BMH ///
Washington, D.C
Xin chuyển tin đến Quý Vị, Quý NT và CH…
A.- Sau 18 năm được nuôi ăn ở, đầy đủ tiện nghi y tế….v…v…mập như con heo !
Tên khủng bố người Somali Guled Duran, đang bị giữ tại Guantánamo sẽ được thả ..
Rồi hắn sẽ trở lại với bọn khủng bố, và một ngày nào đó hắn sẽ trở lại tấn công chúng ta…
B.- Cộng hòa Hạ viện đã loại bỏ tên dân biểu Dân chủ Minnesota, Ilhan Omar khỏi Ủy ban Đối ngoại,
với số phiếu 218-211, dựa trên những bình luận gây tranh cãi trước đây mà cô ấy đã đưa ra về Israel
và những lo ngại về tính cách kỳ thị của cô ấy.
Xin mời Quý Vị theo dõi bản tin và tùy nghi thẩm định..
BMH ///
Washington, D.C
Guantánamo Panel Approves Transfer of First High-Value Detainee
Guled Duran, a Somali, has been held in classified facilities since the C.I.A. took custody of him in 2004. He has never been charged with a crime.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/us/politics/guantanamo-transfer-somali-detainee.html
By Carol Rosenberg
Jan. 10, 2022
WASHINGTON — A Somali man who has been held at Guantánamo Bay as a high-value prisoner was approved for transfer with security assurances, according to a document obtained Monday, making him the first detainee who was brought there from a C.I.A. black site to be recommended for release.
Guled Hassan Duran, 47, received word of the decision on Monday morning, the eve of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. He became the 14th or 15th of the 39 detainees still at Guantánamo with approval for transfer once U.S. diplomats find countries to accept them with security guarantees that satisfy the defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III.
Mr. Duran was captured in Djibouti in 2004, spent about 900 days in C.I.A. custody and has been held in classified detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay without charge since September 2006. He cannot return to his homeland under a congressional prohibition on the transfer of Guantánamo detainees to Somalia, Libya, Syria and Yemen.
John F. Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment on the case or on any approvals that the interagency Periodic Review Board had made but not announced.
“The administration remains dedicated to closing the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay,” he said. “Nothing has changed about that.”
Mr. Duran is unlikely to go anywhere soon. The Biden administration has transferred only one detainee from the prison, a Moroccan man whose repatriation negotiations were begun during the Obama administration, put on hold during the Trump administration and completed in July. Once a deal is reached for any of the cleared prisoners, the secretary of defense has to sign off on it and Congress has to be provided 30 days’ notice.
Mr. Kirby also declined to discuss the case of Moath al-Alwi, a Yemeni man in his mid-40s whose sister posted on Facebook that he had also been notified that he was approved for transfer. “We ask Allah to release them all,” she said.
Mr. Alwi has become one of Guantánamo’s best-recognized prison artists. In 2018, replicas of sailing ships that he fashioned from found objects in the cellblocks were the centerpieces of “Ode to the Sea,” an art show at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Soon after, the Defense Department declared art created by Guantánamo detainees property of the U.S. government and prohibited prisoners from giving pieces to their lawyers or anyone else. Prison staff also stopped showcasing his art in news media visits.
Mr. Duran’s lawyer, Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said he was informed of the approval after his client was notified of the board’s decision on Monday morning. The document, dated Nov. 10, pledged “vigorous efforts will be undertaken to identify a suitable transfer location” that is “outside the United States, subject to appropriate security and human treatment assurances.”
Mr. Duran lived in Sweden as a teenage refugee, has relatives in Canada and has “good options” for possible resettlement countries, Mr. Kadidal said. He described him as “smart and resourceful and has the experience of living in several different countries.”
The other high-value detainee who could become the first to go is Majid Khan, a U.S.-educated Pakistani man who pleaded guilty to war crimes charges and was sentenced to 26 years in prison starting in 2012. But last year, Mr. Khan and his lawyers reached a secret deal with a senior Pentagon official to end his sentence as early as next month and no later than February 2025.
Under that scenario, U.S. diplomats would have to negotiate his resettlement or repatriation as well.
Word of the approvals for more transfers came at a time of rising Covid-19 cases at the base, which on Monday forced the Navy hospital there to curtail services.
On Monday, the hospital spokeswoman, Dawn C. Grimes, reported that it had 88 “confirmed, active” cases, and 455 people in quarantine or isolation — including some who had come to the base unvaccinated and required a 14-day quarantine.
Two of the residents who tested positive for the virus were minors.
None have required hospitalization, but all were experiencing symptoms, Ms. Grimes said, including headaches, fever, shortness of breath and cough. “Currently, no cases are categorized as serious,” she said.
The base has an 85 percent vaccination rate, and limited testing capabilities for the virus. Ms. Grimes said that the base’s tests do not identify variants, but that “through observation and analysis,” the staff has concluded that the cases are of the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
The hospital was clearly feeling the pinch of the sudden rise, from 17 cases between Dec. 1 and Jan. 4 to 88 at once on Monday.
The hospital has been offering curbside testing and walk-up laboratory services, and care at its clinic has been limited to urgent and acute cases.
“An increased number of hospital staff are needed to support Covid-19 mitigation efforts,” a statement issued by the hospital said. It added that the hospital pharmacy, the only one on base, shifted to drive-up service only, ending at noon.
The Pentagon’s Southern Command, which runs the prison, confirmed Monday that it was still staffing the operation of 39 detainees with 1,500 personnel, both soldiers and Defense Department contractors.
It has not disclosed how many of the 900 unvaccinated base residents were at the detention operation, and whether detainees and the mostly National Guard prison guards were in quarantine.
Cộng hòa Hạ viện đã loại bỏ tên dân biểu Dân chủ Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, người Somali, đạo Sunni Muslim, khỏi Ủy ban Đối ngoại, với số phiếu 218-211, dựa trên những bình luận gây tranh cãi trước đây mà cô ấy đã đưa ra về Israel, và những lo ngại về tính cách kỳ thị của cô ấy.
House Republicans poised to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee
February 2, 2023 12:17 PM
By:
Lexie Schapitl
House Republicans are poised to remove Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee, citing past controversial comments she made about Israel and concerns over her objectivity.
In her first term, Omar drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for tweets that invoked anti-Semitic tropes. She apologized for those tweets but has remained outspoken about the influence of Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby, on U.S. politics.
The resolution, introduced by Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, stated that Omar “has disqualified herself from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a panel that is viewed by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national security.”
Miller, who is one of two Jewish Republicans in the House, said in a statement that Omar “cannot be an objective decision-maker on the Foreign Affairs Committee given her biases against Israel and against the Jewish people.”
Omar, who herself has faced anti-Muslim bigotry since taking office, told reporters last week that the move to remove her from the committee was “purely partisan.”
“It’s not only a political stunt, but also a blow to the integrity of our democratic institution and threat to our national security,” she said.
Democrats rebuked Omar for her past comments at the time, but they united around her ahead of the vote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday the motion to remove her was not about accountability, but “political revenge.”
“Rep. Omar certainly has made mistakes,” Jeffries told reporters. “Ilhan Omar has apologized. She has indicated that she’ll learn from her mistakes, is working to build bridges….with the Jewish community.”
Republicans cite Democrats’ votes to strip GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar of their committee assignments in 2021 as precedent for the Omar move.
Greene lost her committee assignments over her own history of engaging with antisemitism, conspiracy theories and calls for political violence. Gosar was censured by the House after he shared a cartoon video that showed him murdering Democratic colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Greene and Gosar have regained their committee spots under the new Republican House majority.
GOP leadership also recently blocked California Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from serving on the House Intelligence Committee.
Some Republicans have been calling for Omar’s removal from the committee for years. But others voiced concerns about due process this week, and with a razor-thin Republican majority, it wasn’t clear that the resolution had enough votes to pass.
Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., supported the move only after language was added allowing members to appeal their removal to the House Ethics Committee. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., dropped his opposition after a conversation with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Wednesday, in which Buck proposed future removals be handled by a majority vote in the evenly split Ethics Committee.
“He committed to the process of getting something like that done,” Buck said Wednesday, adding that Congress needs to “stop this nonsense of kicking people off committees because it’s just wrong.”
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., had voiced opposition to the move throughout the week. But Thursday she told reporters she would vote yes after McCarthy committed to creating a process to handle removals through the Ethics Committee in the next 30 days.
“We shook hands … and I got this commitment from him,” Mace said. “Due process is very important to me, and preserving the institution is what this will do.”
Omar has faced accusations of antisemitism since 2019
Omar first came under fire for comments on Israel in February 2019, when she posted tweets that invoked tropes about Jewish wealth and influence on U.S. politics. The tweets received bipartisan criticism, and Omar shortly after issued an apology, saying she was “listening and learning” about “the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.”
The next month, Omar again drew condemnation for comments criticizing pro-Israel lobbying in American politics. In a speech at a political event, she said, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policies?”
Many saw these comments as suggesting American Jews have “dual loyalty” — a smear used to harass and persecute Jewish people throughout history. The remarks prompted the House to approve a resolution condemning “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of bigotry.”
In 2021, Omar drew criticism for comments that appeared to equate the United States and Israel with terror groups. In a tweet about the role of the International Criminal Court, she said that “we have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.”
After a group of 12 Democrats denounced Omar’s comments, she issued a clarification: “To be clear: the conversation was about accountability for specific incidents regarding those [International Criminal Court] cases, not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel,” she wrote in a press release.
“I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems,” she added.
In 2018, Omar became one of the first Muslim women elected to the House and, along with other progressive women of color, has been a target of vicious attacks since.
In 2019, then-President Donald Trump tweeted that Omar and her colleagues often known as “the squad” should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” At one of the former president’s rallies, the mention of Omar — who was born in Somalia and spent time in a refugee camp — drew chants of “send her back” from the crowd.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
