Pentagon wants to send more Guantanamo detainees home, with conditions [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Pentagon wants to send more Guantanamo detainees home, with conditions

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is pressing the State Department to increase pressure on some unresponsive foreign capitals to take custody of some of their nationals who are held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a senior defense official said Friday.

The military has transferred 65 prisoners from Guantanamo to their home countries, but some countries -- which officials did not identify -- have largely ignored American requests for transfers, officials said. The senior official described Rumsfeld's effort, first reported Friday in The New York Times, on the condition of anonymity.
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In making these transfers, the U.S. government sets conditions, such as requiring that the detainee be held by their home country, and, in some cases, seeking protections regarding their treatment while in prison there.

Boucher said that the department has a policy to "not transfer a person to a country if we determine that it is more likely than not'' that the prisoner will be tortured.
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