MISCELLANEOUS NEWS REPORTS * 2003.08.01 - 2003.08.31 misc_digest_2003_3.txt * Associated Press (AP): http://www.ap.org/ * Inter Press Service (IPS): http://ipsnews.net/ * Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/ * BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ * CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/ * CNN: http://www.cnn.com/ * The Age (Melbourne): http://www.theage.com.au/ * Baltimore Sun: http://www.sunspot.net/ * Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ * Dawn (Islamabad): http://www.dawn.com/ * The Guardian (UK): http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ * The Globe and Mail (Toronto): http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ * The Independent (UK): http://www.independent.co.uk/ * Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/ * The Mirror (UK): http://www.mirror.co.uk/ * The Observer (UK): http://www.observer.co.uk/ * Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.com/news/NW-front_Front.asp * San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/news/ * Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/ * The Telegraph (UK): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ * The Times (UK): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ ================================================================================ August 29, 2003 - 10:49 AM ET U.S. REJECTS PLEA ON AL QAEDA PRISONER TREATMENT By Alister Doyle 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. * * * Associated Press: August 24, 2003 U.S. BUILDING NEW CAMP AT GUANTANAMO BAY By Frank Griffiths, Associated Press Writer SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)--The U.S. military will build a fifth camp at Guantanamo Bay to hold and interrogate detainees from its war against terror, the military said Sunday in another signal its mission here will be a long-term one. Camp V will make room for 100 more detainees, increasing the capacity at the remote naval base in eastern Cuba to 1,100, Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said. Since the detention center first opened in January 2002, it has grown from open- air, chain-link cells that some likened to animal cages to trailer-style quarters where detainees have a metal bed, a sink and toilets that flush. It holds about 660 men from 42 countries detained for alleged links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network or the ousted Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered it. They include three youths _ ages 13-15--whom the military says it probably will recommend for release soon. Hart, a spokeswoman for the detention mission, said the new camp also will hold more interrogation rooms. Asked about the growing permanence of the camp, Hart said, "We will be here as long as the war on terrorism continues." The construction of the new camp was first reported by The Miami Herald on Sunday. The new interrogation facilities, in addition to increasing capacity for more detainees, will replace trailers that were used on Camp Delta's perimeter, Hart said. Construction began recently and is expected to be finished sometime next year, officials said. Several months ago, the military rewarded about 120 prisoners deemed to have provided good intelligence by moving them to a new medium-security wing where they get more exercise, books and other liberties. 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 but officials say they have not built an execution chamber, though they have plans for every possible outcome. 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. The chief of the detention mission, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, has said the prisoners are treated humanely and in line with the conventions except they are denied access to lawyers, denied access to U.S. courts and are being held indefinitely without charges. About 65 prisoners have been released or transferred since the mission began. AP-NY-08-24-03 2225EDT * * * Beaufort (SC) Gazette: August 23, 2003 US-BORN 'ENEMY COMBATANT' NOW HELD IN SOUTH CAROLINA HANAHAN, S.C. (AP) - A U.S.-born man captured in Afghanistan has joined two other men deemed enemy combatants at the Navy brig at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station. Yasser Esam Hamdi was transferred to the brig near Hanahan from Norfolk, Va., on July 30, Maj. Michael Shavers said. "There was no announcement because it was considered a simple move," Shavers said. "There was no intent to be surreptitious." Hamdi, 22, was with Taliban forces when he was captured by U.S. forces in late 2001. He was carrying a rifle and acknowledged loyalty to the Taliban, according to papers filed by the government. Hamdi was born in Louisiana of Saudi Arabian parents and was raised in Saudi Arabia. The designation "enemy combatant" strips a person of the right to counsel and allows the government to detain him indefinitely. He joins Jose Padilla and Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri at the Charleston brig. Padilla is a former Chicago gang member who allegedly had plotted to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb," while Al-Marri has been accused of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., refused last month to rehear Hamdi's claims that he is being unconstitutionally held by the military. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected the claims in January, ruling that the government has wide latitude to detain people caught fighting against the United States on foreign soil during wartime. * * * The Globe and Mail (Toronto): http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030823/UGUANN/ August 23, 2003 CANADIAN EXCLUDED FROM TEEN SUSPECTS U.S. MAY RELEASE By PAUL KNOX U.S. military interrogators say three teenagers held as suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay naval base have no further intelligence value and should be sent home. The three are believed to be from Afghanistan and do not include Canadian teenager Omar Khadr, Canadian officials said. Mr. Khadr has been held at Guantanamo since October, apparently under harsher conditions than some other juveniles. The recommendation to free the three suspects comes from U.S. Army Major-General Geoffrey Miller, commander of the task force guarding and questioning more than 600 alleged terrorists jailed at the base. "They have had all their intelligence value and should be transferred," Lieutenant-Colonel Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman for Gen. Miller, said in a telephone interview yesterday. The recommendation must be approved by the U.S. Defence Department in Washington before the three can be released, she said. Col. Hart refused to identify the teenagers or confirm that they were Afghans, but said all were under the age of 16. Mr. Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured after a gun battle with U.S. forces in Afghanistan, will turn 17 next month. The jailing of juveniles at Guantanamo -- under heavy guard and virtually incommunicado -- has sparked protests from children's-rights advocates, who say it runs counter to international norms. In April, General Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the child prisoners were "very, very dangerous" people. "They are people that have been vetted mainly in Afghanistan and gone through a thorough process to determine what their involvement was," he said. "Some have killed. Some have stated they're going to kill again . . . they're in Guantanamo for very good reason." But Guantanamo interrogators apparently reached a different conclusion. "These juvenile enemy combatants were impressed, were kidnapped into terrorism [by] despicable people . . . .," Gen. Miller told a British Broadcasting Corp. reporter this week. "We've debriefed them; they've given us some very valuable intelligence." The three teenagers have had access to schooling and videotapes in the camp, according to media reports. Canadian officials say they want to know why Mr. Khadr is not being granted the same privileges as other juveniles at Guantanamo. "We've asked the Americans about their intentions with respect to Omar Khadr, and there's been no response yet," said France Bureau, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham. After Mr. Khadr was captured in July, 2002, a U.S. military commander said he had lobbed a hand grenade that fatally wounded a U.S. soldier. The United States is holding 660 prisoners from 42 countries at Guantanamo. The base is leased from Cuba and the U.S. government says its laws do not apply there * * * BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3175501.stm August 23, 2003 - 0526 GMT GUANTANAMO INMATES LANGUISH By Gordon Corera, BBC correspondent in Guantanamo Bay The Joint Task Force annex building sits alone on a windy hilltop overlooking the sprawling Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Sometime soon - no one knows exactly when - the now-empty building will become the focus of world attention as it hosts the first military tribunals for Guantanamo's detainees. The Pentagon says no official decision has been made on location or timing. But the newly painted signs on the inside saying "Courtroom", "Prosecution" and "Defense" tell a different story. Six inmates at Camp Delta - two of them British - will be put on trial here, even though they have not yet had access to a lawyer. As well as the detainees, American justice will also be on trial and the base is already preparing for the global media invasion that will come with the first hearings. There have been reports that an execution chamber is being built. The man in charge of the detainees, General Geoffrey Miller, said nothing was finalised yet. "Guantanamo has no approved plans for an execution chamber. And so while we have plans, none have been approved," he told the BBC. CHILD PRISONERS Some people - deemed innocent after extensive interrogation - have been released from the camp. Some may stand trial soon. Others could just be left here to wait. General Miller explained how the fate of each man was decided. "The commander's responsibility is to make an assessment of when we have gained the valuable intelligence that the detainee has and then make an assessment of the threat the detainee poses," he said. "Should they be transferred back to their own country, released or further detained?" Down the road from the main prison camp sits Camp Iguana. This is where the three child prisoners - aged between 13 and 15 - are held. The children get very different treatment from the adults - games, recreation activities and even videos. They also get a view of the ocean - something which they had never seen before, since they came from landlocked Afghanistan. The children - or Juvenile Enemy Combatants as the Pentagon prefers to call them - have also been seen by psychiatrists and social workers and received an intense education programme to try to aid their rehabilitation. Extensive interviews have led the US to believe they were kidnapped and coerced into fighting in Afghanistan. And so now it looks like the children may be released. "We are very close to making a recommendation of a transfer back to their home countries," General Miller said. FOOD 'INCENTIVE' The man in charge of the children, Staff Sergeant Doug Fitzpatrick, explained the children had not been subject to political education. "We are in no way trying to Americanise the juveniles here," he told the BBC. "What we are trying to do instead is just allow them to go back to the age they are. The changes that have occurred in them are basically just reverting back to childhood." But for the nearly 700 adults at the main camp, there is no sign yet of what the future holds for most of them. It is the lack of certainty that makes this so different to any other prison, where an inmate can look forward to a release or a parole date. And this has taken its toll on the detainees. Psychiatrists are permanently on- site and there have been some 31 suicide attempts, including two in the past two weeks. There is now a more gradated regime for the prisoners. If they are well behaved and co-operate with interrogations, they are taken to a lower security part of the camp where they get more free time and more interaction with other prisoners. These prisoners mill around in white uniforms to distinguish them from those in orange - the prisoners from the maximum security section, who spend almost all of their time locked up. And the potential of a future release is also held before them to encourage a full confession. Food is also used as an incentive. Chief Warrant Officer James Kluck is in charge of food for the detainees. He explained how sweets were used, and how interrogators had even been to the McDonalds on the main naval base and brought back happy meals to take to prisoners to try to get them to talk. It is impossible to know just how much useful intelligence has been gleaned from the captives. Most seem too low-level to talk about anything like terrorist plots, and any information they had is now likely to be extremely dated. But this still leaves the problem of what to do with them. As soon as the diplomatic haggling is over, the military tribunals are likely to start up for a select few detainees. And some others who, like the children, are considered innocent and no longer a threat may be released. But for the hundreds of others of legal castaways here on this remote beautiful corner of Cuba, the long wait to find out their fate will go on. © BBC MMIII * * * CNN: August 23, 2003 - 0353 GMT YOUTHS SET TO LEAVE GUANTANAMO From CNN Pentagon Correspondent Chris Plante WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Three "juvenile enemy combatants" being held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may be released soon, if the general in command of the prison gets his way, an army spokeswoman has told CNN. Major General Geoffrey Miller "fully intends to make a recommendation to transfer the enemy combatants to their home countries," said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, spokeswoman for the military's Joint Task Force. The youths are 13 to 15 years of age and were "taken from the battlefield" in Afghanistan and transferred to the Guantanamo facility in February, Hart said on Saturday. She said regulations do not allow her to reveal the names or home countries of detainees, but other officials indicated they are native to Afghanistan or Pakistan. "They definitely demonstrated a willingness to harm U.S. and allied" troops when they were captured in Afghanistan, she said. She said that during interrogations, it was learned that the three had been "kidnapped and forced into terrorist acts." Unlike others held in the facility, the three receive counseling, they study daily and exercise with soldiers, Hart said. One senior enlisted soldier assigned to the young detainees "is an eighth-grade teacher back home," Hart said. The decision to recommend they be repatriated is based on a determination that they are "no longer deemed a threat to the U.S. and our allies" and that all useful intelligence they can provide has already been gleaned, said Hart. Since arriving at the U.S. Naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, the three have been held in a compound known as Camp Iguana, where they are isolated from adult detainees. Approximately 660 adult detainees remain imprisoned in the nearby compound called Camp X-Ray, down from a one-time high of about 4,200. After Miller recommends their release, the cases will be reviewed in Washington by an "inter-agency process" that will require approval from the Pentagon, State Department, Justice Department and the intelligence community, another army officer said. * * * Reuters: August 22, 2003 - 05:10 PM ET US GENERAL WANTS TO SEND GUANTANAMO JUVENILES HOME By Jane Sutton 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. © Copyright Reuters 2002 * * * BBC: 22 August, 2003 - 0615 GMT GUANTANAMO MAY FREE CHILDREN The commander of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp has told the BBC the US military is hoping to release children it is holding there. The BBC's Gordon Corera, in Guantanamo Bay, says the US's interviews with the three children - aged between 13 and 15 - reveal they may have been coerced into fighting in Afghanistan. General Geoffrey Miller who leads operations at the camp is seeking to have the children released in recognition of their age and co-operation, our correspondent says. "These juvenile enemy combatants were impressed, were kidnapped into terrorism. They have given us some very valuable intelligence. We are very close to making a recommendation on their transfer back to their home countries," General Miller said. SPECIAL TREATMENT The children have been kept separate from the 700 adults being held at the camp, located on the southern Cuban coast. They have been held with no access to a lawyer or understanding of what will happen to them, our correspondent adds. But the children have been given access to games, even videos, as well as an extensive education programme. This has led to the belief that they can be rehabilitated. WIDER ISSUE However, as plans continue for the start of military tribunals, there is little evidence that this view will extend to the other prisoners. The US describes them as "enemy combatants" outside the normal legal framework and says it cannot treat them as normal criminals because of their alleged involvement in the 11 September attacks. It also says it cannot treat them as ordinary prisoners of war. Normally such prisoners would be released at the end of hostilities - but the US says its war on terror is open-ended. A recent statement reportedly from the top al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, vowed to avenge any judgements made on suspects detained at the camp. The US Secretary for Homeland Security Tom Ridge said he took the threat seriously and that he operated every day on the basis there could be another terror strike. * * * Baltimore Sun: August 22, 2003 3 AFGHAN BOYS AT GUANTANAMO SOON TO BE RELEASED, SENT HOME Their terrorism detention has been cause celebre By Dan Fesperman, Sun Foreign Staff GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Three Afghan juveniles, whose detention has become an international cause celebre for critics of U.S. legal tactics in the war on terrorism, will soon be released and sent home, according to Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of the task force that runs the Pentagon's sprawling complex of prisons by the sea. "We are very close to making a recommendation of a transfer back to their home country," Miller said yesterday of the boys, ages 13 to 15, who were captured on the battlefield among Taliban fighters but weren't flown to Guantanamo until last spring. "The enemy juvenile combatants have provided very high value useful intelligence." The boys are among the most recent arrivals of the approximately 660 detainees here. And as the youngest, they have had their own lower-security jail. Known as Camp Iguana, it is a small, one-story blockhouse on a grassy lawn surrounded by a high fence - but no razor wire - on a bluff overlooking a popular swimming beach. The boys have received psychological counseling and regular visits from social workers - albeit while closely supervised by military police, a round-the-clock presence. But it's what they haven't been given - lawyers and a speedy resolution to their legal status - that has drawn international ire. Both are specified as rights of detained juveniles by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Miller offered no apologies yesterday, saying that the boys were captured on the battlefield and fit the two major requirements for shipment to detention at Guantanamo. "You must have intelligence of value, and you must be deemed a threat," he said. "When they came here, they came for all the right reasons." Miller said the Taliban had kidnapped at least two of the boys and turned all three into mercenaries for their cause. Staff Sgt. Douglas Patrick, the commander of Camp Iguana, said the boys have gone through "a pretty amazing and intensive transformation." "We're in no way trying to Americanize them," Patrick said. "We're just trying to allow them to go back to the way they are supposed to be at their ages. They are here for a limited time." * * * Thursday August 21, 2003 CAMP DELTA JUSTICE URGED Mark Oliver, The Guardian The heads of 10 leading law bodies around the world call on the US today to give a "fair and lawful trial" to prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay and be a "beacon of justice in an unjust world". In a letter to the Guardian, law society chairmen and presidents, including those from Britain, France, Sweden, Australia and Canada, express misgivings about the US plan to put foreign prisoners held at Camp Delta in Cuba before partially secret military tribunals without juries. Human rights groups have voiced concern about the treatment and fate of the 650 or so prisoners, who include nine Britons, seized during the war in Afghanistan and accused of being members of the Taliban or al-Qaida. Today's letter says: "As leaders of the legal professions in our respective countries, we wish to make public our concerns at the treatment of the non-US 'enemy combatants' detained by the US authorities. We strongly believe that there are now only two legally acceptable courses of action open to the US authorities. Either the US government must return the detainees to their own home countries where they can be tried under their own national laws, or they should be tried in a US civilian court with full guarantees for a fair trial." Amnesty International accused the US of human rights abuses of prisoners in the "war on terror" this week, and there have been reports that Camp Delta prisoners may face execution on the island. It was announced in July that two of the Britons held at the US naval base would be among the first six prisoners to be placed before US military tribunals. This month lawyers for the men, Feroz Abbasi, 23, from south London, and Moazzam Begg, 35, from Birmingham, threatened to boycott any hearings unless they received guarantees that they would be fair. Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, held talks last week with William Haynes, the Pentagon's most senior lawyer, about the prisoners. ... LETTER http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1026073,00.html August 21, 2003 THE LAW AND CAMP DELTA As leaders of the legal professions in our respective countries, we wish to make public our concerns at the treatment of the non-US "enemy combatants" detained by the US authorities in Guantanamo Bay. We strongly believe that there are now only two legally acceptable courses of action open to the US authorities. Either the US government must return the detainees to their own home countries, where they can be tried, if appropriate, under their own national laws; or they should be tried in a US civilian court with full guarantees for a fair trial. In our view it is not for the US government to "concede" basic rights as a favour. All detainees are entitled to a fair and lawful trial as of right. Among the most basic legal protections that we possess in democratic societies are guarantees for a fair trial and equality before the law. We urge the United States not to weaken its standards in the face of external threat but to stand out as a beacon of justice in an unjust world. Axel Calissendorff President, Swedish Bar Colin Campbell QC Dean, Faculty of Advocates, Scotland Joseph Donnelly President, Law Society of Northern Ireland Ron Heinrich President, Law Council of Australia Paul-Albert Iweins President, Paris Bar Matthias Kelly QC Chairman, Council of the Bar of England and Wales Joseph Platt President, Scottish Law Society Simon Potter President, Canadian Bar Bill O'Shea President, Law Institute of Victoria, Australia Peter Williamson President, Law Society of England and Wales * * * The Guardian (UK): http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1026199,00.html August 21, 2003 BUSH'S SECRET WAR How five Muslims in Malawi were spirited away in the night Rory Carroll, The Guardian When security agents took away her husband in the middle of the night they did not tell Ellah Ulusam that Washington had just opened a new front in its war against terror. They said he would be back the next day. Arif Ulusam vanished along with four other Muslim men, all arrested at home, handcuffed and bundled into a car for a bizarre odyssey which has not yet ended. This is a part of George Bush's war which does not make it on to television news, for it is waged on a front so remote few know it exists. In less eventful times what happened would be considered extraordinary. As it is, their story has been barely reported. On June 22 Malawi security agents seized five men in Limbe, outside Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre, and spirited them out of the country on suspicion of belonging to al-Qaida, earning praise from the US ambassador. Relatives were distraught. "Taking Arif away was a big loss to me. I was stranded. I didn't know what was going on," says Ellah, 27, cradling her daughter Kardelen, not yet three. "Kardelen misses her father so much, she puts on his shoes, kisses his shirts." Following the script from Afghanistan and other countries where terror suspects have been snatched, it seemed these were more Muslims destined for orange jumpsuits, their guilt or innocence to be decided at a future date by a US military tribunal. Except a funny thing happened on the way to Guantanamo - they were released. Some details remain murky but enough is known to illuminate dark corners of Washington's anti-terror tactics: Without telling their own embassy, US intelligence agents appear to have bullied the Malawi government into a swoop which triggered Muslim riots. The abductions were illegal and also, it seems, a blunder. Malawi is a small land-locked country in southern Africa. Extremely poor, it was nonetheless peaceful, stable and a fledgling democracy. A fifth of its 10 million people are Muslim but no one pointed the finger when al-Qaida attacked in Tanzania and Kenya. That changed in the early hours of June 22. Dozens of security agents arrested five suspects and carted away their files, books, mobile phones, photographs, floppy discs and computers in black bin-liners. The men lived and worked in Limbe but were foreigners: Arif Ulusam, owner of Istanbul, a fast food restaurant, is Turkish; Ibrahim Itabaci, headmaster of the Bedir international school, is also Turkish; Mahmud Sardar Issa, coordinator for a charity called the Zakaat Fund Trust, is Sudanese; Khalifa Abdi Hassan, a scholar at the Muslim Association of Malawi, is Kenyan; Fahad Ral Bahli, director of the Malawi branch of Registered Trustees of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Special Committee on Relief, is Saudi Arabian. "They said Arif would be released the next day," said Mrs Ulusam. "But when we went to the police station he wasn't there and nobody could tell us anything." All organs of the Malawi state refused to say why or where the men were taken. Their relatives hired a team of lawyers led by Shabir Latif, who practised at the bar in the UK. "Malawi has the best constitution south of the Sahara and guarantees basic rights which were denied my clients," he said. A high court judge issued an injunction barring deportation, ordering the authorities to charge the men or release them on bail. It made no difference. The five were spirited abroad. "Who can I produce in court now? Their ghosts?" Fahad Assani, Malawi's director of public prosecutions, asked the court in exasperation. "These people are out of reach for us. It's the Americans who know where they are." Amnesty International noted the irony of the men being transferred on the day the state department released a report about US efforts to promote human rights worldwide. Colin Powell also recently lectured African leaders on respecting the rule of law. "I've never been as depressed on a case as this one," said Latif. "No evidence was ever produced." The closest the US came to admitting custody was a statement from its ambassador, Roger Meece, praising Malawi as a partner in the fight against terrorism. It was said the men were accused of channelling money to al-Qaida and had been on the CIA's "watch list" since the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Nothing more was heard until July 24 when lawyers heard that Fahad Ral Bahli had surfaced in Riyadh and the other four in Sudan, all free men. Hub-Eddin Abbakar, a colleague of the Sudanese suspect, said they had been handed over to their respective embassies in Khartoum after the CIA decided they were innocent. To end up in a country on Washington's terror list is only slightly more bizarre than reports that the Air Malawi plane chartered by the US stopped off in Zimbabwe on the way to a third country, possibly Djibouti or Uganda, where the men were questioned for a month. US officials declined interview requests, but one western diplomat said the state department had been kept in the dark by the CIA and that the ambassador's praise for Malawi was an attempt to save face. Malawi's Muslims are furious, said Altaf Gahi, president of Blantyre's Muslim Jamaat, and some are likely to become radicalised. The resort town of Mangochi erupted in rioting which wrecked Christian churches and the offices of the US aid agency Save the Children, and left several people wounded. "It was like doomsday to us. I ran away with my family, the mob could have killed us," said Meleka Thom Phiri, pastor of the Assemblies of God church. Three theories try to explain the fiasco. Malawi officials distrusted foreigners who mobilised Muslims, even for good works, and persuaded the US to intervene. "The US intelligence is too well equipped to make such a mistake. Somebody must have cooked the evidence for them," said Hub-Eddin Abbakar. Others say that the CIA knew the men were innocent but wanted to disrupt Malawi's Muslim organisations, with skills and money coming from Arab countries, before it risked being infiltrated by Islamist terrorists. The same principle of pre-emption used to justify attacking Iraq, but on a micro-scale. "The work these guys were doing won't resume," predicted one Muslim businessman. The third theory is of a cock-up. The day before the arrests, the Sudanese man and both Turks were questioned about stolen cars by men who said they were from Interpol. Ibrahim Itabaci had recently bought a second-hand car, according to Ellah Ulusam, which the detectives suspected of having been shipped from South Africa. Some of the Malawi officials investigating the cars were spotted among the agents who arrested the five men. An impoverished country. Muslim men with money and means. Stolen vehicles. Al-Qaida active in the region. From the CIA's viewpoint it could have added up to something sinister. It seems the agency was wrong. But for Malawi, now a land of kidnappings, riots and religious tension, that is exactly how things have added up. * * * Associated Press: August 20, 2003 GUANTANAMO SUICIDE ATTEMPTS RISE TO 31 WASHINGTON (AP)--Another terrorism suspect at the Pentagon's prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has tried to kill himself, the second such attempt in as many weeks. This week's suicide attempt was the 31st since the high-security prison opened in January 2002, Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind said Wednesday. She said the suicide attempt happened in the last few days but could not be more specific. Twenty prisoners have tried to kill themselves, some more than once. None have so far succeeded. Most attempts occurred this year, which officials and critics alike have attributed to the effects of indefinite detentions on prisoner morale. Some of the prisoners have been held for more than a 18 months without charges, access to lawyers or indications of whether or when they may be freed. U.S. authorities are holding some 660 prisoners from 42 countries at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to the al-Qaida terrorist network or Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime. President Bush has named six prisoners who could be tried before military tribunals. The next step is for a chief prosecutor to draft charges against them. AP-NY-08-20-03 1945EDT * * * BBC: August 18, 2003 - 1445 GMT RUSSIAN MOTHER FEARS FOR 'TALEBAN' SON By Artyom Liss, BBC Moscow -- The mother of one of eight Russians held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, hopes her son will not be sent back home. Amina Khasanova told the BBC that the latest letter from the American base came to her home in Naberezhniye Chelny, a town by the Volga river in the republic of Tatarstan, a month ago. The person who sent the letter signed it as her son, Airat Vakhitov. He writes that the Guantanamo prison is "better than any Russian sanatorium - lots of good food and expert medical assistance". But the Russian security services are insisting that this letter, as well as many others which preceded it, should not be seen as a proof that Airat is still alive. "Taleban fighters often take on someone else's identity, and we simply don't know for sure," said a local security services spokesman. "Whoever wrote this letter might have found Airat's papers in the street - or even worse." 'RUSSIAN AGENT' But to Amina Khasanova these letters are the only hope. Her son's story began in 1999 when he left his position of a preacher in a local mosque to study the Koran in Grozny, the capital of the then de facto independent Chechen Islamic republic. Amina says that his peaceful life there did not last long. "The gunmen who were then in sole control of the city decided he was a Russian agent and put him in jail," she said. "He was tortured and badly beaten." Russian security services hold a different view. They are sure that Airat Vakhitov is an extremist and a gunman himself - and that his jail term never really existed. Airat came back home in six months - only to find himself put behind Russian bars in a custody cell. Seven weeks later, he escaped. "He often told me that he would rather face death than spend more time in the Russian prison," Amina says. CENSORED LETTERS She has never seen Airat again. In 2001, a French journalist called her from Kandahar to say Airat was a prisoner of the Taleban. A few months later, the first letter from Guantanamo Bay arrived. Amina Khasanova is sure that the small hand-scribbled notes she is receiving do come from her son. But she does not know how he got to Guantanamo or what he is accused of. "Ask the Americans. I can't even read all that he sends me - half of the words are always blacked out with a really thick pen," she says. From what little she can make out, Amina understands that there is no need to worry about her son's health at least. "They treat him really well. He says it's very clean here, and the people are really friendly," she says. NO EXTRADITION DATES It takes about two months for a letter from Guantanamo to arrive in Naberezhniye Chelny. The latest one was sent out in May. It reads: "Salaam aleikum, dear mother. Nothing new here, I am as before, healthy and well." Otherwise, only the words: "Don't know how long it will take" have escaped the censors. Authorities in Moscow are hoping for the extradition of the Russian inmates. But officials are refusing to discuss names or dates. Amina Khasanova fears for her son's life if he returns. "He is so much better off there. He will not survive in a Russian prison," she says. * * * The Independent (UK): http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=434499 August 17, 2003 BRITONS ADMIT TO AL-QA'IDA LINK IN PLEA BARGAIN DEAL By Severin Carrell Two Britons held at Guantanamo Bay have admitted supporting al-Qa'ida in a plea bargain deal to secure a short sentence, their lawyers have revealed. Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi, named by President George Bush last month as two of six detainees facing trial, are believed to have agreed to plead guilty under duress after prolonged interrogation and segregation at Camp Delta, Cuba. Clive Stafford Smith, their British-born lawyer in the United States, told The Independent on Sunday the six men were selected to face a military tribunal only because they would admit to supporting terrorism and Osama bin Laden. The Pentagon wanted its first trials to be quick and successful, he said. "They have to agree to plead in order to get this far," Mr Stafford Smith added. "The US wants to have a few guilty pleas, so they're not going to designate people for trial until they've agreed to plead guilty - so you can take it as read that Begg and Abbasi have pleaded guilty." Louise Christian, the London-based solicitor acting for Mr Abbasi, who is from Croydon, south London, and was captured in Afghanistan in January 2002, confirmed she had been told her client had agreed a deal. "That's what I'm hearing as well," she said. Reports in the US suggested both men were being "rewarded" with a quick trial because they had revealed more details about al-Qa'ida and the Taliban, after months of refusing to co-operate. Their parents have reacted with dismay to these disclosures, which follow reports in Australia that David Hick, an Australian convert to Islam among those "designated" by Mr Bush for trial last month, had also agreed a plea bargain. Azmat Begg, whose son Moazzam was arrested by the CIA in Islamabad, Pakistan, in February 2002, said he believed his son had been repeatedly tortured to secure a confession. Suggestions that his son really was a terrorist, he said, were "absolute rubbish" and based on interrogations without any lawyer present. He added: "We've written dozens of times and received no reply. If he's alive and able to, why hasn't he replied?" Ms Christian said that Zumrati Juma, Mr Abbasi's mother, was "distressed" by the development. After reports that he has suffered a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide, Ms Juma is now anxiously waiting to see a US psychiatric report on her son given to the Foreign Office three weeks ago. Ms Christian said ministers would not release it until "embarrassing" details about his capture and interrogation were deleted from it. However, Whitehall sources believe the Pentagon's plea bargaining deal is now in doubt after Tony Blair personally intervened with Mr Bush last month, following a legal and political outcry about the proposed tribunals. The White House ordered Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, to suspend the prosecutions and open negotiations with Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, about the treatment of the two Britons - ending 18 months of non- cooperation and obstruction by the Pentagon. The Pentagon's most senior lawyer, William Haynes, flew to London last week for a third meeting to discuss making further concessions on the cases of Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi and the repatriation of seven other Britons at Camp Delta still held without charge. Pentagon officials now say plea bargains with Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi will be agreed only after they are formally charged. But the Pentagon has also said both men can now have civilian defence lawyers, suggesting they will be advised to plead not guilty. Gareth Peirce, Mr Begg's British lawyer, said the entire US process was illegitimate. "This is all a complete violation of Geneva Convention rights for combatants or of any defendant in a criminal case," she said. "All of this is illegal from start to finish." * * * The Telegraph (UK): http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/17/ndelta17.xml August 17, 2003 GUANTANAMO BRITONS WILL GO TO UK JAILS By David Bamber, Home Affairs Editor The British terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will serve their prison sentences in the United Kingdom if convicted. Nine Britons are being held at the American base and could be detained there for years if found guilty by the military tribunals which are due to try them. The Government has negotiated a deal, however, which would see the prisoners tried in Cuba but serve only a few months on the island before being returned to Britain to serve the remainder of their sentences. In return, Britain has agreed to abide by the sentences handed down by the American military tribunals and not to release the men early. As disclosed by The Telegraph earlier this month, the Government does not want the nine detainees returned for trial. Its lawyers have advised that it would be hard to mount a successful prosecution in this country because of the difficulty in obtaining evidence that is admissible in court. Ministers are concerned that the collapse of a prosecution in Britain would anger the public and be politically damaging. One senior government adviser said: "The Americans would be glad if we took the men now, but there is little chance of them being tried here because we have little evidence against them that would be admissible in a British court. "However there is nothing to stop us taking them after the military tribunal is over. That would be a humanitarian thing to do. They would be near their families." Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, met American officials for the third time last week to agree on the details of the treatment of the detainees. A spokesman said: "These are complex legal issues which require time to resolve. We remain in touch with the detainees' families and lawyers." Two Britons, Feroz Abbasi, 23, from south London, and Moazzam Begg, 35, from Birmingham, are among six suspects - four not from Britain - who will be the first to appear in front of the tribunals, which will be conducted partly in secret and without a jury. Seven other Britons are awaiting a decision on their fate. All were captured in Afghanistan in early 2002, after allegedly fighting for the Taliban. They are: Shafiq Rasul, 24, Asif Iqbal, 20, and Ruhal Ahmed, 20, all of Tipton, West Midlands; Martin Mubanga, 29, from north London; Jamal Udeen, 35, from Manchester; Richard Belmar, 23, from London, and Tarek Dergoul, 24, from east London. Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, publicly offered to repatriate the men in February 2002 if Britain put them on trial, after concerns about their fate were raised by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. * * * BBC: August 16, 2003 - 1335 GMT HAMBALI 'PLANNED SUMMIT ATTACK' The man suspected of being a top terrorist leader was planning to attack a meeting of world leaders in Bangkok, Thailand's prime minister has said. Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, was arrested on Monday in the Thai city of Ayutthaya following a tip-off. He is suspected of being the operations chief for Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a group allegedly linked to al-Qaeda and blamed for last year's Bali bombing as well as other attacks. "He came here for the purposes of mounting a terrorist attack," Thaksin Shinawatra said. "He was not just using Thailand as a transit point." TWENTY-ONE WORLD LEADERS "The investigation uncovered an attack being planned for the Apec meeting." The Asian Pacific economic co-operation (Apec) is meeting in Bangkok in October. Twenty-one world leaders are due to attend, including US president George Bush. Hambali is being held in US custody and a secret location. Thai officials said he had been flown to Indonesia under US custody, although this was denied by Indonesian police. "Right now we are in the process of interrogating him with the allied countries. I cannot say where," Mr Shinawatra said. He said that Thai investigators had learned that Hambali had received money transfers while in Thailand to fund terrorist attacks. Residents who witnessed Hambali's arrest told the Associated Press news agency that he had lived in the building for only two weeks. They said plainclothes officers smashed down the door of his one-bedroom apartment and took him away after a struggle. They described him as being a quiet neighbour. 'LETHAL TERRORIST' JI is blamed for a string of bombings across the region, including Bali, and the attack on the Marriott hotel in Jakarta on 5 August, in which 13 people died. "Hambali was one of the world's most lethal terrorists... He is no longer a problem to those of us who love freedom," said US President George W Bush in a speech to troops. A senior Thai immigration police official told AFP news agency that Hambali travelled into Thailand on a fake Spanish passport, and disguised himself by shaving his heavy beard. Regional intelligence services believe that Hambali, aged about 40, has a seat on al-Qaeda's military committee and is the only representative from South East Asia. He is thought to have been involved in some of the planning meetings for the 11 September attacks on the US, and to have been the brains and financial conduit behind the Bali attacks. Hambali travelled to Afghanistan in the late 1980s where he is believed to have been recruited into al-Qaeda, and is thought to now act as a bridge between that organisation and JI. * * * Los Angeles Times: August 14, 2003 GUANTANAMO DETAINEE ATTEMPTS SUICIDE From Times Staff and Wire Reports, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON -- Another suicide attempt was reported today by the Pentagon's prison for terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The prisoner's attempt to kill himself this week brings the number of suicide attempts to 30 since the high-security prison was opened in January 2002, Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind said. Most attempts occurred this year, which officials and critics alike have attributed to the effects of the indefinite detentions on prisoner morale. Some of the prisoners have been held for more than a year and a half without charges, access to lawyers or indications of whether or when they may be freed. U.S. authorities are holding some 660 prisoners from 42 countries at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to the al-Qaida terrorist network or Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime. President Bush last month designated six prisoners who could be tried before military tribunals. The next step is for a chief prosecutor to draft charges against them. * * * The Guardian (UK): August 14, 2003 RIGHTS ARE INDIVISIBLE British suspects should be tried in Britain Leader The proposed trials were described as "kangaroo courts". Some 200 MPs, drawn from the main political parties, signed a petition that described them as such. Trials of the first six of the 660 suspect enemy combatants still being held by the US on its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could still take months before they begin. Two Britons are among the six. Reports in the US press this week suggested the two Britons, who have still had no legal advice, are ready to confess to war crimes and denounce terrorism, in exchange for a firm release date. But even after this week's third meeting between top US and British officials, the trial procedures have still to be resolved. The concessions which the Pentagon's most senior lawyer has made so far include the right for the British defendants to chose civilian US lawyers, rather than rely on military attorneys; use British lawyers as consultants; and speak confidentially with their attorneys. They will not face the death penalty. But these concessions still fall far short of what both American as well as British lawyers have been calling for. Washington lawyers, representing 15 Kuwaitis, are already planning a US supreme court challenge to the use of Guantanamo Bay for the military tribunals. They will argue that this should not put them beyond the jurisdiction of the US constitution nor international law. There have been warnings from American legal bodies that lawyers participating in the currently proposed procedures would be in breach of their profession's ethical standards. The lawyers rightly criticise what has already happened, as well as what is now proposed. The 660 suspects have been held for up to two and a half years without charge, legal advice, or trial date. They were flown, bound, gagged and hooded, from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay and placed in wire cages 6ft 6ins by 8ft. Now it is proposed they will be tried by military officers, with an appeal to a military panel and a further appeal to the US president, who has already said all 660 suspects are "bad people". Sir Nicholas Lyell, the former Tory attorney general, insists that any appeal should go to the US civilian courts. It would be better still if the trials began in the US civil courts, as happened to the single American suspect arrested. Better still would be repatriation of the two Britons to UK courts. What must not be forgotten is the fate of the other 654 suspects, who should be given similar rights. * * * The Independent (UK): August 13, 2003 BRITONS' LAWYER THREATENS TO BOYCOTT TERROR TRIBUNAL By Andrew Buncombe in Washington Lawyers for two British prisoners due to be tried as terrorist suspects by a US military tribunal have threatened to boycott the proceedings unless they are guaranteed to befair. They said to do otherwise would legitimise the process. The threat came as Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, held talks with William Haynes, the Pentagon's most senior lawyer, in London yesterday to decide the fate of the prisoners. There were reports that the suspects had accepted a plea bargain, admitting to war crimes in exchange for a fixed release late. A spokeswoman for the Attorney General indicated that Mr Haynes appeared willing to make concessions to British concerns about the judicial treatment of the prisoners. "The US is considering what further assurances can be given on the process, particularly in relation to the independence of the military commissions and the review panel, and the role of defence counsel," she said. In quite what circumstances any deal has been reached is unclear.The Independent has established that the prisoners, Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg, who are being held at Guantanamo Bay, have not been told the British Government is trying to secure assurances about the tribunals they are expected to face. Louise Christian, the men's solicitor, said that if a fair trial could not be guaranteed, she and other lawyers were unlikely to take part. "To do so would be to legitimise it," she said. Mr Abbasi, 23, and Mr Begg, 35, are accused with 650 other inmates of being members of the Taliban or al-Qa'ida. All were seized during the war in Afghanistan or its aftermath. Earlier this year it was announced that the men - two of nine Britons held at the US naval base on Cuba - would be among the first six prisoners to be placed before US military tribunals. This week an American paper reported that the men had agreed to a plea bargain in exchange for a release date. A source told The Wall Street Journal: "You renounce terrorism, you renounce Osama bin Laden and, by the way, you say 'the Americans treated me very well in Guantanamo'. That would be a phenomenal public relations coup." Ms Christian and her colleagues in the US have not been allowed to communicate with the two men. The Foreign Office said its last visit to the prison was in April, and a spokesman for Mr Haynes said his office had not informed the men their fate was being discussed. The only other people who could have spoken to the men - observers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - said they too had not visited since April. Steven Watt, of the Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York, said: "[The prisoners] don't know what is happening outside of Guantanamo Bay. This is not fair. We represent them in the federal process and we have not even been allowed to speak to them. It's ridiculous." A Pentagon spokesman said that a plea bargain could not be reached until the men had been formally charged. This had not yet happened and proceedings had been suspended until the talks between Lord Goldsmith and Mr Haynes had been completed. He said, however, that a plea bargain was an option available to the prosecuting authorities. One of the concessions secured by the British Government has been to ensure the prisoners will not face the death penalty if convicted. A British lawyer of their choice will be allowed to attend the proceedings, although it is unclear whether the lawyer will be permitted to communicate with the other members of the legal team. A spokeswoman for the ICRC's delegation in Washington, which is due to visit the detention centre next week, said that the team leader, Vincent Cassard, was assessing whether to inform the two prisoners of the discussions about their fate. "We want to do everything we can to ensure their judicial rights are met," she said. * * * BBC: August 13, 2003 - 1103 GMT CUBA BRITON'S FATHER 'SURE' OF INNOCENCE The father of a British terror suspect held by the US at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has said he is still convinced his son is innocent. Moazzam Begg, one of nine Britons being held at Camp Delta, was arrested in Pakistan for alleged links to al-Qaeda and the Taleban. The father-of-four from Birmingham is among six men named as suitable candidates to be tried before controversial US military tribunals. Mr Begg's father, Azmat, said he was sure his son was innocent despite reports in the American press that the 35-year-old might admit to war crimes as part of a plea bargain. "I still know he is innocent. I am convinced," said Mr Begg, who added he had not heard from his son for four to five months. "I have been writing letters and I have been asking my solicitor as well, but there is no reply from anywhere." Fair trial fears A second Briton, Feroz Abbasi, from London, has also been named as one of the first captives to be put forward for the military tribunal. British MPs, lawyers and the men's families have expressed concern that they will not receive a fair trial as the defence lawyers will be appointed by the military and there will be no leave for appeal. On Tuesday the Pentagon's top lawyer arrived in the UK for talks on the future of the nine British inmates. The Defence Department's general counsel, William Haynes, discussed the fate of Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi during the meeting in London with Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General. Lord Goldsmith has travelled to the US on two separate occasions since mid-July to secure an agreement that both Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi will not face the death penalty like the other prisoners who will be tried under US law. The nine Britons are among more than 660 al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects being held in Guantanamo Bay. * * * The Telegraph (UK): August 13, 2003 News in brief MORE TALKS PROMISED ON BRITONS HELD IN CUBA Two British Muslims facing trial before a US military tribunal in the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could still be repatriated, Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, said last night. Six hours of talks between him and William Haynes, the Pentagon's general counsel, ended with a promise of further discussions but no agreement on the future of Feroz Abbasi, 23, from London, and Moazzam Begg, 35, from Birmingham. The two men, who are alleged to have fought with the Taliban, have been named as among the first of the 660 detainees of Camp Delta in Cuba who will stand trial. * * * The Telegraph (UK): August 13, 2003 Editorial THE GUANTANAMO SOLUTION President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, have been unfairly maligned in this country for their decision to put terrorist suspects on trial in Guantanamo Bay. Paradoxically, their difficulties stem not so much from their alleged illiberalism as from a desire to maintain some measure of due process in a time of a new and horrific kind of asymmetric warfare. The Bush Administration has been wrestling with the problem - not dissimilar to that faced by Whitehall during the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland - about whether to treat suspects as prisoners of war or common criminals. His dilemma was understandable. Had he called them PoWs, he would have been obliged by the Geneva Conventions to release them at the end of hostilities. But when can a war against global terrorism be said to be at an end? With the fall of the Taliban? With the deposition of Saddam? Mr Bush had every reason to believe - he still has - that, if he were to release the prisoners in Camp Delta, a great many of them would return immediately to the war against the West, and plot a new atrocity like the destruction of the Twin Towers. That was something that no responsible leader could countenance. But if he could not call his captives PoWs, nor could he treat them quite like common criminals. Under the US Constitution, criminal suspects have to be put on trial, and judged according to the rules of evidence. Any competent defence lawyer would make short work of testimony gathered from secret sources or from prisoners held for many months, in harsh conditions, without access to lawyers. Mr Bush's liberal instincts told him that it was wrong to hold possibly innocent men for long periods without trial. But, equally, he knew that no ordinarily conducted criminal trial could be expected to result in a conviction, no matter how guilty the defendant might be. So it was that the President hit upon the idea of treating them neither as PoWs nor as criminals, but as something in between. He decided to put them on trial by military tribunal, and instructed his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to draft special rules of evidence and procedure that would make convictions more likely than in a civilian court. In so doing, he landed himself in the worst of all possible worlds. Mr Rumsfeld's rules, drafted on March 21, 2002, are not nearly as illiberal as his critics maintain. They include many safeguards of the rights of the defendant. But the fact is that they fall well short of the standards of justice required by civilian courts in both Britain and America. By being as liberal and fair-minded as he dared, Mr Bush succeeded only in making himself look more authoritarian than he appeared before he suggested trials of any sort. The British Government, which has never wanted responsibility for British prisoners held in Camp Delta, has been forced into the hypocritical position of defending the rights of its citizens against Mr Bush. Only a fool would dispute that Mr Bush was right to hold and interrogate prisoners while they might still have useful information about planned terrorist atrocities. But the longer their detention goes on, in this limbo between PoW and criminal status, the less justified it seems to many in this country. The answer, surely, lies not in subjecting the prisoners to military tribunals, but in regularising their status under the law. During the Second World War, many Germans and Italians were humanely interned in Britain, under a form of administrative detention that made no comment on their guilt or innocence of Nazi sympathies. The prisoners in Guantanamo Bay should be treated like that. * * * BBC: August 12, 2003 - 1753 GMT US CONSIDERS CUBA BRITONS' CASE The Pentagon's most senior lawyer may give "further assurances" about the controversial military trials faced by Britons being held at Guantanamo Bay. The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, held talks lasting six hours on Tuesday with William Haynes, the US Defence Department's general counsel. Afterwards, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General said: "The US is considering what further assurances can be given on the process, particularly in relation to the independence of the military commissions and the review panel, and the role of defence counsel. "Productive discussions continued on the military commission process and the review of potential options for a resolution of the cases of the UK detainees held in Guantanamo Bay. "Repatriation also remains an option," she added. 'COMPLEX ISSUES' MPs and lawyers for the British detainees have criticised the tribunal plans because they will be staged in front of military judges, and because defence lawyers will be appointed by the military. The talks were thought to have focused on the fate of Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg, who have been named with four other men as suitable candidates to face terrorism trials before the military tribunals. The spokeswoman said: "This meeting is part of a longer process. Further discussions are planned in the near future. "These are complex legal issues, which require time to resolve. We remain in touch with the detainees' families and lawyers." There have been reports that Mr Abbasi and Mr Begg were expected to confess to war crimes, denounce terrorism and assist investigators in exchange for a firm release date. But the Pentagon said that while a "plea bargain" was an "option" for suspects facing tribunals, it would be impossible to negotiate any deal until formal charges had been drawn up, which has not yet happened. The Attorney General's spokeswoman said any question of plea bargaining was a matter for the US prosecuting authorities and that the discussions had focused on securing fair trials. Labour MP Roger Godsiff, representing Moazzam Begg, said: "I think it's very important indeed that two British subjects should be placed before civil courts like the American citizen who is charged with similar offences." Geraint Davies, MP for Croydon Central, the constituency for Feroz Abbasi. said: "It is very important that the highest standards of international justice prevail and there be a manifestly fair trial. "I ideally would like to see the trial as a civilian trial in Britain," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. His stance was echoed by former Attorney General Sir Nicholas Lyell who said: "The Americans are entitled to try them. "The important thing is that they must be tried in accordance with generally accepted international standards, supervised by the American courts themselves, right up to the Supreme Court." Sir Nicholas said "the big problem with Guantanamo" is that the military commission was not under such supervision and did not appear to have the right of appeal. Lord Goldsmith, the British Government's senior legal officer, has already secured an agreement that the Britons will not face the death penalty if found guilty. OUTCRY Another concession was that a British consultant can be added to the men's defence teams, and conversations with their lawyers will not be monitored. The Britons are among more than 660 al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects at the Camp Delta military prison in Cuba. There was an outcry among lawyers and human rights campaigners in the UK when the process of the military trials was outlined. The Law Society, which represents 90,000 solicitors in England and Wales, said it had grave concerns the detainee's human rights had been trampled. Its president, Peter Williamson, urged them to be tried in a US civil court or sent home for trial. * * * The Independent (UK): August 12, 2003 BRITONS HELD IN CUBA 'MAY AGREE TO PLEA DEAL' By Andrew Buncombe in Washington British and US officials will meet today in London to discuss the fate of two of nine British prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay amid an unconfirmed report that the men are about to accept a plea bargain. The Pentagon's senior lawyer, William Haynes, and the British Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, will continue talks over Feroz Abbasi, 23, and Moazzam Begg, 35, who are due to be among the first Camp Delta inmates to face controversial US military tribunals. Yesterday, quoting unnamed US officials, The Wall Street Journal said the two Britons were expected to confess to war crimes, denounce terrorism and assist investigators in exchange for a firm release date. Officials told the newspaper that they hoped the deal would show that the tribunals could be used to gain co- operation from prisoners. But last night there was no independent confirmation that such a deal had been reached, and the Pentagon said that while a plea bargain was "an option" for suspects facing tribunals, it would be impossible to negotiate any deal until formal charges had been drawn up. The circumstances in which any plea bargains had been arranged were also unclear and it was possible that the US newspaper were reflecting the wishes of the Bush administration rather than any agreed deal. Like the rest of the 650 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, all accused of being supporters of either the Taliban or al-Qa'ida, the Britons have been held without access to a lawyer. Their British solicitor, Louise Christian, was unavailable for comment last night. A spokeswoman for the Attorney General said the British representatives would be discussing their reservations about the military commissions, and the options of the detainees being returned to the UK. Lord Goldsmith, the British Government's senior legal officer, has twice visited Washington since mid-July, securing an agreement that two Britons on the initial list of six facing trial will not face the death penalty. The director of public prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith QC, has said it could be possible to try the prisoners in Britain. * * * The Telegraph (UK): August 12, 2003 PENTAGON READY TO MOLLIFY BLAIR OVER CAMP DELTA By David Rennie in Washington Pentagon officials working to ease Tony Blair's difficulties over military trials planned for British detainees at Guantanamo Bay will offer concessions this week, including unprecedented family contacts for prisoners, officials said yesterday. Feroz Abassi, from Croydon, London, and Moazzem Begg, from Birmingham, are among a first batch of six terrorists earmarked by President George W Bush as eligible for military trial. An Australian, David Hicks, is also among the first six, as the Bush administration moves to resolve the cases of citizens from close allies. None of the six has been charged with any offence but, according to Pentagon leaks, the two Britons and the Australian are expected to admit war crimes and to renounce terrorism in exchange for a release date. The three were initially defiant and their families have denied that they were involved in terrorism, but they have been co-operating with interrogators at Guantanamo Bay as they face the prospect of indefinite detention. One official told the Wall Street Journal: "They've all, shall we say, mellowed over time." Nine British nationals are among the 680 "enemy combatants" at Camp Delta, the prison camp hastily erected at the US naval base on the south-eastern tip of Cuba. The Pentagon's general counsel, William J Haynes, is in London this week for a second round of meetings with British officials. Talks will address concerns over the legality of the tribunals and, just as important, the need to persuade a sceptical public that they can be "free and fair". A first round of talks secured a US declaration that the three western detainees selected for early trial would not face the death penalty, and a promise that British and Australian lawyers might act as "consultants" to military defence lawyers appointed by the Pentagon. Shortly before Mr Haynes left for the latest round of negotiations, US officials briefed the Journal that concessions on offer could include inviting a British military officer to sit on the panel that will act as judge and jury. Other officials distanced themselves from that idea. They noted that it was not obvious that the addition of a British officer to the planned panels of three to seven judges would mollify British opinion. Instead, US negotiators are expected to focus on details such as assurances that conversations with lawyers will not be monitored, and an offer to work on "additional family contacts", which could include face-to-face meetings. At present, detainees are restricted to sending open letters via the Red Cross, and visits from British officials. There is little optimism that this week's talks will resolve larger British concerns, which range from the use of evidence collected without a lawyer present to the US ruling that the only appeal against conviction is to the secretary of defence, and ultimately the president - the officials who declared the detainees "enemy combatants". Pentagon officials remain confident that public opinion will shift in their favour once the trials begin. To that end, they are keen to select what they consider open-and-shut cases, that rest on unclassified evidence as far as possible, to avoid the public relations disaster of hearing large sections of the case in secret, without the defendant or his civilian lawyers present. * * * BBC: August 12, 2003 - 1106 GMT GUANTANAMO TALKS RESUME The Pentagon's top lawyer has resumed talks with British authorities about the nine Britons detained at Guantanamo Bay. William Haynes, the Defence Department's general counsel, arrived in London on Tuesday with a legal team to meet Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, for one day of talks. Two Britons, Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg, have been named with four other men as suitable candidates to face terrorism trials before controversial US military tribunals. The Foreign Office has said the possibility of the men being flown back to the UK for trial is still on the agenda. "We will be discussing our reservations about the military commissions and the options of the detainees being returned to the UK," said a spokesman. MPs campaigning for the British pair are hoping for fair trials, either in an American civil court or in British courts. 'INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE' Labour MP Roger Godsiff, representing Moazzam Begg, Roger Godsiff, said: "I think it's very important indeed that two British subjects should be placed before civil courts like the American citizen who is charged with similar offences." The talks could set the ground rules for not only the two British detainees, but other detainees in Guantanamo and future detainees, including Americans, said Geraint Davies, MP for Croydon Central, the constituency for Feroz Abbasi. "It is very important that the highest standards of international justice prevail and there be a manifestly fair trial. I ideally would like to see the trial as a civilian trial in Britain," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He said if found guilty, then the British pair should serve their sentences in Britain "to be supported by their families". His stance was echoed by former Attorney General Sir Nicholas Lyell: "The Americans are entitled to try them. The important thing is that they must be tried in accordance with generally accepted international standards, supervised by the American courts themselves, right up to the Supreme Court." Sir Nicholas said "the big problem with Guantanamo" is that the military commission was not under such supervision and did not appear to have the right of appeal. "We have a system which is not part of the normal US system and consequently does not meet recognised international standards. That is what Lord Goldsmith must press for." He said "It will damage America" if such standards were not applied. SECRECY There had been reports that British officials privately ruled out a UK trial because of difficulties in mounting a successful prosecution under British law. The Pentagon said although a plea bargain was "an option", it required formal charges, which have not yet been made. The timing and location of the meeting, which is being held behind closed doors, have been kept secret. Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent, said: "Certainly there is a lot riding on this meeting, for both the US and British governments. "America wants to resolve quickly any awkward disagreements with its key partner in the war on terror. "Neither country wants an embarrassing international dispute over human rights." Lord Goldsmith, the British government's senior legal officer, has been to Washington twice to discuss the issue. He secured an agreement the Britons will not face the death penalty. OUTCRY Another concession was that a British consultant can be added to the men's defence teams. And conversations with their lawyers will not be monitored. The Britons are among more than 660 al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects at the Camp Delta military prison in Cuba. There was a public outcry in the UK when the process of the military trials was outlined. The Law Society, which represents 90,000 solicitors in England and Wales, said it had grave concerns the detainee's human rights had been trampled. Its president, Peter Williamson, urged them to be tried in a US civil court or sent home for trial. * * * The Guardian (UK): August 12, 2003 CUBA BRITONS 'ADMIT WAR CRIMES' Two of nine UK detainees at Guantanamo Bay reported to be ready to swap confessions for leniency Julian Borger in Washington and Vikram Dodd The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, will hold talks today with US officials on the fate of the nine British inmates in Guantanamo Bay, amid reports that two of them are ready to plead guilty to war crimes and renounce terrorism in return for a reduced prison term. However, a US military lawyer denied that there had been any deal or any negotiations with the prisoners about striking such a deal. A report in the Wall Street Journal, says that the two British inmates, Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abassi, together with an Australian prisoner, David Hicks, have been providing information to US intelligence, and that US officials want to reward them "with a clear resolution of their futures". "You renounce terrorism, you renounce Osama bin Laden, and, by the way, you say, 'The Americans treated me very well in Guantanamo' - that would be a phenomenal public relations coup for the United States," the newspaper quoted "a person familiar with the cases" as saying. "And by the same token, a defendant who was willing to say something like that would probably be favourably viewed by the government." Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer who has applied to the Pentagon to represent the British inmates, said the report confirmed what he had learnt - that the Mr Begg and Mr Abassi, were being put under pressure to strike a plea deal before they were allowed to see a civilian lawyer. "This doesn't come as a surprise. This is what we've been expecting," Mr Stafford Smith said. "What does surprise us is that the Americans had assured us that any proceedings against these two have been suspended while talks were going on with the British. They're obviously not suspending the efforts to cajole them. The last thing they're going to do is tell these guys that the British are negotiating on their behalf." Major John Smith, a US military lawyer involved in the cases said yesterday that while the procedures laid down for the operation of military commissions allow for plea deals, there had been no negotiations with the inmates so far on such a deal. "There are no discussions right now," Maj Smith told the Guardian last night. "That needs to be done with a defence counsel but no defence counsel has been assigned. A defence counsel will tell them about the charges, about the procedures, that there will be no adverse influence of not agreeing to a plea bargain, and ask whether the inmates wants a civilian counsel. Or he may say that the families have arranged for a civilian defence counsel and ask whether he wants to be represented by that counsel. He will go through all that with them before they get on to plea bargaining. The prosecutors have had no discussions with individuals." The lawyers and family of Mr Begg and Mr Abassi have repeatedly said they fear for the mental health of the two Britons after their long periods of detention. Mr Begg, from Birmingham, wrote in letters home that he had been held at first in the Bagrama air base in Afghanistan for a year, during which he had not seen natural light. In other letters home, his family had seen signs his mental health was deteriorating. When last seen by British officials during a "welfare" visit, Mr Abassi said nothing to them during an hour they spent with him. At a recent news conference, Mr Abbasi's mother, Zumrati Juma said her fears for her son's mental health were being stoked by the fact she was no longer receiving any letters from him. She said once she had received the letters regularly. Ms Juma said: "I did ask them [British officials] to find out why the letters had stopped and if he had some mental and physical problems. They just passed the questions to the United States and that was in April." After the attorney general's first visit to the US to lobby the Americans, the Pentagon agreed a psychiatrist should carry out an assessment of Mr Abassi's mental health. Meanwhile, the Pentagon's top lawyer, William Haynes, flew to Britain yesterday for his third round of negotiations with Lord Goldsmith on the procedures under which the inmates will be tried under specially established military tribunals. In previous rounds, the US agreed to lift the threat of the death penalty and to put off proceedings until the matter had been resolved. Officials familiar with the talks say that they are principally about details agreed in the first round last month, such as the inmates' access to civilian lawyers. * * * August 12, 2003 BRITAIN'S AG, U.S. DISCUSS PRISONERS By The Associated Press LONDON (AP) -- Britain's attorney general was meeting with U.S. legal officials Tuesday to discuss the fate of nine British terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his office said. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's talks with the delegation, headed by the U.S. Defense Department's general counsel, William Haynes, were likely to focus on British nationals Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg. The men were on President Bush's initial list of six detainees who could face military tribunals at the American base. Guantanamo detainees are accused of links to Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network. A spokeswoman for the attorney general said the meeting in central London was the third in a series of talks "to ensure that the British detainees, if prosecuted, are assured a fair trial that meets generally recognized principles, wherever those trials take place." Last month, Goldsmith said the United States had ruled out the death penalty for the two men and that he had also made significant progress on improving the rules by which Abbasi, 23, and Begg, 35, could be tried. The men will be able to choose a U.S. civilian lawyer instead of being assigned a military lawyer, he said, and their trials, "subject to any necessary security restrictions," would be open with news media present. Begg has been at Guantanamo for nearly five months and was previously detained in Afghanistan for a year, according to the London-based group Fair Trials Abroad. It said he was seized in Pakistan and may be a victim of mistaken identity. Abbasi, in U.S. custody since January 2002, has been described as a computer student. Labor lawmaker Geraint Davies, who represents the south London constituency where Abbasi lived, said Goldsmith had some tough negotiating to do. "It is very important that the highest standards of international justice prevail and we have a manifestly fair trial," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. Former Attorney General Sir Nicholas Lyell told the BBC the men must be tried "according to generally accepted international standards, supervised by the American courts themselves, right up to the Supreme Court." "Britain and America have very very high standards of justice and unfortunately the U.S. is stepping away from them here," he added. * * * August 12, 2003 Lawyers Eye Military Tribunal Rules By The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The Bush administration should change the rules for any future military tribunals so terrorism suspects can get the best help possible from independent civilian defense lawyers, a panel of the American Bar Association says. The ABA, the nation's largest lawyers' organization, could decide Tuesday to recommend that the Pentagon drop restrictions on outside lawyers that many defense attorneys said would make it unethical for them to participate alongside military defense lawyers in a tribunal trial. Alfred P. Carlton Jr., who leaves his post as ABA president on Tuesday, said he, for one, could not sign a list of promises the Pentagon says it will require of any lawyer who wants to participate. One point of contention is the government's ability to listen to conversations between suspects and their lawyers. The ABA also may object to a requirement that tribunal lawyers get government permission before talking about the case outside the courtroom, and other rules. Objection to the Pentagon's rules and recommendations for changes are outlined in a report released at the group's annual meeting in San Francisco. More than 660 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects are housed 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's House of Delegates also was scheduled to go on record Tuesday on another national security issue involving the military. The ABA was being asked to oppose war crimes trials in one country against uniformed military personnel of another nation without international consensus about the severity of the alleged conduct. The ABA also would be on record opposing war crimes trials overseas that could be conducted by a defendant's home government. Backers say the policy would protect both U.S. and foreign soldiers from facing show trials or trumped-up charges. "The resolution would put the ABA on the side of applying two fundamental principles of fairness," said Suzanne Spaulding, chairwoman of the ABA's national security committee. The ABA sets ethical and policy guidelines for its 410,000 members, but its positions do not carry any force of law. State bar associations generally regulate the day-to-day conduct of lawyers. On Monday, the ABA's policy-making board voted 218-201 to loosen restrictions on when lawyers may reveal suspected fraud by a client. The changes are a departure from the organization's traditional refusal to place society's concern over financial crimes above a lawyer's duty to keep client confidences. The ABA rejected nearly identical changes two years ago, before revelations about alleged boardroom fraud and accounting flimflams at Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and other companies. Then as now, debate was emotional over what opponents saw as a dimming of lawyers' fundamental mission to be trustworthy confidants and represent those who need help the most. "The lesson we've learned over the past two years is that the substantial injury ... is not just to the big guys," said incoming ABA President Dennis Archer, who supported the changes. "We're talking about the employees who lost not just their jobs but their pensions," and about small investors who were bilked, said Archer, who assumes his post Tuesday. Opponents said the ABA was knuckling under out of fear that government regulators might step in to require more cooperation from lawyers if lawyers failed to change they way they do business. "This is not the proper time to bow to threats by others who seek to regulate us," argued ABA President-elect Robert Grey Jr., who will succeed Archer in 2004. "It is not a time to take the position that the core values of the profession are subject to compromise." [ On the Net: http://www.abanet.org ] * * * The Independent (UK): August 11, 2003 DPP BACKS RETURN OF GUANTANAMO BRITONS By Robert Verkaik Legal Affairs Correspondent 11 August 2003 The Director of Public Prosecutions has lent his support to calls for the US to return the British terror suspects it is holding at Guantanamo Bay for trial before a judge and jury. Sir David Calvert-Smith QC said that an argument could be made to try the men in this country. "If there is evidence which could go before an English court then there is clearly an argument to say: well, why don't we do the business ourselves," he said. Sir David, who heads the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales, said even if the men were convicted under the American military tribunal system, there should be a right of appeal to a court in this country rather than a single right of petition to the American government. Sir David also questioned, in an interview with The Sunday Times, the suitability of the proposed military-style courts as a proper forum for prosecuting the British suspects. If the cases were properly referred to the CPS, then he was ready to prosecute them, he added. The Pentagon's top lawyer will fly to London this week to try to reach agreement with ministers over the military trial of two of the nine British terrorist suspects. William Haynes, the US Defence Department's general counsel, will lead a delegation of US lawyers to meet Lord Goldsmith QC, the Attorney General, who is leading the negotiations for the Government. One bone of contention will be the appeal process. Lord Goldsmith, who has ministerial responsibility for the CPS, is understood to be opposed to US plans for Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Secretary of Defence, to hear any appeal. He believes that this does not conform to international standards of a fair trial. Lord Goldsmith has travelled to Washington twice to try to win assurances of a fair trial for the two Britons, Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg, the only two of nine British citizens being held in the camp to be singled out for military trial. He was promised that they will not face the death penalty, can be represented by a US civilian lawyer of their own choice and hold discussions with their legal advisers in private. * * * The Telegraph (UK): August 11, 2003 Talks over detained Britons The Pentagon's top lawyer is expected in Britain tomorrow for further talks about the nine Britons detained at Guantanamo Bay. Two of the men, Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg, could be among the first to face terrorism trials before US military tribunals. The US defence department's general counsel, William Haynes, and a small Pentagon team are due to continue talks with Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, in London. "We will be discussing our reservations about the military commissions and the options of the detainees being returned to the UK," said a Foreign Office spokesman. He dismissed reports that British officials had privately said they did not want detainees flown home for trial because of concerns that it would be difficult to mount a successful prosecution under English law. "That remains on the agenda," the spokesman said. "We don't think it's helpful to go into detail at the moment. As far as we are concerned the options remain open." Lord Goldsmith, the Government's senior legal officer, has twice visited Washington securing an agreement that the two Britons on the initial list of six facing trial will not face the death penalty. He also won promises that they will be allowed a British consultant on their defence teams and conversations with their lawyers will not be monitored. The Britons are among more than 660 al-Qa'eda and Taliban suspects at the Camp Delta military prison in Cuba. Last month the mother of 23-year-old Feroz Abbasi begged the Government to bring him home for a fair hearing. Zumrati Juma, a nurse from Croydon, south London, said: "It gets harder as time goes on, not easier." Louise Christian, Miss Juma's solicitor, said: "Justice requires a fair trial and British citizens should be removed from the legal black hole at Guantanamo Bay." * * * ic Berkshire.co.uk: http://icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk/ http://icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/nationalnews/content_objectid= 13275610_method=full_siteid=50102_headline=-PENTAGON-LAWYER-TO-DISCUSS- GUANTANAMO-BRITONS-name_page.html August 10, 2003 PENTAGON LAWYER TO DISCUSS GUANTANAMO BRITONS The Pentagon's top lawyer is heading to Britain for further talks about the nine Britons detained at Guantanamo Bay. Two of the men, Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg, could be among the first to face terrorism trials before controversial US military tribunals. The Defence Department's general counsel, William Haynes, was expected to arrive in London on Tuesday with a small Pentagon team to continue talks with Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General. "We will be discussing our reservations about the military commissions and the options of the detainees being returned to the UK," said a Foreign Office spokesman. He dismissed reports that British officials had privately said they did not want detainees flown home for trial because of concerns that it would be difficult to mount a successful prosecution under English law. "That continues to remain on the agenda," the spokesman said. "We don't think it's helpful to go into detail at the moment. As far as we are concerned the options remain open. "The meeting will involve officials from across Whitehall and it will hopefully be very productive." Asked whether this week's session was the final one planned by the US and UK, he said: "It may be that we can reach a conclusion about the process at this meeting or it may be useful to have further meetings. "We don't want to be dogmatic - it will take as long as it takes." * * * BBC: 8 August, 2003, 2309 GMT 'NOTHING TO FEAR' FROM GUANTANAMO TRIALS By Rachel Clarke, BBC News Online in Washington The Pentagon's top lawyer has insisted that terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay will be treated fairly if they go on trial. Moazzam Begg (left) and Feroz Abassi may face military hearings "The military commissions will be transparent," said William Haynes, the chief legal officer at the US defence department and legal adviser to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. No military trials have yet been ordered for any of the hundreds of suspects held at the US base on Cuba but two Britons - Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abassi - have been named with four other men as suitable candidates for the first tribunals. The US and UK governments are in negotiations about the fate of the British detainees and there is now agreement that the men will not face the death penalty if convicted of terrorist offences. Mr Haynes is set to travel to London next week for more talks with UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith as the detainees' families and lawyers continue to express concern about the fairness of the military system. 'CONFIDENCE' Americans have been tried by military commissions before now, though US citizens such as John Walker Lindh who were captured in Afghanistan or other anti-terror operations have their cases handled in civilian courts. Donald Rumsfeld has been charged with ensuring fair trials But that did not mean there was anything wrong with the form of justice ordered for non-citizens by US President George W Bush, Mr Haynes told a forum hosted by the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "I'm confident that one thing that the military in the United States does very well is take and follow through with lawful orders from superiors," he said. "The president has asked the secretary of defence that if he tries anybody using military commissions, he should conduct full and fair trials - that is what will be done." "I can assure you that the military officers who swore to uphold the constitution of the United States will do a very good job," Mr Haynes added, responding to a question from BBC News Online. He said basic protections and standards would apply as they do in any court case in the US - defendants would have the right to challenge evidence and would be innocent until proven guilty, for instance. But the existence of detention centres like Guantanamo Bay and the option to try suspects in military commissions was a useful tool in the US' fight against terrorism which has no traditional rules or battlefields as in conventional warfare. "We are interested first and foremost in protecting against people who would be trying to kill Americans and others from getting back on the battlefield and doing harm again," Mr Haynes said. INTERNATIONAL MESSAGE Morton Halperin, who headed an American Civil Liberties Union project seeking to reconcile the requirements of national security with civil liberties, agreed that military tribunals would deliver fair trials. "But it's important that we do justice and be seen to do justice," he told the same forum. The differences between the handling of cases involving US citizens and foreigners could be confusing, particularly at a time when the US continues to encourage other countries not to use military tribunals if they have a functioning and independent civil court system. "We want to think about the message we are sending to the rest of the world," he said. Michael Chertoff, an appeals court judge and former justice department official who was speaking in a personal capacity, said it would be a "fundamental error" to think that military commissions would offer anything less than full justice. Because of the likely attention, judges and lawyers may even go further than usual to ensure a proper hearing, he said. "It would be a big mistake to assume that judges in military tribunals will take a dive." * * * BBC: August 8, 2003 - 1300 GMT GUANTANAMO INMATE 'WANTS TO STAY' A Russian citizen held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has said he is afraid to return home because prison conditions there are far worse. "I don't think there is even a sanatorium in Russia that would compare to this," Ayrat Vakhitov said in a letter to his mother published by Russia's Gazeta newspaper. "Nobody is being beaten or humiliated," he wrote. The mothers of Mr Vakhitov from Tatarstan and Rasul Kudayev from Kabarda- Balkaria strongly oppose the extradition of their sons to Russia, reports Itar- Tass news agency. "I fear the Russian prisons and the Russian courts," Mr Vakhitov's mother Amina said. She added that her son - a Chechen - went to his native republic after serving a year in prison in Russia "just to check things out". Then he went on to Afghanistan, where he was detained by the Taleban, and later arrested by US troops. Prison sentence The US ambassador in Moscow, Alexander Vershbow, said Washington was prepared to hand over Russian citizens captured in Afghanistan on condition that they be put on trial. Captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, some 680 people from 42 countries are being held without trial at the US base in Cuba. But while the Russians say they are happy with their conditions, human rights groups have denounced them as unacceptable. Last year, a series of suicide attempts among detainees led the US military to express concern about the mental health of the al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects detained there. If extradited, the eight Russians are likely to be charged with participation in illegal armed formations and the illegal crossing of the state border and could face up to five years in jail. * * * BBC: August 6, 2003 - 1929 GMT 'OPTIONS OPEN' FOR GUANTANAMO SUSPECTS Talks about the fate of British terror suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay will resume next week as American legal chiefs visit London. "All options" for trying the men remain open, according to Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who is leading the British delegation for the negotiations. Feroz Abassi and Moazzam Begg have been named among the first who will face controversial military tribunals being set up by the US. Two rounds of talks have already been held, with Lord Goldsmith securing a guarantee that the pair will not face the death penalty if found guilty. He says the US authorities have also agreed that suspects will be able to choose a civilian lawyer and that their trials will be open. The men are among at least nine UK citizens detained for more than a year without trial at the military camp in Cuba. 'PRINCIPLES UPHELD' More than 250 MPs have signed a parliamentary petition raising concerns that the men will not receive a fair trial from the tribunals being set up. They want the men repatriated to the UK. Lord Goldsmith told BBC Radio 4's Today show: "I have now visited the United States twice to raise our strong concerns and to see what concessions and assurances I can obtain. "The objective has been to ensure that, if prosecuted, the British detainees are assured of fair trials that meet generally-recognised principles." Lord Goldsmith said the men's lawyers would have access to "all relevant materials", subject to security restraints. "We have not completed these discussions yet," he said. "I am reluctant to give a running commentary on the negotiations. "The discussions would not be continuing if we had yet reached a conclusion. "All options remain open. Once these negotiations have come to an end, and the US delegation will be coming to see me next week in London, I will be in a position to say where we are." INDEPENDENCE CONCERNS Later on Wednesday, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes urged the UK Government to make every effort to ensure the suspects got a fair trial. "Lord Goldsmith's visits to the US have proved fruitless so far," said Mr Hughes. "Let's hope that the visit by US officials to London provides a more satisfactory outcome." The families of Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi have argued the concessions offered by the US authorities so far have not gone far enough. Last month, Mr Begg's father, Azmat, told BBC News Online his son had been deprived of human rights at Camp Delta and it would be "impossible" for him to receive a fair hearing from the US military. Mr Abbasi's solicitor, Louise Christian, said: "We're talking about fundamental human rights in being allowed to be tried by a court independent of the government accusing you." Ms Christian, who is also representing two of the other seven British prisoners, said that if any of the men are to face trial it should be in the UK. Calling on ministers to do more, she said: "These men have spent 18 months in wire cages and the British government has stood by and done nothing." * * * August 4, 2003 AL-QAEDA TAPE WON'T HELP DAVID: TERRY HICKS The latest al-Qaeda tape could actually prejudice the trials of terror suspects including Australian David Hicks, his father said today. Terry Hicks, whose son David was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, said the tape, broadcast on Arabic television at the weekend, painted all the detainees as al-Qaeda members. The purported audio tape by Ayman al-Zawahri, regarded as the deputy to Osama Bin Laden, warned the United States it would pay a high price if it harmed any of the detainees it is holding at its Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. David Hicks and another Australian, Mamdouh Habib, have been detained at Guantanamo Bay for almost two years and Hicks has been declared eligible to face trial before a US military tribunal. Mr Hicks said of the tape: "It could be detrimental against not only David but all of the detainees that are going to be coming up for these military tribunals. "They are probably saying 'oh yes, they are all al-Qaeda' which is not right. "They don't have the right to say that they will avenge anyone's death penalties. That is not right. "They are saying everyone in Guantanamo Bay is guilty of being with al-Qaeda and that is not right." Supporters of foreign detainees fear they will be denied a fair trial by the US military. Australian and British officials visited Washington last month to discuss forthcoming trials involving their citizens and Pentagon chief counsel William J. Haines will reportedly visit London. Mr Hicks said Mr Haines should also come to Canberra. "The English are putting a lot more pressure on the Americans than what the Australian government is," he said. "It is good that someone from America is going to England. Someone from America should be coming to Australia to talk about it here. "Australia hasn't put any pressure on at all." - AAP * * * The Telegraph (UK): August 3, 2003 BLAIR TELLS BUSH: WE DON'T WANT GUANTANAMO BRITONS By David Bamber and Rajeev Syal The Government has told America that it does not want the Britons held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to be returned for trial in Britain. Whitehall officials say that the message that Britain does not want its nine detainees returned was conveyed privately to President George W. Bush during the recent visit to Washington by Tony Blair. The decision comes after advice from government lawyers that it would be very hard to mount a successful prosecution in Britain because of the difficulty in obtaining evidence that is admissible in court. There are also fears that any public trial in Britain would force the disclosure of intelligence operations against al-Qa'eda in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The Government is also concerned that the collapse of a prosecution in Britain would anger the public and be politically damaging. A Whitehall aide said: "The Prime Minister made clear to the president that it was unlikely the men would face trial in Britain and that it could be embarrassing if they were released on their return after the US had branded them as major players in a terrorist network." Two Britons, Feroz Abbasi, 23, and Moazzam Begg, 35, are among six suspects due to appear in front of American military tribunals that will be conducted partly in secret and without a jury. Seven other Britons are awaiting a decision on their fate. All were captured in Afghanistan in early 2002, after allegedly fighting for the Taliban. Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, publicly offered to repatriate the men in February 2002, if Britain put them on trial, after concerns about their fate were raised by Jack Straw, then the Foreign Secretary. In an interview with The Telegraph then, Mr Rumsfeld said that he was willing to "let as many countries as possible have any of their nationals they would like". He added: "They can handle the prosecution. I have no desire to fill up our jails and spend time and money holding people." Mr Straw did not take him up on the offer, leading to accusations of Government backsliding from the families of the detainees. One senior Government official added: "The legal advice is that they could not be tried in Britain. Even to begin proceedings we would need statements and eyewitness accounts which we know we haven't got." Habib Rasul, whose younger brother Shafiq has been held in Guantanamo Bay for more than 19 months, last night accused the Government of being "cowardly" and of failing to have faith in British justice. * * * The Age (Melbourne): August 3, 2003 HOW LONG CAN TERRY HICKS KEEP GOING? By Penelope Debelle A stunt inside a Guantanamo Bay-sized cage on a New York pavement last week was not without risk of a public backlash and Terry Hicks, father of captured suspected terrorist David Hicks, was nervous. Mr Hicks, 58, who returned to Adelaide on Thursday from a three-week odyssey retracing the steps of his son through Pakistan and Afghanistan, knew the strength of United States feeling about September 11, and his protest was not far from ground zero. But he was convinced international publicity from a similar caged protest this year outside a Liberal Party convention attended by Prime Minister John Howard made the risk worth it. "I was a bit worried that someone was going to chuck a stone or something," Mr Hicks said in Adelaide. "Everyone was there, the American press took it up and we had a lot of approaches from the public. It was all positive, absolutely positive." Since late 2001 when a friend alerted him that his son had been captured fighting with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, Terry Hicks has been on a steep learning curve. In at times brazen protests that began by confronting Mr Howard on talkback radio, Mr Hicks has shown an ability to make himself heard. His crowning achievement this time was an interview about the poor treatment of his son with the Arab al-Jazeera network, used by Osama bin Laden to broadcast his messages to the world. The strength of US feeling against al-Jazeera is such that giving an interview to them that is critical of your government is a public relations exercise akin to treason. Mr Hicks told them the Australian Government had let British Prime Minister Tony Blair do all the work extracting better conditions for the six enemy combatants eligible for US military trial - two of them Britons, another of them David Hicks - and had let his son down. "I said John Howard has no spine," Mr Hicks said. "They broadcast it in fluent Arabic, with an instant translation; it was great." One of the family's Adelaide lawyers, Franco Camatta, said Mr Hicks was remarkable in the way he grew into the role of campaigner, not claiming David's innocence, only his right to legal representation and a fair trial. Mr Hicks was naturally bewildered at the start, being raided by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. 'Everyone was there, the American press took it up and we had a lot of approaches from the public. It was all positive, absolutely positive.' "We had never had anything like that before, with the phone ringing non-stop, having the press landing like that," David's stepmother, Bev Hicks, said. "It was very hard, but Terry takes everything in his stride and he glosses it over with a sense of humour." Mr Hicks, a printer with a local transport company, has to ask for time off for news conferences and used his leave for his latest trip. His early understanding of the world his son was getting into was so limited that when David rang to say he had joined the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army), he thought it was an airline. "He is just remarkable in the way he has been able to hold himself together and come to grips with the issues," Mr Camatta said. "He is an absolutely ordinary bloke who has taken it upon himself to try and understand what has happened to his son." Mr Hicks's public profile last year captured the attention of Sydney documentary maker Curtis Levy, who applied for and received federal funding - reportedly $285,000 - to make a documentary. The money, chiefly from SBS and the Australian Film Commission, has funded Levy's trip through Afghanistan, Pakistan and Guantanamo Bay. "It's about Terry's journey to find out what happened to his son," Levy said. "I think David was someone who just wasn't aware of the bigger picture, of the politics of the situation." Mr Hicks says his part of the trip through Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he met Johnny Mahommed, an Afghani Guantanamo Bay detainee who was in the cell next to David, was paid for by private sponsors. Terry Hicks says he now believes David, a Muslim convert who asked to be called Dawood, was not a member of al- Qaeda but trained with them, as did all Taliban fighters who underwent military training. In Afghanistan Mr Hicks spoke to the arresting officer at Pul-e-Khumri, a garrison 237 kilometres north of Kabul where David was stopped at a checkpoint in December 2001. The officer told him David should not have been handed over to the Americans because he had done nothing wrong and there was nothing to indicate he was not there as a tourist or a journalist. Mr Hicks asked the key question - whether David had ever fired on Australian or US troops - but was told none had been in the area. "There were no Americans, no foreign troops there at all; only the Northern Alliance," Mr Hicks said. Bev Hicks is not sure how long her husband can keep up the campaign without getting answers. Even the letters from David, who turns 28 next week, have dried up since Red Cross cut down its visits to Guantanamo Bay. "But Terry is an amazing gentleman," she says. "He doesn't go into it, he keeps it to himself, and I think that's his way of coping. David is a bit like that. He's similar to his dad in many ways." * * * * * * * * *