August 5, 2005

THE VANISHING:

US, 3 nations discuss shift of Guantanamo inmates (Josh White and Robin Wright, August 5, 2005, Boston Globe)

The administration is negotiating the transfer of almost 70 percent of the detainees at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to three countries, officials said. The move is part of a plan, they said, to share the burden of keeping suspected terrorists behind bars.

US officials announced yesterday that they have reached an agreement with the government of Afghanistan to transfer most of its nationals to Kabul's ''exclusive" control and custody. There are 110 Afghan detainees at Guantanamo, and 350 at the Bagram airfield near Kabul. Their transfers could begin in the next six months. [...]

The decision to move more than 20 percent of the detainees at Guantanamo to Afghanistan, and to largely clear out the detention center at Bagram, is part of a plan for a significant reduction in the population of ''enemy combatants" in US custody.

Senior US officials said the agreement yesterday was the first major step toward whittling down the Guantanamo population to a group of people whom the United States expects to hold indefinitely.


Somehow it seems unlikely these guys will be thanking the ACLU.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 5, 2005 8:43 AM
Comments

Once again the policies of the Left will have the opposite effect of what they intended.

But then, with them it's not about the target of the policies that they care about---it's that they get to feel good about themselves.

As Sowell said, "self-congratulation as the basis for social policy"

Posted by: ray at August 5, 2005 8:57 AM

The next move by the ACLU and others will be to decry the nations the inmates are being sent to and demand that either those nations adhere to U.S. criminal justice standards or that the U.S. sent them to American prisons instead. Of course, it won't happen, but it will give them the chance to churn out some "Bush sending Guantanamo inmates to their deaths" press releases.

Posted by: John at August 5, 2005 10:09 AM

We should get the prisoners to sign statements begging to stay at Gitmo.

Posted by: b at August 5, 2005 11:27 AM

I read somewhere that prisoners being returned to Afghanistan are facing execution. Wouldn't that be the rub then to the do-gooders?

Vaya con dios boys.

Posted by: erp at August 5, 2005 2:01 PM

Now what to do with the remaining 30%? I recommend trying them for crimes against humanity and executing them.

Posted by: ralph phelan at August 5, 2005 4:01 PM

I read somewhere that prisoners being returned to Afghanistan are facing execution.

So they either stay at Gitmo or . . . short drop and a sudden stop.

Win-win.

Posted by: Mike Morley at August 5, 2005 11:44 PM
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