prisoner of war

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Maybe Bagram Will Be the New Gitmo

Administration ponders how best to handle detainees

(Newser) - President Obama's security team is for the first time writing guidelines on how to handle captured terror suspects—specifically on whether any will be allowed to be detained indefinitely without trial, the Los Angeles Times reports. Draft guidelines predict that will be necessary for a small number of detainees, with...

GI's Family to Taliban: Please Release Our Son

Military says video may have been filmed months ago

(Newser) - The family of an American soldier captured in Afghanistan 6 months ago "pleads with the captors to let our only son come home." Today's statement from the relatives of Pfc. Bowe Robert Bergdahl, 23, follows the release of a video in which Bergdahl speaks against the US war...

Israel Will Free 20 Palestinian Prisoners for Video of Soldier

Hamas says footage proves Shalit is alive

(Newser) - Israel will release 20 Palestinian women from jail in exchange for a video from Hamas proving that a young soldier captured three years ago is alive. The swap is expected to take place Friday and will lead to further negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit, now 23, who was...

US to Honor Nazis' Secret Soldier Slaves

350 survivors vowed to keep abuses secret

(Newser) - After 64 years, the US Army will finally honor 350 American soldiers who were tortured and enslaved during the Holocaust's final months, CNN reports. The Nazis beat, starved and forced the war prisoners to work in a section of the Buchenwald  concentration camp. Some 100 of them died, and survivors...

Aiming to Right History, Group Sniffs Out Fake POWs

Pretending to be war prisoner is legal, but vets say it dishonors the true heroes

(Newser) - When Richard Cayton told a Texas newspaper about his harrowing escape from captors in Vietnam, former Navy SEAL Steve Robinson thought something smelled fishy. He ran some quick checks, and told the newspaper that it had been lied to—Cayton had never been a prisoner of war. Sniffing out such...

Guard: We Didn't Torture McCain

Prison staff saw to prisoner's health, he says

(Newser) - John McCain’s claims that he was tortured while imprisoned in Vietnam are false, says the head guard at the prison where he was held. “On the contrary, we saved his life, curing him with extremely valuable medicines that at times were not available to our own wounded,”...

As McCain Shaped Book, Book Shaped McCain
As McCain Shaped Book, Book Shaped McCain
ANALYSIS

As McCain Shaped Book, Book Shaped McCain

Process of writing memoir recast Republican's political persona

(Newser) - As recently as 1998, John McCain told Esquire that being introduced as a “great war hero” was enough to “make your skin crawl.” Today, however, his POW experience is a pillar of his presidential campaign, a change David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times attributes to the...

Palin 'Exactly Who I Need' to Remake Washington: Mac

Alaska governor 'honored,' aims appeal at women displeased with Democrats

(Newser) - John McCain described Sarah Palin, his choice for vice presidential running mate, as "exactly who I need. She's exactly who this country needs to help us fight the same old Washington politics of me first and country second." McCain and Palin appeared together in Ohio on their way...

McCain Cheapens the POW Card
 McCain Cheapens
the POW Card
 
OPINION

McCain Cheapens the POW Card

Sets up dangerous land mines for campaign

(Newser) - John McCain’s campaign refers to his prisoner-of-war past so much that it’s becoming a “punch line,” writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. “By flashing the POW card to rebut any criticism, no matter how unrelated,” McCain “is cheapening his greatest strength,...

McCain Recalls POW Prayers, Tests of Faith

Generally quiet on religion, candidate open about Vietnam

(Newser) - John McCain has kept relatively quiet about his religious beliefs and practices, but he speaks freely on the spiritual significance of his captivity in North Vietnam from 1967 to 1973. Ahead of tomorrow's sit-down with Rick Warren, the candidate tells the Chicago Tribune about his harrowing experience in the Hanoi...

China Admits Burying US POW From Korean War

Move could open door to records of others

(Newser) - China has for the first time admitted holding an American prisoner from the Korean War on its soil, AP reports. The Vermont man, just 18 when he was captured, died in China and was buried there, officials said. China authorities, who said the prisoner was mentally ill, had previously insisted...

Israel Returns Hezbollah Spy
 Israel Returns
 Hezbollah Spy 

Israel Returns Hezbollah Spy

Prisoner swap may be under way with Lebanon

(Newser) - Israel returned a Hezbollah spy to Lebanon today and may have started a prisoner exchange, BBC reports. Hezbollah quickly handed over the bodies of Israeli troops killed in 2006, but officials on both sides deny a swap is under way. Secret talks clearly are, perhaps aided by German mediators; a...

Gitmo Prisoners Granted Phone Call to Family

They'll get just one a year, along with censored letters

(Newser) - "Unlawful enemy combatants" detained at the Guantanamo Bay naval base will be allowed to phone their families one a year, Reuters reports. But the military task force in charge of managing the prison has yet to work out the details. As it stands, Gitmo inmates can send and receive...

UK Troops Accused of Executing Iraqis

Five men file suit, say soldiers killed and tortured 20 captives

(Newser) - British soldiers killed up to 20 Iraqi captives after a 2004 firefight, say lawyers representing five men taken prisoner that day, the BBC reports. The men—described by their lawyers as laborers, not insurgents—say they heard UK soldiers killing and torturing captives at a British base after the gun...

Noriega Dodges French Trial in Miami Stir

Dictator's fight against extradition delays release date

(Newser) - Eleventh-hour appeals of his extradition to France kept former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega in his Miami prison cell yesterday, his scheduled release date. The dictator was set to face French money-laundering charges, but his lawyers argued that the Geneva Convention prevents his extradition because Paris doesn't recognize his prisoner-of-war status.

It's Bon Voyage for Noriega
It's Bon Voyage for Noriega

It's Bon Voyage for Noriega

Judge OKs France's extradition request for former dictator; he'll serve jail term there

(Newser) - Former dictator of Panama Manuel Noriega will be extradited to France to serve ten more years of jail time. Noriega has done 18 years in a Miami prison, and will be released for good behavior next month. He faces money laundering charges in France, but had asked to return to...

Judge Allows Noriega Extradition
Judge Allows Noriega Extradition

Judge Allows Noriega Extradition

Ex-general wants to dodge French charges by returning to Panama

(Newser) - A federal judge today rejected former dictator Manuel Noriega's request to return to Panama following his release from a Miami prison next month, the Miami Herald reports. Noriega sought to avoid extradition to France, where he faces a 10-year sentence for a conviction in abstentia on money laundering charges. Noriega...

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