Pentagon transfers 5 Gitmo detainees to United Arab Emirates

Free Republic

The Department of Defense announced late Sunday that five detainees at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been released and sent to the United Arab Emirates.

The transfer of Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Razihi, Khalid Abd-al-Jabbar Muhammad Uthman al-Qadasi, Adil Said al-Hajj Ubayd al-Busays, Sulayman Awad Bin Uqayl al-Nahdi, and Fahmi Salem Said al-Asani, came after a “comprehensive review” by the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force, according to the Pentagon.

The Pentagon said the five Yemeni men were accepted for resettlement in the Persian Gulf nation after U.S. authorities determined they no longer posed a threat.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com …

Obama will transfer six Gitmo prisoners to Uruguay

American Thinker

The Pentagon announced on Sunday that six prisoners cleared for transfer in 2010 will be sent to the South American country of Uruguay where they will be resettled as “refugees.”

Obama Freezes Benefits for Families of Fallen Military

Family Security Matters

It’s another ugly symptom of the partial government shutdown — and  this  time it impacts the families of soldiers who are dying for their   country. 

The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that, as long as the budget impasse  lasts, it  will not be able to pay death benefits to the families of  troops who’ve been  killed in combat. 

“Unfortunately, as a result of the shutdown, we do not have the legal   authority to make death gratuity payments at this time,” said Lt. Cmdr.  Nate  Christensen, a Defense Department spokesman. “However, we are  keeping a close  eye on those survivors who have lost loved ones serving  in the Department of  Defense.” 

House lawmakers, though, are planning to vote Wednesday on a bill to  restore  funding for the payments. And Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday  accused the Obama  administration of needlessly withholding the money. 

Boehner claimed a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president  last  week to pay America’s troops should have given the Pentagon the  latitude “to  pay all kinds of bills, including this.” 

“I think it’s disgraceful that they’re withholding these benefits,”  Boehner  said, urging Obama to sign the bill that the House will take up  on  Wednesday. 

The bill would still have to pass the Senate before arriving on  Obama’s  desk. If that bill fails to pass, the Pentagon says, families  will be  reimbursed once Congress passes an appropriations bill. 

The Pentagon says it has specific instructions from its budget office  not to  make payments for deaths that occurred after 11:59 p.m. on Sept.  30,  2013. 

Over the weekend, four soldiers — two of them Army Rangers — and  one  Marine were killed while conducting combat operations in  Afghanistan. The  bodies of the four soldiers will be returned to Dover  Air Force Base on  Wednesday. 

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/president-obama-freezes-benefits-for-families-of-fallen-military?f=must_reads#ixzz2hDaWnBb3 Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Documents Show FBI Unit Tracked Al-Qaeda Cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki All The Way To The Pentagon Where He Was Giving A Speech…

Weasel Zippers

Surreal to say the least.

Via Fox News:

The FBI’s elite surveillance unit tracked the radical American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to the Pentagon entrance for his controversial luncheon speech to senior Defense Department officials on February 5, 2002, according to newly declassified documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

The more than 250 pages of FBI surveillance logs, marked “secret” and obtained by Judicial Watch and reviewed by Fox News, show the FBI’s Special Surveillance Group or SSG, which is reserved for tracking suspected terrorists and espionage cases, trailed the cleric for six hours before watching him enter the Pentagon from the subway with two unidentified woman who escorted him into the building.

Al-Awlaki, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011, addressed the luncheon on “Islam and Middle Eastern Politics and Culture.”

According to the FBI log, at 11:30 am “Aulaqi boarded the Metro train, blue line, north for the Pentagon.”   At 11:32, “Aulaqi exited the Metro train, walked through the turnstyle (sic) and greeted two unidentified white females.”   At 11:40 am, “Aulaqi and the two unidentified females walked through the train station, onto the escalator, walked southwest and west adjacent to the Pentagon, up to the steps and walked northeast toward the entrance to the Pentagon.”  And at 12:00pm “Surveillance discontinued at the Pentagon.”

As part of a section also dated February 5 and titled “Analysis/Administrative Data,”  the FBI surveillance logs state that the agent in charge of the Awlaki case was apparently aware of the cleric’s planned luncheon, though it is unknown whether this information was picked up through the monitoring of the cleric’s phone and email, or whether the case agent had learned the information directly from the cleric.

Keep reading…

US Suspends Constitution in Permanent World War on Terror

The Daily Sheeple

By Eric Blair

Two disturbing developments have occurred in the last couple of days that have gone relatively unnoticed compared to the recent IRS, AP, and Benghazi scandals.

First, the senate is debating an expansion of the already broad powers of the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) so the U.S. can essentially engage any area in the world in the war on terror, including America. Which brings us to the second development: the Pentagon has recently granted itself police powers on American soil.