As Guantanamo inches toward closure, the story of Saifullah Paracha and his son Uzair tells us much about the contradictions of U.S. policy during the global war on terror. Their intertwined stories undercut the notion that Guantanamo was or ever could be a legal system separate and apart from the federal courts.
At 2:50 p.m. on April 15, 2013, two explosions went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The brazen terrorist attack killed three people, injured and maimed hundreds more, and shocked the nation. Despite being long recognized as a potential threat by law enforcement and intelligence, few Americans had considered the use of an improvised explosive device (IED) on American soil. And, due to only a few, and relatively small, attacks since 9/11, the public was not in a state of awareness.
The United States has freed and transferred to Pakistan one of the oldest of the remaining prisoners from the secretive U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. A brief Pakistani foreign ministry announcement Saturday confirmed the repatriation of Saif Ullah Paracha, 74, to his home country. “We are glad that a Pakistani citizen detained abroad…
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Saturday announced that Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani national, detained in the US military prison at its Guantanamo Bay Naval Base for the last 18 years, had been.