Obama signs bill, stops Gitmo closure

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159153.html


US President Barack Obama has signed a major defense bill effectively preventing the closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Obama has vowed to repeal the curbs regarding the Guantanamo Bay prison, saying he was forced into signing the bill on Friday.

The new bill bars Guantanamo suspects from being brought to the United States for trial.

The US president further stated that the bill was vital for funding the country's foreign wars in 2011 and that was why he signed it into law.

"Despite my strong objection to these provisions... I have signed this Act because of the importance of authorizing appropriations for, among other things, our military activities in 2011," Obama stated.

Earlier the US chief executive had promised to close the prison, which has drawn international condemnation for its severe mistreatment of prisoners, AFP reported.

The US president also voiced his opposition to the bill without explicitly threatening the restrictions.

"Nevertheless, my administration will work with the Congress to seek repeal of these restrictions, will seek to mitigate their effects, and will oppose any attempt to extend or expand them in the future," he concluded.

The Guantanamo detention facility was established in 2002 by the Bush administration. Almost 800 detainees have been brought to the prison camp since October 7, 2001, when Washington began the war on Afghanistan.

A total of 1,100 US army and navy personnel are engaged in guarding prisoners held in nine separate camps at Guantanamo.

International Red Cross inspectors and released detainees have described acts of torture, including sleep deprivation, beatings and confinement in small, cold cells.

Human rights groups have also argued that indefinite detention constitutes torture. One of the allegations of abuse at the US camp is the abuse of the religion of the inmates.

Obama created by CIA: Report

United States President Barack Obama



Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140093.html


A newly released report claims that the US President Barack Obama is a CIA creation, as his clandestine life poses question after question.

American investigative journalist and former National Security Agency employee Wayne Madsen says Obama as well as his family including his parents, step-father, and grandmother had connections with the CIA and other wealthy elites such as the Rothschild and Rockefeller families.

Madsen has put together an extensive three-part (and growing) series with conclusive proof and documentation that Barack Obama Sr., Stanley Ann Dunham (Obama's mother), Lolo Soetoro (the Indonesian stepfather of Barack Obama) and Barack Obama himself all hold deep ties to the CIA and larger intelligence community. Madsen has been using publicly available data bases for his work on Obama.

"I don't see any change and in some aspects I think he's worst than former President Bush. I wish this information was available during the presidential elections. Obama has always been very supportive of the CIA and applauded them in a speech rather than investigating their torture operations in Guantanamo Bay and abroad," Madsen explained.

Obama's supporters have been very careful to keep his history hidden by clamping down his high school records, college records, passport and his birth certificate. Barry Soetoro was an alias for Barack Obama and this was the name registered at the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Amnesty slams Canada for rights abuse

Shetty pressed Ottawa to seek the repatriation of Omar Khadr,
the last Westerner held in Guantamo Bay

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139877.html

Amnesty International's new secretary general has sharply criticized the Canadian government for its "serious" human rights violations.

Salil Shetty told the CIVICUS World Assembly on Citizen Participation on Monday that Amnesty International is increasingly concerned "about the serious worsening" of Canada's human rights approach.

"There is a real shrinking of democratic spaces in this country... Many organizations have lost their funding for raising inconvenient questions," AFP quoted Shetty as saying.

He also pressed Ottawa to seek the repatriation of a Canadian detainee, Omar Khadr, held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Shetty said that the prisoner's detention was "unlawful" and that his trial, held this month before a US military tribunal, was "unjust."

Khadr was only 15 years old when he was captured by US troops in Afghanistan eight years ago.

He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier during a gun battle in 2002.

Khadr, who has spent one-third of his life in Guantanamo, says he was tortured while being interrogated and forced to provide false confessions.

In a sworn statement, the traumatized Canadian said he was beaten, subjected to long periods in solitary confinement, doused in freezing water, spat on, chained in painful positions, terrorized by barking dogs and subjected to sleep deprivation and threats of rape.