U.S. quandary: What to do with Gitmo detainees who will never be charged?

[babylonsister]

US remains captive to Guantánamo dilemma

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Guantánamo Bay

Published: November 18 2007 18:35 | Last updated: November 18 2007 18:35

Guantánamo Bay has long been a thorn in the side of Fidel Castro, Cuba’s president. But since the US started bringing prisoners captured in the “war on terror” there in 2002, it has become an even bigger headache for President George W. Bush.

US officials concede that the detention facilities at Guantánamo naval base have, second only to those at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, tarred the image of the US around the world. But although Mr Bush says he wants to close the prison, his administration is grappling with tough political and legal issues, including where to hold about 150 of the 305 detainees who will never be brought before military ­commissions.

Guantánamo originally came under criticism over allegations of abusive detention and interrogation practices. A recently leaked Guantánamo operations manual from 2003 outlined, for example, methods to “enhance and exploit the disorientation” of new detainees by denying them access to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

While allegations of abuse have subsided, lawyers for the detainees are more concerned about the prolonged detentions, legislation that prevents detainees from challenging their incarceration in federal courts, and the military commissions system created by the administration to try ­detainees.

“The medieval physical brutality has more or less been cleared up in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal,” said Shane Kadidal, head of the Guantánamo project at the Center for Constitutional Rights, whose lawyers represent some of the Guantánamo detainees.

Mr Kadidal stresses that prolonged detention, particularly for prisoners kept in isolation, can leave longer-lasting psychological scars. A string of legal decisions – including a Supreme Court ruling last year that the original military commissions were illegal – has meant that, almost six years since the first detainee arrived at Guantánamo, not one has gone on trial.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8176b30a-9603-11dc-b7ec-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

[Vincardog]

1. Simple send them to the bush compound in Paraguay. They can help jr

clear brush in his golden years.