Is US planning a Guantanamo Bay in Pakistan?

ISLAMABAD - Speculations are rife that the United States is planning a Guantanamo Bay kind of prison inside Pakistan. While the media reports have been claiming that the US is planning a massive expansion of its Islamabad Embassy, the latest report regarding establishing of a prison similar to that of Guantanamo Bay has heightened tension in the country.

Obama, Cheney duel over Guantanamo

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama and former vice president Dick Cheney Thursday duelled over Obama’s move to close down the Guantanamo Bay military prison with one defending and the other slamming the decision.

US considering terror tribunals with new rules

WASHINGTON - US military commissions to try terrorism suspects could be revived as early as this summer, but with increased legal protections for the accused, reported the Washington Post Saturday.

Obama to deliver speech in Egypt, visit German concentration camp, celebrate D-Day in France

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, who promised to lend a hand to the Islamic world if it unclenches a fist, plans a major speech from Egypt next month as he seeks to repair damaged relations between the United States and Muslims.

France confirms it will take Algerian held by US for 7 years at Guantanamo

PARIS — France says it will take in an Algerian who has been held prisoner by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for the past seven years.

US inching closer to moving Yemeni detainees from Gitmo to Saudi rehab center

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Obama administration says it is inching closer to a deal that would send an estimated 100 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay to Saudi terrorist rehabilitation centers and speed the closing of the Navy prison.

GITMO camp X-ray exposes MI5’s secret deals to recruit informants

LONDON - Britain’s MI5 secretly tried to hire British men held in Guantanamo Bay and other US prison camps by promising to protect them from their American captors and help secure their return home to the United Kingdom, The Independent has learnt.

At least 607 US military deaths in Afghanistan region since 2001, Defense Department says

As of Monday, May 4, 2009, at least 607 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Monday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Dozens of anti-torture activists arrested at rally at White House after marching from Capitol

WASHINGTON — U.S. Park Police have arrested about 60 anti-torture activists in front of the White House.

Obama optimistic Chrysler will survive, says he has no regrets on releasing interrogation memos

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama expressed optimism Wednesday night that Chrysler could remain a “going concern,” possibly without filing for bankruptcy, a generally upbeat assessment on one of numerous challenges he has confronted in a whirlwind first 100 days in office.

Obama pivots from first 100 days, pushing for lofty agenda on energy, education, health care

WASHINGTON — His first 100 days behind him, President Barack Obama expressed confidence about the next hundred and accelerated his drive toward contentious goals — sweeping health care overhaul, new rules to curb global warming and financial sector reform — even while working to end a recession and two wars.

Czech official expects some Guantanamo detainees will come to Europe

PRAGUE — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asked European officials Tuesday to accept some freed Guantanamo Bay detainees, and one government official at the meeting predicted he’ll get his wish. Meeting with a number of European officials to update extradition and legal cooperation treaties, Holder asked for their help in closing the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Krystian Zimerman, unhappy with US, is packing up his piano and returning to Europe

LOS ANGELES — Piano virtuoso Krystian Zimerman, who had enthralled classical music fans on his most recent U.S. tour, suddenly enraged many of them this week when he announced from the stage that he is so unhappy with the United States that he will not perform in the country again.

Attorney General Eric Holder visits historic torture site in London during tour of Europe

LONDON — The Obama administration says it won’t look backward in the debate over harsh interrogations. On Attorney General Eric Holder’s first stop in Europe this week, he looked back centuries, visiting a historic torture site.

Obama’s 100 days marked by energetic moves to fix economy, reverse GOP rule _ but no miracles

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama opened his presidency by drawing an unflinching portrait of the challenges. Then he set about turning those perils into possibilities.

As Bush’s national security adviser, Rice delivered OK to CIA to waterboard al-Qaida suspect

WASHINGTON — Then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice verbally OK’d the CIA’s request to subject alleged al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding in July 2002, a decision memorialized a few days later in a secret memo that the Obama administration declassified last week.

As Bush’s national security adviser, Rice delivered OK to CIA to waterboard al-Qaida suspect

WASHINGTON — As national security adviser to former President George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice verbally approved the CIA’s request to subject alleged al-Qaida terrorist Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding in July 2002, the earliest known decision by a Bush administration official to OK use of the simulated drowning technique.

Media fight to force British govt to disclose 7 missing grafs in torture tale of ex-resident

LONDON — It is a page-turner of a tale — but one with seven missing paragraphs.

Senate report says Bush policies led to prisoner abuses at Gitmo and in Iraq and Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The brutal treatment of prisoners by the military at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and Afghanistan was systematic and a direct result of the CIA’s early use of harsh interrogation tactics, according to a Senate report. The 232-page report released Tuesday by the Senate Armed Services Committee came less than a week after President Barack Obama released the Aug. 1, 2002 memo that justified the use of severe methods by the CIA.

Obama’s first 100 days most productive since Roosevelt years

WASHINGTON - A senior White House adviser has claimed that the first 100 days of the Obama administration have been the most productive since the first 100 days of Roosevelt administration (1932-1945).

US Senate Republican leader McConnell demands Obama explain where Gitmo detainees will go

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — President Barack Obama came under fire Tuesday for including $80 million to close Guantanamo in a massive funding request to fight America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The $83.4 billion request to Congress was submitted on April 9, when lawmakers were on break over the Easter holidays.

63 Pakistani terror suspects moved out of Gitmo prison

LAHORE - Most of the Pakistani terror suspects, who were held at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, have been shifted back to Pakistan, the New York Times claims.

CIA closes secret prisons for terrorism suspects

WASHINGTON - The US will no longer hold terrorism suspects in secret prisons and plans to shut down any facilities still in operation, CIA Director Leon Panetta has said, marking the latest reversal of terrorism policy by the new administration.

Venezuela offers to accept Guantanamo prisoners

CAIRO - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that his country ‘would have no problems in receiving’ prisoners released from the detention centre for suspected terrorists at the US navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

Spain moves to begin trial against Bush-era officials

LONDON - Criminal proceedings have begun in Spain against six senior officials of the former US president George Bush’s administration for the use of torture against detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Guardian reported.

67 Pakistanis were detained at Guantanamo: Minister

ISLAMABAD - Sixty-seven Pakistanis were detained at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay prison managed by Central Intelligence Agency of the US following the 9/11 terror attack, a minister has informed the National Assembly.

Obama orders suspension of Guantanamo prosecutions

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on his first day in office ordered the suspension of prosecutions at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for 120 days, CNN reported Wednesday, citing the military.

Obama orders 120-day halt to Guantanamo prosecutions

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on his first day in office ordered the suspension of prosecutions at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days, news reports said Wednesday.