Gitmo

Gitmo, Guantanamo, Military Commissions, September 11, Support our troops, World Trade Center

Heartfelt thanks; visiting 9/11 family members meet and thank troops at Gitmo guarding detainees

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Heartfelt Thanks
Story by Army Staff Sgt. Emily J. Russell
JTF Guantanamo Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (July 20, 2009) — For some service members, serving at Joint Task Force Guantanamo is one more chapter in the book they call life. For others, the significance of the mission holds a deeper meaning — more personal — especially for service members who have lost friends, loved ones or know someone affected by the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

For the Soldiers of the 189th Military Police Co., the mission became more personal when family members of September 11 attack victims, visiting Guantanamo during the recent military commissions proceedings, made a special effort to say “thank you,” and convey gratitude, face to face, for a job well done.

al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Debra Burlingame, Eric Holder, Gitmo, Guantanamo, Richard Reid, Supermax

Revenge of the ‘Shoe Bomber’: by Debra Burlingame (supporting documents, links, more info)

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Today, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled ‘Revenge of the ‘Shoe Bomber’: The terrorist sues to resume his jihad from prison. The Obama administration caves in,’ Debra Burlingame writes:

Last May at the National Archives, President Barack Obama warned that “more mistakes would occur” if Congress continued to politicize terrorist detention policy and the closure of Guantanamo Bay. “[I]f we refuse to deal with those issues today,” he predicted, “then I guarantee you, they will be an albatross around our efforts to combat terrorism in the future.”

On June 17, at the Administrative Maximum (ADX) penitentiary in Florence, Colo., one of those albatrosses, inmate number 24079-038, began his day with a whole new range of possibilities. Eight days earlier [June 9, 2007 pdf file at link], the U.S. Attorney’s office in Denver filed notice in federal court that the Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) which applied to that prisoner — Richard C. Reid, a.k.a. the “Shoe Bomber” — were being allowed to expire. SAMs are security directives, renewable yearly, issued by the attorney general when “there is a substantial risk that a prisoner’s communications, correspondence or contacts with persons could result in death or serious bodily injury” to others.

Reid was arrested in 2001 for attempting to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami with 197 passengers and crew on board. Why had Attorney General Eric Holder decided not to renew his security measures, kept in place since 2002?