The US Department of Defense announced on Saturday it had transferred six detainees out of Guantanamo, leaving about 245 at the offshore prison as US president-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office.
Four detainees were sent to Iraq, one to Algeria and one to Afghanistan after a series of reviews, the Department of Defense said in a statement. Obama has vowed to close the detention center in southeast Cuba and stop the military commissions.
Still, military judges rejected last-minute requests to postpone pretrial hearings scheduled to begin today for five men accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks and a Canadian accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan.
Defense lawyers have sought to halt the cases — or at least delay them pending a review by the Obama administration.
And the chief prosecutor, Army Colonel Lawrence Morris, said the prosecution was seeking a delay for “efficiency” and legal reasons.
“We’re still in business. We’re going to court Monday,” Morris said on Saturday.
Morris said he has to be prepared to go forward because he does not know when Obama will halt the trials and order the closure of the prison.
The Pentagon said the transfer of the six prisoners “is a demonstration of the United States’ desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary.”
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
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