U.S. Moves Closer to Closing Guantanamo Bay

[ucrdem]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Updated Dec. 31, 2013 11:24 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon said it has transferred the last three ethnic Uighur Chinese nationals from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Slovakia in what it called "a significant milestone in our effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay."

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a written statement that Yusef Abbas, Saidullah Khalik and Hajiakbar Abdul Ghuper are "voluntarily resettling in Slovakia," leaving 155 detainees at Guantanamo.

The three men were the last of 22 ethnic Uighurs captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and ordered released from Guantanamo under an Oct. 7, 2008, federal court ruling. The 22 men have ended up being resettled to six different countries, the Pentagon said.

Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel for advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said the transfer was an important moment. "The Uighurs had nothing to do with any conflict with the United States," she said. "It is a stark symbol of what was wrong with Guantanamo, with what was wrong with just sweeping people up and detaining them in an offshore facility."

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304361604579292270871879140

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This is a Google News link ... the non-google link goes to a firewalled version here:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304361604579292270871879140

[ucrdem]

1. More from the WSJ story, same link:

Since the May speech, the administration has transferred 11 detainees. Ms. Prasow said that showed a renewed political will to reduce the population in the prison.

Dixon Osburn, director of the law and security program at advocacy group Human Rights First, said the increased pace of transfers showed the administration was making good on its promises. "I do see the administration committed to whittling down the numbers of detainees remaining at Guantanamo," he said.

Mr. Dixon said the new Defense Authorization Act, signed in December by Mr. Obama, should make it easier to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo.

Off the 155 detainees in the prison, 76 have been cleared for transfer, although 55 are from Yemen, where al Qaeda-fueled violence has made transfers difficult. Ms. Prasow said she believed there is a very good chance the other 21 detainees cleared for transfer could be removed from Guantanamo by the end of the Obama administration, but that could still leave many detainees inside the prison.

[ucrdem]

2. DU link to the relevant section of the May speech:

May 23, 2013 (the pink lady speech):

Today, I once again call on Congress to lift the restrictions on detainee transfers from GTMO. I have asked the Department of Defense to designate a site in the United States where we can hold military commissions. I am appointing a new, senior envoy at the State Department and Defense Department whose sole responsibility will be to achieve the transfer of detainees to third countries.

I am lifting the moratorium on detainee transfers to Yemen, so we can review them on a case by case basis. To the greatest extent possible, we will transfer detainees who have been cleared to go to other countries. Where appropriate, we will bring terrorists to justice in our courts and military justice system. And we will insist that judicial review be available for every detainee.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014491176

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. "The Uighurs had nothing to do with any conflict with the United States," she said.

And yet we've kept them imprisoned for more than a decade. Yay, us, beacon of freedom and all that.

[Igel]

4. Perhaps.

Not like she's disinterested, any more than the prosecution or defense lawyers in a courtroom are disinterested.

The Uighurs could have been out of there a decade ago, except for a few problems. The first was that they were AQ/Taliban. They weren't in Afghanistan because they were at a resort getting mud facials. They were being trained. Not necessarily for attacking the US, so I guess it's okay--as long as they kill non-Americans everything's hunky-dory?

The second is that they couldn't be released locally and a lot of other places said "no" to hosting them for their mud facials.

The third is that the one place that asked for them, lobbied for them, and would have solved the problem of the Uighurs in GB without delay was where * and Obama, equally, refused to send them: China. Because while HRW thinks they're just fine, China had and still has a bit of a Muslim insurgency problem with the Uighurs.

[GoneFishin]

7. "The Uighurs ..... were AQ/Taliban." Do you have a source for this?

[JDPriestly]

5. That even a few prisoners have been released from Guantanamo is good news provided

they are not involved in terrorist acts in the future.

[The Stranger]

6. The problem is that they weren't involved in any terrorist acts in the past.

That is the mindfuck going on here.

[NobodyHere]

8. That's just one of the tragedies of this situation.

If they weren't terrorists against the U.S. before they went to gitmo, what does 10 years falsely imprisoned do to a person's mindset?

[JDPriestly]

13. That is my concern.

[NobodyHere]

9. Lets see how much money this cost us...

22 people being held for 10 years at a rate of $800,000 per year per person.

22 * 10 * 800,000 = $176,000,000.

[sheshe2]

10. Thanks for posting this article, ucrdem.

Republicans Finally Admit That They, Not Obama, Are Preventing Gitmo Civilian Trials

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/03/10/republicans-finally-closet-preventing-obama-closing-gitmo-civilian-trials.html

[ucrdem]

11. Great link!

Contrary to what you may have read for the last four years, President Obama really did sign an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (aka, Gitmo) and bring terror suspects to the continental US for civilian trials instead of military tribunals, per his understanding of our Constitution.

On January 22, 2009, as one of his first official acts in office, Barack Obama signed an executive order to close Gitmo within one year. On that day Obama said, “This is me following through on not just a commitment I made during the campaign, but I think an understanding that dates back to our founding fathers, that we are willing to observe core standards of conduct, not just when it’s easy, but also when it’s hard.”

That hasn’t happened, due mostly to Republicans but also some Democrats, who together managed to obstruct the President’s executive order.

SNIP

They make this clear every year when the Senate Armed Services Committee drafts the NDAA, and the neo con war hawks make sure they specifically prohibit the funding of the transfer of prisoners to US soil, thereby nullifying Obama’s executive order by defunding it.

That's how I remembered it too. How soon we forget! Thanks for finding and posting this sheshe!

[sheshe2]

12. You're welcome, ucrdem.

I get so tired of the whine we hear about PBO's broken promise. He the President not a dictator.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. ...

Ooh look....it's repukes doing it again. So they admitted it....but the blame is set in people's minds.

[freshwest]

15. Send them home. n/t

[Fearless]

16. Don't solve the problem... just MOVE the problem.