The Obama administration may increase its use of controversial military commissions for Guantánamo Bay detainees, according to a New York Times report Jan. 20. Per the report, administration officials plan to rescind an order issued on Obama's first day in office that halted military commission proceedings and continues to block the government from initiating new cases under the system. If done, filings are expected within weeks, which would represent the first time that new charges are brought against detainees during the Obama administration. Officials are also reportedly drafting a new executive order that would establish mechanisms by which to review the cases of those detainees held without trial.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced Jan. 6 that Guantánamo Bay detainee Farhi Saeed Bin Mohammed was transfered to his native Algeria pursuant to a court order from November 2009. The DoD said it had successfully transferred Farhi after the inter-agency Guantánamo Review Task Force aapproved the transfer following a comprehensive review considering, especially, the security issues. The DoD worked closely with the government of Algeria to transfer Farhi safely and securely. Farhi's lawyers had fought the transfer back to Algeria out of fear that he would be tortured and mistreated. It is unclear whether Farhi is currently in jail in Algeria.

Our last issue featured the story "9-11 at Nine: The Conspiracy Industry and the Lure of Fascism" by World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg, calling out the growing embrace of right-wing and virulently anti-Semitic conspiracy theory by the left-wing blogosphere and alternative media. Weinberg also had to issue a statement dissenting from the right-wing conspiranoid drift at New York's non-commercial WBAI Radio, where his program, the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, has been exiled to 2 AM and stripped by 30 minutes as a punitive measure in response to his protests. Our September Exit Poll was: "Is World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg an agent of the Illuminati, pawn of the Bilderbergs, Mossad operative and/or shape-shifting reptilian?" We finally received the following responses:

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights announced Dec. 28 that the US government has refused to provide legal cooperation to Polish prosecutors investigating whether Saudi terror suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was tortured in a secret CIA prison in Poland. According to the letter sent by Polish prosecutors to the Helsinki Foundation, the US government denied the March 2009 request on the basis of a bilateral agreement on the protection of state interests.

Detainees will continue to be held at the detention center at Guantánamo Bay for the foreseeable future, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged Dec. 26 on CNN's "State of the Union." The statement comes almost one year after the Obama administration missed its self-imposed January 2010 deadline to close the facility. Gibbs also stated that in addition to the use of civilian courts and military commissions, some detainees would have to be indefinitely detained:

We are probably risking getting our website sabotaged by saying it, but the unthinking cult of personality that has swelled around WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is appalling on several counts. For those who can see past the groupthink glorification, it reveals another example of the dissident space traditionally held by the left being assumed by the populist right—a frightening and growing phenomenon. We will make this case primarily in the words of Assange himself, and his supporters. So, as the ubiquitous catch-phrase in his defense goes, "Don't shoot the messenger"...

A New York federal jury acquitted alleged al-Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani on Nov. 17 of all major terrorism charges in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224, including 12 US citizens. In the first trial of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee in civilian court, the Tanzanian was convicted of one count of conspiracy to damage or destroy US property but cleared of 285 counts, including 276 of murder and attempted murder. Federal prosecutors say they will seek the maximum sentence of life without parole on the conspiracy count.

The UK government on Nov. 16 announced a settlement with 16 Guantánamo Bay detainees over allegations of torture. Details of the settlement agreement, which are legally bound to a confidentiality agreement, have not been released, although at least seven detainees are expected to receive compensation, with at least one receiving over one million pounds. In return, the 16 detainees—12 of whom had filed suit and four of whom were planning to—agreed to drop a lawsuit against MI5 and M16, Britain's domestic and overseas intelligence agencies, respectively. Although many of the detainees receiving settlement are British citizens, some are not and may be offered asylum as part of the settlement. At least one is still detained in Guantánamo Bay.