Current Guantanamo Detainee OKed for Release in 2004
Although he has been held at Guantanamo since January 2002, a Defense Department report in 2004 recommended that Yemeni citizen Adnan Abdul Latif be released. The Bush administration approved his transfer in 2007, according to The Miami Herald, citing a timeline in the public version of a court ruling ordering his release. Judge Kennedy ordered in July that Latif be released, and a redacted version of that ruling was issued to the public on Monday.
Suspected Editor of al Qaeda Magazine May be Indicted for Material Support
A federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating whether Samir Khan, believed to be the editor al Qaeda’s English-language Inspire magazine, can be indicted on material support and conspiracy charges, according to NPR. Khan’s radical beliefs and Web site were well known among the Muslim community in Charlotte before he went to Yemen last fall. They rejected his views and held a series of meetings to try to change his outlook, NPR reports. U.S. officials believe Anwar al-Awlaki asked him to go to Yemen.
Judge Throws Out Piracy Charges in Ashland Attack Case
A federal district judge in Norfolk ruled yesterday that six Somali men who attacked the USS Ashland in April can’t be considered pirates, because they didn’t rob the ship. Although Judge Raymond Jackson dismissed the piracy charges, which would have required life sentences if the men were convicted, lesser charges remain. The case is scheduled for trial in October. In a separate case, also in the Eastern District of Virginia, five other Somali citizens are facing piracy charges for an attack on the USS Nicholas. A decision on the piracy charges in that case is still pending. Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC.
Floods Could Cause Security Crisis in Pakistan
The massive flooding in Pakistan, “roughly the size of Italy” according to The Washington Post, has isolated parts of the country, putting them outside the government’s ability to reach.
“The next few months could be even worse, as the collapse of governance and growing desperation of flooded areas leads to increasing social and ethnic tensions, terrible food shortages, and the threat that large parts of the country, now cut off from Islamabad, will be taken over by the Pakistani Taliban and other extremist groups,” Ahmed Rashid argues in The New York Review of Books. Meanwhile, with the Pakistani military concentrating on flood relief, there are fewer resources available to fight militants and to prevent them from crossing the border into Afghanistan.
Paterson Still Endorses Proposal to Move Mosque as Controversy Simmers
New York Governor David Paterson still supports a plan for the mosque and cultural center planned to be built two blocks from Ground Zero to be built on state land elsewhere. A spokesman for the governor said that he expects that a meeting with the developers to discuss it will be scheduled soon. The developers, who rejected the concept last week, said in a statement that “[w]e appreciate the Governor’s interest as we continue to have conversations with many officials.” New York Times, Washington Post‘s The Fix. At Salon, Glenn Greenwald argues that developer Sharif El-Gamal demonstrated the “true definition of political courage” in telling news channel NY1 that they have no intention of changing their plans.
While Republican candidates across the country have opposed the idea of the mosque being built in the presently proposed location, some of the party’s leaders, advisers, and strategists think that may be a risky approach that could prove divisive. Although polls indicate that two-thirds of the public are opposed to the current plan, strategists, both Democratic and Republican, believe that it won’t play a significant role in the November elections. Wall Street Journal, Washington Post.
Newsweek‘s The Gaggle blog looks at the political freight that comes along with any decision about how to refer to the planned mosque and cultural center, either by its proper name (formerly Cordoba House, now Park51) or by some variant that includes “Ground Zero” or other description of its location. The Newsweek piece picks up on a post at The Awl quoting 39 descriptions of the proposed location.
Aaron David Miller, at The Washington Post, compares the plan to his proposal 12 years ago for Yasser Arafat to visit the Holocaust museum in Washington, which in retrospect he describes as “one of the dumbest ideas in the annals of U.S foreign policy.” In both cases, he says, “[t]here is great danger in misappropriating memory and attempting to link it to another agenda or to a tragic historical experience seared in the minds of millions.”
At The Los Angeles Times, Haris Tarin, of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, comments on his parents’ decision to move from Afghanistan to the U.S., and the mosque opposition’s potential consequences for his children. “[T]heir faith is being openly and viciously maligned, and they themselves are made to feel responsible for the attacks on 9/11,” he says.
Karzai’s Ban on Security Contractors a Surprise
President Hamid Karzai’s announcement on Monday that private security contractors will be banned from Afghanistan in four months caught U.S. officials off guard, aggravating already tense relations between the U.S. and the government of Afghanistan. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, went to Kabul yesterday to talk to Karzai about conflicts over two U.S. supported anti-corruption initiatives. Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Newsweek’s Declassified blog.
Thirty-Two People Charged in Uganda for Kampala Bombings
Thirty-two people have been charged in Uganda in relation to the bombings in Kampala in July that killed 76 people. They are expected to be tried starting within four months, according to the AFP.
News stories compiled by the staff of the Center on Law and Security
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