This weekend, President Obama released twelve Guantanamo prisoners back to their countries. Twelve went back to Yemen, four to Afghanistan, and two to Somaliland (a rebel area from Somalia that isn't recognized by the U.S. and has no diplomatic ties to us).
The Justice Department states it has reviewed the cases before releasing these twelve men. This action is thought to be a "prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen".
BTW, the Pentagon described one of the freed men as "exemplif(ing) the genuine threat that the United States and other countries face throughout the world from dangerous extremists". Wow.
A few other comments on these releases:
***There's a real problem here with conflict of interest: our Attorney General, Mr. Eric Holder, is senior partner in the law firm of Covington and Burling which has provided thousands of hours of pro-bono work to free Guantanamo prisoners. This law firm has been at the forefront of accusing the Guantanamo prison of torture, and pushing for the trial of the prisoners on US soil with all the rights of US citizens. While Mr. Holder is recusing himself from the actual legal proceedings, he is still in charge and has a say in the law firm's decisions.
***There's not a great record of the safety of letting these prisoners go. One is now a leading al Qaeda poet in Saudi Arabia, writing against Saudi royals and the United States. Oh, and two Gitmo prisoners with this "poet" have been killed in al Qaeda actions.
***Another freed prisoner is set to be tried in Italy on international terrorist charges for recruiting men to fight in Afghanistan.
Although, on second thought, these guys probably don't believe in Christmas.
Oh, well, it's the thought that counts.
No comments:
Post a Comment