do all their trial work at Guantanamo, the remote
naval base controlled by the United States, on the southeastern tip of Cuba.
Lawyers would also have been restricted as to whom they could consult on their
strategies. The modifications appear to address those concerns.

Whit Cobb Jr., the deputy general counsel at the Defense Department, said in an
interview that the restraints were largely "driven by the ongoing war on
terrorism and the need to protect intelligence."

But Mr. Cobb said defense lawyers should feel comfortable with the procedures,
describing them as only slightly different than the usual civilian criminal
proceeding or even a court-martial. "There are several similarities, like the
availability of defense counsel, the concept of reasonable doubt and the right
to remain silent that will seem familiar to many," he said.

Nonetheless, many do feel uncomfortable. Neal R. Sonnett, a Florida lawyer who
is the chairman of the American Bar Association's task force on treatment of
enemy combatants, said that even with the changes in the rules, "I find them
extremely troubling."

Mr. Sonnett said the changes were encouraging and convinced him that the
military was not purposely trying to discourage civilian lawyers from
participating. He said he hoped the Pentagon would ease other restrictions,
especially the one allowing monitoring of conversations.

"The participation of civilian lawyers is very important to the credibility of
these tribunals around the world," Mr. Sonnett said. "If lawyers participate in
the process and lend it an air of legitimacy without being able to contribute
effectively, then we would fall into a trap that lawyers shouldn't fall into."

Mr. Sonnett said that his group, which has more than 410,000 members, would take
up the matter next month at its annual meeting.

Other issues that have concerned lawyers include a requirement that lawyers
inform military officials of anything they learn that could signal a future
crime and that they would have to pay to obtain a security clearance, which
could cost thousands of dollars. In addition, the defense would have to tell the
prosecution a week before the trial about all of its evidence, a stark departure
from a civilian trial.

Nonetheless, the National Institute of Military Justice, a Washington group,
said it would be wrong for civilian lawyers to boycott the proceedings. In a
statement, the group acknowledged serious questions about the procedures but
added, "It would be as unfortunate for the American justice system for competent
civilian defense counsel to make themselves unavailable in military commissions
as it would be if civilians were formally precluded from participation."

On July 3, President Bush designated six captives from the Afghanistan war as
eligible for the military tribunal process. Pentagon officials say that the six,
who are believed to include two Britons and one Australian, are only the first
batch that may be tried before a commission.

Officials have yet to decide if any of the six will be charged. So far,
officials said, they have had informal applications to act as defense counsel
from 10 civilian lawyers.

Grant Lattin, one of those, said that he thought that number was low and that he
understood why. Mr. Lattin, a former lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps,
said that of the thousands of lawyers with experience in military law, plenty
should want to participate in what would be a historic event.

"But there has been widespread uneasiness," Mr. Lattin said. "Some people feel
strongly about the essential ethical issue here, that is whether these
restrictions will make it impossible for them to mount a zealous defense." On
balance, he said he believed it was important to participate. But other factors
may make his taking part uncertain.

The regulations require defense lawyers to be responsible for their own
transportation to and from Guantanamo. The cost for a security clearance can be
as much as $2,800 for the kind of top secret classification that would entitle
the lawyer to see much of the material.

Mr. Lattin said it would be difficult to devote weeks or months to such a case
without compensation.

The Pentagon sought evaluations of the regulations from some prominent
outsiders. One of them, Prof. Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. of the University of
Pennsylvania Law School, said in an interview that he had told military
officials that many lawyers would be hesitant to serve under the restrictions
and "that would cast doubt on the legitimacy of the proceedings," and suggested
that they consider changes.

[ ABA Miscellaneous Memo, Vol. 102, March 2003

http://www.abanet.org/barserv/mm/marmemo.doc

On the enemy combatant front, the House of Delegates urged courts to allow
access to counsel and meaningful judicial review for U.S. citizens and residents
accused as enemy combatants, with courts according appropriate deference to
national security needs. NEIL SONNET, chair of the ABA Task Force on Treatment
of Enemy Combatants, said "Every person in this room wants to support the
Administration as fully as we can in rooting out terrorism. We just cannot lose
our Constitution in the process." A subsequent ruling on March 11 by a federal
judge in the case of Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen accused of working for al-
Qaeda, allowed the suspect to have access to his lawyers. ]


* * *


July 10, 2003

FREED GUANTANAMO PRISONER DEMANDS $10.4M

By The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A Pakistani man who was released after 10 months at
the U.S. detention center on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is demanding $10.4 million for
suffering he claims he endured at the hands of his American guards.

Mohammed Sanghir said he was caged in a tiny cell, kept in solitary confinement
for days, and unwillingly given alcohol-laced drinks during his 10 months at the
prison. He was freed last November, the first Pakistani released from the prison
that now holds about 600 inmates.

"They said, 'You are innocent,' " Sanghir told The AP at the time at his home
in northwest Pakistan. "They didn't say sorry. They just said, 'You can go
home.' "

Sanghir's legal notice, served by Pakistan lawyer Mohammed Ikram Chaudhry in
Rawalpindi to the U.S. Embassy, was seen Wednesday by The Associated Press.

It claims that Sanghir "suffered mental shock, financial loss, physical
victimization, estrangement and religious victimization" while in American
custody at Guantanamo.

He wants $10 million for mental agony and another $400,000 for debts incurred by
his family while he was in jail and damage to his sawmill business, it said.

The notice demands a reply within four weeks. If he doesn't get any
compensation, Chaudhry said a lawsuit would be filed in either a U.S. or
Pakistani court or both.

Sanghir said after he was released that his U.S. captors promised him $2,000 in
compensation when he got off the plane in Pakistan -- but that he received only
$100.

For two months, he tried to get the rest of his money. In December, he
threatened to go to court.

Chaudhry said he had mailed the legal notice to the U.S. Embassy in the capital,
Islamabad, on Wednesday and that it named the State Department, Defense
Department and Justice Department.

Sanghir was arrested in northern Afghanistan along with thousands of Taliban
fighters. Sanghir said he was in northern Kunduz province preaching Islam when
fighting broke out, and had arrived in Afghanistan three months before Sept. 11,
2001 attacks in the United States.

While being held in northern Afghanistan, Sanghir said he was herded into
overcrowded prisons and denied food.

When U.S.-led forces gained control of southern Kandahar in Afghanistan, Sanghir
and several others were transferred there.

Sanghir's notice says he spent "18 days ... in Kandahar where Americans were in
complete charge of the camp. They shaved the head, beard and mustaches of all
the prisoners."

It says he and others were not allowed to sleep or pray and were "kept in (an)
inhuman environment."

"Others were made to stand in the cold winter outside and asked questions about
al-Qaida, Taliban and Osama bin Laden," it said.

Sanghir was taken to Guantanamo Bay in shackles and held there for about 10
months, the notice said.

He said his cell on Guantanamo Bay was 6 feet by 6 feet and about 7 feet high.

The notice accused U.S. personnel in Guantanamo Bay of adding alcohol to
prisoners' drinks even though consuming alcohol goes against Islam.

Sanghir said he was initially in solitary confinement and not allowed to pray,
until a hunger strike by inmates led to a relaxation of the rules.

He said he faced relentless questioning about Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida
network.

* * *

July 5, 2003

FAMILIES OF 2 BRITISH TERRORISM SUSPECTS
OPPOSE MILITARY TRIALS BY THE U.S.

By Sarah Lyall

LONDON, July 4 -- The families of two British terrorism suspects who are likely
to be tried by military tribunals in the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, expressed outrage today at what they said was American high-handedness and
flouting of international law, and added that they doubted that the men would
receive fair trials.

The family of a third person, an Australian, confirmed that he, too, had been
identified by the authorities. Britain and Australia were allies of the United
States in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and both have urged Washington to
expedite the cases against their citizens.

Today the British government called on the United States to conduct the
tribunals with fairness on issues like access to lawyers, standards of evidence
and the right to appeal in the case of a guilty verdict.

"Clearly we want the Americans to give us assurances that the international
minimum standards of fair trials will be met," a spokesman for the Foreign
Office said in an interview.

The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with government
policy, said Britain would "raise the strongest possible objections" to the
imposition of the death penalty on any prisoners found guilty.

But the government has stopped short of demanding that the two Britons selected
by the Bush administration as candidates for the tribunals -- Moazzam Begg, 35,
and Feroz Abbasi, 23 -- be returned home to face trial here.

"The fact is that I can't alter the legal processes in the U.S.," Baroness
Symons, a Foreign Office minister, told BBC Radio earlier today. "America has
decided that they want to be the detaining power and that they want to hold the
trials there, and it is now up to us to have a very vigorous discussion with the
U.S. about securing a fair trial for the individuals involved."

Neither the British nor the American government released the names of the six
people selected to be the first prisoners likely to face the tribunals. But the
families of the British prisoners on the list -- two out of a total of nine
Britons being held at Guantanamo -- confirmed they had been contacted by the
authorities.

The Australian, David Hicks, is a high school dropout, former ranch hand and
convert to Islam in his late 20's. He was seized by Northern Alliance forces in
Afghanistan more than two years ago and has been detained by the United States
since then.

In an odd tug of war, United States officials asked Australia to take custody of
him earlier this year for prosecution at home, but Australian officials said
that there was no evidence that he had violated Australian law and that they did
not want him. So he remained at Guantanamo, charged with no crime.

His lawyer, Stephen Kenny, told the BBC today that Mr. Hicks's appearance before
a military commission was something akin to a "show trial."

The tribunals, whose members have not yet been appointed, are empowered to try
non-American suspects. About 680 foreign citizens are being held without charge
at Guantanamo Bay under suspicion of being members of Al Qaeda or of engaging in
international terrorism. An undisclosed number of others are being held at
undisclosed locations throughout the world.

While the two Britons and one Australian identified today do not appear to be
important terrorist figures, American officials said on Thursday that they
believed that the first group of people charged would be low-level suspects who,
in exchange for plea bargains, might be persuaded to divulge information about
the workings of Al Qaeda or about other, higher-level operatives.

In Birmingham, Mr. Begg's father, Azmat, said he had been told late Thursday by
the Foreign Office "that my son had been designated to stand trial with another
five persons."

Although he was glad, he said, to hear news that something was happening, as his
son has been held in limbo for months, he said he had grave concerns about the
tribunals.

"I was very depressed, very unhappy and very much worried because the judge is
from the military, the prosecution is from the military, the jury is from the
military and even his solicitor is from the military," Azmat Begg told the BBC.
"Everything is being done by the military, so it is not going to be a fair
trial."

Mr. Begg said he had received an ominous message from his son saying that he was
going to do "something drastic which was going to affect the whole family." He
said he worried that this might mean that his son had made a false confession to
secure better treatment, or at least a resolution to his long months of doing
nothing and being charged with nothing at Guantanamo Bay.

"Most probably he has admitted the things which he has not done," Mr. Begg said.
"I am 100 percent sure that he has not done anything wrong."

America's policy of detaining people suspected of being members of the Taliban
or Al Qaeda without charging them or granting them prisoner of war status under
the Geneva Convention has proved a vexing and embarrassing issue for Britain,
America's staunchest ally and most vocal apologist in the war against terrorism.

In the BBC interview, Lady Symons said Britain was very much at odds with the
United States on the issue of the tribunals.

"It isn't something we would be able to do in this country," she said, "because
of course we would want to ensure that there is a separation between government
on one hand and the judiciary on the other.

"However, the Americans have said that this is the way they are intending to
proceed, and it now behooves on the government to vigorously pursue the issues
about access to lawyers, about standards of evidence and about any appeals
procedure."

Louise Christian, the lawyer for Feroz Abbasi, 23, the other Briton designated
by the Americans to stand trial, called the plans for a military trial "victor's
justice" and said Mr. Abbasi's mother, Zumrati Juma, was "absolutely devastated"
at the news of her son's fate.

Mr. Abbasi has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for 18 months and spent some six
months before that in custody in Afghanistan, his family said.

"We are horrified that the British government is allowing this to happen," Ms.
Christian told the Press Association. "It shows they have absolutely no
influence over the U.S. and have been able to do nothing for their citizens."

* * *


July 4, 2003

SIX DETAINEES SOON MAY FACE MILITARY TRIALS

By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, July 3 -- President Bush today designated six captives suspected of
involvement in terrorism as eligible to be tried before military tribunals,
setting in motion the process that officials say will soon lead to the first use
of such tribunals by the United States in more than 50 years.

Mr. Bush's action was the opening step required under rules he first put forward
in November 2001, shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon. Some administration officials said the military tribunals would
probably begin dealing with cases before the end of the summer and would meet at
a specially constructed secure courtroom at the United States naval base in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"Things will start to move rather quickly now," a senior military officer said.

The announcement of the president's action was made at the Pentagon, where
officials declined to name the captives eligible to be tried or say where they
are being held or what crimes they may be charged with. The tribunals can be
used to try only noncitizens.

Under the procedures adopted by the Pentagon, the president is required to start
the process by designating any captives eligible for trial by military
commission. Next, an official, in this case Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D.
Wolfowitz, decides which of them will be charged with crimes. Mr. Wolfowitz who
was given authority over the commissions by Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld, will also choose the members of the tribunals themselves.

Although Pentagon officials who briefed reporters today disclosed few details
about the six people who may be the first to be brought before tribunals, one
said there was "evidence of involvement in Al Qaeda" and evidence that they had
attended military training camps, though the official did not say where.

But other administration officials suggested that most or all of them were not
major Qaeda figures. Rather, the officials said, they expected the first group
of people charged would be lesser figures who would be enticed into entering
into plea agreements. In exchange for some measure of leniency, the officials
said, the people charged might agree to provide information about Al Qaeda and
about other prisoners.

The officials also said that using the tribunals for less important figures
would amount to a shake-down cruise for the new procedures. They said it would
also provide more legitimacy for the process if and when prosecutions take place
of more senior figures like Abu Zubaydah, a Qaeda planner and recruiter who is
in American custody, or Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the network's senior operational
commander, who was captured in March.

Even if those people charged with crimes agreed to plead guilty, they would have
to do so before a military commission, the officials said.

In declaring the six captives eligible for military tribunals, Mr. Bush was
required to say they met one or more of three conditions: they must be members
of Al Qaeda, have engaged in or helped others commit acts of international
terrorism, or harbored individuals in Al Qaeda or individuals who engaged in
terrorism.

Given the prohibition against using the military tribunals for American
citizens, the six captives Mr. Bush declared eligible for trial are probably
among the 680 prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay, most of whom were detained
after the war in Afghanistan. They could also include some of the unknown number
of captives being held by the United States military at a group of undisclosed
locations abroad.

"This is a necessary first step in order to have the gavel actually come down on
these proceedings," said Eugene Fidell, a Washington lawyer and authority on
military law. "This is a rare criminal proceeding in that there is a threshold
determination that has to made by the president before anything can begin."

The last military commissions conducted by the United States were in the
immediate years after World War II and were used to try German and Japanese
military personnel for war crimes.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, administration officials said they intended to move
swiftly to bring suspects before military tribunals, in part to demonstrate to
the public that they were responding forcefully. But senior administration
officials soon shifted their approach, believing it was more valuable to keep
the prisoners in detention and try to mine them for intelligence about terrorist
groups.

The movement toward beginning military tribunals comes as the United States has
begun sorting out the prisoners held at Guantanamo under conditions that have
been criticized by foreign governments and some human rights groups. The United
States has transferred 41 detainees from Guantanamo to their home countries,
which released them, with the exception of some in Saudi Arabia.

Officials said they expected more releases soon, as foreign governments have
complained that their citizens have been held far beyond the point needed to
determine if they are a threat.

Under the procedures adopted in the spring of last year, the commissions will
consist of three to seven judges, all of whom must be commissioned officers. A
defendant may be found guilty by a vote of two-thirds of the panel, but a death
sentence requires a unanimous seven-member panel.

The administration chose Guantanamo, the base in southeastern Cuba, and in
March, a federal appeals court ruled unanimously that the prisoners there could
not challenge their detentions in federal court because the United States has no
legal jurisdiction over the base.

The commissions may not be used at present to try three American citizens in
custody on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. They are Jose Padilla, a
former Chicago gang member accused of exploring the possibility of setting off a
crude radioactive device; Yasser Esam Hamdi, who was captured as an enemy
combatant on the Afghan battlefield; and Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, who was
declared an enemy combatant and imprisoned in a brig in South Carolina on June
23, less than a month before he was scheduled to go on trial in a federal court
in Illinois.

* * *


June 29, 2003 - The New York Times Magazine

IN THE LAND OF GUANTANAMO

By Ted Conover

I. DROPPED FROM THE SKY

The juvenile enemy combatants live in a prison called Camp Iguana. It looks like
a pair of tennis courts surrounded by fence lined with a few extra layers of the
usual green-nylon wind screen. It is perched on a bluff overlooking the sea; the
breeze is warm and pleasant. Not far away is a beachside park for barbecues and
picnics and a wildlife-viewing area, but the young detainees don't visit these
places. They must remain in one bedroom of a small cinder-block hut inside the
fence or, for two or three hours a day, in the grassy yard that adjoins it.

There is a soccer ball in this small yard, and a Nerf football. A translator who
is here all day long -- the same one who leads their study of the Koran, who is
also trying to show them how to write their own names in English -- has taught
them how to throw the football. They also play board games like chess and
something called Popomatic Trouble. They pray. When they are done with their
studies, they are given ice-cream sandwiches, which the guards say they love,
and they watch videos: Disney cartoons and documentaries about the sea. "They're
very interested in the ocean," a guard tells me. They can see it through a wide
window that has been cut in the green fence-netting on the ocean side.

There is only one feature film in the stack of videos: "Cast Away," starring Tom
Hanks as a FedEx employee who is stranded on a desert island when his plane
crashes. Though I doubt that they can understand the words, the plot must be
familiar: they, too, dropped from the sky onto a tropical island, where, far
from home, they experience an indefinite detention. The soldiers here say that
every homey detail of Camp Iguana -- down to the calming "Carolina Blue" shade
of the wall paint -- was carefully thought out before the juveniles' arrival. If
that is so, I wonder, who made the weird and brilliant choice of this film?

There are apparently three detainees, boys between the ages of 13 and 15. They
are just a few feet away but out of sight on the other side of the hut. Single
cots bolted to the floor fill the bedroom; the living room has two cushioned
chairs and a table. Pieces of blue tape on the floor delineate the areas that
are off limits: the kitchenette, the space near the front door.

Guards -- selected for their experience in working with young people -- are here
around the clock, but otherwise there is not much visible in the way of
security. This seems a bit strange, given that Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that they are very dangerous: "Some have
killed. Some have stated they're going to kill again. So they may be juveniles,
but they're not on a Little League team anywhere. They're on a Major League
team, and it's a terrorist team."

But if they hate the United States, the juvenile enemy combatants do not seem to
show it. For example, they respectfully rise to their feet whenever a soldier
enters the room, says a Reserve sergeant from Michigan who has apparently never
seen anything like it at the junior high where he teaches.

If anything, they seem more troubled than dangerous. One suffers frequent
nightmares and what a military psychologist says is post-traumatic stress
disorder. (He leads a regular group-therapy session that he says the youths
"love.") They were captured on the battlefield; they are child soldiers. One --
a Canadian national reportedly held with the adult detainees -- is said to have
killed an American soldier with a grenade, but Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who
commands this detention operation at the naval station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
won't comment on that.

Rather, his tone is sympathetic. "We're doing our best to give these juvenile
enemy combatants options to be able to be integrated back into their societies,"
he says after a prayer breakfast. "These despicable terrorists have decided to
use younger people as a part of their army. They're the ones who decided to
impress, kidnap and force them into service. Their treatment program started the
day that they came here. And so, like anyone freed from an intolerable
situation, they're returning to what we'd consider normal."

What is normal for teenagers who were made to fight in a war? Do we have any
idea? Could being locked up ever be therapeutic? I mean these as real questions,
not rhetorical jabs, and I recently visited Guantanamo to try to get a sense of
how, a year and a half after its creation, the detention-and-interrogation
center, this place where hundreds of people are being held indefinitely so that
we might find out what they know, had evolved. What kind of community had grown
here, and what might it say about America's attitude toward these prisoners of
war?

II. BEACHFRONT AMERICA AT THE EDGE OF NOWHERE

Most of the roads around Guantanamo Bay are restricted to 25 miles per hour.
Most of the buildings are low, made of wood or cinder block and painted a pale
yellow with brown trim. Utility poles are stained a pleasing Forest Service
green; the overwhelming impression is of suburban America circa 1950. At night,
crabs scuttle across the road ahead of advancing cars; by day, iguana-crossing
signs -- and the big, basking lizards themselves -- are commonplace. There is a
golf course and Cuba's only McDonald's and Little League teams and a shopping
mall staffed by guest workers from Jamaica and the Philippines.

The United States presence here dates from the Spanish-American War in 1898. The
last lease, signed in 1934, granted the United States indefinite use of this 45-
square-mile corner of the island in return for an annual payment of $4,085.
Fidel Castro, who once called the base "a dagger plunged into the heart of Cuban
soil," has always refused to cash the checks.

It feels surreal to be on an American naval base inside the territory of a
Communist country. And it feels doubly strange -- like a parody of a David Lynch
movie -- to cruise slowly by little town-house subdivisions, past batting cages
and even by a rocky outcrop where high-school students spray-paint their names,
then come suddenly upon a prison camp in the "war on terror" wreathed in razor
wire.

Prisoners from the Afghan war first arrived at "Gitmo," as locals call the base,
in January 2002. The first 110 men were brought to a makeshift set of cages
called Camp X-Ray and were made to kneel, shackled and blindfolded with special
blacked-out goggles, while soldiers trained rifles on them, an image captured in
the first news photographs of them. Then, last spring, they were all moved to a
newer, larger facility, Camp Delta. Unlike X-Ray, Delta has running water,
indoor toilets and plenty of unused capacity. (There are 680 prisoners housed
there now, with room for about 1,000.) Soldiers call Camp Delta "the Wire," and
it has plenty of that -- rows of chain link and concertina. Rising behind them
are plywood guard towers, some draped with American flags, and an array of
lights for night.

At the camp's main gate, a 4-foot-by-8-foot sign attached at eye level says
"Honor Bound to Defend Freedom." This is the slogan of J.T.F./Guantanamo, the
joint military task force -- 2,000 strong -- that runs the detention-and-
interrogation operation. It is printed on handouts and official documents and
signs and is constantly recited, soldier to soldier, at the camp's checkpoints.
As I arrived at the main gate for the first time, I turned to the first
lieutenant who was escorting me. "Isn't that a little strange," I offered, "a
slogan about freedom on the gate of a prison camp?"

He looked at me flatly. "Doesn't seem strange to me," he said. "Does it seem
strange to you?"

III. A VERY LONG WAY FROM GENEVA

The detention-and-interrogation operation at Guantanamo Bay is clearly a problem
area of America's war on terror. In mid-April, Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell sent Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a strongly worded letter that
cited complaints from our allies that the indefinite detention of foreign
citizens undermines efforts to win international support for the campaign
against terrorism. And yet, two months later, the children are still there, the
prisoner count is up by 20 and tribunals have yet to be scheduled.

Combatants from 42 countries are held at Guantanamo. Most, apparently, are from
Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Pakistan, but others are citizens of allies like Canada,
Sweden, Australia, Britain and Kuwait. The indefinite detention of the young is
a small but revealing part of the operation. There is practically global
unanimity that children deserve special protection by governments; the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (C.R.C.), adopted by the United Nations in
1989, is the most widely ratified human rights treaty ever. It specifies that
detained juveniles shall have the right to legal assistance and to a court's
prompt decision on their detention. We are not providing either.

But the main action at Guantanamo is Camp Delta. What the detention of teenagers
is to the C.R.C., you might say, conditions at Camp Delta are to the Geneva
Conventions.

Except for a new unit -- Camp Four, which now holds about 125 detainees -- it
appears to be a prison based on the supermax model of solitary confinement that
has become popular in the States during the past 25 years. Except, in many ways,
Camp Delta is harsher. Each prisoner lives in a separate cell that is 6 feet 8
inches by 8 feet. The door and walls are made of a tight mesh through which it
would be hard to pass anything larger than a pencil. Unless rewarded for good
behavior, each prisoner is allowed out of the cell only three times a week for
20 minutes of solitary exercise in a large concrete-floored cage, followed by a
5-minute shower. Before coming out of the cell, he must submit to a shackles-
connected-to-handcuffs arrangement known as a "three-piece suit." Guards escort
him on either side.

Twenty-four of these cells, constructed out of Connex shipping containers placed
end to end, are situated opposite 24 others, and a roof with ventilators is
constructed overhead; this assemblage of 48 cells constitutes a cellblock. So
far, there are 19 of these cellblocks at Camp Delta, suggesting a capacity of
approximately 1,000.

The United States, for what the administration says are reasons of national
security, has chosen not to designate these combatants from the war in
Afghanistan prisoners of war; this means that they are not protected by the
Geneva Conventions. If they were, the prison camp would look a lot different.
The Third Geneva Convention, which pertains to P.O.W.'s, says that "close
confinement" settings are acceptable only "where necessary to safeguard their
health." It says that prisoners should be allowed to keep "all effects and
articles of personal use," that they should be permitted to smoke and prepare
their own food when possible, that their religious leaders "shall be at liberty,
whatever their denomination, to minister freely to the members of their
community" and that the "Detaining Power shall encourage the practice of
intellectual, educational and recreational pursuits, sports and games amongst
prisoners." Most relevant to the operation of Camp Delta, it says that prisoners
must never be interrogated.

The conventions are famously important to the military, and those working inside
the Wire take pains to emphasize the ways they are abiding by them. Exhibit A in
this regard is how the military is bending over backward to respect Muslim
religious practice at Camp Delta. Every prisoner is provided a prayer mat,
prayer beads, oil, Koran, Islamic prayer book and access to a Muslim chaplain
(who is American). On the floor of every cell are spray-painted an arrow and
"MAKKAH 12793 km.," so that prisoners know which way to face during prayer. The
call to worship blares out over Camp Delta's public-address system five times a
day (the chaplain downloaded from the Internet recordings of it from Mecca and
Medina), the only American government facility in the world, it seems, that does
that. The camp commander will tell you that meal times were changed to
accommodate Ramadan, and Chief Warrant Officer James Kluck, the kitchen head,
will talk about the baklava he added to the menu.

Exhibit B is the health care, which I was told several times is better than most
of the detainees ever received in their lives. Capt. Albert J. Shimkus, the
command surgeon for the joint task force, proudly shows the lab where a lot of
tests can be done, the surgical theater, the X-ray machines, the examination
rooms and the dental-care room, which is also used for physical therapy and
prosthetics; several of the prisoners, Captain Shimkus explains, are amputees.
Eighty-five operations have taken place so far, he says, mostly orthopedic. The
average prisoner, I am told, has gained 13 pounds since arriving at Guantanamo.

But despite the hospital, all is not well with the detainees. In 2002, there
were 10 suicide attempts. Then, in just the first three months of this year,
there were 14 more, by 11 individuals. Almost all were by hanging. Most of the
would-be suicides were not badly injured, but one suffered brain damage and at
the time of my visit was in a "persistent vegetative state," according to
Shimkus, was being "fed by a medical device in his stomach" and required "24/7
care."

I ask where he is, and the captain points behind him to a room where the beds
are; the patient is just a few yards from where we sit. I cannot see him. I was
told at the outset that I would not be allowed to see any prisoners. (To deny
the press access to prisoners, the military invokes, of all things, the Geneva
Conventions article stating that P.O.W.'s "must at all times be protected . . .
against insults and public curiosity.")

In late March, a special mental health unit was opened inside Camp Delta. I am
told that there the emotionally ill are given special treatment and that since
it opened there has been only one additional suicide attempt. (Three more have
occurred subsequently, bringing the total to 28 attempts by 18 individuals.)
About 90 detainees are under mental health supervision, the camp psychiatrist
tells me, with about half of those receiving psychiatric drugs regularly.
(Though Shimkus stated that no detainee had ever been forcibly medicated, one
released prisoner, interviewed recently in Afghanistan by The New York Times,
said that after a suicide attempt, he had been given an injection by force that
left him "unable to control his head or his mouth or eat properly for weeks.")

But providing psychiatric care does not change other factors that surely
underlie the despair. First there are the physical conditions of confinement:
even in most American supermaxes, the cells are larger and prisoners are let out
for at least 30 minutes of exercise daily.

But another factor in despair is the way prisoners think about their
confinement. At the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York, where I spent
nearly a year as a correctional officer, inmates understandably attach a great
deal of importance to the lengths of their sentences, their first possible
parole dates, prisoner offenses that could extend the time they serve, et
cetera. Each passing day represents some tiny fraction of the whole, slow
progress toward a goal. Having a sense of the length of the tunnel appears to
make being in the tunnel more bearable. But all this is missing at Guantanamo:
nothing is known of conditions for release, and there is no judicial procedure.
Officially, the P.O.W.'s are being held for interrogation, but clearly, to judge
by the conditions, they're being held for punishment as well. But for how long?
Who decides? Under these conditions, it would seem, hopelessness is inevitable.

IV. WHAT CAN'T BE GUARDED AGAINST

Next door to Camp Delta is Camp America, where many of the soldiers live. Like
Delta, America is hot and treeless and fairly grim. I ate some meals in the
Seaside Galley mess hall there, where every table has folded cards with slogans
like "How to Respond to a Potentially Suicidal Person" and "Symptoms of
Depression."

"This is to educate you about how to handle suicidal detainees, right?" I asked
a soldier one day at lunch.

"No," he corrected me. "This is about us," he said, and pointed to a card, on
which someone had written in pen. "Symptoms of Depression" had been amended to
read "Symptoms of Gitmo."

The guards who work inside Camp Delta are mainly reservists from military-police
companies; about half do some sort of police work back home, and many are in
corrections. They have in common with the detainees a certain anxiety about how
long they will spend here. Several, having nearly finished their usual six-month
tours, had just been informed that their postings had been extended an
additional six months.

The guards told me striking stories about the detainees and what it was like to
work inside the camp. Sgt. Jason Holmes of the 438th military-police company
from Kentucky said that it was hard not to show negative feelings toward the
detainees, "keeping it in mind that you're here just to serve a purpose, not
pass judgment on anybody or condemn anybody. They're just as curious about us as
we are about them" -- and they'll often want to talk about their personal lives,
even if the guards won't reciprocate. (To keep the prisoners from learning
anything personal about them, the M.P.'s "sanitize" their uniforms before
entering Camp Delta: they put a strip of green duct tape over the names
monogrammed on their breast pockets. Off duty, many store these strips under the
brims of their caps.)

"Did any prisoner ever refuse his weekly exercise?" I asked Sergeant Holmes.
"Occasionally," he said, "there are some that do not want to go, but depending
on the M.P. at hand, generally, after a minute or two, they'll usually go. They
use the question 'Why?' a lot. I reply: 'Why not? There's a soccer ball out
there -- why don't you go out and kick it around?' "

Specialist Lily Allison Fritzborgen of the 344th M.P. company out of Connecticut
said that if they want a guard's attention, they usually call "M.P.!" Sometimes
in her case, however, they also call "Woman!" which she does not appreciate. "We
present it to them that we're all M.P.'s -- if they don't like it or won't speak
to us, they're not going to get anywhere." Had she had any problems with respect
from the detainees? "I've had things thrown on me," she said. "Bodily fluids,
all that a man is capable of." Among the penalties for such behavior, I later
learned, is being moved for up to 30 days to an isolation cell -- the same size
as the others but with solid doors and walls and only a small window to let you
know if it's day or night.

"Do they ever sing or make music?" I asked. Specialist Fritzborgen said she had
heard some of them humming or even outright singing songs from the Backstreet
Boys. Holmes said, "There are some new beds that are enclosed on three sides,
and when you hit them, it sounds like an African drum, so some make pretty
decent music." He had heard two detainees drumming together.

Sgt. First Class Bill Lickman, a correctional officer at a prison in Michigan,
said his son had been working at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Being posted
here was part of coming full circle, he said; the circle would be finished when
he finally went back home. He said that these prisoners could be manipulative in
the same way as prisoners back home: one might claim that a female guard had
inappropriately watched him in the shower, for example, in the hope of getting
her in trouble. He spoke of one prisoner known to guards as "the General"
because of the way he could command everyone's silence when he had something to
say or the way he could lead the block in a period of jumping jacks. And then
there was "the Riddler," who would always try to amuse them with lame jokes
like: "Why did the cat go into the barbershop? Because the door was open."

I heard the Riddler story again the next day, over lunch with one guard who
struck me as exceptional. She didn't work inside the Wire anymore, said Staff
Sgt. Laura Frost of the 785th M.P. company from Michigan, and it was probably
just as well.

Sergeant Frost is warm-faced, with a ready laugh and a smoker's rasp. Her job,
she said, had been to distribute writing materials to the detainees so that they
could send letters home. But then people like the Riddler would want to talk to
her -- women make up 10 to 15 percent of the entire force, and there are not
many around Camp Delta.

"He would want to tell a riddle or a joke or whatever -- I tried to stay
professional and stay focused, but it was really, really hard . . . some of the
letters were so sad. You know, they talk about asking their families for
prayers, and their safe return, and that they were sorry because they were in
the wrong place at the wrong time. I would get questions like, 'How do you spell
amen?' " Frost got a bit choked up.

"What do you mean, they ask how to spell amen?" I asked. "Were they writing the
letters in English, instead of their own language?"

Yes, she said, "a letter in English goes out faster." Letters in other languages
had to be translated so that the intelligence personnel could review them first.
And likewise, all letters they received from abroad had to be first translated
into English so that they, too, could be reviewed.

They had temporarily moved her out of work in the Wire when her security
clearance lapsed; while she was waiting to have it renewed, she settled happily
into an administration job. "As I look back on it, I think it's probably a good
thing," she said. "I had felt very heavy in my heart for what was going on in
there. You know, there's things that've happened that I'm glad I wasn't there to
see."

V. THE QUESTION OF QUESTIONING

"We do nothing here in Camp Delta that we wouldn't be proud of," said General
Miller when I asked what the interrogation consisted of. I asked more pointedly,
"What did they do to get people to talk?" He said drugs were never used in
connection with interrogation, nor was "violence or infliction of physical pain
or anything psychological other than standard interrogation techniques." And
what were the "standard techniques"? Miller declined to say, asserting that to
do so might aid the enemy and put at risk American troops and his mission.

I pursued this further with Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, head of public affairs for
the joint task force, telling him that I flat out didn't believe that military
interrogation could be all about decency and respect. "This is not a coercive
effort," he replied, "because as you coerce people, they will tell you exactly
what they want you to hear -- and that does us no good. We have to have accuracy
and facts, and people need to be willing to give you that. It takes motivation,
not coercion." The recent inauguration of medium-security Camp Four inside Camp
Delta, according to Colonel Johnson, was about that kind of motivation: in Camp
Four, detainees live in small dormitories and can eat, pray and exercise
together. They wear white prison suits instead of orange. It is held up as a
place you might get to if you cooperate. Most of the detainees released this
year were all recent residents of Camp Four.

Unbidden, Johnson added: "You asked about pain. I would say fear is very
different than pain.

"I would say there are a lot of detainees who fear what faces them when they
return to their own countries -- because of what people might think or believe
they've been involved in."

"You mean the suspicion that they'd snitched?" I asked. Johnson would not
respond, and I got nothing further.

One reason the interrogation process has dragged on for months and months,
however, is that joint-task-force investigators are not the only ones doing the
questioning. Presumably because each has a slightly different intelligence
agenda, any interested government agency, including the F.B.I., the Justice
Department, the State Department, the Pentagon, the C.I.A. and the Immigration
and Naturalization Service, is given a shot at interrogating Camp Delta's
detainees. It is easy to imagine that it could go on for a very long time.

One evening, as Johnson drove me in his Jeep Cherokee to a bluff overlooking
what is now the abandoned Camp X-Ray, where the detainees were originally
confined, I pestered him again about the issues nagging me. Everyone knows the
detainees are kept at Gitmo because they have no constitutional rights here, I
said to him. (Responding to a complaint brought last year by families of
Kuwaiti, British and Australian detainees, a United States court of appeals has
agreed with the administration's claim that because Guantanamo is leased, it is
not officially American soil.) Johnson smiled, but again did not respond.

Later, in an e-mail message, I pestered him some more about the extraordinarily
tight security at Camp Delta. Are these soldiers considered more dangerous than
enemy soldiers from any other war? Johnson replied: "Unlike conventional
soldiers who abide by certain laws of war, and who would also be bound by the
III Geneva Convention to act in certain ways when confined, the enemy combatants
in the high-security section committed themselves at some point to killing
Americans, period. They are not obedient soldiers defending a nation, but
individuals who are motivated for whatever reason to kill Americans."

We can all argue about the nature of those who were defending Afghanistan
against the American attack that followed 9/11; perhaps the jihadists are really
just undisciplined murderers and not soldiers. But were the Nazi storm troopers
or the suicidal Japanese soldiers of World War II any less hateful or fanatical?
Certainly war has changed, but did the America that signed the Geneva
Conventions ever think that detaining enemy soldiers would not involve having to
manage antipathy?

It was just a little too dark to get a good look at the remains of Camp X-Ray by
the time we got there, so we turned around and headed back. Johnson had James
Taylor playing on the Jeep's stereo, and he was singing about the "turnpike from
Stockbridge to Boston." In the dusk, I thought about how Johnson was a smart and
likable guy and about how the soldiers were good, decent people and about how
whatever bad we were doing at this new American gulag we must be doing out of
fear.

Later, as we passed by two housing subdivisions, Tierra K and West Iguana, I
also thought of the ending of "Cast Away," in which Tom Hanks, off the island at
last, returns home to the suburbs. Moviegoers will remember what happened there:
his fiancee, hearing no news of him for years, wrote him off as dead and married
somebody else. He has survived, but his life is destroyed. Being incommunicado
so long, as prisoners all over the world can tell you, is a sort of death.

[ Ted Conover is the author, most recently, of "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing." ]

* * *


June 28, 2003

PROTESTERS ATTACK U.S. CHARITY IN MALAWI

By The Associated Press

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) -- Angry demonstrators attacked an American children's
charity and several churches in protests Saturday against the removal of five
Muslim foreign nationals suspected of working for al-Qaida.

It was the second day of protests after the CIA whisked the five men out of the
country Monday.

Eleven people were arrested Saturday after after angry mobs in the predominantly
Muslim district of Mangochi, east of Blantyre, vandalized and looted the offices
of Save the Children USA and at least seven churches, police said.

Medical staff at Mangochi District Hospital, said three people were injured
during the violence.

"We are being targeted because we are funded by the Americans," Justin Opuku,
Save the Children USA Malawi Director, said.

Several computers, furniture, stationery and three of the organizations vehicles
were damaged.

A Catholic Church vehicle was stopped in the streets and set alight and Bishop
Allesandro Assolari, head of the regional catholic church had to be protected by
armed police officers, police said.

On Friday, police fired tear gas to disperse a violent crowd of about 200
Muslims in the commercial capital, Blantyre, protesting the men's secret removal
and accusing the government of bending to U.S. pressure to hand over the men.

The five men were accused of funneling money to Osama bin Laden's terror group
and were arrested Sunday night in a joint operation involving the Central
Intelligence Agency and Malawi's National Intelligence Bureau.

Malawi authorities handed them over to U.S. officials Monday night. They were
immediately flown to nearby Botswana on a chartered Air Malawi flight.

The men were on the CIA's "watch list" since the nearly simultaneous 1998
bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. U.S. authorities blame al-
Qaida for the attacks, which killed 231 people, including 12 Americans.

The current whereabouts of the five is not known, but lawyer Shabir Latif, who
leads a five-man team defending the suspects, said the United States wanted to
take them to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where other suspected al-Qaida suspects are
held.

Authorities said the five included Mahmud Sardar Issa, a Sudanese who heads a
charitable organization called the Islamic Zakat Fund Trust in Blantyre. Another
was identified as Fahad Ral Bahli, of Saudi Arabia, the director of the Malawi
branch of Registered Trustees of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Special
Committee on Relief.

Arif Ulusam, another Turkish man and an Islamic scholar from Kenya were also
among those flown out, authorities said.

* * *

June 26, 2003

WOLFOWITZ TO CHOOSE TRIBUNAL COMMISSION

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday delegated to
his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, the final word on which terrorism suspects are
to be tried by a military tribunal.

Wolfowitz also was given the authority to decide who will serve on the
tribunals, which the Pentagon calls commissions.

After President Bush determines which terrorism suspects in U.S. custody are
subject to be tried under his Nov. 13, 2001 military order, a chief prosecutor
would draft charges against any or all of those suspects. It would then be for
Wolfowitz to decide which would actually go to trial, according to Air Force
Maj. John Smith of the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions.

This authority had rested with Rumsfeld, but he chose to delegate it to
Wolfowitz, Smith said.

Thus far, Bush has not determined which, if any, terrorism suspects are subject
to possible prosecution.

The criteria for such a presidential determination are that a suspect be a
member of the al-Qaida terrorist organization; or that he or she committed or
conspired to commit a terrorist act against the United States; or that the
suspect knowingly harbored an al-Qaida member; and that it is in the best
interests of the United States that the suspect be subject to military trial.

Bush's military order does not apply to American citizens.

In legal terms, Wolfowitz is the "appointing authority," which Rumsfeld said
means he also would "resolve issues arising during commission proceedings."

The Pentagon has spent months preparing for tribunals to hold trials for
terrorism suspects who are not U.S. citizens. Candidates for the tribunals
include some of the alleged al-Qaida leaders in U.S. custody and the 680 or so
al-Qaida and Taliban suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Pentagon has named a chief prosecutor and a defense lawyer to oversee the
appointment of military defense lawyers for suspects. Officials at Guantanamo
Bay also have begun planning for possible construction of an execution chamber
because the commissions may consider imposing the death penalty.

The Pentagon rules list 18 war crimes and eight other offenses, including
terrorism and the deliberate killing of civilians, that could be the subject of
military tribunals. The cases would be decided by a panel of three to seven
military officers who would act as both judge and jury. Those officers will be
chosen by Wolfowitz in his new role.

Convictions could be handed down by a majority vote; a decision to sentence a
defendant to death would have to be unanimous.

* * *

June 25, 2003

ENEMY COMBATANT DECISION MARKS CHANGE, OFFICIALS SAY

By Eric Lichtblau

WASHINGTON, June 24 -- President Bush's decision to declare a Qatari student an
enemy combatant signals a more aggressive approach against terrorism suspects in
the face of new threats from Al Qaeda, and it increases the chances that
Zacarias Moussaoui will wind up in a military brig as well, officials and legal
observers said today.

Administration officials said the decision to imprison the student, Ali Saleh
Kahlah al-Marri, in a brig in South Carolina on Monday, less than a month before
he was scheduled to go on trial in a federal court in Illinois, was intended in
part to try to cull more information from him about possible links to Al Qaeda.
That avenue would probably have been foreclosed if Mr. Marri's case had gone to
trial next month.

"This way," an administration official said, "we'll obviously be able to
continue to interrogate him. We may be able to obtain valuable intelligence from
him."

Critics of the Bush administration tactics said today that they believed the
decision to declare Mr. Marri an enemy combatant set a dangerous precedent and
exposed inconsistencies in the administration's treatment of terrorist suspects.

But administration officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld,
said the decision demonstrated the White House's continued commitment to using a
range of military and legal weapons to pursue terrorism suspects after recent
attacks in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

"While terrorists' regimes have been removed in Baghdad and Kabul, many who wish
our people harm remain at large, in those countries and elsewhere across the
globe," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "We're putting pressure on them each day."

By declaring Mr. Marri an enemy combatant, the administration also sends a
message to other terrorist suspects now in the criminal system about what could
happen if they do not cooperate with investigators, officials said.

Defense lawyers for some criminal defendants in terrorism cases in Lackawanna,
N.Y., and elsewhere have complained that prosecutors used the threat of enemy
combatant status to coerce pleas. Justice Department officials have denied such
a tactic, saying it would be unethical.

But a senior F.B.I. official said today that the Marri decision held clear
implications for other terrorism suspects. "If I were in their shoes, I'd take a
message from this," the official said.

The decision to make Mr. Marri an enemy combatant represented the first time
that the administration has dropped criminal charges against a suspect and moved
him into military custody. The person most affected by the precedent, officials
said, could be Mr. Moussaoui, who is facing terrorism and conspiracy charges in
Alexandria, Va., in connection with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Mr. Moussaoui has demanded the right to question captured Qaeda informers like
Ramzi bin al-Shibh about information linking him to the Sept. 11 plot. The
administration has fought that demand, saying it would compromise national
security, and law enforcement officials are awaiting a ruling from an appellate
court on the issue before they determine whether Mr. Moussaoui should be
declared an enemy combatant.

Mr. Marri, 37, came to the United States a day before the 9/11 attacks on a
student visa. He was held in December 2001 as a material witness in the Sept. 11
investigation and later charged with lying to the F.B.I. in an interview and
credit card fraud.

Officials said recent information from Qaeda operatives in American custody,
including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, pointed to Mr. Marri as a "sleeper" operative
assigned to help other members of Al Qaeda "settle" in the United States. Mr.
Marri visited a Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan and met with Osama bin Laden,
officials said.

Civil liberties advocates and military law experts said they were troubled by
the decision to declare Mr. Marri an enemy combatant less than a month before
his trial. They said he posed no imminent threat to the United States because he
had been in custody more than 18 months.

"The fact that a person is removed from the framework of the federal district
courts and thrust into a legal environment with few if any protections can't
help but be disturbing," Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of
Military Justice, said.

Lawrence S. Lustberg, who represented Mr. Marri in the criminal case, said he
planned to bring a writ seeking to reverse the decision.

* * *

June 24, 2003

BUSH DECLARES STUDENT AN ENEMY COMBATANT

By Eric Lichtblau

WASHINGTON, June 23 -- President Bush made a surprise decision today to remove a
Qatari student from the criminal justice system and declare him an enemy
combatant after prosecutors said new evidence linked him to another round of
terrorist plots by Al Qaeda after Sept. 11.

The student, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 37, had been held in civilian custody
since late 2001, first as a material witness in connection with the Sept. 11
attacks and later on charges of lying to the F.B.I. and credit card fraud.

Because he was declared an enemy combatant, Mr. Marri was moved from a prison in
Illinois to a military brig in South Carolina, according to Lawrence S.
Lustberg, who represented him in the criminal case. As an enemy combatant, Mr.
Marri can be held indefinitely, and he has no access to a lawyer unless the
military decides to bring charges, officials said.

The case represents the first time that the administration is shifting custody
of someone charged by criminal prosecutors to the military as an enemy
combatant, administration officials said.

Neither of the other two men publicly identified as enemy combatants, Yaser Esam
Hamdi, who was captured in fighting in Afghanistan, and Jose Padilla, suspected
in a scheme to set off a "dirty bomb," had faced criminal charges beforehand.
Both are Americans.

The administration said national security interests drove the decision to turn
over Mr. Marri to military custody. They would not elaborate.

Critics of the detention policies said the move added to the confusion over
using the array of military, criminal and civil measures against people
considered terrorism suspects.

"To just pluck someone from the criminal justice system and remove them from any
of the protections of the legal system to me suggests a very troubling disregard
for the rule of law," said Jamie Fellner, the United States director for Human
Rights Watch.

Mr. Lustberg, a private lawyer in Newark, said he planned to seek a reversal of
the decision by filing a writ of habeas corpus in the federal court system in a
few days.

Mr. Marri had been scheduled to go to trial next month in federal court in
Illinois on the criminal charges pending against him, and Mr. Lustberg said, "We
thought he had a powerful defense."

Mr. Marri had apparently planned to argue that the charge he had lied to F.B.I.
agents in interviews in late 2001 about his travels in the United States was
based on a misunderstanding, and Mr. Lustberg said that notes from the bureau
agents could bear that out.

Legal observers surmised that classifying Mr. Marri as an enemy combatant might
have been driven by concerns about being forced to expose intelligence sources
in open court. That issue has complicated the case against Zacarias Moussaoui,
who is accused of participating in the Sept. 11 conspiracy.

Justice Department officials said the decision to remove Mr. Marri from the
criminal system was not based on any concern about the strength of the case
against him.

"We had no obstacles in pursuing that case," Alice Fisher, a deputy assistant
attorney general in the criminal division of the Justice Department, said at a
briefing.

Mr. Marri arrived here on Sept. 10, 2001, on a student visa to pursue graduate
studies at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation questioned him in October 2001 about possible links to terrorism.

Justice Department officials said new evidence uncovered in the last several
months, after criminal charges had been brought against Mr. Marri, provided
further links to overseas operatives of Al Qaeda.

The officials said people in American custody indicated that Mr. Marri had
visited a Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, met with Osama bin Laden and
pledged support for Al Qaeda's cause. He was assigned to help "settle"
operatives for follow-up attacks after Sept. 11, officials said.

They added that Mr. Marri's effort to call a financier for Al Qaeda by using a
calling card account also used by Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the Sept. 11
attacks, further corroborated his role. The Justice Department refused to
identify the detainees who gave them information, but law enforcement officials
said Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a senior leader of Al Qaeda captured in March in
Pakistan, was a source.

At the F.B.I., the assistant director for counterterrorism, Larry A. Mefford,
said there was no evidence that Mr. Marri was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks
or knew about them beforehand. But, Mr. Mefford added, "Clearly, we think he's
very important."

Mr. Lustberg, a prominent civil liberties lawyer, said he had never heard some
of the allegations that Justice Department officials were making today against
his client.

"It's either brand new," he said, "or it was withheld from us. The whole thing
is really puzzling to me."

Frank W. Dunham Jr., a standby lawyer for Mr. Moussaoui -- who is representing
himself and who has also been considered for enemy combatant status -- said he
was concerned that administration officials were abusing the judicial process by
failing to maintain a separation between the military and civilian systems.

"You shouldn't be allowed to switch tracks like they're doing," Mr. Dunham said
in an interview. "That's how you get into the abuse of threatening criminal
defendants, suggesting that 'if you don't pleaded guilty to this charge or that
charge, we're going to declare you an enemy combatant and lock you up forever.'
"

Elisa C. Massimino, director of the Washington office of the Lawyers Committee
for Human Rights, said the Bush administration had made it difficult for the
public to tell why someone like Mr. Marri was declared an enemy combatant while
the administration used the criminal system to convict someone like Iyman Faris,
a truck driver from Ohio who admitted last week that he was involved in a
conspiracy by Al Qaeda to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.

"It really looks like a situation where they make the rules up as they go
along," Ms. Massimino said.

Justice Department and military officials said that each situation was evaluated
on the merits and that they could not set forth a broad policy on who is
considered an enemy combatant.

"There's no bright line," Ms. Fisher said.

* * *

June 22, 2003

Nation Builders for Hire

By DAN BAUM

The huge effort to restore Iraq's oil industry begins every day two hours south
of the Iraq-Kuwait border, at the lavish Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kuwait City. No
sooner does the lobby restaurant open at 5 a.m. than a line of middle-aged men
in jumpsuits, golf shirts and identical tan caps forms at the breakfast buffet,
eschewing the mezzeh and labneh for French toast, home fries and beef bacon.
Outside, a couple of dozen silver S.U.V.'s are lined up, and after a quick
breakfast the men are off in a swift northbound convoy, each car marked with the
sideways V of duct tape that designates American and British vehicles. The road
knifes across a packed pebble desert as flat as a griddle, with hardly a plant
or a rock gentling the view to a hazy 360-degree horizon. But nobody's minding
the scenery.

The men in the S.U.V.'s are all talking at once, handing clipboards and
calculators back and forth, trying to make 10,000 impossible things happen in
Iraq's oil fields in exactly the right order. A couple are getting in last-
minute calls to headquarters in Houston before leaving Kuwaiti cellphone
coverage. Though they speak with the drawling soft consonants of the Texas-
Oklahoma oil patch, these are truly citizens of the world -- or at least the
petroleum-producing corners of it.

For they are the legions of Kellogg Brown & Root, subsidiary of the oil-services
giant Halliburton, which in March won an open-ended Army contract to restore
Iraq's oil fields to working order. Most have spent years toiling in the raw,
scraped and sometimes violent places where oil lurks, and each hews to the
oilie's ethic: no place is a hardship. How were your 12 years in Algeria? "Not
bad." Your six years at Prudhoe Bay? "Not bad." Your 14 years in Nigeria? "Not
bad." Southern Iraq -- searing, bleak, lawless -- is an assignment like any
other. Also, they are very well paid.

At the border, where for most Kuwaitis formalities can take an hour, the KBR
S.U.V.'s barely slow down. Each man presses his U.S. Department of Defense
Contractor ID to the window, and the Kuwaiti guards wave them through. Nobody's
controlling the Iraqi side. An hour later, the S.U.V.'s reach an abandoned gas
station in the middle of nowhere. In the shade of crumbling walls a company of
British soldiers is squatting in the sand, eating packets of weenies-and-beans
from their boxed rations. They're a mixture of Royal Engineers, R.A.F. ground
troops and 7th Armored Brigade -- the famous Desert Rats who fought Rommel in
North Africa. As the Brits brew tea on their folding tin stoves, Jim Koockogey,
a muscular security coordinator for KBR, stands with a clipboard and shouts into
the hot wind.

"Tuba Tango: we need two shooters. Arthur power station: two shooters. GOSP
Three Romeo: four shooters. . . . " From Kuwait City to here the S.U.V.'s were
safe enough in their long silver convoy, but now, traveling singly, they'll need
armed guards. The British soldiers toss aside the trash from their rations and
drape themselves with weapons and long, glinting belts of ammunition. As the KBR
cars roar off toward their daily appointments with Iraqi oil, the soldiers, many
of whom fought the hard battles for Basra and Umm Qasr, pile into Land Rovers
and fall in behind.

When Dwight Eisenhower warned in 1961 of the "military-industrial complex," he
never imagined the regimental descendants of Monty's boys at El Alamein tenting
in the desert to baby-sit corporadoes earning $10,000 tax-free a month. This,
however, is modern might. The military has become the industrial, and vice
versa.

Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, is in high dudgeon
lately, suggesting that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chairmanship of
Halliburton gave KBR the inside track on the Iraqi oil-fields contract, which
could be worth as much as $7 billion. But the reality is subtler: KBR didn't
need any help. It is by now so enmeshed with the Pentagon that it was able
essentially to assign the contract to itself.

KBR was founded in 1919 as Brown & Root, and quickly acquired a reputation for
taking on the kinds of projects that tend to recall the building of the
pyramids. It constructed the gigantic Mansfield Dam in Texas, New Orleans's 24-
mile Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, Colorado's Eisenhower Tunnel and the Johnson
Space Center, among many other mega-projects. Halliburton acquired it in 1962,
and in 1998 merged it with the petrochemical company M.W. Kellogg to form
Kellogg Brown & Root. KBR now accounts for almost half of Halliburton's annual
$12.5 billion annual revenue.

The Army says KBR got the Iraqi oil-field contract without having to compete for
it because, according to the Army's classified contingency plan for repairing
Iraq's infrastructure, KBR was the only company with the skills, resources and
security clearances to do the job on short notice. Who wrote the Army's
contingency plan? KBR. It was in a position to do so because it holds another
contract that is poorly understood yet in many ways more important, and
potentially bigger, than the one to repair the oil fields: the Logistics Civil
Augmentation Program, or Logcap, which essentially turns KBR into a kind of for-
profit Ministry of Public Works for the Army. Under Logcap, which KBR won in
open bidding in 2001, KBR is on call to the Army for 10 years to do a lot of the
things most people think soldiers do for themselves -- from fixing trucks to
warehousing ammunition, from delivering mail to cleaning up hazardous waste.
K.P. is history; KBR civilians now peel potatoes, and serve them, at many
installations. KBR does the laundry. It fixes the pipes and cleans the sewers,
generates the power and repairs the wiring. It built some of the bases used in
the Iraq war.

Writing the oil-field contingency plan was only one of a thousand things KBR did
for the Army last year under Logcap. (KBR has a similarly broad contract with
the Navy, under which it built, among other things, the cages for suspected
terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.) The technical term for Logcap is "cost-
reimbursement, indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity," or "cost-plus," meaning
KBR spends whatever it believes necessary to get a job done, then adds from 1 to
9 percent as profit. There's practically no limit on how lucrative Logcap can
be, and as the awarding of the Iraqi oil-field contract -- by KBR, to KBR --
demonstrates, Logcap can become a generator of yet more contracts. Nothing like
it exists elsewhere in government. That KBR wrote the oil-field plan wasn't
considered by the Army a disqualifying conflict of interest -- in fact, just the
opposite. "They were the company best positioned to execute the oil-field work
because of their involvement in the planning," said Lt. Col. Gene Pawlik, an
Army spokesman.

The military has relied on civilian contractors ever since George Washington
hired farmers to haul supplies for the Continental Army, and the use of
mercenaries is as old as time. But the KBR-style blending of corporations into
the fabric of the military is relatively recent. Its genesis is one of the
unsung but seminal ideological documents of the Reagan era, a revolution-on-
paper that goes by the dry title Circular No. A-76. Issued in 1983 by the budget
director, David Stockman, A-76 mandates that government should "rely on
commercial sources to supply the products and services the government needs."

Circular No. A-76 wasn't written specifically for the Defense Department, and
the military was slow to adopt the approach. It took the end of the cold war for
the Pentagon to discover the benefits of outsourcing. The times demanded that
the military shrink -- remember all the talk about a "peace dividend"? Oddly,
though, the end of the cold war uncorked a froth of conflicts from Africa to the
Balkans that the military had to monitor and, in the case of the former
Yugoslavia, fight. By one count, the Army has deployed soldiers more than three
times as often in the 14 years since the cold war ended than in the cold war's
four-decade history, even though it is today down to only two-thirds the size of
its cold war peak.

Downsizing the military not only meant doing more with less; it also meant that
a lot of former soldiers, sailors, airmen and officers were suddenly on the
street looking for the kind of work for which their particular skills would be
valuable. The Pentagon still needed those skills. So the downsized warriors
joined a constellation of corporations that sold those skills -- everything from
data processing to interrogation to bomb disposal -- back to the military at
private-sector prices.

In 1992 the Defense Department, under Dick Cheney, hired Brown & Root to write a
classified report detailing how private companies could help the military
logistically in the world's hot spots. Not long after, the Pentagon awarded the
first five-year Logcap -- to Brown & Root. Then Bill Clinton won the election,
and Cheney, in 1995, became C.E.O. of Halliburton, Brown & Root's parent
company. A lot of Halliburton's business depends on foreign customers getting
loans from U.S. banks, which are in turn guaranteed by the government's trade-
promoting Export-Import Bank. In the five years before Cheney took the helm, the
Ex-Im Bank guaranteed $100 million in loans so foreign customers could buy
Halliburton's services; during Cheney's five years as C.E.O., that figure jumped
to $1.5 billion.

"Clearly Dick gave Halliburton some advantages," a Halliburton vice-president,
Bob Peebler, told The Chicago Tribune in 2000. "Doors would open."

Doors continue to swing freely between the corporate boards of companies like
KBR, whose livelihood depends on U.S. energy and military policy, and the upper
echelons of government, where those policies are set. In addition to its
connection to Dick Cheney -- who as vice president continues to be paid "less
than $180,000 a year" in deferred compensation by Halliburton, according to a
company spokeswoman -- Halliburton has on its board former Secretary of State
Lawrence Eagleburger, who also sits on the board of Phillips Petroleum alongside
a former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, David Boren.
Among the vice presidents of Booz Allen Hamilton -- another does-everything
company that has received millions in military contracts -- is the former
Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey. Of the 30 members of the Defense
Policy Board -- the influential Pentagon advisory panel from which Richard Perle
was recently forced to resign -- at least nine are directors or officers of
companies that won $76 billion in defense contracts in 2001 and 2002, according
to the Center for Public Integrity. Lieut. Gen. Jay Garner, who served as chief
civilian administrator of Iraq, ran a subsidiary of L-3 Communications that
makes missile systems used in the Iraq war; and L. Paul Bremer III, who took
over from Garner, was plucked from a new unit of the insurer Marsh & McLennan
that was created a month after 9/11 to profit from the new concern over
catastrophic risk.

"I am unabashedly an admirer of outsourcing," Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey told The
Dallas Morning News three years ago. "There's very few things in life you can't
outsource." McCaffrey now serves on the boards of the weapons makers Raytheon
Aerospace and Integrated Defense Technologies, among others.

It's a relatively small club that has both guided U.S. military, energy and
Middle Eastern policies over the past three decades and then run the
corporations that benefit from those policies. And it's a club that had a long
history with Saddam Hussein. A sheaf of declassified 1980's State Department
cables demonstrate that in 1983 Secretary of State George Shultz -- former
president of Bechtel -- sent Donald Rumsfeld to meet personally with Saddam
Hussein several times, in part to promote an oil pipeline to the Red Sea port of
Aqaba. (The accompanying State Department photo of the two men warmly shaking
hands is startling, given the recent vitriol between them.) In the midst of
negotiations with Rumsfeld, Hussein used poison gas against the Iranian Army.
While cables demonstrate the State Department discouraged this, a memo to
Eagleburger, then the under secretary of state, noted it may have been American
firms that sold Hussein the gas, and outlined the need "to avoid unpleasantly
surprising Iraq" with public statements.

By July 2000, Cheney claimed on ABC's "This Week" that neither Halliburton nor
its subsidiaries dealt with Iraq at all. "Iraq's different," Cheney said at the
time. "I had a firm policy that we wouldn't do anything in Iraq, even
arrangements that were supposedly legal." But in fact from 1997 to 2000, when
Cheney was running Halliburton, two of its subsidiaries sold Saddam Hussein's
government a total of $73 million in oil-field supplies. The deal didn't violate
U.S. sanctions because the subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump
Company, were foreign.

KBR/Halliburton, then, has rounded the bases when it comes to Iraq. It got rich
doing business with Iraq, it got rich preparing to destroy Iraq and it's now
getting rich rebuilding Iraq.


Proponents of contracting make the point that as the the overall size of the
military shrinks, the "tooth" needs to increase relative to the "tail," or, as
one analyst put it, "You want the 82nd Airborne training to kill people and blow
things up, not cleaning latrines or trimming hedges." They also argue it's
cheaper to hire contractors to do short-term work rather than have the military
maintain full-time capabilities it needs only briefly.

A good example is Camp Arifjan, a U.S. Army base about 90 minutes southwest of
Kuwait City. Six months ago, this was nothing but a small collection of
buildings that was supposed to be a training base. On Oct. 11 -- the day
Congress gave President Bush authority to wage war on Iraq -- someone in the
Pentagon picked up a phone and told KBR it had nine weeks to turn Arifjan into a
full-blown Army base for 7,000 people. The job went to Robert (Butch) Gatlin, a
wizened 59-year-old Tennessean who served 32 years in the Army Corps of
Engineers before coming to perform the same work, at much greater pay, for KBR.

"When we got here, there was no power or water," Gatlin said as we stepped from
the air-conditioned trailer that is KBR's Arifjan headquarters into the blinding
desert sun. Within about 72 hours of the Pentagon's call, Gatlin had a handful
of KBR specialists -- electricians, carpenters, plumbers -- on planes headed
here. Most of the rest were hired locally. "I had a thousand people working here
in 24 hours," he said. "The Army can't do that."

KBR essentially took an entire Army base out of containers and made it rise in
the middle of the Kuwaiti desert two days ahead of schedule: air-conditioned
tents complete with 110-volt outlets for the soldiers' boom boxes, male and
female shower blocks, kitchens, a laundry, Pepsi machines, a Nautilus-equipped
health club with an aerobics room ("Latin Dance Thurs & Sat!"), a rec center
with video games and a stack of Monopoly sets, a Baskin-Robbins and a Subway
sandwich shop. (No beer, though; alcohol is illegal in Kuwait.) To conjure Camp
Arifjan in a twinkling amid one of the most hostile environments on the planet
was by any measure a stunning logistical achievement. And now, as at many bases
in the U.S., it's KBR civilian employees, not soldiers, who cook, do the
laundry, shuttle supplies and control the airspace overhead. KBR does everything
but fight. Though it looks like an Army base, Camp Arifjan effectively is a
subsidiary of Kellogg Brown & Root. The Army is merely -- to use Gatlin's term -
the "client."

The advantage to the Pentagon of using contractors goes beyond logistics. Had
the Army tried to build Camp Arifjan itself last October, it would have had to
mobilize reservists, said Lt. Col. Karen LeDoux, the Logcap commander at
Arifjan. Activating reservists means disrupting families and businesses and
generating TV coverage of men and women leaving home in uniform. In October, the
war was still being debated at the United Nations and in the streets. "It's a
political decision to use contractors," LeDoux said. "The Army can get a
delicate job done quietly."

Outsourcing military missions also lets the Pentagon do things Congress might
not approve. Congress, for example, has said the military can have only 400 U.S.
soldiers in Colombia, an oil-rich country destabilized by guerrillas and the
cocaine trade. But for years, civilian pilots employed by DynCorp, a KBR
competitor, have been flying what amount to combat missions in Colombia under
contract to the State Department, spraying coca crops with defoliant and
occasionally getting shot at. Representative Janice Schakowsky, Democrat of
Chicago, has been trying to put a stop to this kind of end run around
Congressional oversight, but in the bellicose post-9/11 atmosphere on Capitol
Hill, she can't get traction. Congress would never authorize the U.S. military
to perform such a politically explosive mission as the Colombian spraying,
Schakowsky argues, and if an American soldier was killed in Colombia it would be
Page 1 news.

"Is the U.S. military privatizing its missions to avoid public controversy or
embarrassment -- to hide body bags from the media and shield the military from
public opinion?" she asks. Iraq, Schakowsky says, is no different. "We talk a
lot in Congress about how many U.S. troops are there and for how long, but not
at all about the contractors," she said. "They don't have to follow the same
chain of command, the military code of conduct may or may not apply, the
accountability is absent and the transparency is absent -- but the money keeps
flowing."

The General Accounting Office and several watchdog groups say it's not yet even
clear that Pentagon contractors are cheaper in the long run than a larger
military; the experiment is still too young. And there are other concerns, first
among them the uncomfortable fact that the military can find itself dependent in
wartime on people it doesn't fully control. Often, the only people who know how
to run the military's new high-tech gear are the geeks of the company that makes
it, so the soldiers manning, say, an Abrams tank don't necessarily know how to
fix it if it breaks. After visiting Arifjan I met a reserve Air Force colonel in
the lobby of the Kuwait Hilton who told me the communications gear on which his
job depends is entirely maintained by civilian employees of the manufacturer (he
wouldn't tell me which). "We had a problem in the middle of the night and called
down for the contractor; they told us he doesn't come in until 9 a.m.," the
officer told me. "We're fighting a war, and the contractor doesn't come in until
9 a.m.!" And really, there's no guarantee the contractor will be there at all if
things get ugly. Soldiers have to stay put when the shells start falling or face
punishment for desertion; contractors who decide the high pay isn't worth the
risk can simply leave. As the Defense Department itself put it in a 1991 report,
"D.O.D. Components cannot ensure that emergency-essential services performed by
contractors would continue during crisis or hostile situations." And that was
before the big increase in Pentagon contracting.

From the public's point of view, the increasing use of contractors makes it
harder to know what the military is really doing. The Pentagon has lots of
maddening rules that citizens have to follow if they want information, but while
the Pentagon has secrets, it also fundamentally recognizes that it is a public
institution. Not so the contractors, whose first allegiance is to their
shareholders and who have little incentive to share information about how they
operate. Take salaries. An Army sergeant with four years' service earns
$48,292.03 a year, a captain with two years' service earns $60,500.47 and a
lieutenant colonel with six years' service earns $87,299.81; the salaries are
even posted on the Internet. But when I asked a KBR spokeswoman how much her
people were earning for their hard, beerless months in the desert, she said, "We
absolutely don't discuss salaries."

"Why not?" I asked. "You're paying them with taxpayer money."

"We absolutely don't discuss salaries," she repeated. (Later, a KBR manager told
me on the sly that because he and his colleagues have all their expenses paid by
KBR and Americans abroad pay no income tax on the first $80,000 they earn
annually, they expect to net $120,000.)

At Camp Arifjan, Butch Gatlin spoke of the good old days of the late 90's, when
he had signing authority for any purchase up to half a million dollars. Then
came the U.S. involvement in Bosnia and Kosovo from 1995 to 2000, when one of
every seven Pentagon dollars passed through KBR and both the company and the
Pentagon got dinged by the General Accounting Office for overspending. The
G.A.O. said it found "no evidence that cost was taken into consideration." Last
year, KBR paid $2 million to settle federal fraud charges that it inflated the
cost of an Army contract in California and "in doing so, it increased its
profits at the government's expense."

Now when Gatlin wants to buy anything over $2,500 -- which is almost everything
-- he has to get a signature from an Army officer living at Arifjan. "He signs a
lot," Gatlin sighed. Cost-plus contracting offers the Army maximum flexibility;
in an emergency or a politically sensitive moment, KBR can quietly throw as much
money as necessary at a problem. But the more KBR spends, the more it earns.

Bechtel, another hydra-headed American giant, won what's often called the
"mother contract" from the U.S. Agency for International Development to revive
Iraq's water, power and electricity and the port of Umm Qasr. Unlike KBR, which
fills the Crowne Plaza with a huge regiment of Texans who actually turn
wrenches, Bechtel keeps fewer than 50 engineers and managers quartered at the
Kuwait Sheraton. Bechtel's client is USAID, not the military, so none of its
work is classified, and that makes it easer to hire its muscle locally. So while
the lobby of the Crowne Plaza feels like a particularly high-rent sergeants'
club -- noisy and smoky, men clumping in work boots across the faux-Persian
carpets -- the cool marble lobby of the Sheraton plays the role of officers'
billet to the reconstruction campaign. On the Sheraton's black leather sofas,
British businessmen perch primly in no-wrinkle blazers, sample cases ready,
watching for the company golf shirt of a Bechtel executive to emerge from the
elevators.

Robert Sedgbeer, who works for a smallish British company that makes cellphone
towers, was fighting jet lag to stay awake. "If I can just get these into the
right hands, my trip will be worth it," he said, fingering a stack of company
literature and craning his neck for a Bechtel exec. Stephen Thomas, whose
achingly polite Oxbridge manner belies his 15 years in Oman ("not bad"), said he
hopes to sell Bechtel his company's food-service and telecommunications skills.
Like Sedgbeer and everybody else in the lobby, he lowered his voice when saying
"Bechtel," lest he risk offending the keepers of the golden keys. "We don't
often get the chance, in our lifetimes, to see a country with such tremendous
oil wealth and virtually no civilian commercial infrastructure get a whole new
blueprint," Thomas said eagerly.

The revolving door that spins at the top of the military-industrial ziggurat
spins at the bottom too. On my way out of Arifjan, I looked more closely at the
heavily armed soldiers guarding the gate and found they weren't soldiers at all,
but rather civilian employees of something called Combat Support Associates, a
joint venture of three obscure American companies that provide the Army with
security, logistics, "live-fire training" and maintenance. In southern Iraq I
ran into four big men in full combat gear and Robocop sunglasses whom I also
took to be soldiers until I noticed the tape over the left shirt breasts;
instead of US ARMY, it said EODT. That stands for "Explosive Ordnance Disposal
Technology," not an Army unit but a company based in Knoxville, Tenn. The Web
site says EOD Technology "applies leading-edge geophysical technologies to
provide documented efficient solutions to environmental challenges," and what
that translates to is: these guys dig up minefields for a living. Their
challenge the day I saw them was an unexploded American artillery round that had
crashed through an oil pipeline and was buried who-knew-where underneath. All
four used to be soldiers; now they do the same work at private-sector wages.

It's an article of faith among KBR's people that they will be in Iraq only a
short while. KBR's top client, Brig. Gen. Robert Crear of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, is the man in charge of Team RIO (Restore Iraqi Oil), and on a
walking tour of the Basra oil refinery he insisted that the Army's role -- and
by extension KBR's -- is temporary. "This is an Iraqi operation," he said
several times. "The oil belongs to the Iraqi people. We are only support, and
only until the infrastructure is up and running."

But neither he nor anybody else was able to say what "up and running" means.
Depending on how that question is answered, companies like KBR will be in Iraq
for months and will make millions, or years, and make billions. Decades of war
and sanctions have left the wellheads, drills, pumps, and pipelines so
inefficient and unsafe that, by some estimates, it will take $50 billion and a
decade to fix them.

There is no question that companies like KBR are up to the job. What isn't clear
is whether there will come a day, anytime soon, when the United States says,
"O.K.; good enough," and goes home -- leaving the Iraqi oil fields patched
together and its equipment semi-safe. Or does the effort to "assist the Iraqi
people" require a decadelong, oil-financed bonanza for oil-service companies
like KBR/Halliburton? If anybody has the answer to that question, he or she is
not saying. "That's way above my pay grade," says General Crear.

What's certain is that as long as the Army is in Iraq, KBR will be there with
it. In Baghdad every morning, a crowd of desperate job seekers gathers at dawn
at the back gate of the old Republican Palace compound, which is now U.S. Army
headquarters. At about 7, a Humvee full of KBR men roars up, and like
doorkeepers at the old Studio 54 they select a dozen or so grateful men and
women for menial tasks on the base. Nobody objected to my watching this scene,
but later, when a photographer took out a camera, an Army public-affairs officer
walked up with his hand outstretched. "The authorities in charge have decided
not to allow access at this time," he said. When asked if those "authorities"
were the Army or KBR, the officer sighed and said, "To be honest, the lines get
a little blurred sometimes."

[ Dan Baum is author of "Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of
Failure." ]

* * *


June 18, 2003

FBI: GUANTANAMO PRISONERS PROVIDING INFO

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prisoners held at the U.S. military detention center at
Guantanamo Bay have provided valuable intelligence about al-Qaida and helped
thwart terrorist attacks, the FBI said Wednesday.

Some of the prisoners have asserted that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had
prior knowledge of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa and the 2000
bombing of the USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer attacked while refueling at
the port of Aden, Yemen.

Interrogation of prisoners have uncovered new details about the planning of
these deadly attacks by al-Qaida, which also is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks in New York and Washington.

The FBI, in its weekly bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement
agencies, said prisoners "provided information that has led to the thwarting"
of an unspecified plot against an oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz, the busy
entrance to the Persian Gulf.

The prisoners have described the locations of numerous terrorist training camps
and safe houses around the world, and given investigators the identities of some
al-Qaida operatives, according to the FBI.

The bulletin was described to The Associated Press by a law enforcement source
speaking on condition of anonymity.

In addition, the interviews have provided insight into the connections between
militant Islamic uprisings in different places, from Bosnia to Chechnya to
Afghanistan, the bulletin says. Common names and tactics have repeatedly come
up, demonstrating to U.S. officials the breadth of al-Qaida's reach and
identifying some extremist groups allied with it.

State and local police officers are urged by the FBI to remain aware of the
intelligence gained from these interviews as they investigate possible terrorist
cells or support organizations in their areas.

Federal law enforcement officials also have said that captured al-Qaida
operatives, especially Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, have
provided information about the group's operations and people associated with it.
Those two and others are being held and interrogated at undisclosed foreign
locations.

There are about 680 prisoners from 42 countries being held at Guantanamo Bay,
the U.S. Navy base on Cuba's eastern tip. Most are suspected of ties to al-Qaida
and the fallen Taliban rule in Afghanistan that gave the terror organization a
safe haven.

The prisoners are behind held by the military without being charged or having
access to a lawyer. Some of them could be tried by U.S. military tribunals, but
it is unclear when such trials might begin.

The Supreme Court in May refused to hear an appeal of a group of clergy, lawyers
and professors who had demanded the prisoners be given legal representation and
brought before U.S. courts to hear the charges against them.

^------

On the Net:

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov

* * *

June 17, 2003

INMATES RELEASED FROM GUANTANAMO TELL TALES OF DESPAIR

By Carlotta Gall With Neil A. Lewis

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 16 -- Afghans and Pakistanis who were detained for many
months by the American military at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba before being released
without charges are describing the conditions as so desperate that some captives
tried to kill themselves.

According to accounts in the last three months from some of the 32 Afghans and
three Pakistanis in the weeks since their release, it was above all the
uncertainty of their fate, combined with confinement in very small cells,
sometimes only with Arabic speakers, that caused inmates to attempt suicide. One
Pakistani interviewed this month said he tried to kill himself four times in 18
months.

An Afghan prisoner who spent 14 months at the camp, at the American naval base
at Guantanamo, described in April what he called the uncertainty and fear. "Some
were saying this is a prison for 150 years," said Suleiman Shah, 30, a former
Taliban fighter from Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan.

None of those interviewed complained of physical mistreatment. But the men said
that for the first few months, they were kept in small wire-mesh cells, about 6
1/2 feet by 8 feet , in blocks of 10 or 20. The cells were covered by a wooden
roof, but open at the sides to the elements.

"We slept, ate, prayed and went to the toilet in that small space," Mr. Shah
said. Each man had two blankets and a prayer mat and slept and ate on the
ground, he said.

The prisoners were taken out only once a week for a one-minute shower. "After
four and a half months we complained and people stopped eating, so they said we
could shower for five minutes and exercise once a week," Mr. Shah said. After
that, he said, prisoners got to exercise for 10 minutes a week, walking around
the inside of a cage 30 feet long.

In interviews at their homes, weeks after being released, he and the freed
Pakistani detainee talked of what they said was the overwhelming feeling of
injustice among the approximately 680 men detained indefinitely at Guantanamo
Bay.

"I was trying to kill myself," said Shah Muhammad, 20, a Pakistani who was
captured in northern Afghanistan in November 2001, handed over to American
soldiers and flown to Guantanamo in January 2002. "I tried four times, because I
was disgusted with my life.

"It is against Islam to commit suicide," he continued, "but it was very
difficult to live there. A lot of people did it. They treated me as guilty, but
I was innocent."

In the 18 months since the detention camp opened, there have been 28 suicide
attempts by 18 individuals, with most of those attempts made this year, Capt.
Warren Neary, a spokesman at the detention camp, said today. None of the
prisoners have killed themselves, but one man has suffered severe brain damage,
according to his lawyer.

The prisoners come from more than 40 countries, and include more than 50
Pakistanis, about 150 Saudis and three teenagers under 16, a majority of them
captured in Afghanistan, said Dr. Najeef bin Mohamad Ahmed al-Nauimi, a former
justice minister in Qatar, who is representing nearly 100 of the detainees.

Dr. Nauimi represents many of the Saudis, and American lawyers represent about
14 prisoners from Kuwait. There are also 83 Yemenis, he said, and a sprinkling
of others, including Canadians, Britons, Algerians and Australians, and one
Swede.

Since January 2002, at least 32 Afghan prisoners and three Pakistanis have been
released from Guantanamo Bay. Five Saudis were recently handed over to the Saudi
authorities. Yasser Esam Hamdi, an American-born Saudi, was moved from the camp
to a military brig in Norfolk, Va., in April 2002. Captain Neary said 41 people
had been released in all, but he could not give a more exact description.

At the same time, the military is preparing to place about 10 of the prisoners
before a military tribunal soon, officials said this month.

Mr. Muhammad, who spent 18 months in Cuba before his release, said that "when
they first took us there they would not let us talk, or stand or walk around the
cell.

"At the beginning it was very hard to bear," he added. "There was no call to
prayer, and there was no shade. In the afternoon the sun came in from the side."

(Page 2 of 2)

Under the current routine, a majority of the prisoners remain in their cells but
for two 15-minute periods a week, in which they walk around the cage and take a
shower. In addition, the call to prayer is played over the prison's loudspeakers
five times a day, according to Capt. Youseff Yee, the Muslim chaplain who
oversees the religious needs of the Guantanamo prisoners.

Conditions improved after the first few months, and prisoners were moved to
newly built cells with running water and a bed, Mr. Shah said. Interrogation was
sporadic and it varied in length and intensity. Sometimes they were questioned
after 10 days, or 20 days, and then not for several months, prisoners said.

But it was the uncertainty and fear that they would be there forever that drove
many of them to despair, prisoners said.

"All of the people were worried about how long we would be there for," Mr. Shah
said. "People were becoming mad because they were saying: 'When will they
release us? They should take us to the high court.' Many stopped eating."

One Taliban fighter from the southern province of Helmand, who only uses one
name, Rustam, said in May that he was driven to trying to hang himself because
he was in a block of Arabs and Uzbeks he described as "crazy."

"There were some very strange people, they were hitting their heads on the wall,
insulting the soldiers, and that is why I hated it," said Rustam, who is 22, in
an interview in an Afghan prison in Kabul. "I think they were really crazy
people, and that's why I kept asking to be taken out for questioning."

When he tried to hang himself, Rustam said, the guards found him quickly. "They
untied me and said 'Don't do this,' " he said. "They gave me medicine, but it
was no good. They put me under supervision and moved me to another place."

Mr. Muhammad, one of three Pakistani prisoners to be released at the end of
April, said he first tried to hang himself because for months on end he was
surrounded by Arabs and could not speak their language.

"It was difficult not talking to anyone for so long," he said. "It was because
of the jail. They put me in a block full of Arabs, they were only letting us out
for a very short time, and it was very difficult. I could feel myself going
down."

After 11 months in the prison camp, he tied his bedsheet to a ceiling wire and
hanged himself from it at 4 o'clock one afternoon. "I don't know what happened,"
he said. "They took me to the hospital. I was unconscious for two days."

Only after that suicide attempt, Mr. Muhammad said, did his American keepers
tell him that he was only being held for questioning, and that one day he would
go home. Tranquilizers were prescribed, he said, but he stopped taking the
tablets after a while and attempted suicide again.

Then the doctors gave Mr. Muhammad a powerful injection that he said left him
unable to control his head or his mouth or eat properly for weeks. Although he
refused to have the injection, the military medical personnel gave it to him by
force, he said. He made two further attempts to kill himself that he said were
more protest actions at the conditions.

"We needed more blankets, but they would not listen," he said. "And I kept
asking them to take me to the Afghan and Pakistani side. All the time I was with
Arabs. I did not speak my own language for months." Mr. Muhammad also threatened
to kill himself again if he was given another injection. He remained on tablets
until his release, he said.

American officials have confirmed that one prisoner who tried to commit suicide
remains in the prison hospital with severe brain damage. Dr. Nauimi said the
prisoner was Mish al-Hahrbi, a Saudi schoolteacher. He said that the teacher
became desperate over not knowing what his future held and that he tried to hang
himself. The teacher was resuscitated but is unlikely to recover from a severe
hemorrhage, the lawyer said.

Back home with time to ponder their ordeal, the former prisoners now want to
demand compensation.

"The Americans said if anyone is innocent, they will get compensation," Mr.
Muhammad said. "They held me for 18 months, and so they should give me
compensation. They told me I was innocent, but they did not apologize."

Human rights organizations have raised concerns about the conditions at
Guantanamo Bay and the unclear legal status of the detainees. The American
military has refused to consider them prisoners of war, even though a majority
were captured on the battlefield, and does not allow them access to lawyers. No
charges have yet been brought against any of the detainees, some of whom have
been there for 18 months.

Concerned about their prolonged detention without trial or clear legal status,
the head of the International Red Cross, which visits the detainees, urged the
Bush administration last month to start legal proceedings for the hundreds of
detainees and to institute a number of changes in conditions at the camp.

Cmdr. Brian Grady, the staff psychiatrist at the camp's medical facility, said
in a recent interview that most prisoners suffering from depression brought
their symptoms with them to Cuba.

"I don't know what the effects of this particular confinement are," he said.
"I'd be hesitant to comment." Officials at Guantanamo have generally dismissed
the notion that the confinement and uncertainty about the future are
specifically to blame.

"I would not particularly say these circumstances are a factor," Commander Grady
said.

But Jamie Fellner, director of the United States program for Human Rights Watch,
said in an interview that that was highly implausible.

"These conditions of confinement by themselves over a prolonged period are
enormously psychologically stressful," she said. "Added to that is the
uncertainty as to the future."

Ms. Fellner added that her group had not found any credible reports of physical
abuse and that it had investigated several accounts of beatings and such that
turned out to be unfounded.

Hospital officials said that about 5 percent of the inmates were suffering from
depression and that they were being treated with antidepressants, typically
Zoloft.

* * *


June 13, 2003, Friday

SWEDEN: GUANTANAMO PRESSURE

Foreign Minister Anna Lindh of Sweden said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
had promised to look into the case of a Swedish man held since January 2002 at
the United States prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Sweden has urged the
United States to release or press charges against the man, Mehdi Muhammad
Ghezali. He is being held among the 600 prisoners suspected of links to Al
Qaeda, the Taliban or other militant or terrorist groups. Mr. Ghezali's father,
a Muslim of Algerian origin, has said his son had been studying in Pakistan and
had nothing to do with Al Qaeda.

* * *


June 15, 2003

LAWYERS SEEK ACCESS TO SUSPECTED AL - QAIDA

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) -- Defense lawyers in a terrorism case are arguing they should be
able to interview a suspected al-Qaida member who is the son of a sheik
convicted of a 1995 plot to blow up New York landmarks.

The New York Times reported Sunday that a court document shows lawyers for Ahmed
Abdel Sattar want access to Ahmed Abdel Rahman, who was with al-Qaida in
Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001, according to a federal indictment. Rahman has
reportedly been held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2001.

Sattar, lawyer Lynne Stewart and an Arabic translator were charged last year
with helping deliver messages from Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. The sheik, who was
Stewart's client, is serving a life sentence for conspiring to blow up New York
City landmarks and assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Prosecutors say Sattar, Stewart and the translator helped relay messages from
the blind Egyptian cleric to the Islamic Group, a radical Egyptian-based
terrorist group. All three have pleaded innocent.

The federal indictment says Sattar arranged to send money to the sheik's son
when he was with al-Qaida. Sattar's lawyers argue that the sheik's son, if
questioned, "would testify that any money sent to him by Mr. Sattar was for his
own personal needs and use."

According to the Times, U.S. Attorney James Comey's office wrote to Sattar's
defense last week and refused to provide information about the son of the sheik.

"Disclosure of such information could be inimical to the national security of
the United States," Comey's office said.

U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl has asked for further written arguments on
the Rahman issue, the Times said.

Sattar's lawyers asked Koeltl to consider a ruling in the case of Zacarias
Moussaoui, who is charged as a conspirator with the Sept. 11 hijackers.

A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that Moussaoui must have access to al-
Qaida prisoner Ramzi Binalshibh, a suspected organizer of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The government has appealed the ruling, arguing that such access would harm
national security.

Moussaoui contends Binalshibh could prove he was not part of the Sept. 11 plot,
and the judge says he has a right to information that could potentially clear
him.

* * *


June 15, 2003

DEFENSE TEAMS SEEK ACCESS TO AN OPERATIVE FOR AL QAEDA

By Benjamin Weiser

A dispute has arisen over whether lawyers for defendants in a terrorism case in
Manhattan should be granted access to the son of the sheik who was convicted in
1995 in a plot to blow up New York landmarks, a new court document shows.

The son, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, was with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001,
a federal indictment says. News reports have said that he was captured there in
late 2001, and has since been held at Guantanamo Bay with other detainees.

The request to interview him was made by lawyers for Ahmed Abdel Sattar, who
faces trial in Federal District Court along with the New York lawyer Lynne F.
Stewart, and an Arabic translator. All three defendants have been charged with
supporting terrorism, and have pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Sattar's lawyers say they want to interview Mr. Rahman, the son of Sheik
Omar Abdel Rahman, because they say he will help bolster their defense to the
charges. The office of the United States attorney, James B. Comey, wrote back to
the defense last Monday, refusing to provide information about the son's status.
The letter does not acknowledge whether the son is even in custody.

Mr. Comey's office said that "disclosure of such information could be inimical
to the national security of the United States."

The dispute could evolve into a legal fight similar to that being waged in the
case of Zacarias Moussaoui, who is charged in the Sept. 11 attacks. A federal
judge in Virginia has ordered the government to allow Mr. Moussaoui and his
court-appointed legal advisers to have access to another captured Qaeda
operative, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a coordinator of the attacks. The government
appealed, saying that allowing such access would harm national security.

In Manhattan, the indictment describes Mr. Sattar as an operative for an
Egyptian terrorist organization called the Islamic Group, which Sheik Omar Abdel
Rahman once led. The sheik has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in
prison.

In 2001, the indictment says, Mr. Sattar arranged to send money to the sheik's
son when he was in Afghanistan with Al Qaeda.

Mr. Sattar's lawyers, Barry M. Fallick and Kenneth Paul, suggested in court
papers last week that the sheik's son, if he were questioned, would say that any
money he received was not supporting terrorism.

"We expect that Ahmed Abdel Rahman would testify that any money sent to him by
Mr. Sattar was for his own personal needs and use," the lawyers wrote.

Citing the Moussaoui ruling, Mr. Sattar's lawyers asked Judge John G. Koeltl to
order the government to disclose whether it has the son in custody, and if so,
to grant them access. The other defendants are joining in the request, lawyers
said.

The judge, referring briefly to the dispute in a hearing on Friday, asked for
further written arguments. In the hearing, defense lawyers asked that the
charges be dismissed on various grounds.

For example, Ms. Stewart's lawyer, Michael E. Tigar, argued that the acts she is
accused of were speech protected by the First Amendment.

Ms. Stewart has been accused of helping the sheik pass messages to the Islamic
Group in Egypt. The indictment charges that Ms. Stewart, who represented the
sheik in the bomb plot trial, distracted guards during a prison visit in 2000
while the third defendant, the translator, took instructions from the sheik that
were later passed on to the Islamic Group.

One message told the sheik's followers to no longer abide by a cease-fire in
terrorist activities, prosecutors have said.

But a prosecutor, Christopher J. Morvillo, said in court that the defendants had
helped to create a "pipeline for information" essential to the operation of the
Islamic group. "This case is about conduct," he said.

* * *


June 13, 2003, Friday

FOREIGN DESK
THREATS AND RESPONSES: Briefly Noted;

SWEDEN: GUANTANAMO PRESSURE

Foreign Minister Anna Lindh of Sweden said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
had promised to look into the case of a Swedish man held since January 2002 at
the United States prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Sweden has urged the
United States to release or press charges against the man, Mehdi Muhammad
Ghezali. He is being held among the 600 prisoners suspected of links to Al
Qaeda, the Taliban or other militant or terrorist groups. Mr. Ghezali's father,
a Muslim of Algerian origin, has said his son had been studying in Pakistan and
had nothing to do with Al Qaeda.

* * *


June 10, 2003

GUANTANAMO EYES POSSIBLE EXECUTION CHAMBER

By The Associated Press

Filed at 9:47 a.m. ET

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Guantanamo officials are working on plans to
provide a courtroom, a prison and an execution chamber if the order comes to try
terror suspects at the base in Cuba, the mission commander said.

Although no new directive has been given and no plan has been approved, a
handful of experts are looking at what it will take to try, imprison and, if
need be, execute detainees accused of links to Afghanistan's fallen Taliban
regime or to the al-Qaida terror network.

"We have a number of plans that we work for short-term and long-term strategies
but that's all they are -- plans," Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller said in a
telephone interview Monday.

Isolated on Cuba's eastern tip and out of the jurisdiction of U.S. civilian
courts, Guantanamo is a likely location for U.S. military trials.

Last month, officials named Army Col. Frederic Borch III the chief prosecutor
and Air Force Col. Will Gunn as chief defense lawyer for the proposed trials.
The Pentagon has listed 18 war crimes and eight other offenses that could be
tried, including terrorist acts, and has issued rules for the tribunals.

Borch said he was looking at prosecuting at least 10 possible cases before a
tribunal.

Some 680 detainees from 42 countries are in Guantanamo, categorized as unlawful
combatants by the U.S. government. It has refused demands from human rights
organizations to recognize them as prisoners of war. They have no constitutional
rights as non-U.S. citizens being held outside U.S. territory, and none have
been formally charged or allowed access to attorneys.

The cases would be decided by a panel of three to seven military officers who
act as both judge and jury. Convictions could be handed down by a majority vote;
a decision to sentence a defendant to death would have to be unanimous.

Some civil liberties advocates have criticized the process.

"Any further movement in the direction of trying these men in commissions that
could have the power to carry out death sentences is cause for great concern,"
Vienna Colucci of Amnesty International's Washington D.C. office said Monday.

Miller said renovations on a building being considered as a courtroom began in
March and likely will be completed next month. The building is being rewired and
could be used as a courthouse with facilities for media and military officers.

There also are plans to build a permanent modular detention facility, to
imprison detainees who might be sentenced to indefinite terms, and an execution
chamber should any be sentenced to death, he said.

"We're getting ready so we won't be starting from scratch," Miller said,
speaking while on a visit to Washington D.C.

About five people have been drafting several plans for the last six months, he
said. It was unclear how much money it would take to sustain such a permanent
mission.

After the detention center opened in January 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald
H. Rumsfeld called the detainees "among the most dangerous, best trained,
vicious killers on the face of the Earth." But, after lengthy interrogation,
many are thought to be low-level former Taliban fighters and unlikely prospects
for commission trials.

--------

On the Net:

Rules for military tribunals:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2003/b05022003_bt297-03.html

* * *


June 9, 2003

CAPTIVES DENY QAEDA WORKED WITH BAGHDAD

By James Risen

WASHINGTON, June 8 -- Two of the highest-ranking leaders of Al Qaeda in American
custody have told the C.I.A. in separate interrogations that the terrorist
organization did not work jointly with the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein,
according to several intelligence officials.

Abu Zubaydah, a Qaeda planner and recruiter until his capture in March 2002,
told his questioners last year that the idea of working with Mr. Hussein's
government had been discussed among Qaeda leaders, but that Osama bin Laden had
rejected such proposals, according to an official who has read the Central
Intelligence Agency's classified report on the interrogation.

In his debriefing, Mr. Zubaydah said Mr. bin Laden had vetoed the idea because
he did not want to be beholden to Mr. Hussein, the official said.

Separately, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Qaeda chief of operations until his
capture on March 1 in Pakistan, has also told interrogators that the group did
not work with Mr. Hussein, officials said.

The Bush administration has not made these statements public, though it
frequently highlighted intelligence reports that supported its assertions of
links between Iraq and Al Qaeda as it made its case for war against Iraq.

Since the war ended, and because the administration has yet to uncover evidence
of prohibited weapons in Iraq, the quality of American intelligence has come
under scrutiny amid contentions that the administration selectively disclosed
only those intelligence reports that supported its case for war.

Bill Harlow, a spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency, declined to
comment on what the two Qaeda leaders had told their questioners. A senior
intelligence official played down the significance of their debriefings,
explaining that everything Qaeda detainees say must be regarded with great
skepticism.

Other intelligence and military officials added that evidence of possible links
between Mr. Hussein's government and Al Qaeda had been discovered -- both before
the war and since -- and that American forces were searching Iraq for more in
Iraq.

Still, no conclusive evidence of joint terrorist operations by Iraq and Al Qaeda
has been found, several intelligence officials acknowledged, nor have ties been
discovered between Baghdad and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Washington and New
York.

Between the time of the attacks and the start of the war in Iraq in March,
senior Bush administration officials spoke frequently about intelligence on two
fronts -- the possibility of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, and Baghdad's
drive to develop prohibited weapons. President Bush described the war against
Iraq as part of the larger war on terrorism, and argued that the possibility
that Mr. Hussein might hand over illicit weapons to terrorists posed a threat to
the United States.

Several officials said Mr. Zubaydah's debriefing report was circulated by the
C.I.A. within the American intelligence community last year, but his statements
were not included in public discussions by administration officials about the
evidence concerning Iraq-Qaeda ties.

Those officials said the statements by Mr. Zubaydah and Mr. Mohammed were
examples of the type of intelligence reports that ran counter to the
administration's public case.

"I remember reading the Abu Zubaydah debriefing last year, while the
administration was talking about all of these other reports, and thinking that
they were only putting out what they wanted," one official said.

Spokesmen at the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon declined to
comment on why Mr. Zubaydah's debriefing report was not publicly disclosed by
the administration last year.

In recent weeks, the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, and
other officials have defended the information and analysis by the C.I.A. and
other intelligence agencies in the