Exhausted, 16 Afghans freed after Guantanamo

[Rose Siding]

KABUL (Reuters) - Exhausted, but happy, 16 Afghans were freed in Kabul on Thursday after being released by the U.S. military from its Guantanamo Bay jail.

Aged from 25 to more than 55, they had been held as suspected fighters for the Taliban or its allies in Afghanistan after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.

Several of the bearded men interviewed by journalists, some wearing green, hospital-style ID tags on their wrists, said they were treated badly by the U.S. military during their detention in Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo base in Cuba.

One, Sayed Mohammad Ali Shah, a doctor, said he had been arrested on false information given to the U.S. military by an Afghan with a personal grievance against him.
...
They are the latest batch of detainees to be freed from Guantanamo, where the treatment of prisoners has drawn widespread international condemnation.

More than 400 suspected militants, captured mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, remain there.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-10-12T120002Z_01_ISL156591_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-PRISONERS.xml

[LynnTheDem]

1. But but but bush & limbaugh and hannity and et al said EVERYONE

in Gitmo are "evil terrorists"!

I guess they meant EVERYONE except for the 320 plus these 16 that have been released after several years jailed by the US without being charged, without trials, without any due process whatsoever... exactly the sort of crime bush said Hussein committed that we had to illegally invade Iraq for.

[twilight_sailing]

2. that's right

The Bush Administration called them something like - the worst of the worst. Something like that.

So HOW CAN IT BE that, well, the Bush Administration was wrong? Were they lying or were they just incompetent?

How could anyone defend the Bush Administration? Good grief.

[damntexdem]

5. Oh, the Bushistas just meant that the guilty ones were the worst ...

of the worst. Presumably the innocent ones are at worst only the mediocre of the worst. ;-)

[Supersedeas]

7. Gitmo Talking Point #1: Worst of the Worst; Worst of the Worst...UNTIL

we set them free and acknowledge that we held goat herders for 5 YEARS WITH NO DUE PROCESS!!!

[LynnTheDem]

9. "due process" is so un-American.

And so September 10th.

[leftchick]

3. Key Word: 400 SUSPECTED militants

not many pro-torture peope get that. :grr:

[damntexdem]

6. Not many pro-torture people care.

Certainly not Dubya or Rummy.

[Amonester]

4. K&R

Each small candle lights a corner of the dark
When the wheel of pain stops turning
And the branding iron stops burning
When the children can be children
When the desperados weaken
When the tide rolls into greet them
And the natural law of science
Greets the humble and the mighty
And the billion candles burning
Lights the dark side of every human mind
-Roger Waters (In The Flesh Live 2000 DVD/CD)

[The Stranger]

8. These are war criminal witnesses.

I hope they can be tracked down for testimony against those who established and defended the concentration camp.

[ArmchairMeme]

10. Witnesses

Regular releases - these happen on a regular basis. It sure does make one wonder that if these people are so dangerous why do they get released?

If they were innocent why did they have to be there this long?

So have been tortured long enough?

How many were there at the height? 800 or more and now are are 400.
That would explain why they cannot be tried in a court - they are all innocent.
This is large margin of error!

Questions and more questions.