Tag Archives: Gitmo

Thawing U.S-Cuba relations have ‘no impact’ on naval base

A painting shows U.S. and Cuban flags flying outside of the Guantanamo Bay Lighthouse Museum.

A painting shows U.S. and Cuban flags flying outside of the Guantanamo Bay Lighthouse Museum.

NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — Normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba will not immediately impact the American naval base at Guantanamo, officials said this week.

In other words, for now, it’s business as usual.

Cuban flags were hoisted Monday at the Cuban embassy and at the State Department in Washington, marking the end of over 50 years of ruptured diplomatic relations going back to 1961, when those relations were abruptly severed.

But at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay — on the far opposite end of Cuba from where the U.S. embassy in Havana has re-opened for full diplomatic business — it was as if nothing unusual had happened.

“There’s no impact on the base at this point. We’re continuing to execute our mission here,” said Kelly Wirfel, public affairs officer for the base, the U.S. Navy’s oldest overseas outpost.

“Those discussions for the normalization of relations are all at a higher level than what is happening here in Guantanamo Bay,” Wirfel said.

Those sentiments were echoed by Capt. Christopher Scholl, director of public affairs for the Joint Task Force in Guantanamo Bay, which operates independently of the naval base.

“Nothing is changed for us,” Scholl said.

Havana has repeatedly called for the return of the Guantanamo base, leased to the U.S. in 1903.

In a 1934 treaty reaffirming the lease, Cuba granted trade partners free access through the bay and added a requirement that the termination of the lease requires the consent of the U.S. and Cuban governments, or the abandonment of the base by the U.S.

When diplomatic relations were officially restored Monday, Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez repeated the country’s request for the “return of the illegally occupied territory of Guantanamo, full respect for Cuban sovereignty and compensation of our people” in order to move the relationship forward.

But Secretary of State John Kerry, who will travel to Havana on Aug. 14 to raise the American flag over the U.S. Embassy, later said: “At this time, there is no discussion and intention on our part … to alter the existing lease treaty or other arrangements with respect to the naval station in Cuba.

“We understand Cuba has strong feelings about it,” Kerry went on. “I can’t tell you what the future will bring.”

Wirfel said the topic of returning the base to Cuba had not been broached in any way with the base commander, Capt. David Culpepper.

These days, the U.S. Navy holds monthly fence-line meetings with the Cuban frontier brigade. The sessions are held in converted Marine barracks near the 17.4 mile-long security fence. Culpepper conducts the administrative meetings to discuss upcoming scheduled drills with the Cuban representatives.

In June, the Navy conducted a bilateral exercise with Cuban medical responders and emergency services, practicing for the possibility of a fire or accident along the fence line. During these annual exercises, medical responders are allowed to cross over the fence lines, but can’t enter into town.

Wirfel said the base also is preparing to participate next year in Integrated Advance, an exercise to prepare for a “mass migration event.”

In the 1990s, the base conducted Operation Sea Signal, providing humanitarian assistance to 50,000 Cuban and Haitian migrants who flocked to Guantanamo following political and social upheaval in their countries.

“Certainly the naval station … plays a huge role in a lot of things that happen in the Caribbean,” Wirfel said.

While the Navy’s mission will remain unchanged for now, unexpected shifts in daily life soon may ripple across the base.

Foreign contract workers on the base today are mainly Filipinos and Jamaicans. Before relations were cut off with Cuba, those jobs were filled by Cuban workers. If relations continue to improve, the base’s contractor workforce may see more Cubans.

Another change: Now, children born on the base are not immediately considered U.S. citizens, and must apply for a consular birth report abroad through the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica. When the U.S. Embassy in Havana is fully operational, American diplomats there may take over this role.

While the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba thaws, at least in terms of civilian travel to Havana, the limbo for sailors stationed at Guantanamo Bay — who are restricted to the 45-square-mile base and are prohibited from traveling into Cuba itself — remains.

“I’ve never, of course, been into Cuba,” Wirfel said. “But I’ve heard it’s beautiful.”


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Pretrial hearing postponed for Gitmo detainee

Terrorist suspect Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi’s pretrial hearing was postponed until September. He is charged with a number of war crimes.


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Hearings for al-Qaida commander hit snag at Guantanamo Bay

NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — Terrorist suspect Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi said in court Wednesday that he has “a very disturbed relationship” with his military lawyers and does not want the Pentagon-assigned team to represent him at his pretrial hearing.

“Regrettably we’re in a little bit of a limbo,” the military judge, Navy Capt. J.K. Waits, said in declaring an indefinite recess.

Pretrial hearings for the alleged senior al-Qaida commander were scheduled to commence Monday, but were postponed because prosecutors introduced new evidence that showed a conflict of interest with one of the lawyers on Hadi’s defense team, Marine Lt. Col. Sean Gleason.

During the hearing, Hadi told Waits that he was fine with having Marine Lt. Col. Tom Jasper representing him.

Less than an hour later, things changed when Hadi objected to the makeup of his defense team after lengthy arguments regarding the possible conflict of interest.

Gleason, who was not present Wednesday, was reassigned in 2013 to represent another Guantanamo prisoner, Mustafa al Hawsawi, one of five 9/11 defendants.

The defense claimed that information provided by prosecutors shows that Gleason has some documents regarding 2007 conversations between Hadi and al Hawsawi at Guantanamo Bay that contained statements harmful to Hadi.

Jasper noted that Hadi never agreed to Gleason’s reassignment.

Speaking to the military judge in Arabic through an interpreter, Hadi, who was dressed in traditional white Muslim garb, said, “Gleason has lots of information concerning me, and I don’t know in the future whether he’ll use it for me or against me.”

The new evidence includes a 10-page document that was handed to defense lawyers Sunday. Jasper argued that having just two days to analyze and review the information was not enough time, especially considering that the prosecution has had those details in hand for a number of years.

In April 2012, the prosecution turned over a list of 25 people who could present possible conflicts of interest in Hadi’s trial. The defense claims Hawsawi was never on the list.

“The problem is that we are flying by the seat of our pants trying to figure out our ethical obligation regarding ethical representation,” Jasper, Hadi’s lead defense attorney, told Waits.

In September, Jasper replaced the lawyer who represented Hadi during his 2014 arraignment, Army Reserve Col. Chris Callen, who returned to civilian life. Air Force Maj. Ben Stirk, a deputy defense counsel, has been the only defense lawyer to appear at all five of Hadi’s hearings.

Waits directed the defense and prosecution to arrange a meeting with Gleason. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Vaughn Spencer told Waits that Gleason is an active-duty Marine and could be brought to Guantanamo “as quickly as you direct us.”

The commissions will remain on hold until those meetings take place.


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Gitmo detainee requests new representation

Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, asked a judge on July 22 for new legal representation.


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Conflict of interest issues throw wrench in hearing for alleged war criminal

Flags fly at half mast at Joint Task Force Guantanamo's Camp Justice, July 22, 2015 (Taylor Hall/Medill NSJI)

Flags fly at half mast at Joint Task Force Guantanamo’s Camp Justice, July 22, 2015 (Taylor Hall/Medill NSJI)

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, CUBA  Military court hearings ground to an indefinite halt Wednesday after an Iraqi prisoner accused of war crimes petitioned for a new lawyer, citing conflict of interest issues.

At the start of Wednesday’s proceedings, the military judge, Navy Capt. J.K. Waits asked Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, accused of leading violent attacks as a senior al-Qaida commander in 2003, whether he wanted to be represented by his current defense counsel, Marine Lt. Col. Tom Jasper and Air Force Maj. Ben Stirk. Hadi, dressed in traditional white garb, responded: “Today, yes.”

But less than one hour later, the Iraqi prisoner had changed his tune.

“I don’t want to confer with Jasper or Stirk about this at least temporarily until I have an option for an independent counsel. I don’t want them to represent me at this time,” al Hadi said through his translator.

The conflict of interest issue and representation for Hadi emerged Sunday, when the lead government prosecutor, Army Lt. Col. David Long, turned over evidence of jailhouse conversations in 2007 between Hadi and a Sept. 11 defendant also imprisoned at Guantanamo, Mustafa al Hawsawi. The prosecution apparently intended to include information from the conversation between Hadi and Hawsawi to prove Hadi was an “unprivileged enemy belligerent.”

But Hawsawi and Hadi, it turns out, have a defense lawyer in common — Marine Lt. Col. Sean Gleason.

Jasper, the lead military defense attorney, said Gleason, previously detailed to Hadi’s defense team, was not properly released by Hadi from his case.

“With regard to Gleason, it was only today I realized he’s still working in my case. And that was based on what I heard from Jasper today. Before that I had the wrong information,” Hadi said in court. “I’ve been working with Jasper based on the wrong information.”

Jasper said this posed critical conflict of interest issues that could complicate future proceedings for the entire defense team.

“We’re flying by the seat of our pants trying to figure out our ethical obligations regarding the ethical representation of Hadi,” Jasper said.

Hadi has asked for a civilian lawyer, but is not automatically entitled to one under the rules for military commissions because his is not a capital case.
In the hearing Wednesday, Hadi spoke directly to the military judge, Waits, expressing concerns over information shared with Gleason and fair representation by current defense counsel.

“I understand the privileged relationship between attorney and client. But there’s an important issue. Attorney Gleason has lots of information concerning me. I don’t know if he’s gong to use this information in the future, for me or against me,” Hadi said.

“Right now I have a very disturbed relationship with my attorneys. I can give you many examples,” he added.

One of the military prosecutors, Navy Lt. Col. Vaughn Spencer, challenged the extent of the conflict around the conversations, which took place before either Hadi or Hawsawi had legal representation or faced any charges. But Waits ruled to delay the hearings until Hadi had a chance to speak with Gleason about conflict issues that could adversely affect his case.

“The issue of a potential conflict with Gleason needs to be resolved,” Waits said. “The commission directs Jasper to contact Gleason to consult with Hadi. If you want independent counsel, that’s your prerogative.”

Waits directed the government prosecutors to keep the courts informed on the status of meetings between Gleason with Hadi and Hawsawi.

Hadi has temporarily dismissed Jasper and Stirk, and Waits recessed the military hearings indefinitely until Gleason, who was not present at Guantanamo this week, can be consulted.

Prosecutor Navy Lt. Col. Vaughn Spencer told the military judge Gleason is an active duty Marine and could be contacted “as quickly as you direct us.”

Until then, military court proceedings in Guantanamo will remain on hold.

“Regrettably, we’re in a little bit of a limbo,” Waits said.


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Guantanamo detainee does not want to work with defense lawyers

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, CUBA — Terrorist suspect Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi said in court Wednesday that he has “a very disturbed relationship” with his military lawyers and does not want the Pentagon-assigned team to represent him at the pretrial hearing.

“Regrettably we’re in a little bit of a limbo,” said military judge, Navy Capt. J.K. Waits declaring an indefinite recess.

Pretrial hearings for the alleged senior al-Qaida commander were scheduled to commence Monday, but were postponed because prosecutors’ introduced new evidence that showed a conflict of interest with one of the lawyers, Marine Lt. Col. Sean Gleason, who is on Hadi’s defense team.

During the hearing, Hadi told the military judge, Navy Capt. J.K. Waits, that he was OK with Marine Lt. Col. Tom Jasper representing him.

Less than an hour later, things changed.

“I don’t want them to represent me at this time,” Hadi told Waits, after lengthy arguments regarding the possible conflict of interest.

Gleason, who was not present Wednesday, was reassigned in 2013 to represent another Guantanamo prisoner, Mustafa al Hawsawi, one of five September 11 defendants.

The defense claimed that information provided by prosecutors shows that Gleason has some documents regarding 2007 conversations between the two detainees in Guantanamo Bay that contained statements harmful to Hadi.

Jasper said Gleason was “not properly or legally released.”

Hadi who was dressed in traditional white garb, said to the military judge in Arabic, through an interpreter, “Gleason has lots of information concerning me, and I don’t know in the future whether he’ll use it for me or against me.”

The 10-page document outlining the potential conflict of interest was handed to defense lawyers Sunday. But Jasper argued that getting two days to analyze and review the information was not enough time, especially because the prosecution had those details for a number of years.

In April 2012, the prosecution turned over a list of 25 people who could present possible conflicts of interest. The defense claims Hawsawi was never on the list.

“The problem is that we are flying by the seat of our pants trying to figure out our ethical obligation regarding ethical representation,” lead Pentagon defense attorney
Jasper, told the military judge.

In September, Jasper replaced Hadi’s 2014 arraignment lawyer Army Reserve Col. Chris Callen, who returned to civilian life. Air Force Maj. Ben Stirk, a deputy defense counsel, has been the only defense lawyer to appear at all five of Hadi’s hearings.

Waits directed the defense and prosecution to arrange a meeting with Gleason. The hearing will remain on hold until those meetings take place.


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Gitmo: al-Qaida defendant rejects Pentagon-assigned lawyer

Terrorist suspect Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi told a military court in Guantanamo Bay he no longer wished to be represented by two Marine lawyers — one of them had also defended another Gitmo detainee.


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Accused al-Qaida leader to appear in court

An Iraqi man alleged to be a senior member of al-Qaida is scheduled to appear in court Monday at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he will face terrorism charges.

Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, 54, considered a “high value” detainee, is accused of ordering attacks that led to the deaths of at least eight U.S. service members.

Hadi is charged with a host of war crimes, including orchestrating numerous car bombings and suicide attacks against U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2003 and 2004. He faces possible life in prison.

In pretrial proceedings that begin Monday, defense attorneys and prosecutors will not argue about Hadi’s innocence or guilt. Rather, the issue at hand will be the appropriateness of some of the individual charges and the ground rules for what evidence can be used in court.

For example, the defense has filed a motion to “suppress out-of-court statements of the accused due to violation of rights against self-incrimination.” That may sound familiar to anyone who knows how the U.S. court system works. It’s an argument based on the idea of Miranda rights: “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say or do can be used against you …”

The question at hand in this trial is whether accused terrorists are granted the same Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination that the Constitution affords all defendants charged in U.S. courts.

The military commissions at Guantanamo Bay are expressly different and apart from the rest of the U.S. judicial system. The commissions were set up in 2002 on order of former President George W. Bush in response to the 9/11 attacks, to try suspects accused of crimes in the war on terror.

The arguments over the next two weeks are part of the arduously slow path to a trial to eventually establish guilt or innocence and determine a proper punishment for Hadi. A trial date has yet to be set.

Though he is not charged with murder, the government alleges that fighters under Hadi’s command were responsible for the deaths of U.S, British, Canadian, German and Norwegian troops as well as civilians. All told, he is allegedly responsible for at least 16 deaths.

The charges describe one particularly heinous incident on Sept. 29, 2009, when Hadi is accused of leading an attack on U.S. forces near Shkin, Afghanistan, that killed one U.S. soldier and injured two others. During the attack, Hadi’s operatives allegedly fired rocket-propelled grenades at a military medical helicopter as it attempted to evacuate a wounded U.S. soldier. Hadi also is said to have ordered one of his men to videotape the attack so it could be used later in an al-Qaida propaganda film.

Hadi was captured in late 2006 and interrogated for over five months while in CIA custody, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s study of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, commonly referred to as the Torture Report. The report lists Hadi as the second-to-last person to remain in the CIA detention and interrogation program.

On April 27, 2007, the Defense Department announced that it had taken custody of Hadi and placed him under control of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay. At the time of his arrival at the detention camp, about 385 detainees were being held in Guantanamo.

Today, 116 detainees remain at the camp that President Obama promised to shut down on his first day in the White House six and a half years ago.

Hadi is one of seven detainees currently facing a military commission, and the only one among them who is not facing the death penalty.

Over the next two weeks, Military Times will have updates as the pretrial hearings continue.


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Guantanamo detainee hearing resumes Wednesday

The pre-trial hearing for Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, accused of conspiring in the murders of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.


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Gitmo hearings for top al-Qaida commander delayed

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – It has been eight years and three months since alleged senior al-Qaida commander Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi arrived at Guantanamo Bay. Now much-anticipated hearings related to his alleged war crimes charges have been delayed two more days.

Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, a Defense Department  spokesman, said Monday the Pentagon will not comment on why the military commission judge, Navy Capt. J.K. Waits, has delayed the start time of the first session  this week.

Reasons  for delaying hearings run the gamut from natural disasters to last-minute legal disclosure of new evidence that could complicate the hearing, a Guantanamo defense attorney said.

Military commission personnel will  meet Tuesday to review scheduling for the pre-trial hearings, which are not expected to begin before Wednesday morning. The Guantanamo Review Task Force recommended Hadi for prosecution in January 2010.

Hadi, one of Guantanamo’s remaining high-level detainees, is charged with conspiring and leading a string of violent attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2001 to 2006.

The Mosul, Iraq native is accused of  attacking civilians and also medical helicopter  attempting to recover casualties from the battlefield; directing fighters to kill all coalition soldiers and take no prisoners; providing a reward to the Taliban for assassinating a civilian United Nations worker; acting on orders from Osama bin Laden; attempting to assassinate then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf; and destroying historic Buddha statues in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Hadi allegedly instructed fighters to dress in local attire in order to blend in with the civilian population , and instructed them to videotape attacks and victims’ deaths for use in al-Qaida propaganda films. He is accused of masterminding a series of attacks on American, Canadian, German, British, Estonian and Norwegian forces, including a 2003 attack on a U.S. military convoy at Shikin, Afghanistan, that killed two U.S. soldiers and injured numerous others. After another one of his attacks on Oct. 25 2003 killed two more U.S. soldiers, Hadi’s fighters shot at injured coalition soldiers, according to the charges against him.

The pre-trial hearings scheduled this week will hinge on defense motions related to Hadi’s status as an unlawful enemy combatant, a term used by the U.S. government to denote status of unlawful combatants without protections under the Geneva Conventions.  (Is that change OK?)

If the prosecution proves that Hadi is entitled to prisoner-of-war status, the jurisdiction of his case will be limited to the military commissions at Guantanamo, rather than federal court.

Three defense motions on the table this week relate to Hadi’s conspiracy charges, which have come under fresh scrutiny in the wake of a recent 2-to-1 panel opinion by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia against Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul.

Bahlul’s 2008 “inchoate conspiracy” conviction was overturned because the commission at Guantanamo did not have authority to convict him of a conspiracy charge according to the law of war on Article III grounds, the panel wrote.

On Sunday, the chief prosecutor in the Hadi case, Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, said the military commission judge may defer judgment on the conspiracy charges in order to see if the D.C. circuit opinion will remain final, or be petitioned again by the government en banc by July 27. Martins also noted the two cases should not be conflated.

“There’s a strong doctrine of also considering individual cases. Bahlul’s not exactly the same as Hadi. They’re slightly differently situated before the law and before the court,” Martins said.

Martins addressed questions of whether the Bahlul decision may challenge the future of Guantanamo’s military commissions, calling these opinions “both overstated and myopic.”

“Regardless of the government’s decision, military commissions will continue moving toward trial in its seven ongoing cases,” he said Sunday. “We’re not even in the controversial area of law in how we’ve been charging.”

If Hadi is present should the hearings proceed Wednesday as planned, it will be the first time he has appeared in court since judge Navy Capt. J.K. Waits rescinded his “no-touch” order for female guards in March.

Previously, Guantanamo Bay obliged Hadi’s demand that female guards not be permitted to touch him, citing his adherence to Islam as justification on grounds of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Capt. Waits said the overturned appeal resulted from a need for a well-functioning facility and elimination of gender discrimination.

If Hadi is convicted, he faces life in prison, distinct from other active prosecutions at the Guantanamo war court in the Sept. 11 and USS Cole terror attacks which seek military execution.


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