Reply #26: Twelve repatriated from Guantánamo

[Demeter]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c2668d6-edaf-11de-ba12-00144feab49a.html

The US said on Sunday it had sent 12 detainees from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp home to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland autonomous region, as part of the Obama administration’s plan to close down the detention facility.

Four Afghans, two Somalis and six Yemenis were sent to their respective home countries over the weekend, the Department of Justice said.

They had been released after officials examined a number of factors, “including potential threat, mitigation measures and the likelihood of success in habeas litigation”, the department said.

“These transfers were carried out under individual arrangements between the United States and relevant foreign authorities to ensure the transfers took place under appropriate security measures,” it added.

“Consultations with foreign authorities regarding these individuals will continue.”

Almost 560 detainees have been released from Guantánamo since the Bush administration opened it in 2002 as part of its “war on terror”, the vast majority of them since Barack Obama, US president, took office in January.

About half of the almost 200 still in the Cuban island camp are from Yemen but the US government is concerned about transferring them home owing to government instability and al-Qaeda activity in the country....

...The White House...ordered last week the purchase of the Thomson Correctional Centre, an underutilised 1,600-cell maximum security prison about 150 miles west of Chicago, to house as many as 100 of those detained at Guantánamo Bay. Some of those would face trial there.

The decision to move the detainees on to American soil is controversial but the administration said that it would help to prevent future attacks by removing a “deadly recruiting tool” from the hands of al-Qaeda...

thereby giving the GOP a "deadly recruiting tool"...