Edmonton Sun
Obama moves closer to shutting down Gitmo…
In courtrooms barred to the public,dozens of terror suspects are pleading for their freedom from the Guantanamo Bay prison,sometimes even testifying on their own behalf by video from the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
Complying with a Supreme Court ruling last year,15 federal judges in the U.S. courthouse here are giving detainees their day in court after years behind bars half a world away from their homelands.
The judges have found the government’s evidence against 30 detainees wanting and ordered their release. That number could rise significantly because the judges are on track to hear challenges from dozens of more prisoners.
Scooped up along with hardcore terrorist suspects in Afghanistan,Pakistan and elsewhere,these 30 detainees stand in stark contrast to the 10 prisoners whom the Obama administration targeted for prosecution Friday for plotting the Sept. 11 and other terrorist attacks.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,the professed mastermind of 9/11,and four of his alleged henchmen are headed for a federal civilian trial in New York. Five others,including a top suspect in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen,will be tried by a military commission.