GITMO reduction by 70%

[Dreadsox]

OK...so now we know that about 30% of the prisoners at GITMO potentially have information we need.

[Q]The Bush administration is negotiating the transfer of nearly 70 percent of the detainees at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to three countries as part of a plan to share the burden of keeping suspected terrorists behind bars.[/Q]

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/World/GH06Wd01.html

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

I'm not convinced this is good news. The countries which the Guantanamo prisoners are to be transferred to are Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, none of which are well-known for their respect of human rights, meaning that the prisoners could easily be being transferred to a situation which is as bad or potentially worse than the one they're presently in. And once again, no evidence has been presented as to why these people need to be imprisoned at all, whether in Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere.

That no evidence has been presented to justify these people's continued detention makes me especially concerned about this:

Senior US officials said it is the first major step toward whittling down the Guantanamo population to a core group of people that the US expects to hold indefinitely.

Shouldn't we be concerned that people are to be held indefinitely without so much as a trial?

 

[Dreadsox]

i am concerned about that....

But I am pretty outraged at the damage that has been done to the reputation of my country.....70% being sent out of GITMO.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Revolting, isn't it. You've even got people in there that have got fuck all to do with America. Did you know that? There's an Australian, for example. Not a great guy, someone you'd not trust as far as you could throw, has terrrorist training, held in Guantanamo. And why? I mean that really, Why? No one here knows why. It' vile.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Hicks cannot be tried in Australia because it was not a crime to be training with LeT when he was captured and we cannot apply anti-terror laws retroactively.

Why is he being held? He was captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban by the Northern Alliance, he was handed over to the Americans; he has been charged with conspiracy to attack civilians, attempted murder, and aiding the enemy. He is not entitled to POW status because he was not fighting for a reciognised army that is a signatory to the convention or that adheres to the laws of war. He will be tried on the basis of the evidence in a military commission; and until that process can be properly nailed out he will not be going anywhere.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Gee, thanks.

 

[verte76]

That's alot of prisoners.