(Guantanamo) Detentions over charity ties questioned (Boston Globe)

Detentions over charity ties questioned
Terror links called overstated

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | August 31, 2006

WASHINGTON -- For the past four years, the US military has held Adel
Hassan Hamad in prison at Guantanamo Bay, based in part on allegations
that he worked for two charity groups in Afghanistan that the US
military says support terrorism, according to the military's summary
of evidence against Hamad.

But neither group appears on the State Department's list of designated
terrorist organizations, and one of them operates openly from an office
in Britain.

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Scores of detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been accused of belonging
to terrorist networks posing as humanitarian organizations, according
to transcripts of military hearings. Many of these detainees worked
for groups with established terrorist links, but others were employees
of legally recognized Muslim charities that are considered mainstream
in the Middle East, are not on the State Department's terrorist list,
and employ relief workers around the globe.

Some defense lawyers say these cases show that the US military is
stretching the evidence to justify the continued detention of prisoners
at Guantanamo Bay.

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