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Monday, May 23, 2011

Thomas Drake US Whistleblower on 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/22/60minutes/main20064396.shtml
May 22, 2011 8:20 PM
The Espionage Act: Why Tom Drake was indicted
(CBS News)  Nearly two years before 9/11, America's largest intelligence agency had recordings of three of the al Qaeda hijackers plotting an attack. But the information, obtained by the National Security Agency, wasn't analyzed in a way that could uncover the plot.

Inside the super-secret NSA, several analysts and managers believed the agency had a powerful tool that might have had a chance to head off 9/11. But it wasn't used.

One of those agency insiders was Thomas Drake, who thought taxpayer money was being wasted on useless intelligence gathering projects while promising technology was ignored.

Drake tried to get the word out. But now, as a result, he has been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 and if convicted of all charges could spend the next 35 years of his life in prison. The government says he betrayed his country.

Drake says the only thing he betrayed was NSA mismanagement that undermined national security.

After a long career in U.S. intelligence, Drake never imagined he'd be labeled an enemy of the United States. As a young airman, he flew spy missions in the Cold War; in the Navy, he analyzed intelligence for the joint chiefs at the Pentagon.

Later, he worked for defense contractors in the highly technical world of electronic eavesdropping. He became an expert in sophisticated, top secret computer software programs and ultimately rose, in 2001, to a senior executive job at the NSA.

Drake told correspondent Scott Pelley his first day on the job was Sept. 11, 2001.

"NSA went into immediate crisis management mode. We had failed to protect the United States of America," he told Pelley.

Asked if he felt that was a failure of the NSA, Drake told Pelley, "The entire national security establishment - it was a failure, a fundamental systemic breakdown."

Extra: Spies and whistleblowers
Extra: Eavesdropping on the world
Extra: The anonymous source
Part of the failure at the NSA, the largest U.S. intelligence agency, was in its old technology. The agency eavesdrops on the communications of the world. But in the 1990s it was becoming ineffective, overwhelmed by the explosion of digital data.

"Vast volumes of data streaming across all kinds of different networks, wired, wireless, phones, computers, you name it," Drake explained.

"And what does that look like to NSA? Coming into building in Maryland?" Pelley asked.

"Choking on it," Drake said. "Just incredible amounts. Even just storing it was becoming a challenge."

Most of what the agency collected went unanalyzed, including clues pointing to 9/11. Kirk Wiebe and Bill Binney were career NSA intelligence analysts who were working on the problem.

"We were greatly saddened and shocked by 9/11, but it didn't come as a total surprise. We knew there was a vulnerability, a lack of understanding of the data that put NSA in a weak position," Wiebe said.

Recognizing that vulnerability in the late 1990s, Binney, a legendary NSA mathematician, led development of a revolutionary computer system to collect, isolate and connect important information like phone calls and financial transactions. Its code name was "Thin Thread."

"Thin Thread was fundamentally dedicated to collecting and processing and ultimately analyzing the vast reams of digital data. It was a breakthrough solution," Drake explained.

Produced Glenn Silber and Graham Messick

Excerpt:
ThinThread is the name of a project that the United States National Security Agency engaged in during the 1990s, according to a May 17, 2006 article in the Baltimore Sun.[1] The program involved wiretapping and sophisticated analysis of the resulting data, but according to the article, the program was discontinued after the September 11, 2001 attacks due to the changes in priorities and the consolidation of U.S. intelligence authority.
According to science news site PhysOrg.com, ThinThread evolved into the Trailblazer Project which lacks the privacy protections of ThinThread.[2] A consortium led by Science Applications International Corporation was awarded a $280 million contract to develop Trailblazer in 2002.[3]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysOrg
Excerpt:
PhysOrg is a popular science, research and technology news website specializing in the hard science subjects of physics, space and earth science, biology, chemistry, electronics, nanotechnology and technology in general. It is known for timely updates of scientific breakthroughs and press releases from major research labs and universities across the world. Occasionally it also publishes comprehensive articles on new peer-reviewed papers.

[edit] Description

The site was founded in March, 2004, by two Ph.D. students who wanted a science news service for informed and educated readers. In 2005 it was purchased by US-based Omicron Technologies.[1] PhysOrg is registered as the property of Omicron Technology Limited of Douglas, Isle Of Man, in Great Britain.[2]
It has a full-time staff of seven with six contributing writers. Its editor-in-chief is John Benson (UK) and managing editors are Andrew Zinin and Alexander Pol (NL).[1][3]
In 2008, it published 75-100 news stories per day and hosted about 100,000 daily readers. It had 25,000 registered members.[3]
In 2009, Quantcast listed it as a top 1,800 site with 880,000+ U.S. people visiting per month and this being 57% of all visitors. It said the site is popular among a more educated, older, somewhat male audience.[4] Trends Updates named PhysOrg amongst the Top 25 Technology Blogs for 2008.[5]

Why is Syrian Reform Party based in US? hmmmmm


FARID GHADRY: Writer Farid Ghadry on Assad's brutality in Syria.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmO7HHi0ac  (Why is Syrian Reform Party based in US?)


Syrian opposition chief slams Assad's so-called peace overtu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yvvqmKB6wY

http://reformsyria.org/hot-topic/obama-moving-towards-regime-change-in-syria
Excerpt:

Obama Moving Towards Regime Change in Syria

The decision has not yet been made — and this is likely a calculated leak meant to deliver a last warning to Assad — but this is nonetheless a huge change in policy. An official has told the AP: “we are getting close” to demanding the Syrian dictator’s resignation. Apparently the language is already being crafted, with the report stating: “The first step would be to say for the first time that President Bashar Assad has forfeited his legitimacy to rule.” This will be coupled with language supporting a transition towards democracy — a softer way of saying two words the Obama administration is so reluctant to utter: “regime change.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13391828
Excerpt:

Three died in the country's third largest city, Homs, when security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
Two were killed in a northern suburb of the capital, Damascus, and another died in a village near Deraa in the south.
Earlier, an opposition leader said President Bashar al-Assad had promised troops would not fire on protesters.


Why We Must Invade Iraq Right Now (animation)
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/corrections.html

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Farid_N._Ghadry
Excerpt:
Farid N. Ghadry (also Farid al-Ghadry and Frank Ghadry) is co-founder and current president of the Reform Party of Syria (RPS), a "'US-based opposition party' of pro-democracy Syrians" [1][2], and the president of the Syrian Democratic Coalition. [3]
Ghadry was born in Syria and, in 1964, at the age of 8, emigrated to Lebanon with his family. Ghadry came to the United States in 1975. [4]
Described as a "discredited businessman from Virginia" who is "Syria’s version of Ahmad Chalabi" by Robert Dreyfuss April 17, 2006, in The American Prospect, Ghadry is "a secular, pro-democracy Sunni from a majority-Sunni country. He is charming and articulate, enjoys driving his kids to soccer practice, and favors a Syrian peace with Israel," Elizabeth Eaves wrote February 7, 2005, in Slate. When Eaves asked Ghadry "why he started the Reform Party of Syria, he said that he and his wife had reached a comfortable point in their lives, with their children nearly grown, and decided that they wanted to give something back. Who wouldn't find such a philanthropic impulse appealing? She joined the board of a children's hospital, and he decided to overthrow a government."
Ghadry is a member of AIPAC. [5] On May 15, 2003, Eli J. Lake wrote in The National Review: "His organization is only now getting off the ground," and "a Syrian who belongs to one of Israel's main lobbying groups is not exactly a strong political candidate in a country that remains one of the most rabidly anti-Israel in the region. As Ghadry himself admits, 'The Syrians are not ready for someone who wants to make peace with Israel.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farid_Ghadry
Excerpt:
Farid al-Ghadry (Arabic: فريد الغادري) (born on June 18, 1954) is the Syrian-born co-founder and current president of the United States-based Reform Party of Syria, a party of Syrians who wish to see regime change in Syria. Ghadry has functioned as an American defense contractor and businessman, "Frank Ghadry," who represents himself as being born in Lebanon.[1] Ghadry is a member of AIPAC, Israel's main lobbying group in the U.S.,[2] and has strongly supported all of Israel's recent wars in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.[3]
Ghadry was born in Aleppo, Syria, but in 1964 his family emigrated to Beirut, Lebanon because of political turmoil. There he attended the Maristes Brothers School (Champville - Deek-el-Mehdi). In 1975 the Ghadry family, once again, emigrated to the U.S. and settled in the suburbs of Washington DC. Mr. Ghadry graduated from the American University in Washington DC in 1979 with a degree in Finance and Marketing.
He worked at EG&G Intertech Inc., a subsidiary of EG&G Inc., a Fortune 500 U.S. defense contractor, for two years before starting his own business, International TechGroup Inc., in 1983. This company was Washington-based and produced software for the U.S. Navy to digitize paperwork on aircraft carriers.[4] He sold this business in 1989 and has been involved in many entrepreneurial operations since. In 1990, he began buying antiquated Soviet computers and striping them for gold plating. Reportedly, Ghadry left Russia when his business came to the attention of "unsavory types."[5] Other businesses have included Hannibal's Coffee Company, a chain of coffee shops that went bankrupt in 1996.
Ghadry, because of his father's work, was granted Saudi citizenship. In September 2007 Ghadry's Syrian citizenship was revoked by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after Ghadry appeared before Israel's Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.[6]
Farid Ghadry has four children. He is also known in the U.S. as "Frank Ghadry." He has served on the Board of Trustees of Norwood School in Bethesda, MD and headed the Capital Campaign for Crew at St. Albans and National Cathedral Schools.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Party_of_Syria
Excerpt:
The Reform Party of Syria (Arabic: حزب الاصلاح السوري Hizb al-Islah al-Suriy), or RPS is a political party committed to democracy and reform in Syria. It is based in the United States because the present Syrian government does not allow opposition political parties to form without permission. The party is made up of Syrians living in America, Western Europe, and elsewhere. The party's leader, Farid Ghadry, was born in Aleppo, Syria and comes from a well-known Syrian family of civil servants and politicians.
The RPS supported the candidacy of Nicolas Sarkozy in France's 2007 presidential election.[1]
Actually, during the 2011 Syrian uprising the Reform Party of Syria, as a political party of the Syrian opposition in exile, is preparing a series of demonstrations and protests in cities of the Unites States and Western Europe

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1489816&page=3
Excerpt:
 'The Chalabi of Syria' Analysts also warn that the U.S. experience in Iraq is adversely affecting U.S.-based Syrian exiles considered too close to Washington neoconservative circles.
This includes Farid Ghadry, Washington-based president of the Reform Party of Syria.
"Ghadry wants to be the Chalabi of Syria," said Perthes, referring to Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi's use of the United States to bring regime change in Iraq. "Chalabi is a role model for Ghadry."
But it's the very role model that makes Ghadry a suspicious opposition figure for his European and Islamic counterparts. Given what is widely seen in the Middle East and Europe as the U.S. debacle in Iraq, opposition figures -- including Khaddam -- are at pains to stress their distance from Washington.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8479208/Syria-200-Baath-officials-quit-in-protest-against-regime.html
Excerpt:

Syria: 200 Ba'ath officials quit in protest against regime

More than 200 members of Syria's ruling Ba'ath party have resigned over President Bashar al-Assad's violent repression of pro-democracy protests, the first public sign of serious dissent within the governing ranks.

Syria: over 200 Ba'ath party officials quit in protest
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Photo: REUTERS
Resigning from the Ba'ath party, which has ruled Syria since taking power in a 1963 coup, was unthinkable before pro-democracy protests erupted in the southern city of Deraa on March 18.
The violence is thought to have killed more than 450 people, and international criticism sharpened after 100 people were killed on Friday and security forces began an attack on the southern city of Deraa on Monday.
Two hundred party members from Deraa province and surrounding regions said they had resigned in protest against the attack, in which security forces killed at least 35 people.
"In view of the negative stance taken by the leadership of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath party towards the events in Syria and in Deraa, and after the death of hundreds and the wounding of thousands at the hands of the various security forces, we submit our collective resignation," they said in a declaration.
Another 28 Ba'athists in the coastal city of Banias also resigned on Wednesday in protest at the "practices of the security forces against honourable citizens ... and torture and murder they committed".

http://reformsyria.org/hot-topic/wikileaks-us-funded-syrian-liberal-moderate-islamists
Excerpt:

Wikileaks: U.S. Funded Syrian ‘Liberal, Moderate’ Islamists

In an effort to undermine the Assad regime, the State Department gave millions of dollars to what they define as "liberal and moderate" Islamist groups.
According to internal government documents obtained by Wikileaks, the U.S. has sought to undermine the Assad dictatorship and promote democracy by secretly financing the Movement for Justice and Development — an opposition group described in a diplomatic cable as “liberal, moderate Islamists.”
At least $6 million was given to Syrian opposition groups, though one cable indicates the total was $12 million between 2005 and 2010, with financing earmarked as late as September of last year. The money came from the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative through the Democracy Council based in Los Angeles. Major funding was provided for the Movement for Justice and Development (MJD), a group which the cables say is made up of former Muslim Brotherhood members seeking regime change in Syria and consists of “liberal, moderate Islamists.” The U.S. was especially interested in sponsoring Barada TV, whose chief editor, Malik al-Abdeh, is also a co-founder of MJD. The chairman of MJD is Anas al-Abdeh, his brother.

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/linkthing/
Excerpt:

Saturday, May 21, 2011

How many camps at Guantanamo Bay???

http://www.rense.com/general21/gf.htm
Excerpt:
Last April, Bush Sr. led a Carlyle delegation to Turkey, where Rubenstein negotiated a joint venture with the Koc Group, Turkey's largest conglomerate, which has holdings in energy, telecommunications and defense. During a dinner with Turkish business executives, Bush reminded the audience of Turkey's support during the Gulf War and promised to "help Turkey as we did in the past." FNSS, a joint venture between United Defense and the Nurol Group, is Turkey's largest manufacturer of armored vehicles and exports to Malaysia and other nations.



http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Mehmet-Emin-Karamehmet_2T50.html
Excerpt:

Net Worth:$2.9 bil
Fortune:Self Made
Source:telecom
Age:65
Country Of Citizenship:Turkey
Residence:Istanbul
Education:Dover C, Bachelor of Arts / Science
Marital Status:Married, 1 child


Sentenced in February to 11 years and 8 months in jail and fined $300 million for embezzlement; Karamehmet, who is not in custody, has the right to appeal. Case is related to use of loans at Pamubank AS, a lender he owned until regulators seized it in 2002. Had to sell his second bank Yapi Kredi to Koc Group due to financial difficulties the next year. Fell out of billionaire ranks in 2003 but returned three years later, bolstered by interest in Turkcell, nation's largest mobile phone company of which he is chairman. Turkcell is only Turkish company to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. His holding group Cukorova also has interest in Genel Energy, which started exporting oil from northern Iraq in April 2009. Founded first trading firm at age 22.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors_scandal
Excerpt:
The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s; then the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer. The scale of the corruption was far worse than any that India had seen before, and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections. It has been speculated that the scale of the scandal was to the tune of Rs. 400 million.[1] The case came to light during Vishwanath Pratap Singh's tenure as defense minister, and was revealed through investigative journalism by Chitra Subramaniam and N. Ram of the newspapers the Indian Express and The Hindu.[2]

Ottavio Quattrocchi was accused as the middleman in the scandal because of his intimacy with Rajiv and his Italian-born wife Sonia Gandhi. Magazine cover from India Today
The name of the middleman associated with the scandal was Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who represented the petrochemicals firm Snamprogetti. Quattrocchi was reportedly close to the family of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and emerged as a powerful broker in the 1980s between big businesses and the Indian government. While the case was being investigated, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991 for an unrelated cause. In 1997, the Swiss banks released some 500 documents after years of legal battle and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case against Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, also naming Rajiv Gandhi, the defence secretary S. K. Bhatnagar and a number of others.[3] In the meantime, Win Chadha also died.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottavio_Quattrocchi
Excerpt:
Ottavio Quattrocchi is an Italian businessman who was being sought until early 2009 in India for criminal charges[1] for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal.

http://www.angelfire.com/indie/pearly/htmls/bush-carlyle.html
Excerpt:
"They are big, and they are quiet," says David Mulholland, business editor of Jane's Defense Weekly. "But they're not easy to get information out of, [but] United Defense are going to do well [in the current conflict] ." United also owns Bofors, a Swedish munitions manufacturer.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadj_Boudella
Excerpt:
Hadj Boudell
a is a citizen of Bosnia who was wrongfully detained for over six years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.[2]
He was born in Algeria, moved to Bosnia, married Nađa Dizdarević a Bosnian woman, and became a Bosnian citizen. Boudella, and five associates of his, who were also Bosnians who were born in Algeria were arrested by Bosnian authorities. Local United States intelligence officials said they detected "chatter" that implicated the six in a conspiracy to bomb the Bosnian embassy.
He won his habeas corpus and US District Court Judge Richard J. Leon wrote that there was no evidence that Boudella intended to travel to Afghanistan to take up arms against US forces. Judge Leon declared Boudella's detention as unlawful and ordered his release in November 2008. He was released from Guantanamo and returned to his family in Bosnia on December 16, 2008.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Six
Excerpt:
The Algerian Six are six Muslim men who had been imprisoned without charges at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since January 2002;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C4%91a_Dizdarevi%C4%87
Excerpt:
Nađa Dizdarević (Bosnian, in Cyrillic: Нађа Диздаревић) is a Bosnian citizen. She is known for the efforts she has made to draw the world's attention to the extrajudicial capture and detention of her husband, Hadj Boudella.[1] Boudella was captured by American intelligence officials, and transported to detention in the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.[2]
Dizdarević has organized demonstrations, sit-ins, and hunger strikes, to draw public attention to her husband's case.[3] Dizdarević collapsed and was hospitalized ending her most recent hunger strike, on December 9, 2005.[4]
On January 23, 2006 Dizdarević laid kidnapping charges against former Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdžija, former Minister of the Interior Tomislav Limov, the warden of the prison where her husband and the others identified as the "Algerian Six" were held, and various other employees of the Interior Ministry.[5]
On January 30, 2006 Dizdarević was interviewed by the German magazine Der Spiegel.[6]In her interview she asserted that her husband's lawyers could not inquire too closely about the conditions of his detention, or he would be punished. But she had been assured by other detainees, who had been released, that Guantánamo guards had regularly shown disrespect to the Qur'an. She had asserted, just as firmly, that the guards were routinely beating children in Camp Iguana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_X-Ray_(Guantanamo)
Excerpt:
Camp X-Ray was a temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Joint Task Force Guantanamo on the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The first twenty detainees arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002.[1][2] It was named Camp X-Ray because various temporary camps in the station were named sequentially from the beginning and then from the end of the NATO phonetic alphabet. The legal status of detainees at the camp has been a significant source of controversy, ultimately reaching the United States Supreme Court.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Delta_(Guantanamo_Bay)
Excerpt:

A Camp Delta recreation and exercise area at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The detention block is shown with sunshades drawn on December 3, 2002.
Camp Delta is composed of detention camps 1 through 6, Camp Platinum, Camp Iguana, the Guantanamo psychiatric ward, Camp Echo and Camp No, is a permanent detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay that replaced the temporary facilities of Camp X-Ray. Its first facilities were built between February 27 and mid-April 2002 by Navy Seabees, Marine Engineers, and workers from Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root.[citation needed] The prisoners, referred to as detainees have uncertain rights due to their location not on American soil. There are allegations of torture and abuse of prisoners [1]
Most of the security forces are U.S. Army military police, and U.S. Navy Masters-at-Arms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Iguana_(Guantanamo_Bay)
Excerpt:

Unlike all other Guantanamo detainees, those in Camp Iguana had an unobstructed view of the Ocean.

Camp Iguana showers and restroom -- when Camp Iguana held three youths they were allowed two showers a day, when the rest of the detainees were escorted to open-air showers once a week.[citation needed]
Camp Iguana is a small compound in the detainment camp complex on the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Camp Iguana originally held three child detainees who camp spokesmen then claimed were the only detainees under age 16. It was closed in the winter of 2004 when the three were sent home. When the Department of Defense was forced, by US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff's court order to release the identities of all the detainees, they acknowledged that they had held up to twenty minors in the adult portion of the prison.
In 2005 Camp Iguana was re-opened to hold some of the 38 detainees classified as "no longer enemy combatants", while they await diplomatic efforts to find them a permanent home in a country other than their country of origin or the United States.
Camp Iguana is about a kilometer distant from the main facilities of Camp Delta. Part of the fence that surrounds it is not covered with an opaque barrier, so that the detainees can see the ocean from that area. The detainees have access to video games, a cooler, and a soccer field.
According to an article in the London Sunday Times on June 26, 2003, the living quarters are air-conditioned and consist of "a bedroom with twin beds, a small living room with two armchairs, sofa and television, and a bathroom and kitchenette", with an oven present for aesthetic reasons, and a refrigerator whose fruit and dessert contents are reportedly handled as part of a reward system. A line of black tape on the floor separates the living room and kitchen areas while privacy in the bathroom is handled by a blue curtain.[citation needed]

 

[edit] Used to hold child detainees

When Camp Iguana was the home of three youths a guard slept in the fourth bed in their dorm.[citation needed]

When their lessons were done the three youths initially held in Guantanamo were allowed to watch movies or play video games on their living areas' big screen TV.[citation needed]
Elaine Chao the U.S. Secretary of Labor has spoken about the responsibility to give child soldiers special treatment, to provide help for them to re-integrate into society.[1][dead link]
The Geneva Conventions would have entitled them to a prompt, open tribunal to make a fair determination of their status—whether they should have been afforded the protection of being civilians, or POWs. If the Americans had applied the Geneva Conventions the children would not have left Afghanistan. The executive branch of the American government claimed at the time that the constitution did not allow for judicial review of the detentions, but the judicial branch over-ruled that claim, and forced the executive branch to conduct reviews.
In a BBC interview a young Afghan teenager named Naqibullah described being treated humanely, and receiving an education, while in Camp Iguana.[2]
A February 2, 2004 memo, summarizing a meeting between General Geoffrey Miller and his staff and Vincent Cassard of the ICRC, Geoffrey Miller said:[3]
"Also, CDR Timby is in the process of finishing the report from the arrival and departure of the juveniles, they showed exceptional progress. 2 of the 3 came here with psychological problems and left here with none. They are looking forward to starting a life again. They were very excited to return home and were in good spirits."
In the spring of 2005 the presence of other detainees who had been held, while children, became known. A New York Times article published on June 13, 2005, said there were at least six other teenagers kept within the general population.[4]
...Further, the ages of the detainees brought to Guantánamo as enemy combatants cannot be determined with certainty, leaving officials to make estimates.
"They don't come with birth certificates," said Col. Brad K. Blackner, the chief public affairs officer at the detention camp. Col. David McWilliams, the chief spokesman for the United States Southern Command in Miami, which runs the prison operation, said that the authorities were fairly confident of their estimates. "We used bone scans in some cases and age was determined by medical evidence as best we could," he said.
However, in at least one case, that of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr 15 when imprisoned, American Intelligence was aware of his age, and identity. A Washington Post article from October 29, 2002 reports:[5]
One particularly talkative prisoner there is Omar Khadr, who at sixteen is one of the youngest prisoners in U.S. custody. U.S. officials allege that on July 27 he killed a U.S. Special Forces medic, Sgt. Christopher Speer, during a four-hour, house-to-house battle in the village of Ayub Kheyl. The wounded youth was captured, taken to Bagram, treated for his wounds and interrogated.
Khadr was captured on July 27, 2002, at the age of fifteen. Abdul Salam Mureef Ghaithan Al Shehri, a Saudi citizen who was fifteen when he was captured, celebrated his eighteenth birthday in Guantanamo Bay, in late April 2005.[6]
In an interview broadcast on the BBC on September 9, 2005, Clive Stafford Smith, a prominent British human rights lawyer who represents thirty seven Guantanamo detainees, reported that the continued incarceration of children between 16 and 18 at Guantanamo Bay was one of the triggers for the hunger strikes that had taken place during the summer of 2005. Interestingly, it has been determined by the United Nations that to forcefeed the strikers amounts to torture. Smith said that as many as twenty teenagers remained imprisoned at Guantanamo, some of whom were being kept in long term solitary confinement.
In May 2009 Afghan human rights workers challenged the American bone-scan estimate of Mohammed Jawad's age, asserting he had been as young 12 or 13 when he was captured in December 2002.[7][8]

[edit] Used to hold those not classified "enemy combatants"

On August 25, 2005, the Associated Press distributed a story about Camp Iguana being reopened to hold detainees whose Combatant Status Reviews had concluded that they should not have been determined to have been "enemy combatants".[9][dead link] The reviews determined that thirty eight of the approximately 540 detainees were not enemy combatants. Some have been repatriated. Some of the detainees are exiles from countries that torture dissidents, and face torture if the United States were to send them home. As their status has been determined, the United States would be justified in sending them back to their home countries, however the Bush Administration has said that they decided the most humane thing to do is to allow the detainees to continue living at Camp Iguana where they are not being tortured and are, in fact, living better than most from their home countries.[citation needed]
Some detainees who were determined not to be enemy combatants were kept at Camp Iguana, while others including Sami Al Laithi continued to be detained back in Camp Delta.
On Friday May 5, 2006 five Uighurs who had been held in Camp Iguana were transported to a refugee center in Albania just prior to a review of their writs of habeas corpus which was scheduled to be conducted the following Monday.[10][11] These five were among a total of 15 Uighurs who were reported to have been determined not to have been "enemy combatants" despite continuing to be held at Guantanamo incarceration facilities.[12]
In a telephone interview, Abu Baker Qassim, one of the Uighurs sent to Albania, said Camp Iguana had held nine innocent detainees before their departure. The other four innocent detainees had been a Russian, an Algerian, a Libyan, and a man who had been born in Saudi Arabia to Uighur exiles.
On 30 September 2008 Assistant Attorney General Gregory Katsas filed a "notice of status" on the seventeen remaining Uyghur detainees—stating that the Department of Justice was not going to attempt to defend classifying the Uyghurs as enemy combatants, and was therefore no longer going to treat them as enemy combatants. Their attorneys pointed out that several of their clients remained in solitary confinement. The DoD then stated that all the Uyghurs would be transferred to Camp Iguana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jed_S._Rakoff


http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=03ANKARA7918  (found while researching Imar Bank) ...cal
Excerpt:

Cable reference id: #03ANKARA7918


“All of them, those in power, and those who want the power, would pamper us, if we agreed to overlook their crookedness by wilfully restricting our activities.” — “Refus Global“, Paul-Émile Borduas

Subject
Ex-brsa Chair Akcakoca Comments On Banking Sector, Investigations
Origin Embassy Ankara
Cable time Wed, 24 Dec 2003 08:52 UTC
Classification CONFIDENTIAL
Reference id 03ANKARA7918
Source http://wikileaks.fi/cable/2003/12/03ANKARA7918.html
Release time Tue, 17 May 2011 19:00 UTC
History First published on Tue, 17 May 2011 20:53 UTC
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/16/business/turkey-seizes-219-companies-of-uzan-family.html?ref=uzanfamily
Excerpt:

Turkey Seizes 219 Companies Of Uzan Family

Published: February 16, 2004

The Turkish financial authorities intensified pressure on the powerful Uzan family over the weekend by seizing a large number of its companies in an effort to recover debts totaling nearly $6 billion.
The state news agency, Anatolian, said that 219 companies, with interests ranging from media to cement, had been seized.
Turkey has accused leading members of the family, including the patriarch Kemal Uzan, of involvement in a multibillion-dollar bank fraud. The Turkish media said the government was seeking their extradition from the United States, where they have gone into hiding.
The operation ''is in accordance with Turkish banking law and aims to recoup public money,'' the Savings and Deposits Insurance Fund, known as TMSF, said in a statement. It said the family owed the equivalent of $5.7 billion.
Anatolian said the move was also aimed at preventing the Uzans from siphoning off the assets of the companies. CNN Turk television said the insurance fund would press for some companies to be declared bankrupt to help speed the debt collection.














CNN Turk showed police guarding the entrance to the Istanbul headquarters of the Uzans' Star media group. Managers of the company were prevented from entering the building, it said. Anatolian quoted Cemil Cicek, a Turkish government spokesman, as saying that the companies and factories owned by the Uzans were continuing to operate. ''But they should come and talk to the TMSF and present a plan on how they will repay their debts,'' Mr. Cicek said.
CNN Turk said the TMSF had divided the Uzan companies seized into four categories -- media, telecommunications, cement and finance -- and had appointed trustees to manage each group.
Turkey's banking authorities began moving against the Uzans last summer, seizing their Imar Bank after declaring it a threat to national financial stability. The Uzans have said the government is trying to destroy them for political reasons. Cem Uzan, unconnected with the Imar Bank fraud inquiry, heads the right-wing Youth party.
The party, which has no seats in Parliament, issued a statement linking the moves over the weekend to Turkey's local elections set for March. ''The government is frightened about our party's rise and is using the power of the state to pressure us,'' it said.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=cukurova-wins-case-against-alfa-group-2010-05-23

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-20/world/libya.war_1_rebel-stronghold-rebel-fighters-three-fronts?_s=PM:WORLD
Excerpt:

Fierce fighting in Libya's western mountains

May 20, 2011|From Nic Robertson, CNN
Smoke rises from a fire on a boat on Thursday in Tripoli after NATO air strikes targeted the port of the Libyan capital.
Forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi have unleashed their biggest attack yet against a rebel stronghold in the mountains of western Libya, one of the Libyan leader's former generals said Friday.
The attack began at dawn Thursday, the former commander said. He now commands rebels in Zintan, using the name Hajj Usama.
The attack began Thursday when about 150 of Gadhafi's infantry troops began firing on three fronts near Zintan, he said. They were supported by about 40 vehicles, including long-range "Grad" rocket launchers and 14.5 mm heavy machine guns with a range of 6 kilometers.
Zintan lies about 90 miles southwest of the capital, Tripoli. Zintan, population 40,000, is at the eastern tip of a 170-mile ribbon of rebel-held mountains that stretch westward from the Tunisian border.
After decades in the Libyan army, including a tour of duty in neighboring Chad, Hajj Usama said he now despises his former commander in chief, whom he called a terrorist.
"He's never used infantry like this," said the trim, gray-bearded rebel commander. In previous battles, Hajj Usama said, Gadhafi's artillery forces had taken over nearby civilian housing in Zuwail al Bagul and shelled from a distance.
Gadhafi's forces simultaneously attacked Thursday on three fronts, Hajj Usama said -- to the north of Zintan, firing Grad rockets into the eastern part of the nearby town of Rayayna, and attacking to the southeast and to the east of Zintan.
In response, he dispatched hundreds of fighters to cut off Gadhafi's advance, Hajj Usama said.
As of Friday night, one rebel was dead and three were wounded, one of them critically, he said.
Fresh trenches cut deep in the stark, red sand here underscore the rebels' readiness to continue defending the town. The absence of Gadhafi's forces has buoyed the confidence of the rebel fighters.
Some of the fighters who returned late Friday from the front lines -- crammed into the backs of pickup trucks -- appeared to be school-age. They carried only a handful of weapons, a few hunting rifles and old, bolt-action shotguns.
Nevertheless, Hajj Osama said, "they are keen and determined to fight for their freedom."
The attack that began Thursday, he speculated, was intended to regain control of Rayayna, population 12,000. Residents east of the town had "declared their support for the rebels a month ago," he said, while the rest of the town remains loyal to Gadhafi and his former head of internal security, Nasar al Mabout. Hajj Usama said al Mabout lives there.