Word: namo
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...pictures from inside Guantánamo Bay's detention facilities...
...teen, Mehsud served as a Taliban fighter against the Soviets in the battle for Afghanistan, but first rose to prominence as a supporter of Abdullah Mehsud (no relation), a one-legged militant imprisoned at the U.S. prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, soon after the 9/11 terror attacks. Baitullah Mehsud quickly leapfrogged his boss, and his ascension up the jihadi ladder was made apparent in 2005, when - swathed in a black cloth to shield his face - he negotiated the public signing of a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government. (Read "Why Pakistan Balks at the U.S. Afghanistan Offensive...
Baitullah himself rose to the top of the Pakistani Taliban after a long internecine battle with other commanders, like Abdullah Mehsud, a onetime detainee at Guanténamo Bay. Once he had reached the summit, Baitullah was able to keep fractious tribal commanders in line by sheer force of will. It helped that, after a 2005 truce with Pakistani authorities, he had the time and freedom to consolidate his leadership. Many counterterrorism analysts believe he also had the covert help of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI. It helped, too, that the CIA's drone campaign was aimed primarily...
...Human-rights groups say they are not opposed to the facility itself, but what it would represent: a continuation of Bush-era policies that allow some detainees to be held indefinitely, without charge. Such policies "are the reason Guantánamo became an international symbol of injustice," says Jameel Jaffer of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project. "If you [open] a similar facility in the U.S., that doesn't solve any of the problems that closing Guantánamo was meant to solve." (See pictures of life inside a Baghdad prison...
...system works, there's no need for a hybrid," says Mendelson, author of "Closing Guantánamo," a report by the CSIS working group on Gitmo and U.S. detention policies. By trying to create a new facility, the Obama Administration would risk legal challenges and "it would look to others that instead of closing Gitmo, we're just moving...