Judges order release of 30 from Gitmo

[sabra]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - Federal judges, complying with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, have taken up the cases of Guantanamo detainees and found the government’s evidence against 30 of them wanting and ordered their release.

That number could rise significantly because the judges are on track to hear challenges from dozens more prisoners scooped up along with hard-core terrorist suspects in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.

These 30 detainees stand in stark contrast to the 10 prisoners whom the Obama administration targeted for prosecution Friday for plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and other attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of 9/11, and four of his alleged henchmen are headed for a federal civilian trial in New York; five others, including a top suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, will be tried by a military commission.

More detainees are expected to soon be added to the prosecution list. But there will still be plenty of cases left among the 215 detainees now at Guantanamo to keep the judges here busy as they work to clear a legal morass the Bush administration created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Bush administration Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once promised Guantanamo held “the worst of the worst.” The judges here have rejected pleas for release from eight detainees, but they have concluded the government doesn’t even have enough evidence to keep 30 other detainees behind bars.

Read more: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/general/view/20091115judges_order_release_of_30_from_gitmo/srvc=home&position=recent

[tekisui]

1. Good on those judges. Let's clean this mess up.

Now, what to do about Bagram?

[Bette Noir]

2. I hope the ones to be released still have friends and families to go home to.

They've been away a long time.

[tavalon]

3. Good, I'm glad

It is certainly possible that a few of them want revenge - who wouldn't, but it's still best that innocent people be set free.

[No Elephants]

4. "Worst of the worst" applies to members of the Bush Administration, including Rumsfeld.

They have made us far less secure for generations to come. Those tortured and wrongfully detained and their children and their grandchildren all know where we live.