Guantanimo / Murat Kurnaz - Collection Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 01:36:45 -0600 (CST) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_saddam_photo U.S. removes Saddam photo from Gitmo By MICHAEL MELIA, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 1, 2007 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A news report about Saddam Hussein's execution was removed from a recreation area at the Guantanamo Bay detention center after a detainee's lawyer accused officials of using it to frighten prisoners, a U.S. military spokesman said Thursday. Authorities also removed an Arabic-language poster that depicted Saddam's capture, court appearances and death sentence, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, a Guantanamo Bay spokesman. The military decided the poster "appeared insensitive" and did not belong in the recreation area, where authorities post information about current events for detainees. "The intent of this poster was to show that the Iraqi people are making progress and have delivered justice," Durand said in an e-mailed statement from the detention center on a U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba. Earlier, an attorney for Australian detainee David Hicks complained the military was attempting to intimidate prisoners with news of the Iraqi leader's execution. "What they're trying to do is ground them into submission with the prospect of their execution," attorney Joshua Dratel said by phone from a Florida airport as he returned from a visit with Hicks. Dratel said detainees were shown photographs of the execution, but Durand said the news article included only a picture of Saddam before the hanging. Durand said stories are intended only to provide "intellectual stimulation" to detainees, most of whom have been held since 2002 and otherwise would learn about the outside world only from their attorneys and letters from their families. The military has displayed stories from a number of news organizations on such topics as the decision by Keith Ellison (news, bio, voting record), a Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress from Minnesota, to take the ceremonial oath with a Quran instead of a Bible. "Articles chosen are not always pro-U.S.," Durand said. Dratel noted that some of the nearly 400 men held at Guantanamo could face execution if they are convicted by military tribunals. Hicks, a former kangaroo skinner, was one of the first prisoners to arrive at the isolated detention center when it opened in January 2002. His lawyers say he is suffering from depression and ill health because of the conditions of his incarceration. "He's doing as poorly as I've seen in the three years we've been going down there," Dratel said. Hicks' father, Terry Hicks, said that showing detainees the photo and articles about the execution amounted to "intimidation, mind games and mental torture." "My reaction to that is that plain and simply the Americans have now lowered themselves to the regime that they put out in the first place," said Terry Hicks, who lives in Adelaide, Australia. Hicks was detained in Afghanistan and was originally charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit war crimes and aiding the enemy. He was selected to face a U.S. military tribunal before the U.S. Supreme Court declared the commissions illegal in June. The lead U.S. prosecutor in a revised tribunal system, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, has said Hicks could be among a handful of prisoners expected to be charged by Friday. +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2324781,00.html Opinion | 24.01.2007 Opinion: Time for Explanations Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Unless he manages to produce new evidence, Germany's foreign minister will have to resign over the failure to get a German-born Guantanamo prisoner released despite a US offer to do so, says DW's Heinz Dylong. It seems right to keep asking why the former Social Democratic-Green party government had so little interest in getting Bremen-born Turk Murat Kurnaz released from the US detention camp at Guantanamo -- especially since a US offer apparently existed to set Kurnaz free after he had been wrongly accused of terrorist activities. Berlin allegedly rejected that, and a special committee of the European Parliament says there's enough proof to back the allegation. This alone would be a scandal that cannot be covered up by claiming that Kurnaz has Turkish and not German citizenship and placing the blame on Ankara instead of Berlin. A visit by German secret agents to Kurnaz in Guantanamo completes the picture. Let's be clear about this: Barely 20 years of age, Kurnaz was captured by the Americans in Pakistan. He was possibly naive, but certainly not a terror suspect. In January 2002, he ended up at Guantanamo, he was abused, but even the Americans were eventually convinced of his innocence and wanted to send him back to Germany. Berlin rejected the offer. What's more: the German authorities didn't merely not work towards his release, rather they boycotted it. The man wasn't able to leave the camp until 2006. Political responsibility for the Germans' behavior lies with a group of state secretaries and intelligence agency heads, who regularly discussed the security situation under the leadership of the chancellery's chief-of-staff. At the time in question, the latter position was occupied by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the current foreign minister. He'll have quite a bit of explaining to do to a parliamentary committee which is investigating the case. It's certain that Steinmeier will have to resign if he cannot offer any new information to make Berlin's behavior plausible. His resignation would obviously not explain why Berlin behaved the way it did. Foreign policy considerations may have played a role. The German-American relationship was already tense because of Germany's "no" to the war in Iraq. It might have made sense not to put additional strain on ties with the US -- whether by insisting in the case of Guantanamo or by the released prisoner one day possibly making public accusations. Be that as it may; it's certainly not in line with a foreign policy oriented toward human rights which the Social Democratic-Green party government had claimed to pursue. Heinz Dylong is an editor at DW-RADIO (win). +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2324739,00.html Terrorism | 24.01.2007 EU Report Slams Members for Involvement in Secret CIA Affair The report says at least 10 EU members knew about the CIA's rendition flights Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The report says at least 10 EU members knew about the CIA's rendition flights European Union lawmakers have approved a report which lashes out at EU countries for tolerating or assisting the United States' practice of secret detentions of terrorist suspects. At least 10 European states, including Britain, Poland, Italy and Germany aided or knew about the CIA's clandestine program of taking terrorism suspects to other countries for interrogation, the report said. It ended a year-long investigation by a special European Parliament committee. The text, adopted by 28 votes in favor, 17 against and three abstentions, criticized EU states for a failure to fulfill "European obligations, such as the respect of human rights." More than 1,245 CIA-operated flights flew over European airspace or stopped over at airports in Europe, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) concluded. They urged member states to investigate these so-called extraordinary rendition flights. US President George W. Bush in September acknowledged for the first time that the CIA was running secret prisons for holding and interrogating high-level al-Qaeda figures who had been captured since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Allegations that CIA agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers, including compounds in eastern Europe, were first reported in November 2005. EU involvement in torture EU deputies "condemned the fact that European countries have been relinquishing their control over their airspace and airports by turning a blind eye or admitting flights operated by the CIA which, on some occasions, were being used for extraordinary renditions," the report said. Italian Claudio Fava is a member of the EU investigation committeeBildunterschrift: Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Italian Claudio Fava is a member of the EU investigation committee Italian Socialist MEP Claudio Fava, who drafted the final conclusions of the probe, told reporters that "involvement in detainment amounts to a certain extent to involvement in torture." The report, which goes to a vote of the full parliament next month, said that claims that the CIA had a secret prison in Poland were unproven. However, the parliamentarians stressed that Poland was the EU country least cooperative with the parliament probe. The report also mentioned the EU's foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana, saying that he did not reveal his knowledge about the detention program. In addition, the MEPs called on the bloc to more strictly monitor data transfer to non-EU countries and the use of European airspace. They also demanded more EU competencies in combating international terrorism. Human rights organization Human Rights Watch, in New York, responded to the report by saying European countries need to go further to stop their own policies that allow torture to continue worldwide. In a briefing paper, the non-profit group said EU states used '"diplomatic assurances" to justify returning terrorism suspects to places where they were likely to be tortured. The group said such policies are unreliable, unenforceable and ineffective and do little to protect against torture. "European governments have used these empty promises as a fig leaf to justify sending people to places where they risk being tortured," Holly Cartner, the group's Europe and Central Asia director, said in a statement. German failures The EU committee's final conclusions also accused the former German governmental coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens of failing to work for the release of German resident Murat Kurnaz, who was imprisoned in the US camp at Guantanamo Bay. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier -- who was former Chancellor Gerhard Schrvder's chief of staff at the time and thus in charge of intelligence -- on Tuesday rejected charges that he had known about a US offer in 2002 to release a German-born Turk from the US military prison at Guantanamo. Kurnaz was not freed until August 2006, after intervention from the present government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel. German Chancellor Merkel, right, has backed Steinmeier in the ex-Guantanamo inmate affairBildunterschrift: Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: German Chancellor Merkel, right, has backed Steinmeier in the ex-Guantanamo inmate affair Ahead of a meeting with the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, Steinmeier said that the former German government had repeatedly tried to free Kurnaz. "On various occasions, we made efforts for a release," Steinmeier said. Charges that the former government had obstructed a release of Kurnaz were "firstly wrong and simply mean," he added. Kurnaz spent four-and-a-half years at Guantanamo on Cuba after his arrest as a suspected al-Qaeda supporter in Pakistan, shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. But EU lawmakers stressed that "according to confidential institutional information, the German government did not accept the US offer, made in 2002, to release Murat Kurnaz from Guantanamo." The documents were given to the committee by the German government on the condition of strict confidentiality, Carlos Coelho, head of the special committee, told reporters. DW staff / DPA (sp) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2324100,00.html Terrorism | 23.01.2007 EU: Germany Refused US Offer to Release Guantanamo Inmate German parliamentarians want to know what Steinmeier knew about Kurnaz' imprisonment Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: German parliamentarians want to know what Steinmeier knew about Kurnaz' imprisonment A German-born Turk ended up imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for three years longer than necessary after the former German government refused him entry to the country, an EU parliamentary committee said Tuesday. An investigation by the European Parliament into alleged CIA activities in Europe found that "according to confidential institutional information, the German government did not accept the US offer, made in 2002, to release Murat Kurnaz from Guantanamo." The former government of then-chancellor Gerhard Schrvder was accused of abandoning Kurnaz even after "US and German intelligence concluded, as early as 2002, that Murat Kurnaz had no connection to al Qaeda or the Taliban and that he posed no terrorist threat." US forces seized Kurnaz in Pakistan shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and he was later sent to a US prison in Afghanistan before being incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay in 2002. He was released last August because of a lack of proof that he had belonged to a terrorist organization, following repeated appeals by current Chancellor Angela Merkel to the US government after she took power in November 2005. Germany also investigating German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter SteinmeierBildunterschrift: Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Steinmeier said he was not aware of an offer to release Kurnaz A German parliamentary committee is also investigating the former government's alleged role in Kurnaz' imprisonment and Thursday made similar allegations against the Schrvder administration, a coalition of Social Democrats and Greens, which included current Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, of refusing Kurnaz entry into Germany. At the time, Steinmeier was Schrvder's chief of staff and responsible for secret service activities. Steinmeier rejected the European report's conclusion that the German government prolonged Kurnaz' detention. "I do not know of any such offer," he said Tuesday in Brussels. "Mr. Kurnaz' long story of suffering in Guantanamo is harrowing," Steinmeier said before adding that the EU's accusations against him were "first of all false and also simply disgraceful." Steinmeier said he wants to give testimony in Germany soonBildunterschrift: Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Steinmeier said he wants to give testimony in Germany soon Under pressure to clarify his knowledge of Kurnaz' case, Steinmeier said Monday he would testify when called on by the German inquiry into the issue. In an interview with RBB radio, the committee's head, Siegfried Kauder, said March was the earliest the panel would call on Steinmeier. Other committee members, however, said they could imagine hearing his testimony sooner. The Social Democratic leader in the European investigation, Wolfgang Kreissl-Dvrfler, said Steinmeier should not wait until being called before the parliamentary committee. "You can always tell the truth," he said. EU report condemns extraordinary renditions The report said EU countries were aware of the US rendition programBildunterschrift: Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The report said EU countries were aware of the US rendition program In its final report after a year-long investigation, the European parliamentary committee also scrutinized charges that EU countries helped the US with secret CIA flights and the alleged abductions of terror suspects in Europe. The report was adopted with 28 in favor, 17 against and three abstentions. The document said Britain, Poland, Italy, Germany and seven other EU countries were aware of the secret flights and the US detention program and slammed them for failing to fulfill "the European obligations, such as the respect of human rights." There were "at least 1,245 CIA flight in European airspace" between the end of 2001 and the end of 2005, including 336 cases of planes making stops in Germany, according to the report. The committee's final conclusions also charged the EU's foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana with not cooperating in the investigation and failing to reveal his knowledge about the US detention program. DW staff with wire reports (sms) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2324413,00.html Human Rights | 23.01.2007 German Social Democrats Question EU Report on CIA Scandal Social Democrats are not happy with the EU report Members of Germany Social Democratic Party on Tuesday criticized a report by an EU Parliament commission that could damage their party colleague, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In its report on CIA activities in Europe, a special cross-party European committee among other things accuses the former German government under Gerhard Schrvder of not having worked hard enough for the release of a German-born Turk from the US prison camp at Guantanamo. The report increases the political pressure on Steinmeier, who was chief of staff in the chancellery office at the time and whose former activities are currently also being investigated by a parliamentary inquiry in Berlin. Reacting to the allegations of the European Parliament commission, Germany's Social Democratic parliamentary floor leader Peter Struck said that he questioned the committee's allegations that Steinmeier had turned down an offer by US authorities to take German-born Turk Murat Kurnaz back to Germany in 2002 after he was found innocent during interrogations at the Guantanamo prison camp. Struck said that he was not aware of any evidence of such an offer ever being made by the United States. He added that the EU committee had based its findings only on newspaper reports while the confidential government documents available to him spoke a different language. Struck's view is shared by SPD general secretary Hubertus Heil, who denied that Steinmeier should be blamed. Speedy resolution? Murat Kurnaz Bildunterschrift: Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Murat Kurnaz "We want to investigate the whole matter without delay," he said. "And this has to be done in the appropriate committees of the German parliament. Then everyone will see that there can be no doubt about the foreign minister's integrity." A Social Democratic inquiry panel member, Thomas Oppermann, also said that any allegation that the former government had actively prevented the release of Kurnaz is far from the truth. He did say, though, that there was an active exchange of views about Kurnaz' future between German and US intelligence officers. "What I can see from the documents made available to me is that there were indeed discussions between German and US intelligence agents about whether or not to release Murat Kurnaz from Guantanamo on condition that he would be planted as a mole in Germany's radical Islamic scene," he said. "But these discussions alone cannot be construed as an official offer by US authorities to release Kurnaz." Inhuman attitudes? Next week, the Kurnaz case will be debated at length at a special meeting of a German parliamentary committee responsible for checking the intelligence agencies' activities. Meanwhile Germany's mass circulation tabloid Bild has asked why the former government should have cared at all about a Turk who had no German citizenship. The chairman of the parliamentary probe, Siegfried Kauder, was outraged by such comments. "To ask why should we bother about this Turk at all is inhuman," he said. "After all, Kurnaz grew up in Germany. And if the government thought they shouldn't be concerned, they should have informed Kurnaz' lawyer so that he'd be able to seek help elsewhere. But to convey the impression that one cares and then do nothing would be inhuman." The German public has been hearing about the Kurnaz case for many weeks and now there's an expectation that Steinmeier will act to clear up the matter speedily. However, he's unlikely to testify to the inquiry panel before March after all witnesses have been heard. Hardy Graupner (win) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2323087,00.html Terrorism | 22.01.2007 Merkel Backs FM Under Fire Over Ex-Guantanamo Inmate Foreign Minister Steinmeier is under fire, although he has Merkel's support for now Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she has full trust in Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is under pressure over allegations he helped block the release of a German-born Turk detained at Guantanamo. Although the pressure has been growing on Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to answer allegations that he signed off on a plan to block the release of a German-born Turkish man from the Guantanamo prison, Chancellor Angela Merkel has full confidence in him, according to a government spokesman. "The chancellor has a very close relationship with the foreign minister, which is based on trust," said government spokesman Thomas Steg at a Monday press conference. "(She) goes on the assumption that the two will continue their successful work together." Steinmeier is being asked to explain his role in the prolonged detention of Murat Kurnaz in the US military prison in Cuba. Kurnaz spent four-and-a-half years in there after his arrest as a suspected al Qaeda supporter in Pakistan, shortly after the Sept.11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Secret government documents circulating in the German media claim the US offered to release him in 2002 after concluding that he was not a terrorist, but that Germany refused to take him back. The newspaper S|ddeutsche Zeitung claimed Steinmeier was actively involved in his role as coordinator of the country's intelligence services under the then government of Chancellor Gerhard Schrvder. Kurnaz was not freed until August 2006 on the intervention of the present government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Committee investigation Last week he appeared before a parliamentary panel investigating whether the country's foreign intelligence service BND breached German regulations while assisting US anti-terrorism operations after Sept.11. Steinmeier was questioned in front of the investigative committee in December Steinmeier is scheduled to appear before the committee after Kurnaz gives evidence again on Feb. 1 and the agents who interrogated him at Guantanamo are also questioned. Both Steg and foreign ministry spokesman Jens Plvtner said that the government could not comment on the allegations in detail because some of the documents involved are classified. Plvtner said, however, that Steinmeier was eager for the investigative committee to conclude its questioning of preliminary witnesses so that he would be able to "clear up the matter quickly." Kurt Beck, the chairman of Steinmeier's own Social Democratic Party (SPD), also came to the minister's defense on Sunday. "I'm certain that when he addresses the panel he will be able to demonstrate that he acted without reproach," he said. Indignities The bearded Kurnaz, 24, described how he was subjected to physical and psychological abuse by his US captors that included being sprayed with "knock-out" gas and chained up for 12 hours a day. Kurnaz's account of the indignities he suffered during his time in Guantanamo "got under my skin," said Max Stadler, an opposition Free Democrat member of the parliamentary committee. "It makes you really angry to learn that an innocent man was forced to spend five years in such conditions." Kurnaz also told the panel that he was interrogated on two occasions by German intelligence agents, who also concluded he was not a terrorist, the S|ddeutsche Zeitung report said. Plan to block return Despite this evidence, German authorities actively blocked his release, the report said, quoting official documents which showed the interior ministry drew up a five-point plan to prevent his return. The documents obtained by the S|ddeutsche Zeitung also suggested the intelligence services ask the Americans to hand over Kurnaz's Turkish passport to a German embassy so a page with his residence permit could be removed, leaving him without any chance of returning to the country. Other media reports claimed the US attached conditions to Kurnaz's release, including one that he be placed under round-the-clock surveillance to make sure he did not engage in terrorism. "They were reluctant to be saddled with someone who didn't have German passport but a Turkish one and who was so dangerous in the Americans' eyes that they felt he needed 24-hour observation," an unnamed member of the SPD involved in the case told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper. DW staff (jam) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2319340,00.html Terrorism | 20.01.2007 German Foreign Minister Under Pressure in Terror Inquiry The focus is on why the German-born inmate couldn't return home from Guantanamo German Foreign Minister Steinmeier faces uncomfortable questions over his role in the scandal surrounding a German-born former Guantanamo inmate who has alleged he was abused by both German and US soldiers. German newspaper S|ddeutsche Zeitung this week raised serious questions about the role played by the former German government led by Chancellor Gerhard Schrvder in the affair surrounding the detention and release of ex-Guantanamo prisoner, German-born Turk Murat Kurnaz. Citing confidential government documents it acquired, the daily reported that the previous government delayed Kurnaz's release from the US prison camp in Cuba. It added that in 2005 the government also hoped to received further information about Kurnaz from the American side that would "strengthen the case (against Kurnaz) for his support of international terrorism." The allegations have created pressure on German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who at the time was Gerhard Schrvder's chief of staff and hence in charge of intelligence. Does Schrvder's government bear responsibility? The newspaper reported that the German government was informed in 2002 that Kurnaz had been physically and psychologically abused in Guantanamo. It added that officials of Germany's BND Federal Intelligence Service who interrogated Kurnaz in Cuba in September 2002 had found no evidence linking him to any terrorist activity. Faced with this information, Schrvder's Social Democrat-Green Party government still tried to block Kurnaz' return to Germany after the 2005 federal elections, the paper said. The paper's allegations were given further weight this week when Kurnaz' lawyer, Bernhard Docke, told a parliamentary inquiry in Berlin that the German Foreign Ministry only administered Kurnaz' case and wasn't proactive in freeing him. Docke said he suspected that the government under then-Chancellor Schrvder refused Kurnaz entry into Germany in the fall of 2002, when the US originally offered to release him from the prison camp. "Until this day I see no real reason why Germany, if it had the offer from the US, didn't take it up," after both sides had established that Kurnaz wasn't a terror suspect," Docke said. "If Kurnaz would have been German, he would already have been free in fall 2002," he said. Docke told the parliamentary inquiry that former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told Kurnaz's mother in a letter that German help was limited because Kurnaz had Turkish citizenship and the US was only negotiating with the home nations of inmates. Foreign minister under pressure The accusations against the former government and in particular the focus on Steinmeier's role sparked a heated debate among German politicians on Friday. Wolfgang Neskovic of the opposition Left Party accused the previous government and Steinmeier of "merciless, inhuman cold-bloodedness" in dealing with Kurnaz. Neskovic slammed the government's attempt to block Kurnaz's return to Germany as "deeply cynical." "I don't think Steinmeier will survive this politically," he added. Volker Beck, head of the opposition Green Party which was a coalition partner in the previous government, said that if Steinmeier had indeed sanctioned Kurnaz spending long unnecessary years at Guantanamo Bay, the minister "could no longer credibly represent the German government's human rights and foreign policy." Steinmeier's spokesman Jens Plvtner however rejected the allegations, pointing out that the parliamentary investigation into the Kurnaz case had just begun its work and that it had still to collect much information before conclusions could be drawn from the affair. On Friday, two German newspapers reported that the US offer to release Kurnaz in 2002 -- which was refused by Germany -- came with several conditions. For one, the US demanded that Kurnaz be monitored round the clock in Germany so that he would take up any terrorist activity, the Bild and Stuttgarter Nachrichten reported. Kurnaz alleges abuse at German and US hands Apart from the previous German government's role in the affair, Kurnaz's case is also being investigated for intelligence and security lapses on the part of German authorities. The inquiry is also investigating whether the questioning of Kurnaz in Guantanamo by German officials in Feb. 2002 was appropriate. The government at the time condemned the prison camp, yet was unprepared to question Kurnaz over indications he may have been involved in a possible Islamist terrorist cell in Bremen. Kurnaz this week testified he was arrested on a trip to Pakistan in October 2001 and handed over by the authorities to the Americans who transferred him to a US prison in Kandahar, in Afghanistan. From there he was later moved to Guantanamo. Kurnaz has alleged that two German special-forces soldiers beat him up while he was detained in Kandahar, in Afghanistan in 2002. Prosecutors in Germany are already considering filing charges against the two soldiers after Kurnaz identified them from photographers. Kurnaz, who returned to Germany last year, has also testified he was tortured in Guantanamo Bay. DW staff (sp) +++++ http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.detainee19jan19,0,2862048.story?coll=bal-pe-asection nation/world Pentagon establishes rules for trials of terror suspects Prosecutors could introduce some coerced statements as evidence By Julian E. Barnes January 19, 2007 WASHINGTON // The Pentagon paved the way for trials of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay yesterday, issuing new rules that activate the nation's controversial law on interrogating and prosecuting terrorism prisoners. With the rules in place, the military plans to charge between 60 and 80 of the about 395 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Trials are likely to begin this spring, officials said, but it is unlikely the so-called "high value" detainees formerly held by the CIA will be among the first to be given a hearing. Instead, the military is first likely to issue new charges against the 10 detainees who were first brought to court under the old commission rules that were tossed out by the Supreme Court last year. Trials have been on hold since the court's ruling in June. The rules implement the controversial compromises worked out last year by Congress - including provisions that ban the use of statements obtained through torture but allow some coerced statements to be admitted with the permission of a judge. The law was enacted in the weeks before last fall's midterm elections, pushed by Republicans in a last-ditch effort to maintain control of Congress. With its new rules, the Pentagon, as expected, created a legal system for the detainees held at Guantanamo that eliminates the use of Miranda rights or search warrants, legal protections that officials say make little sense for suspects captured on the battlefield. But the rules unveiled yesterday touched off a new debate over the role of harsh interrogations - and torture - in prosecutions. In some cases, the rules appear to go further than the military commissions act itself in relaxing usual standards of American jurisprudence by allowing use of potentially tainted evidence. For instance, under normal U.S. court practices, any evidence obtained illegally - such as through torturing or abusing a witness - is excluded from use because it is considered "fruit of the poisoned tree." Under the rules issued by the Pentagon yesterday, statements obtained through torture are not allowed to be entered as evidence. But if the questionable treatment of a detainee yielded a piece of physical evidence - such as the location of an incriminating document - that information could be used. Human rights organizations reacted angrily to that rule, arguing that the use of tainted evidence sent the message that torture could sometimes be justified. "As long as you are willing to use what was obtained by torture, you are endorsing torture," said Jumana Musa, an advocacy director for Amnesty International. Military defense lawyers who represent the detainees said the use of physical evidence uncovered by torture would undermine the credibility of the commissions. "When we move from the established rules of evidence we risk using a system that won't produce a credible result," said Marine Maj. Michael Mori, who represents Australian detainee David Hicks. The military commissions law does not explicitly refer to the exclusion of evidence obtained through torture. Administration officials have argued that if Congress wanted all physical evidence obtained through torture to be thrown out, it would have said so. A House committee report on that chamber's version of the military commissions bill said last year that House members intended to eliminate the "poison tree" doctrine and allow limited use of potentially tainted evidence. Administration officials said it made little sense in a terrorist case that could involve investigators or soldiers from several different nations to eliminate reliable physical evidence just because there was a question about how it was obtained. But Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said he objected to the admission of coerced evidence and to other provisions included in the new rules and said he intended to introduce legislation to address what he considers flaws in the military commissions act. Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the committee's senior Republican, wrote the Defense Department to ask for a delay in the issuance of the rules so that Congress could be consulted. That request was rebuffed. Last fall, some Republicans pushing the law argued quick passage was necessary to quickly try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an accused organizer of the Sept. 11 attacks. But yesterday, military officials indicated the most notorious accused terrorists would wait for their turn before the military commissions. "As far as the 14 high-value detainees," said Brig. Gen. Thomas Hemingway, legal adviser for the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, "those cases are going to have to be developed carefully, and it's going to take some time, because they are extraordinarily complex." Pentagon officials say most detainees at Guantanamo are unlikely ever to be tried for war crimes before a military commission. Beside the 80 likely to be brought before a commission, U.S. officials hope to return another 110 detainees to their home countries. That leaves 205 who remain in a legal limbo. Those detainees are given annual hearings on their status, but there are no plans to either prosecute or release them, military officials said. Military officials are planning to hold the trials at Guantanamo Bay. But neither the new rules nor the military commissions act itself require the trials to be held at Guantanamo. "They could be held anywhere," said Daniel Dell'Orto, the principal deputy general counsel. "But obviously, we have facilities at Guantanamo. The accused, or at least the detainees, are there. The logical place for them to be tried would be Guantanamo." Julian E. Barnes writes for the Los Angeles Times. Copyright ) 2007, The Baltimore Sun +++++ http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-detain19jan19,1,5290304.story?coll=la-headlines-nation National News Guantanamo detainees' trial rules set The Pentagon plans to charge 60 to 80 under its guidelines, which have renewed debate on harsh treatment. By Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writer January 19, 2007 WASHINGTON The Pentagon paved the way Thursday for trials of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, issuing new rules that activate the nation's controversial law on interrogating and prosecuting terrorism suspects. The military plans to charge 60 to 80 of Guantanamo's 395 or so detainees under the rules unveiled Thursday. Trials are expected to begin this spring, officials said, but the so-called high-value detainees formerly held by the CIA will probably not be among the first to be given hearings. Instead, the military will probably first issue new charges against the 10 detainees who were first brought to court under the old commission rules that were tossed out by the Supreme Court in June. Their trials have been on hold since the court ruling. The rules implement the controversial compromises worked out last year by Congress in the Military Commissions Act including provisions that ban the use of statements obtained through torture but allow some coerced statements to be admitted with a judge's permission. The law was enacted in the weeks before the midterm election, pushed by Republicans as a national security issue in a last-ditch effort to retain control of Congress. Rights eliminated The Pentagon's rules, as expected, create a legal system for Guantanamo detainees that eliminates Miranda rights and search warrants, legal protections that officials say make little sense for suspects captured on the battlefield. But the rules have touched off new debate over the role of harsh interrogations and torture in prosecutions. In some cases, the rules appear to exceed the Military Commissions Act in relaxing usual standards of American jurisprudence by allowing potentially tainted evidence. For instance, the new Pentagon rules say statements obtained through torture cannot be used as evidence. But if the questionable treatment of a detainee yielded physical evidence like an incriminating document revealed by the detainee that information could be used. Under normal U.S. court practices, such evidence is excluded, considered "fruit of the poisonous tree." Angry reaction Human rights organizations reacted angrily to that Pentagon rule, arguing that the use of tainted evidence sent the message that torture was sometimes justified. "As long as you are willing to use what was obtained by torture, you are endorsing torture," said Jumana Musa, an advocacy director for Amnesty International. Military defense lawyers who represent the detainees also criticized the rule. "When we move from the established rules of evidence, we risk using a system that won't produce a credible result," said Marine Maj. Michael Mori, who represents Australian detainee David Hicks. The Military Commissions Act does not explicitly refer to the exclusion of evidence obtained through torture. Administration officials have argued that if Congress wanted all physical evidence obtained through torture to be thrown out, it would have said so. A House committee report on that chamber's version of the military commissions bill said last year that House members intended to allow limited use of potentially tainted evidence and to eliminate the poisonous-tree doctrine. Administration officials said it made little sense in a terrorism case that might involve investigators or soldiers from several different nations to eliminate reliable physical evidence just because there was a question about how it was obtained. But Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said he objected to the admission of coerced evidence and to other provisions included in the new rules, and said he intended to introduce legislation to address what he considered flaws in the Military Commissions Act. Delay rejected Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the committee's senior Republican, wrote to the Defense Department to ask that the rules be delayed so Congress could be consulted. That request was rebuffed. Some Republicans pushing the law in the fall argued that quick passage was necessary to quickly try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of organizing the Sept. 11 attacks. But Thursday, military officials indicated the most notorious accused terrorists would wait for their turns before the military commissions. "As far as the 14 high-value detainees," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Hemingway, legal advisor for the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, "those cases are going to have to be developed carefully, and it's going to take some time, because they are extraordinarily complex." Legal limbo Pentagon officials say most Guantanamo detainees will probably never be tried for war crimes before a military commission. U.S. officials hope to return 110 to their home countries. With 60 to 80 expected to face a commission, that would leave about 200 detainees in legal limbo. Those detainees get annual hearings on their status, but there are no plans to prosecute or release them, military officials said. Military officials plan to hold the trials at Guantanamo Bay. But neither the new rules nor the Military Commissions Act require that the trials be held there. "They could be held anywhere," said Daniel J. Dell'Orto, the principal deputy general counsel. "But obviously, we have facilities at Guantanamo. The accused, or at least the detainees, are there. The logical place for them to be tried would be Guantanamo." * julian.barnes@latimes.com +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2317629,00.html Terrorism | 18.01.2007 German-Born Ex-Prisoner Describes Torture at Guantanamo Bay Torture allegations persistently circulate around Guantanamo Bay Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, German-born Turk Murat Kurnaz told a parliamentary committee he faced torture and other abuse during his four years spent at the US prison in Cuba. A German-born Turk who was held at the US prison camp Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for four years told German politicians on Thursday he was tortured during his detention as lawmakers demanded to know why the previous government had failed to intervene in his case. "'They tortured us with cold in solitary confinement or airlessness often to the point where I fell unconscious," the now 24-year-old Kurnaz told a German parliamentary committee investigating his case. Murat Kurnaz has made some serious accusations "Sometimes, for example we would be punished with a month of cold or the air conditioners would be turned completely off for several weeks." Unhygienic conditions, sleep deprivation and lack of food were also common, he added. "They would hit you, tie you up and then leave you laying there for about 12 hours," Kurnaz said, describing a punishment for talking between prisoners. Former government complicit? On Thursday, deputies from opposition parties and the conservative bloc of Chancellor Angela Merkel serving on the parliamentary committee investigating the case demanded to know why former chancellor Schrvder's government apparently failed to take action on Murat Kurnaz's behalf. Kurnaz, who was taken prisoner in Pakistan in 2001, was handed over to American troops and held as an enemy combatant until August 2006. He has also testified that he was abused by German intelligence agents while being held in Guantanamo in 2002. Shown pictures of three men, Bremen-born Kurnaz was able to identify one of the Germans who allegedly interrogated him in Cuba and said it was "highly likely" he had seen a second and was unsure about the identity of the third. Kurnaz' lawyer Bernhard Docke, who also spoke in front of the parliamentary committee Thursday, said the former coalition of Social Democrats and Greens was complicit in the crime committed against Kurnaz because it did not work to free him from American custody. "If Kurnaz was German, he would have been freed in autumn 2002," Docke said, adding that at the beginning of 2002, former Foreign Minster Joschka Fischer told Kurnaz' mother Germany could not help her son because of his Turkish citizenship. Another committee is looking into whether German special forces interrogated Kurnaz Siegfried Kauder, head of the parliamentary investigation into the matter, said the way Kurnaz was treated in Guantanamo was "unfathomable" and added that the committee would continue looking into whether such an offer was actually made. Members of the then-governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens, however, said Fischer, a Green party member, did try to make the case for Kurnaz' release to then US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Two ongoing investigations Docke said there was no reason for Germany to refuse an alleged American offer to release Kurnaz into German custody in 2002 as German and US officials were at that time aware he did not pose a terror threat. Wolfgang Neskovic, a committee member from the opposition Left Party, said if the government turned down a US release offer it would have been a "deeply inhumane decision that should have criminal, not just political consequences." The German Defense Ministry is also investigating Kurnaz' claims of abuse at a Kandahar prison after admitting that German special forces had been "in contact" with him. DW staff (sms) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2306514,00.html Terrorism | 14.01.2007 Anger Simmers Among Europe's Ex-Guantanamo Inmates Despite worldwide condemnation, the US prison camp is still functional five years on Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Despite worldwide condemnation, the US prison camp is still functional five years on European former inmates of the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison, most of whom returned home after long, harsh detentions without ever being convicted of a crime, remain angry about what happened to them there. Captured either in Afghanistan or Pakistan on suspicion of fighting for the Taliban's Islamic militia when most say they were studying, visiting family or traveling, the former detainees allege they were the victims of brutal mental or physical torture in the Cuba-based camp for detainees held in the US war on terror. However, despite US suspicions, none of the former "enemy combatants" has been successfully prosecuted in Europe, and the legal proceedings brought against them have been far from conclusive. No successful prosecutions against former detainees In France, six of seven men held but later released from Guantanamo were imprisoned on their return for links to terrorism, but judgment in the case, which began last September, was postponed until May this year. In Spain, Hamed Abderrahman was sentenced to six years in prison in October 2005 for belonging to al Qaeda, but in July last year, the country's top court overturned the ruling, citing the "total absence of concrete evidence." A Madrid tribunal specializing in terrorist cases in October 2006 also released another former Guantanamo inmate, Lahcen Ikassrien, saying there was no proof that he belonged to a Spanish al Qaeda cell. Nine British citizens were arrested upon their return from Cuba but not charged with any offense. No proceedings were brought against a Turk living in Germany, nor against a Swede and a Dane with dual Algerian nationality. "The reason there's been no successful prosecution is because the overwhelming majority of people haven't committed a crime," lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, who has represented several Guantanamo detainees, told the AFP news agency. "It's indicative of the fact that a lot of innocent people were swept up in the net." Catalogue of horrors All the men's gave similar accounts of what happened to them in Guantanamo. "There was always psychological torture, but the last month they used more physical torture," Mehdi Ghezali told Swedish radio a month after his return to Sweden in July 2004. Murat Kurnaz came back to Germany in 2006 German-born Turk Murat Kurnaz -- who spent four years in Guantanamo between 2002 and 2006 -- said he would be given electric shocks on his feet if he refused to admit he was a member of al Qaeda. "Our treatment at Guantanamo was worse than animals," Slimane Hadj Abderahamane said on his 2004 return to Denmark. French detainees described being kicked, punched and insulted, chained to the floor by their hands and threatened with dogs or shotguns during interrogation. Ikassrien, who said he spent three months with his hands and feet shackled, recounted how he was asked, but refused, to sign an agreement to allow his gangrenous arm to be amputated. In one instance, he said he spent three days in a container with rats, naked and without food or water. Writing to deal with the past The former detainees have dealt with the aftermath of their imprisonment in different ways, some preferring silence, others using their position to speak out against Guantanamo. Shafiq Rasul, left, Ruhal Ahmed, center and Asif Iqbal are the Tipton ThreeBildunterschrift: Gro_ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Shafiq Rasul, left, Ruhal Ahmed, center and Asif Iqbal are the Tipton Three Shafiq Rasul, Ruhal Ahmed and Asif Iqbal -- known as the "Tipton Taliban" after their hometown in England's West Midlands -- and Jamal Al-Harith, from Manchester, England, have sought damages in the US courts. Two of the former French prisoners have also taken the legal route, bringing action for "arbitrary detention, kidnap and illegal confinement"; a third wants damages for "kidnap, illegal confinement" and "acts of torture and cruelty." The Tipton three have actively campaigned with Amnesty International for the camp's closure and were the subject of a docu-drama, "The Road to Guantanamo," directed by Michael Winterbottom. Another of the nine Britons held, Moazzam Begg, has been equally vocal and wrote a book -- "Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back" -- about his experiences. Ghezali -- "the Cuban Swede" -- did the same in "Prisoner at Guantanamo," published in 2005. DW staff / AFP (sp) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2206959,00.html Terrorism | 17.10.2006 Germany Drops Investigation Into Former Guantanamo Inmate Investigators found no firm proof Kurnaz engaged in terrorist activities German prosecutors on said they had found no firm proof that a German-born Turk who spent four years in the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay had belonged to a terrorist organization. The prosecuting authorities in Bremen in northern Germany said on Tuesday they had therefore dropped a long-running investigation into Murat Kurnaz. The 24-year-old returned to Bremen in August after he was released from Guantanamo Bay following a deal between Washington and Berlin. Kurnaz, who was nicknamed the Bremen Taliban by the German press, was arrested by US forces in Pakistan in early 2002 on suspicion of terrorist activities and taken to the notorious US military prison in Cuba. US investigators claimed he was an Islamist "enemy combatant" with links to al Qaeda. In 2001, German authorities launched their own investigation to probe whether Kurnaz was a member of a terrorist group, a crime that carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. Kurnaz has insisted throughout that he was innocent. On his return to Germany he accused the government of former Chancellor Gerhard Schrvder of colluding with the US forces. DW staff / AFP (ncy) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2195176,00.html Terrorism | 05.10.2006 Bremen Taliban Tells of Alleged Abuse at German Hands Kurnaz was caught in Pakistan before being moved to Kandahar and then Guantanamo Bay The German defense ministry is launching an investigation into alleged abuses after the man known as the Bremen Taliban revealed in an interview that German Special Forces troops tortured him in an Afghanistan prison. Murat Kurnaz, the 24-year-old, German-born Turk, has revealed that during his five years of imprisonment he was allegedly beaten by members of Germany's elite forces in Afghanistan as well as by US forces when he was moved to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In an interview given to Germany's Stern magazine, Kurnaz described in detail how he was snatched as a terror suspect while traveling in Pakistan in 2001 and moved to a secret US-run prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan. There, he said, he was tortured by German soldiers in the presence of the prison's US guards. "I hadn't even been there for two weeks before I was taken one evening behind two trucks," Kurnaz said in the interview. "One of the guards told me that two German soldiers wanted to see me. They were wearing camouflage uniforms, the kind of camouflage made with computer pixels, and they had German flags on their sleeves. "We are the German power" "I had to lie down with my hands tied behind my back. One of the Germans pulled me up by my hair and said, 'Do you know who we are?' He wanted to brag. 'We are the German power.' He then hit my head against the ground, which the Americans found amusing." Hans-Herman Klare, the chief foreign editor at Stern magazine, said Kunaz' detailed description of the German soldiers gives credibility to his story. "The kind of description he gives to us sounds very credible...we know for example that German Special Forces were in Kandahar at the time of his detention there. He describes the uniform and the particulars of the uniforms." The elite KSK troops were the only German soldiers stationed in Afghanistan at the time of Kunaz' alleged abuse in Kandahar, presumably sometime between December and January 2002. The special forces operate in such secrecy that even the German parliament and its committees are often not aware of their missions or are only informed after the fact. Defense ministry launching in-depth investigation German Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung said there was no current evidence to support Kurnaz' claims about the interrogation or the alleged abuse but added that he was taking the allegations very seriously. A spokesman for the defense ministry, Thomas Raabe, added that the ministry would be launching a thorough investigation. "According to our initial inquiries, there is no indication that German soldiers ever took part in the interrogation of a German-speaking prisoner being held by the US military. We know nothing about any prisoner abuse," Raabe said in a statement. "The Defense Ministry takes these accusations very seriously. A thorough investigation will be conducted that will clarify these accusations completely." As a first step, the German defense ministry said it would question all the soldiers that had been deployed to Kandahar at the time of Kunaz' detention there. Kunaz moved to a "place without laws" After two months in detention in Kandahar, Kurnaz was transferred to the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has described Guantanamo as a "place without laws" where prisoners were beaten, humiliated and routinely banished to solitary confinement. During his time there, Kurnaz suffered repeated abuse and interrogation techniques including sexual humiliation, water torture and sleep deprivation, he said. Both the United States and Germany eventually concluded that Kurnaz was innocent. Kurnaz' lawyer, Bernhard Docke, said Germany could have pressed for his client's release as early as 2002. But instead, Kurnaz remained imprisoned at Guantanamo for four additional years. An investigative committee of the European Parliament has already been looking into Kurnaz' case, and Germany has in the meantime launched its own parliamentary inquiry. DW staff (nda) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2148394,00.html NEWS | 27.08.2006 Germany Denies It Missed Chance to Free Guantanamo Inmate Criticism is growing that Berlin didn't do enough to achieve the German prisoner's release German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier hit back at charges Sunday that Berlin willingly allowed a German-born Turk to languish at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay for more than four years. Steinmeier, who had served as former chancellor Gerhard Schrvder's chief of staff until he left office in November, insisted that the center-left government had worked to secure the liberation of Murat Kurnaz, now 24. "There were already efforts made under the Red-Green government to win Kurnaz's freedom," he told reporters on the sidelines of a Social Democratic Party event, referring to the previous Socialist-Green administration. Kurnaz's lawyers allege that the Schrvder government received an offer by the US administration in 2002, just months after Kurnaz's arrest in Pakistan and transfer to Guantanamo, to return him to Germany but refused due to security concerns. Calls for investigation The liberal opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP) accused the former government of negligence. It called over the weekend for a parliamentary investigation of the case following Kurnaz's release and return to Germany, where he is a permanent resident, on Thursday. "The question must be answered as to whether the government at the time failed to insist sufficiently on Kurnaz's release out of consideration for the US in terms of foreign policy," FDP interior affairs expert Max Stadler told the daily Berliner Zeitung. He said Kurnaz should appear as a witness before an existing parliamentary committee probing alleged abuses by the foreign intelligence service in the international fight against terrorism. Kurnaz, nicknamed the "Taliban of Bremen" for the northern German city where he had lived, was captured in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States on suspicion of terrorist activities and then taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002. His lawyers say he was subjected to torture and sexual humiliation at the lock-up in Cuba. Criticism of the camp grew louder in Germany with the government's human rights spokesman, G|nter Nooke, repeating Chancellor Angela Merkel's call for its closure. "Kurnaz is free but the fundamental problem remains," Nooke told the Berliner Zeitung. Around 450 prisoners are still being held at Guantanamo, many of them picked up as suspected al Qaeda or Taliban fighters from Afghanistan's battlefields. DW staff / AFP (jam) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2145820,00.html Germany | 25.08.2006 German-Born Guantanamo Inmate Back in Germany Kurnaz's release follows months of negotiations between Washington and Berlin After over four of imprisonment at the US detention center for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Murat Kurnaz -- a Turkish citizen born in Germany -- has returned to his family in the city of Bremen. The special US Air Force plane carrying Kurnaz landed Thursday evening at the US air base in Ramstein, western Germany. He was handed over to German authorities, who then released him. "Finally after four and three-quarter years of martyrdom, of torture, and deprivation of rights, the news has arrived -- Mr. Kurnaz is free," his German lawyer, Bernhard Docke, said. Docke said he would brief the media on Friday in Kurnaz's hometown of Bremen in northern Germany. Kurnaz will not attend as he is with his family and needs time to adjust to his freedom, he said. "He will undergo medical treatment and will not be appearing in public," Docke said. "Mr Kurnaz has been through hell." Earlier, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said an agreement on the release of Kurnaz had come after the successful conclusion of long negotiations between the US and German governments. No proof of terrorist activity Kurnaz, dubbed the "Bremen Taliban" after the northern German city where he lived, was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001, and taken to Guantanamo Bay in 2002 on suspicion of having fought for al Qaeda. A US court found allegations of Kurnaz's involvement in terrorist activities to be untrue. His release follows months of talks between the US and German governments. Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly brought up the issue when she met with President George W. Bush in Stralsund last month. Kurnaz said he suffered abuse including sexual humiliation, water torture and the desecration of Islam at Guantanamo. According to reports in Der Spiegel, Berlin has refused US requests that Kurnaz be put under constant surveillance and his passport confiscated. However, he will not be free to completely return to his old life. Prosecutors in Bremen intend to investigate Kurnaz on suspicion of involvement in a criminal network. Experts close to the case say Kurnaz's detention at Guantanamo was unlawful. US and German intelligence concluded as early as 2002 that Kurnaz had no connection to al Qaeda, the Taliban or any terrorist threat, said Baher Azmy, a Seton Hall Law School professor who has represented Kurnaz since mid-2004. "The government's evidence against Kurnaz has ranged from incredibly tangential to at times preposterous," Azmy said in a statement. "Kurnaz's case lays to shameful waste the government's repeated assertions that Guantanamo houses only hardened terrorists or persons captured on the battlefield," Azmy said. DW staff / AFP (sp) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2142159,00.html Germany | 21.08.2006 Release of German-Born Guantanamo Prisoner Expected Soon Bremen-born Murat Kurnaz may return to Germany this month Top German politicians have been advocating his release for months. Now it looks like Murat Kurnaz from Bremen will return home by the end of the month, after more than four years at Guantanamo. "It's clear that Mr. Kurnaz will be flown to Germany; only the exact day is not yet clear," Kurnaz' lawyer Bernhard Docke told German news agency dpa on Sunday. The Financial Times Deutschland daily and Der Spiegel newsmagazine had previously reported he would be transferred to Germany in August. Berlin had refused American demands that Kurnaz be put under round-the-clock surveillance and his passport confiscated, according to Der Spiegel. The magazine also reported that Berlin had rejected a US request to take in additional Guantanamo Bay prisoners. The German government neither confirmed nor denied reports of Kurnaz' impending release from the US prison for terror suspects. Berlin and Washington "will continue to work on resolving the case," a foreign ministry spokeswoman told Reuters. Berlin has advocated Kurnaz' release for some time and Chancellor Angela Merkel even brought up the matter during President George Bush's visit to Stralsund in July. Murat Kurnaz was born in Bremen of Turkish parents in 1982 and lived in Germany with a permanent residence permit until his arrest. He does not have German citizenship. Four years in Guantanamo In 2001, he traveled to Pakistan, where he visited several Islamic schools and was arrested by Pakistani police during routine checks, reported Die Welt newspaper. He was then handed over to US authorities in Afghanistan and taken to the prison on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in early 2002. American officials suspected Kurnaz of being a dangerous extremist, though a US court found these allegations to be untrue in January 2005. Both Amnesty International and Docke claim Kurnaz was held under inhumane conditions in Guantanamo, beaten and chained to his bed for days on end, reported Die Welt. "I would be really happy for Kurnaz" (if he were released), said Docke in an interview with AP. "Everyday that he sits there is terrible." Some 450 terror suspects are being held at the US prison on Guantanamo Bay. Only around 10 of them have appeared before legal tribunals. DW staff (kjb) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1900697,00.html Germany | 12.02.2006 Germany Negotiates with US to Free Guantanamo Prisoner Murnat Kurnaz could be free shortly German diplomats in Washington are negotiating with the US for the release of a German-born man held for almost four years at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, according to a government spokesman. Negotiations between embassy representatives and the US authorities in Washington started when the Chancellor Angela Merkel visited President George W. Bush last month, the German government source said. Bernhard Docke, lawyer for the prisoner, Murat Kurnaz, 23, said Saturday he expected a result from the negotiations in the "near future." According to an article to be published Monday in the German weekly Focus, Bush told Merkel he would free Kurnaz on condition that Germany give "guarantees of security," the details of which are now being discussed by German diplomats and government security experts. One of the conditions could be that German law enforcement authorities observe Kurnaz at all times. Kurnaz, a Turkish national born in the north German city of Bremen, was arrested in 2002 by American forces in Pakistan, where he had moved in 2001. The German press nicknamed him "The Taliban of Bremen." Transferred to the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay under suspicion of terrorism, he complained to his lawyer a year ago of having undergone sexual humiliation by female soldiers at the detention center. The German government hopes Kurnaz will be released by the summer, according to Focus. DW staff / AFP (win) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2085756,00.html Germany | 11.07.2006 Germans Want Merkel to Press Bush on Prison Camp Closure Merkel and Bush have grown chummy over the past months Germany's Social Democrats are urging Chancellor Angela Merkel to press US President George W. Bush for a specific date on closing Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba when he visits Germany on Wednesday. Hubertus Heil, secretary general of the Social Democrats (SPD) -- the party in the ruling coalition with Merkel's conservatives -- said it was not enough for the chancellor to make vague public calls for the prison camp's closure. He was referring to an interview she gave in January before visiting President Bush in Washington. "We expect the chancellor to discuss Guantanamo Bay (during the visit) just as she has done in interviews," Heil told reporters on Monday. "We don't just want big announcements about closing Guantanamo, we want to know concretely when this will happen," he said. He added that the prison camp in Cuba cannot be a permanent solution, as terror suspects are being held there without being charged. "Obligation to help Bush close Guantanamo" Claudia Roth of the opposition Green Party agreed with Heil. On Monday, Roth said that Merkel had an obligation to help Bush close Guantanamo, adding that the country could also accept some of the prisoners. "Germany shoud say it is prepared to take in Guantanamo detainees," Roth told the Berliner Zeitung daily. The German branch of the human rights organization Amnesty International likewise demanded that Merkel be pro-active in discussing Guantanamo. "If President Bush wants to accuse the prisoners of something, then he should do it in the United States in a proper court," Barbara Lochbihler, Secretary General of Amnesty International Germany told the Berliner Zeitung. Merkel said during an interview with RTL television on Monday that she had mentioned Guantanamo each time she met with Bush. She has not said, however, whether she will discuss the issue during the upcoming visit. Instead, Merkel pointed to statements President Bush made in Vienna in late June. He said then that he wanted to eventually shut the prison and send inmates back to their home countries. Last month, Bush suffered a major blow when the US Supreme Court deemed as illegal the military tribunal system set up by his administration to try Guantanamo prisoners. Roughly 450 foreign terrorism suspects, most of them captured in Afghanistan during the US invasion that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, are being held as enemy combatants at the Guantanamo camp in Cuba. Merkel also said that she is able to discuss problems and controversial issues with the president. She said she believed that was good for Germany, Europe and for the US. Merkel: "Seeing eastern Germany helps complete picture of Germany" Bush is due to arrive in Merkel's constituency, Stralsund, in eastern Germany late Wednesday and will spend Thursday meeting with her and others who spent time living behind the Iron Curtain. Merkel said she planned to discuss the Iran nuclear conflict, North Korea, trade talks and energy policy with Bush during his visit. In addition, she said she hoped Bush would leave with an impression of how German reunification -- which took place during his father's presidency -- affected people in ex-communist eastern Germany. "I believe this can help complete the picture of Germany," Merkel said. DW staff (als) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1948103,00.html Germany | 29.03.2006 "Bremen Taliban" Release Anticipated Kurnaz has been held in Guantanamo since 2002 A Turkish man living in Bremen is expected to be allowed to return to Germany from the US military base in Guantanamo Bay. German authorities may have delayed his release by years, according to media reports. Born and raised in Bremen, Murat Kurnaz is a Turkish citizen but will be allowed to return to his home in Germany's northern port city when he is released from Guantanamo Bay, according to German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schduble. "We have worked for the release of Mr. Kurnaz and explained that he can return to Germany even though he does not possess German citizenship," Schduble told the ARD German public broadcaster's Web site tagesschau.de. "I think this will soon be the case." Kurnaz's release has been expected since German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with US President George W. Bush in January. Germany's role in the release The 23-year-old was accused of fighting for the Taliban after a 2001 trip to Pakistan, where he said he wanted to study Islam, and has been held in Guantanamo Bay since the beginning of 2002. There is still a possibility Kurnaz will attempt to take members of former Chancellor Gerhard Schrvder's government to court for allegedly refusing a US offer to release him in November 2002, according to his lawyer, Bernhard Docke. "If it is true (that Germany refuesed to accept Kurnaz) then there is a very direct line to German shared responsibility for more than four years of imprisonment and torture," Docke told the Berliner Zeitung on Tuesday, before adding that his client's release was "in sight." Transferred to the US prison camp in Cuba under suspicion of terrorism, Kurnaz complained to his lawyer a year ago of having undergone sexual humiliation by female soldiers at the detention center. "If it is true that Kurnaz could have been home three years ago, it would the dramatic climax of an outrageous story," said Matthias G|ldner, a Green Party spokesman. Case to go before parliamentary inquiry Greens parliamentarian Christian Strvbele called for Kurnaz's case to be brought before a committee investigating the German Federal Intelligence Agency's involvement in the US war in Iraq as well as whether Germans security officials were involved in interrogations of tortured prisoners outside of Germany. DW staff (sms) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1798220,00.html Germany | 01.12.2005 "Bremen Taliban" Celebrates Small Legal Victory Murat Kurnaz has been imprisoned on Guantanamo Bay since 2002, charged as an enemy combatant despite evidence to the contrary. This week the "Bremen Taliban" celebrated a small legal victory. It's not the release Kurnaz and his family were hoping for, but an administrative court's decision on Wednesday not to reject the Bremen's youth's residency permit allows him to re-enter the country once he's freed from Guantanamo Bay. The interior minister of Bremen, where Kurnaz was born and raised, had revoked his residency permit because Kurnaz was not around to register himself. The 22-year-old has been imprisoned in US custody on Guantanamo Bay since being turned over to US soldiers near the Pakistani-Afghani border in October 2001. Lawyer Bernhard Docke, who has been working since then to free him, called this week's decision an important step. "Through this decision the administrative court shows clearly that the law cannot be based on injustice and that German law won't import the ghost of Guantanamo," he said in a statement. US judge backs his case Though many of the prisoners held on the US military base in Cuba have since been released, Kurnaz is still considered an "enemy combatant" by the US State Department. US officials charge the Bremen resident with traveling to Pakistan in October 2001 in order to wage armed combat against American forces in Afghanistan. But Docke and Kurnaz's family maintain that he was only going to Pakistan to visit Quran schools, and was not even in Afghanistan, much less holding a gun, when turned over to US forces. Their argument was bolstered earlier this year by US District Court Judge Joyce Hens Green, who singled out Kurnaz's case as an extreme example of illegal detention. Since then, there has been little movement on his case, despite evidence that exonerates him, say his lawyers. Recently declassified evidence seen by lawyer Baher Azmy reveal that the US government's "Command Information Task Force has no definite link/evidence of detainee having an association with al Qaeda or making a specific threat toward the US." Allegations of torture German officials doubted the charges almost immediately after his capture. Though he visited a Bremen mosque on the watch list of local law enforcement for suspected extremist views, officials found no connection between Kurnaz and the Islamic fundamentalist scene. The Bremen prosecutor abandoned an investigation into Kurnaz and his friend Selcuk Bilgin, who accompanied him as far as Frankfurt airport for lack of evidence in 2002. Unlike France, Sweden and Britain in cases involving nationals of their countries imprisoned in Guantanamo, the German government has so far involved itself minimally in Kurnaz's case because he holds Turkish citizenship. In the meantime, Azmy -- who visited Kurnaz in Guantanamo in January 2005 -- said he has endured inhuman treatment, including torture, following his capture and during his detainment. DW staff (dre) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1514540,00.html Current Affairs | 10.03.2005 New Evidence May Clear Bremen Taliban Murat Kurnaz has been a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay since 2002 Lawyers campaigning for the release of "Bremen Taliban" Murat Kurnaz from US custody are hoping new evidence will clear him. Meanwhile, the German government is taking flak from his supporters for not helping enough. Bremen resident Murat Kurnaz had been studying the Koran at a school in Pakistan when, in early 2002, the Turkish-born apprentice ship worker was snatched by Pakistani Special Forces. The man who was soon to become known as the "Bremen Taliban" was arrested under anti-terrorism laws and taken from his home. The 21 year-old's life took a very different and harrowing direction on that day. Kurnaz was handed over to the Americans as part of the agreement between the United States and Pakistan in their collaboration in the war on terror. Since his arrest, he has been held at the notorious Camp Delta in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay along with many other so-called enemy combatants. No evidence of terror links, says lawyer But recently acquired evidence may help the efforts to release Kurnaz. The American lawyer Baher Azmy revealed to the German press on Wednesday that previously confidential papers relating to the case show that the United States government has kept Kurnaz imprisoned despite knowing for the best part of three years that he had no connections with any terrorist group. "These (papers) point to the fact that the US government, for many years, has known that Kurnaz has neither connections with al-Qaeda or the Taliban or with terrorism in general," Azmy told reporters in Bremen. These revelations back up a similar judgment made by the Federal High Court judge Joyce Hens Green in January of this year. Out of the 50 cases she has been dealing with, the Kurnaz case has stood out. Hens Green said at the time that there was presently no evidence that linked Kurnaz with any terrorist organization or proved that he had any intent to commit a terrorist act. She concluded that there was no judicial basis for holding Kurnaz in custody without end. Mistreatment claims However, despite the American legal professor's assessment of the imprisoned Bremen Taliban, Kurnaz is still suffering from the conditions enforced on him in Guantanamo Bay. After refusing to cooperate with the military personnel in the camp, Kurnaz had his food rations stopped. He also claims that he has been sexually humiliated in interrogation rooms by female officers. "On two occasions, women in bikinis have tried to touch and excite him," Azmy told the reporters. When he tried to protect himself, soldiers came and beat him in his cell, the lawyer added. German government called on for help Azmy is just one of the lawyers who have called on the German government to take over the responsibility for the Kurnaz case. So far, nothing has been done on the grounds that, while Kurnaz was brought up in Bremen, he holds Turkish nationality. "The intervention by the German government in the case of Murat Kurnaz is not only necessary but should be considered under the law of human rights," says Bremen lawyer Bernhard Docking, a supporter of federal involvement. "The German government is not obliged to do anything but they could. And it this we call for." The governments of Britain and France have successfully lobbied for their Guantanamo prisoners to be returned to home soil. Only a few days ago, three French detainees were given the green light to leave Camp Delta for France. But Docking fears that even if Kurnaz is released, he may not be allowed back to Bremen. The lawyer has been in contact with Bremen Interior Minister Thomas Rvbekamp about the possibility of letting Kurnaz return to the city if he is released. The minister has so far yet to yield but Docking continues to hope for a quick and unbureaucratic solution. Heike Zeigler (nda) +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1164686,00.html Germany | 07.04.2004 | 13:00 UTC Lawyers of Bremen Taliban Go to U.S. Supreme Court The American lawyers of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish national from Bremen who is being held by the U.S. in Guantanamo Bay as an alleged Taliban fighter, have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. "The aim is to get a decision by the Supreme Court on whether U.S. courts are responsible for the examination of the detention of foreigners in the Cuban camp," Kurnaz's German lawyer Bernhard Docke explained. Docke, who has been representing Kurnaz for the past two years, said the step, though unusual was necessary. The court is set to take up the matter on April 20, a decision is expected by the end of June. Kurnaz traveled in October 2001 from Bremen to Pakistan, where he was seized by the Americans as an alleged Taliban fighter. The last that his family in Bremen heard from him was a postcard in March 2002. The indefinite detention of hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay by the U.S. and their ambiguous legal situation has attracted worldwide criticism. +++++ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,625123,00.html Andreas Tzortzis | www.dw-world.de | ) Deutsche Welle. 'Bremen Taliban' or Victim of Circumstance? A year ago, Murat Kurnaz left Bremen to "see and experience the Koran" in Pakistan. Since then, he's been locked up at Guantanamo Bay, suspected of fighting for the Taliban. But German investigators say there's no proof. BREMEN, GERMANY -- Impersonal white post cards from Guantanamo Bay and a short letter are the only contact Rabiye Kurnaz has had with her son since he left Bremen last October on a spiritual journey to Pakistan, where he wanted to "see the Koran." Within two months, Murat Kurnaz, 20, was turned over to U.S. soldiers near the airport in Karachi. The Americans accused Kurnaz of fighting for the Taliban and shipped him off along with the third batch of prisoners to Camp X-Ray on the southern tip of Cuba, German investigators say. There, he and the roughly 600 other prisoners await an uncertain fate, sealed off from personal contact with their families and lawyers and living under conditions that have been criticized by human rights organizations. For Kurnazs family, the uncertainty is especially acute: Kurnaz, though born and raised in Germany, is a Turkish citizen and holds only resident alien status in his native country. Murat Kurnaz, now a prisoner on Guantanamo Bay. Taken in Bremen a few years ago. (Quelle: Deutsche Welle. Online) That detail, a holdover from old German citizenship laws that were replaced four years ago, has left Kurnaz (photo) in diplomatic limbo, giving the German government little lobbying power over Murats fate. Kurnaz's problems are compounded by the fact that the Turkish government has shown little interest in pressuring U.S. officials to clarify his status, said family lawyer Bernhard Docke. Though many of the prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay are suspected guerilla fighters, German investigators are now expressing doubt that Kurnaz ever made it to that level. In effect, they say, Kurnaz was more of a Taliban wannabe than warrior. That leaves Kurnazs family wondering what sort of justice the United States is planning for their son. "John Walker was captured in the middle of the Afghanistan war," said Rabiye Kurnaz, referring to the "American Taliban," from California captured alongside Taliban forces last winter. "What did the Americans do with him? They put him before a judge. What did they do with Murat? They just stuck him in jail. I dont see any human rights here, do you?" The fate of European prisoners at Camp-X Ray remains one of many sticking points in transatlantic relations one year after the terrorist attacks sparked the United States war on terrorism. The U.S. governments refusal to classify the detainees as prisoners of war has enabled it to deny suspects like Kurnaz the rights guaranteed them by the Geneva Convention. With security heightened in the wake of Sept. 11 and the war against the Taliban and al Qaida, the U.S. has refused to release information about the detainees or what charges it intends to bring against them. The sheer lack of information makes it extraordinarily difficult to measure the suspicions surrounding Kurnaz and other Guantanamo detainees -- and it has struck a sour note with European countries whose government officials have only had limited access to the roughly 12 EU nationals in Guantanamo. "The whole rationale of the war on terrorism is that we are upholding the rule of law, we should maintain the moral high ground," said Steven Everts, of the London-based Centre for European Reform. "The decision by the U.S. executive, not the judiciary, not to grant these people the full protection of the Geneva Convention, went against this notion the international coalition to fight terrorism was all about." Looking for support, finding none for the 'German-Turk The United States government has refused to reveal details about the prisoners it is holding or the details of their capture. Nearly a year later, Kurnaz's family knows nothing about the circumstances of how he fell into the hands of U.S. soldiers near the Karachi airport last December. Kurnazs mother, Rabiye, has tried to launch a media offensive in the Turkish and German press to get her sons legal situation clarified. Early on, she wrote a letter to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. But given that Kurnaz is a Turkish citizen, Fischer's hands were tied. He could do little more than write a regretful reply, saying he was powerless but would do all he could. Her almost daily calls to the Turkish consulate in nearby Hanover and embassy in Berlin have turned up nothing. "They keep saying theyll take care of it, but they havent done a thing," she said. Kurnaz's family and lawyer suspect the reason lies in the fact that he is more German than Turkish. When asked whether it had taken any steps on Kurnaz's behalf, an official with the Turkish Embassy in Berlin had little to say. "No one here knows much about the case," he said. Next Page: From a normal childhood to fundamentalism The son of parents who immigrated to Bremen and worked factory jobs to build up a comfortable life for their four children, Kurnaz attended German schools, had a German-speaking group of friends and dated German girls. He had, by all accounts, a "normal" childhood where weekly trips to the mosque with his father seemed to be the only thing that differentiated him from his German friends. It was a typical childhood for a Muslim in the shipping town. Since the early 1980s, when Turkish immigrants working in Bremens shipyards and at the Mercedes Benz plant began setting up mosques, Bremen church leaders and politicians strove to create a dialogue that would integrate their Muslim neighbors into the larger society. The dialogue has flourished into an open relationship between the Islamic community and the rest of the city one that is unique in Germany. Since 1995, Bremens city officials have kept in close and friendly contact with community members, including the government-monitored Milli Gvr|s organization, which controls more than 30 mosques in the city. The organization has caused an uproar in the past because of the anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiments that have sometimes been part of its Friday prayers, according to Germanys Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. But in Bremen, the group is seen as "open and legitimate," said Peter Meier-H|seling, a Bremen radio journalist who covers the Islamic community. A switch in mosques, a shift in belief Throughout his childhood and teenage years, Kurnaz regularly attended the Milli Gvr|s-run mosque located near the familys three-story brick row house. Then, about two years ago, Kurnaz and his friend Selcuk Bilgin, with whom he shared a passion for the Koran and fighting dogs, stopped attending the Turkish mosque and opted instead for the Abu Bakr Arab mosque close to Bremens train station. "He always landed in Arab mosques," his mother said. "He said they were more faithful than we were ... he found them more important." The remark puzzled Rabiye Kurnaz, as did Murats later decisions to grow a beard and buy lace-up boots. When Kurnaz brought home videos showing Russian army atrocities against Muslims in Chechnya, his parents refused to watch. A senior German investigator looking into Kurnazs case, who did not want to be identified by name, said it was in Abu Bakr that Kurnaz finally found the "true Islam" he was looking for. "The other mosque was too tame for him," the investigator said. Prior to Kurnaz's arrest in Pakistan, law enforcement officers in Bremen had considered the mosque harmless. Then, in the second-guessing that took place in Germany in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bremen public prosecutors office launched an investigation into a Kurdish imam who occasionally led prayers at Abu Bakr and was suspected of leading Kurnaz into the radical fold. Government agents then placed the mosque on their watch list. Officials from the mosque refused to comment, saying only that Kurnaz didnt draw any special attention to himself. Next Page: A family asks tough questions On Oct. 3, Rabiye Kurnaz awoke to find her sons bed empty. A few hours later, Murat called her, saying he was on the way to Cologne but that he would be back that evening. She didn't believe what he was saying, so she called Bilgins wife and got the truth. Bilgin and Kurnaz, the wife told her, were on their way to Pakistan. The German Federal Border Guard stopped Bilgin at the airport because he had a warrant out for an unpaid fine. Kurnaz went on without him. Thats when the family lost contact with him, and law enforcement picked it up. German investigators said Kurnaz moved from madrassa to madrassa, studying the Koran and trying to take up contact with Taliban fighters in Karachi. Instead, they say, he was turned over to the U.S. forces. Murats family and friends heavily deny that he was ever a part of the Taliban. "Absolutely not," said Jahya Sialah, 22, who has been friends with Kurnaz since moving to the neighborhood from Lebanon six years ago. "First off, hes never been to Afghanistan in his life. He doesnt know anybody there. Secondly, he was always avoiding trouble, he would always intervene if problems arose." In Bremen, investigators have abandoned the theory that Kurnaz ever became a member of the Taliban. A Bremen investigation into suspicions Kurnaz was part of a cell of Bremen Muslims training to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan has been all but called off. Both the Bremen Public Prosecutor's Office and Germany's Federal Prosecutor have stated there isnt enough evidence to put together a case against Kurnaz. "I doubt he could have been involved in any type of fighting," the senior investigator in Bremen said. No charges, just hard time The last time Rabiye Kurnaz heard her sons voice was when he called from Pakistan in November, saying he was going to extend his ticket another month. By January, he was on his way to Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay, the third shipment of detainees flown in from Afghanistan. He has since been visited by the Red Cross three times. U.S. officials have allowed the international organization to check the health and the conditions in which Guantanamo Bay prisoners are in, but representatives are not permitted to relay information to relatives. All attempts by Docke, who has been the familys lawyer for the past four months, to talk to the American authorities have been fruitless. "We dont know what the conditions of the arrest were they dont tell us in concrete terms what they accuse him of, they don tell us what legal status he has. That is our biggest problem," he said. "They have set up an information ban and, at the same time, are keeping him locked up for an unspecified amount of time." "U.S. policy is that we're not speaking on anything regarding the individual detainees, mostly because of security concerns," said Lieutenant Commander Barbara Burfeind, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon in Washington. "This is new territory, this is not a conventional war. It's an area in which we are trying to grapple with a lot of unconventional issues." The uncertainty is taking its toll on Rabiye Kurnaz, who last heard from Murat through a quick postcard saying he was in good health at the end of May. She has stopped looking at photos of her eldest son and tries to keep the television pictures of Guantanamo Bay out of her mind. She continues to write letters to him, she says, ending them the same way each time. "I write, Murat, have you received my letters?," she says, "But I havent received any answer." Andreas Tzortzis | www.dw-world.de | ) Deutsche Welle. //////\\\\\\ "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith ____________________________________________________________________________________ Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097