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☆ Sept. 11 Trial Plea Negotiations Still Underway at Guantánamo Bay
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | More About Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Prosecutors and defense lawyers are still negotiating toward a plea agreement for the men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks despite the Biden administration’s refusal to endorse certain proposed conditions, the lead prosecutor said in court on Wednesday at Guantánamo Bay. “This is all whirling around us,” said Clayton G. Trivett Jr., the prosecutor, discussing key details of the negotiations in open court for the first time. He added that “around the edges we have agreed to do things” and that “the positions that we took at the time are still available.”In mostly secret negotiations in 2022 and 2003, prosecutors offered to drop the death penalty from the case in exchange for detailed admissions by the accused architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and four other men who are charged as his accomplices in the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people. Since then, one of the five men has been ruled not mentally competent to stand trial. The occasion of the briefing was a legal filing by lawyers for Ammar al-Baluchi, one of the defendants and Mr. Mohammed’s nephew, asking the judge to dismiss the case or at least the possibility of a death penalty because of real or apparent political interference by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and other members of Congress last summer.

Persons: Biden, ”, Clayton G, Trivett Jr, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ammar al, Mohammed’s, Ted Cruz Organizations: Republican Locations: Guantánamo, Texas

☆ How Benjamin O. Davis Sr. and Davis Jr. became America’s first Black generals
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-25 | by ( Nicole Chavez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

In 1940, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the first Black person to achieve the rank of brigadier general in the US Army. Twenty years after his father made history, Davis Jr. became the first Black brigadier general in the Air Force in 1960. Davis Sr. was born in Washington, DC, less than 20 years after the ratification of the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery. So, Davis Jr. moved alone to Chicago for nearly two years to secure the nomination and his spot at West Point. “So, (the Army) provided no opportunities for African Americans to lead troops, it provided no opportunities before 1940 for African Americans to fly airplanes, there were no African Americans in the Marine Corps,” Moye added.

Persons: Benjamin O, Davis, Davis Jr, “ Davis, ”, J, Todd Moye, “, White, ” Moye, Sr, West Point Davis, Oscar S, De Priest, Illinois, ” “, Doug Melville, ’, America’s, Ben Jr, ” Benjamin O, Simon, Simon & Schuster, Franklin D, Roosevelt, Moye, Army shouldn’t, Harry S, Truman, Melville, Le’Trice Donaldson, ” Donaldson, Bill Clinton, Davis , Jr, ” Clinton, ” Melville Organizations: CNN, US Army, Tuskegee Airmen, Air Force, University of North, Service’s Tuskegee, Guard, 8th US Volunteer Infantry, Army, Army’s, of, 9th Cavalry, Buffalo Soldiers, Army War, Corps, West Point, African, Blacks, Tuskegee Institute, 99th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, Chanute Air Museum, Simon &, Marine Corps, Alabama’s Tuskegee Army, US Air Force, Armed Services, United States Army, United States Air Force, Black, Texas, Corpus Christi, Department of Transportation, Federal Air Marshal Service, America Locations: University of North Texas, Washington ,, Spanish, Philippines, Mexico, American, France, Chicago, West, West Point, Italy, Washington, America, North Africa, Sicily, Vietnam, “

☆ Long-Serving Prosecutor Quits Sept. 11 Case at Guantánamo Bay
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One of the longest-serving prosecutors in the Sept. 11, 2001, case is stepping down, citing the pressure of his repeated trips to Guantánamo Bay on him and his family. The prosecutor, Edward R. Ryan, is a Justice Department lawyer who served on a team of civilian and military prosecutors who for 15 years have sought to start the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other prisoners accused of conspiring in the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon. Mr. Ryan’s decision was seen as a sign that the case would not be going to trial anytime soon. He represented the government at the prisoners’ original court appearance at Guantánamo in 2008 and participated in nearly all the pretrial hearings since then. On Wednesday, Mr. Ryan told family members of victims of the attacks by email that he was leaving “with the heaviest heart” to return to North Carolina, where he was a federal prosecutor before his Guantánamo assignment.

Persons: Edward R, Ryan, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ryan’s Organizations: Justice Department, Pentagon Locations: New York, Pennsylvania, Guantánamo, North Carolina

☆ Chilling video shows Iran-backed rebel commandos hijack a cargo ship during a helicopter raid
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Iran-backed Houthi rebels hijacked an internationally flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea on Sunday. AdvertisementA new video shared by the Houthi rebel group captures the Iran-backed militants conducting a dramatic helicopter raid of an internationally flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea and hijacking the vessel, taking its entire crew hostage. The spokesperson suggested to countries with citizens working in the Red Sea that they should avoid association with Israel-affiliated ships. Publicly available shipping data from as recent as Saturday shows the vessel was halfway through its south-bound transit of the Red Sea. Adding to their list of provocations, Houthi militants in early November even shot down a US military MQ-9 Reaper drone off the coast of Yemen.

Persons: —, Benjamin Netanyahu's, hijackings, Israel — Organizations: Service, Galaxy Leader, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Galaxy, US Navy Locations: Iran, Yemen, Bahamas, Israel, Israeli, Turkey, India, British, Ukrainian, Tehran, Hodeida, Yemen's, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria

☆ Was Peace Ever Possible?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Moderated Emily Bazelon | A Discussion Moderated Emily Bazelon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +45 min

This was known as the Oslo peace process, named for the city where the secret talks took place. Micha Bar-Am/Magnum Photos Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir of Israel during the the Middle East peace conference in Madrid, 1991. Margalit: All the Israeli leaders who negotiated for peace, starting with Rabin, were in a weak political position. Dajani: With the First Intifada, and then subsequently Madrid and Oslo, Palestinians suddenly see the possibility of agency. But what’s important to understand is that the notion of peace for Rabin, and for most Israelis, is that peace is a lack of violence from the other side.

Persons: Jordan, Israel, Yasir Arafat, Bernard Frye, Arafat, Larry Towell, Abbas, Micha, Yitzhak Shamir, Jerome Delay, Saddam, Hussein, George H.W, Bush, James A, Baker III, Baker, Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, Rabin, Shimon Peres, —, Margalit, Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak of, King Hussein of Jordan, Bill Clinton, Gary Hershon, Abu Alaa, “, ” Rabin, ” Arafat, ”, Ashrawi, Yehuda, Efraim, Susan Meiselas, Baruch Goldstein, Patrick Baz, Daoud Mizrahi, Gilles Peress, Goldstein, Matti Steinberg, Netanyahu, Bazelon, Clinton, Shikaki, Manal Jamal, didn’t, Dennis Ross, Omar, Camp David, Ehud Barak, Md, Ralph Alswang, Christopher Anderson, Motasm Amir, Barak didn’t, Barak, David, Dajani, Emily, Arafat —, Ross, Mary, Nobody, Arafat didn’t, Hosni Mubarak, Mubarak, El, there’s, There’s, Robert Malley, Hussein Agha, ” Barak, Sharon, It’s, Yarden Romann, Peter van Agtmael, Khan Younis, Yousef Masoud, Khan, Ahmad Hasaballah, Ziv Koren, they’re, Dan, Avishai, Omar Dajani, Taba, Dana El Kurd, Efraim Inbar, ‘ ‘ Rabin, ’ ’, Daniel Kurtzer, Avishai Margalit, George Kennan, Van, Khalil Shikaki, Limor Yehuda, Emily Bazelon, Nabil Ismail, Pascal, Said, Ulf Andersen, Getty, Menahem Kahana, Abdel, Shafi, Maggie Ohayon, Yigal Amir, Yoav Lemmer, Jack Guez, Olmert, Moshe Milner, Ami, Dani Cardona, Awad Awad, Obama, Ben Gershom Organizations: United Nations, West Bank, Associated, Palestine Liberation Organization, U.S, Soviet Union, Palestinian, Madrid didn’t, Bank, White, Agence France, Presse, Getty Images, Oslo Accord, White House, Reuters, Israel’s Labor Party government, Bazelon, Oslo Palestinian, Getty, West, Shin, Gross, . Security, Camp, Camp David Summit, Labor Party, NPR, American, New York Times, Polaris, Labor, United, McGeorge School of Law, University of the, Israel, Camp David, University of Richmond, Arab Center Washington, Jerusalem Institute for Strategy, Security, Shalem College, Bar, Ilan University, Sadat Center, Strategic Studies, Israel’s National Security, Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute for, Princeton, Israel Academy of Sciences, Humanities, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Palestinian Center, Policy, Research, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, Gaza, Hebrew University, Haifa University, Human, The New York Times Magazine, Mount Locations: Israel, Jordan, Gaza, Egypt, Jerusalem, Zion, Munich, Tunisia, Oslo, American, Oslo Gaza, Palestine, Madrid, Kuwait, United States, Soviet, Lebanon, Syria, Jordanian, America, Washington, U.S, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, U.N, Independence, Palestinian, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Rafah, Hebron, Ibrahimi, West Bank, Judea, Samaria, Yehuda, Camp David, Jenin, Haram, Al Aqsa, Khan, Kfar Aza, Khan Younis, Ahmad, Old, Ireland, Bosnia, Tel Aviv, Iran, Athens, El, Camp, Israeli, Van Leer, Ramallah

☆ Man Accused in 9/11 Plot Is Not Fit to Face Trial, Board Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | More About Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The finding is the latest setback to prosecution efforts to bring the long-running capital cases at Guantánamo Bay to trial. Last week, a military judge threw out the confession of a man accused of plotting the U.S.S. The question of Mr. bin al-Shibh’s sanity, and capacity to help his lawyers defend him, has shadowed the Sept. 11 conspiracy case since his first court appearance in 2008. He has disrupted pretrial hearings over the years with outbursts, and in court and in filings complained that the C.I.A. The five men are accused of conspiring in the plane hijackings in 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

Persons: Ramzi bin al, bin, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Organizations: Pentagon Locations: Cole, New York City, Pennsylvania

☆ The doctors, dentists and anthropologists striving to identify Maui's victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

While the work can be emotionally taxing, DMORT members already confront death in their day jobs as funeral directors, medical examiners and coroners. DNA samples have become a crucial tool; Sebastian said the Maui team has partnered with a company that can process DNA in just hours. But the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks represented a pivot point, when DMORT teams helped city authorities sift through thousands of remains. Wildfires represent a relatively new response area for DMORTs; teams responded to the 2018 Camp fire that killed 85 in California and the 2020 Oregon wildfires. "As we're starting to see this era of 'polycrisis,' making sure we have enough DMORT team members that we can deploy is going to be really important," O'Connell, the senior HHS official, said.

Persons: Mike Blake, it's, Frank Sebastian, Kathryn Pinneri, Sebastian, Paul Sledzik, Sledzik, Dawn O'Connell, I've, DMORTs, Hurricane Maria, David Hunt, I'm, Hunt, O'Connell, Joseph Ax, Paul Thomasch, Diane Craft Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Department of Health, Human Services, Maui, federal, HHS, World Trade Center, Thomson Locations: Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, U.S, Seattle, United States, hijackings, Montgomery County , Texas, MAUI, Long, Shanksville , Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, New York, Indiana, DMORTs, California, Oregon

☆ Taiwan to allow more China flights in show of goodwill
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TAIPEI, March 9 (Reuters) - Taiwan's government said on Thursday it would allow the resumption of more direct flights to China that had been stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in a show of political goodwill to Beijing despite festering military tensions. Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, currently allows direct flights to only four Chinese cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xiamen - but before the pandemic multiple Chinese cities were connected to the island. China has been pressing Taiwan to resume the flights, urging against using the pandemic as an excuse for further delay. "We also hope to build on the foundation of these resumed flights to gradually increase the exchange of goodwill gestures and cooperative interactions by both sides." Taiwan and China began regular direct flights to each other in 2009, after beginning charter flights in 2003.

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