Word: gitmo
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Guantánamo itself may well be closed in the near future, but of course this will be an empty gesture if we just create a "Gitmo North" at the Thomson prison facility in Illinois or anywhere else—or if we continue to buy into the idea that we can engage in indefinite detention without fair hearings...
...idea or something the President quietly asked his chief of staff to launch. Holder and his supporters continue to argue that military tribunals are slow and unreliable and send a repressive signal about American values overseas. They also doubt that Graham can deliver the votes needed to close Gitmo even if the talks are successful. Still, it is increasingly clear that everyone would like to find a way out of the stalemate. One compromise might involve trying KSM and other 9/11 conspirators in a tribunal, or even a new civilian terrorism court with special rules, while permitting other alleged terrorists...
...Interviewed at his guarded home in Kabul, Zaeef says he never spoke to Zakir at Gitmo, because Zakir (identified as Prisoner No. 8) was kept in a different cell block. After a month of sleep deprivation ("The guards would force me to stand every time I tried to sit down," he says), the interrogations continued but the conditions of his confinement relaxed. Zaeef came to accept his captivity as a test from God. He memorized the Koran and brushed up on his English, which he now uses skillfully. He describes the Pakistanis, whom he says sold him to the Americans...
...Zakir's Gitmo interrogators believed him, even while he was plotting revenge against his captors. In December 2007, he was flown back home, placed in an Afghan prison near Kabul and released shortly after, perhaps as a result of his tribal connections; his Ahunzada tribe from Helmand was considered a Karzai ally. Commenting on why such a lethal foe was freed from Gitmo, a NATO general - who asked not to be identified - replied with a shake of his head, "Human intelligence is guesswork at best. You never know if someone like this will go peacefully back to their tribe...
...Even after his stretch in Gitmo, Zaeef finds Americans perplexing. He is considered a dangerous person, and is on a U.N. blacklist. But a few days back, he says, some U.S. diplomats arrived at his house in an armored SUV, carrying two copies of his latest book. "They wanted me to sign them," he says, laughing...