A leading senator, Joseph Biden of Delaware, suggested the time has come to consider a gradual closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. "This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world. And it is unnecessary to be in that position." The senator argued there should at least be an independent commission established to address the value of keeping Guantanamo. "The end result is, I think we should end up shutting it down, moving those prisoners. Those that we have reason to keep, keep. And those we don't, let go."

On May 27, Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ) Paraguay condemned an agreement approved by the Paraguayan Congress which will allow US troops into the country for an 18-month training and advisory mission from June 1, 2005 through December 31, 2006. The agreement grants full immunity from prosecution to all US personnel involved in the mission. Congress approved the agreement--apparently at the end of last year--with no debate and behind closed doors, and the public was largely unaware of it, according to SERPAJ Paraguay. "No one knows the extent of these accords and the dangers of a US strategy to violate them," the group warned.

The following item was featured in JTA on June 7:

Rudy to the rescue?
Rudolph Giuliani offered to help Israel fight crime.

"I am prepared to help you but it would have to be done on a clandestine basis, not publicly and not through a newspaper," the former New York City mayor said Tuesday when asked by Yediot Achronot about recent calls by Israeli authorities to emulate his law-enforcement policies, which curbed crime in New York City. Giuliani noted that during his time as mayor, New York had 55 police officers for every 10,000 citizens, more than twice the figure in Israel.

While Chilean ex-Minister of the Interior, Jose Miguel Insulza, assumes the post of Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General, Chile’s indigenous Mapuche bring their case to that same organization, accusing the Chilean government of human rights violations. Having exhausted resources for the Mapuche leader’s defense, the denunciation is being presented before the OAS with the objective of restoring the honor of the Mapuche authority, and securing an end to the use of anti-terrorism legislation against the Mapuche people.

Israeli police faced off against Palestinians throwing rocks at Jews outside Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque June 6 during Israel's annual celebration of its 1967 capture of East Jerusalem. Police hurled several stun grenades as they moved into the area known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). Two Jews were slightly injured and one Palestinian was arrested.

William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," charged: "The U.S. is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons, into which people are being literally disappeared, held in indefinite, incommunicado detention without access to lawyers or a judicial system or to their families. And in some cases, at least, we know they are being mistreated, abused, tortured and even killed."

Four years after scores of rescue workers were injured in the smoldering wreckage of the World Trade Center, the federal government plans to rescind $125 million that was allocated to help them, and many of those who requested compensation are finding their claims being disputed at 10 times the rate that typical workers face.

Afghan forces reportedly captured two key Taliban leaders as they were driving in Farah province June 4. The two, Mullah Abdul Rahim - a deputy for a key Taliban commander said to be close to the militia’s fugitive leader, Mullah Omar - and regional Taliban commander Haji Sultan, were immediately handed over to US authorities. Other Taliban fighters were reported killed or captured in fighting in Zabul province that day. (Pakistan Daily Times, June 6) But violence appears undiminished.