82 inmates cleared but still held at Guantanamo

[Judi Lynn]

Source: MSNBC/Washington Post

82 inmates cleared but still held at Guantanamo
U.S. cites difficulty deporting detainees
By Craig Whitlock

Updated: 5 minutes ago
LONDON - More than a fifth of the approximately 385 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared for release but may have to wait months or years for their freedom because U.S. officials are finding it increasingly difficult to line up places to send them, according to Bush administration officials and defense lawyers.

Since February, the Pentagon has notified about 85 inmates or their attorneys that they are eligible to leave after being cleared by military review panels. But only a handful have gone home, including a Moroccan and an Afghan who were released Tuesday. Eighty-two remain at Guantanamo and face indefinite waits as U.S. officials struggle to figure out when and where to deport them, and under what conditions.

The delays illustrate how much harder it will be to empty the prison at Guantanamo than it was to fill it after it opened in January 2002 to detain fighters captured in Afghanistan and terrorism suspects captured overseas.
(snip)

Another major obstacle: U.S. laws that prevent the deportation of people to countries where they could face torture or other human rights abuses, as in the case of 17 Chinese Muslim separatists who have been cleared for release but fear they could be executed for political reasons if returned to China.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18374971/

[Up2Late]

1. Here's a related story that I posted earlier that you might want to check out.

Most of this is very disturbing though, it's about the importance of Habeas Corpus: <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=778281&mesg_id=778281>

[LynnTheDem]

2. U.S. laws that prevent the deportation of people to countries where they could face torture...

The ironic hypocrisy of that is mind-blowing.

[Solly Mack]

3. US still pretending it doesn't torture

and they always will pretend...gotta protect that image no matter how much of a lie it is



and this part is beyond rich...


"In general, most countries simply do not want to help," said John B. Bellinger III, legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Countries believe this is not their problem. They think they didn't contribute to Guantanamo, and therefore they don't have to be part of the solution."

another excerpt



"Other prisoner advocates said the Bush administration has made its task more difficult by exaggerating the threat posed by most Guantanamo inmates -- officials repeatedly called them "the worst of the worst" -- and refusing to acknowledge mistaken detentions.

Foreign governments have also questioned why U.S. officials should expect other countries to pitch in, given that Washington won't offer asylum to detainees either."

[Bonobo]

4. kick. Too important to drop.

[lonestarnot]

5. There kind of like the buildings we have "reconstructed" snort!

They're there, but what for? The buildings are no good to them, no good to us, but cost us ? 60 billion in reconstruction. Sorry for comparing people to buildings, but WTF are we still holding them for? :shrug:

[PATRICK]

6. At least Stalin

would make an official twenty year sentence then add on another when it expired to keep innocents locked away.

[Toots]

7. I thought the entire reason they put the prison in Cuba was so they didn't have to follow US Laws?

Why should they start now?

[ohio2007]

8. Ask their country of origin to come pick them up...How hard is THAT !

this isn't rocket science.