The commander of detention operations at Guantanamo Bay denied reports that the physical and mental health of an al-Jazeera cameraman is deteriorating.
A defense attorney earlier this week said Sami al-Hajj, one of the highest-profile detainees at the US naval base in southeastern Cuba, has deteriorated sharply in recent months, losing 18kg since late last year and developing intestinal problems. Al-Hajj has been on hunger strike, lawyer Clive Stafford Smith said.
But in an e-mail sent late on Friday, US Navy Rear Admiral Mark Buzby said al-Hajj is actually 9kg heavier than when he arrived at the prison in June 2002.
"Contrary to allegations, there have been no indications that he developed intestinal problems and no indications that his mental health has recently deteriorated," Buzby said.
Buzby insisted al-Hajj is currently at "102 percent of his ideal body weight" and is seen by medical personnel daily at Guantanamo Bay, where the US holds about 355 men on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Al-Hajj was first reported to be on hunger strike in early January by his network's Arabic-language Web site, which said he may be suffering from some health problems. Buzby did not disclose al-Hajj's weight or confirm that he is one of the hunger strikers.
Long-term hunger strikers are force-fed by the military. In recent months, the number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo has grown to about two dozen.
The US military publicly acknowledged holding al-Hajj in April last year. He was first detained by Pakistani forces in December 2001.
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in
STILL IN POWER: US intelligence reports showed that the Iranian regime is not in danger of collapse and retains control of the public, casting doubt on Trump’s exit Nearly every US Senate Democrat on Wednesday signed a letter sent to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requesting a “swift investigation” of airstrikes on a girls’ school in Iran that killed scores of children and any other potential US military actions causing civilian harm. Reuters reported on Thursday last week that US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the Feb. 28 strike on the school, as US and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran. “The results of this school attack are horrific. The majority of those killed in the strikes were girls between the ages
RSS