Terror inmates may be released in US: intel chief

[darrels joy]

Terror inmates may be released in US: intel chief
Mar 26 07:59 PM US/Eastern

President Barack Obama's intelligence chief confirmed Thursday that some Guantanamo inmates may be released on US soil and receive assistance to return to society. "If we are to release them in the United States, we need some sort of assistance for them to start a new life," said National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair at his first press conference. "You can't just put them on the street," he added. "All that is work in progress." Obama has vowed to close the controversial prison camp by next January and has ordered individual reviews for cases against each of the over 240 remaining prisoners. Blair told reporters that the review of Guantanamo cases was still underway, and that the government was "building dossiers on each of the detainees." The Obama administration is currently evaluating what could be done with the prisoners, he said, but pledged that if they are sent to another country, "we have to be sure that that country will treat them in a humane fashion." Twenty men detained at the remote US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in southern Cuba have been cleared of terrorism charges, including 17 Chinese Uighurs ordered released by a US court in June, seven years after their arrest. But the US says they may face persecution if returned to China. In an executive order signed days after he took office in January, Obama also promised to uphold the Geneva Conventions for the remaining prisoners until the detention center is closed. Blair touched on the controversial interrogation techniques used on terror suspects under the administration of president George W. Bush, saying that those methods -- including waterboarding, or simulated drowning -- would not be used under his tenure. But Blair, a retired US admiral, added that his team was examining other "enhanced interrogation techniques" for high-value detainees that comply with international conventions on prisoners of war. He did not elaborate on what methods would be used, but said such interrogations should be carried out by "government employees; they shouldn't be contractors; they should be highly trained, very supervised."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

[darrels joy]

Official: Mexico not in danger of collapse
By PAM HESS – 21 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Mexican government is not on the verge of collapse, the top U.S. intelligence official said Thursday, seeking to tamp down increasing alarm over the powerful and violent drug cartels operating in the country that is the United States' southern neighbor.

"Mexico is in no danger of becoming a failed state," said National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair at his first news conference Thursday.

Echoing the assessment of Mexico's leaders, Blair said the dramatic increase in killings in Mexico is a result of that government's crackdown on drug cartels.

A U.S. military planning report issued in January warned that the escalating violence is dangerously destabilizing Mexico and warned its government could collapse. But Blair said there is no danger of that.

Nevertheless, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will dispatch nearly 500 more federal agents to the border, along with X-ray machines and drug-sniffing dogs, to stop the spillover of violence into the U.S. from Mexican drug smugglers and immigrant smugglers. National Guardsmen might also be sent.

"The Mexican campaign is our campaign," Blair said.

During his news conference, Blair also said the Obama administration is still wrestling with what to do with the remaining 240 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which the president has ordered closed.
Some of the detainees, deemed non-threatening, may be released into the United States as free men, Blair confirmed.

That would happen when they can't be returned to their home countries, because the governments either won't take them or the U.S. fears they will be abused or tortured. That is the case with 17 Uighers (WEE'-gurz), Chinese Muslim separatists who were cleared for release from the jail long ago. The U.S. can't find a country willing to take them, and it will not turn them over to China.

Blair said the former prisoners would have get some sort of assistance to start their new lives in the United States.

"We can't put them out on the street," he said.
Blair said the U.S. government is building dossiers on each of the prisoners at Guantanamo and is still developing the process that will determine what happens to them. Some may face criminal trials in the U.S. civilian courts and be imprisoned in U.S. jails.

Others will be remanded to their home governments for continued jailing or potential rehabilitation.

The Pentagon claims more than 60 former Guantanamo inmates have been released by their home governments and are believed to be engaged in militant activities. It has not released a list of those former prisoners. Two of the top al-Qaida leaders in Yemen are former inmates, according to both al-Qaida and U.S. intelligence officials. And the Taliban's top operations officer in southern Afghanistan was released from Guantanamo in 2007, according to U.S. intelligence and military officials.

On another matter, Blair said the United States will no longer waterboard prisoners_ a form of simulated drowning that was used against three alleged terrorists in 2002 and 2003. But other "enhanced interrogation techniques" are being considered for inclusion in the methods finally approved for use. He did not say what methods he would consider retaining. The CIA's enhanced interrogation program is classified. Blair is a key figure in the White House review of the CIA's interrogation program.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...N4QOQD975U2TG0

[darrels joy]

Welfare for Freed Gitmo Detainees?


Here, from the Associated Press, is a partial account of DNI Dennis Blair’s first press conference today (emphasis mine):

During his news conference, Blair also said the Obama administration is still wrestling with what to do with the remaining 240 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which the president has ordered closed.
Some of the detainees, deemed non-threatening, may be released into the United States as free men, Blair confirmed.
That would happen when they can't be returned to their home countries, because the governments either won't take them or the U.S. fears they will be abused or tortured. That is the case with 17 Uighurs (WEE'-gurz), Chinese Muslim separatists who were cleared for release from the jail long ago. The U.S. can't find a country willing to take them, and it will not turn them over to China.
Blair said the former prisoners would have [to] get some sort of assistance to start their new lives in the United States.
“We can't put them out on the street,” he said.

Four short questions/comments:
(1) Does this mean that the Obama administration is planning on giving some freed Guantanamo detainees a stipend? It sure appears that way. So, not only is the Obama administration planning on freeing some detainees on U.S. soil, it is also going to pay them to live here. Amazing. Who would have thought that we would see the day when detainees who were once labeled enemy combatants would be receiving welfare?

(2) The Uighur detainees are cited, over and over again, as the types of detainees who can be safely released into the U.S. This conclusion has been reached through a combination of specious reasoning and ignorance.
None of the 17 Uighurs are master terrorists on par with the likes of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They were mostly new recruits at the time of their capture. However, as I have argued before, they are all affiliated with and/or members of a designated terrorist organization, received training at a training camp in the al Qaeda/Taliban stronghold of Tora Bora, and have admitted that they were trained by two known terrorists. And, on top of that, the group that trained them threatened to attack the Olympic Games in China last year.

Even if you don’t think that we should lock them up and throw away the key, do we really want to pay them to live on U.S. soil?

(3) The AP says the United States can’t find a country to take the Uighurs, other than China, which may treat them harshly. But that really remains to be seen. Ireland, for example, has apparently offered to take some Guantanamo detainees. Other European nations have been somewhat more reticent.

(4) Is the Obama administration considering paying other Guantanamo detainees to live in the U.S. as well?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblog...tmo_detain.asp

My question...

Since they will be in this country legally, how soon can they apply for all the other benefits including citizenship?

Joy

[darrels joy]

President Obama Dodges a Bullet on the Uighers


Most in the conservative blogosphere are mocking this latest development, but this is a small victory for President Obama.

Palau agreed to accept 17 Chinese Muslims who have languished in legal limbo at Guantanamo Bay, indicating a resolution to one of the major obstacles to closing the U.S. prison camp.

The announcement Wednesday by the Pacific archipelago, which would clear the last of the Uighurs from the camp in Cuba, was a major step toward the Obama administration's goal of finding new homes for detainees who have been cleared of wrongdoing but cannot go home for fear of ill-treatment.

The U.S. feared the minority Uighurs would be tortured or executed as Islamic separatists if returned to China, but the Obama administration faced fierce congressional opposition to allowing them on U.S. soil as free men. The men were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001, but the Pentagon determined that they were not "enemy combatants."

The Uighers were becoming a very thorny situation. The administration, and in fact the previous one, had determined that the Uighers were neither a threat to the U.S. nor were there any crimes they could be charged with. So, the Obama administration needed to figure out what to do with them quickly. China wanted them badly, the Uighers are separatists from China, but that was likely so they could be tortured and imprisoned. No one else was taking them and the idea of settling them in the U.S. was well...unsettling.

So comes along the tiny Pacific island of Palau. The president, Johnson Toribiong, calls this a "humanitarian gesture, but in reality it is financial decision. President Obama paid the island $200 million to take them. To put this into perspective, their entire GDP was $165 million in 2008. So, this transaction is a financial boon for the island. Furthermore, Palau doesn't recognize China and it has close ties to Taiwan, so this is geopolitical as well. (though I doubt very much that without the cash these guys would have been accepted)

This is a very shrewd move for President Obama. $200 million would go into our petty cash fund in our budget. It is more than their entire GDP. So, he has figured out a way to unload them without having to move them here.

While this is shrewd and wise, the decisions only get more difficult from here. The Uighers are relatively mild among the 200 plus residents of GITMO. Most can't be bribed to be moved into any nation. While he has figured out a way to bribe someone to take the Uighers off our hands, he isn't going to find the same kind of financial transaction for say, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad. That moving the Uighers was as difficult as it was should portend for the difficulties ahead as he has the figure out what to do with those much more dangerous than these folks.

Posted by mike volpe at 00-07:00>8:28 AM

http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/...bullet-on.html

[darrels joy]

Obama's GITMO Disaster: From Theory to Reality


Earlier in the week, I applauded the president's move in transferring some of the Uighers to Palau. I referred to the move as "shrewd". Well, it might appear that I was patting the president on the back a little bit too early. It appears that the transfer is being met overwhelmingly negatively in the country.

Palau President Johnson Toribiong explained his decision to grant the Uighurs entry as traditional hospitality, but public opinion has appeared overwhelmingly negative. Some complained Friday that the government failed to consult the people.

“I totally disagree” with allowing the Uighurs onto Palau, Natalia Baulis, a 30-year-old mother of two, told The Associated Press by telephone.

“It’s good to be humanitarian and all, but still these people … to me are scary,” she said. …

The newspaper quoted islander Debedebk Mongami as saying, “I’m also afraid this news is going to scare the tourists who plan to come to Palau.”

Meanwhile in Bermuda, where four other Uighers were transferred, that transfer will likely cause its leader their job.

The United Bermuda Party today moved for a motion of no confidence against the Government led by Premier Ewart Brown.

Opposition leader Kim Swan proposed the motion in the House of Assembly this morning.He said it was necessary as the Island is “increasingly subject to the politics of one man rule”.

Said Mr. Swan: “Why have we moved a motion of no confidence? The public affairs of Bermuda are increasingly subject to the politics of one man rule under the Premier, Dr. Ewart Brown. We consider this unhealthy and not in Bermuda’s best interest.

So, the transfer of the seventeen most mild prisoners at GITMO has turned into two separate international incidents. One government is about to fall, and I wouldn't put the reelection prospects of the leader of Palau as too great.

As a result of the blow up of these two transfers, we can all safely say that no more prisoners will be released anywhere unless they are incarcerated. So, if the president is going to move them anywhere, it will have to have a prison waiting for them.

This should put some context on the ludicrous assertion that some of the folks there are innocent and victims. It appears that characterization is only made as long as they don't wind up in anyone's backyard.

Worse yet for the Obama administration is that the detainees I have been talking about are the mild ones of the overall population of GITMO. If two international incidents are caused by the Uighers, how many incidents will be caused once we get to the really bad guys.

Posted by mike volpe at 00-07:00>6:19 PM

http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/...theory-to.html

[darrels joy]

Biden: Gitmo Closes by January

In an interview with the BBC, Vice President Joe Biden said that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp will close by next January and decisions on individual inmates will be completed well before January.

Unfortunately, Biden's remarks are somewhat inconsistent with a statement made Monday by senior administration officials which indicated that a task force "would need another six months to complete a report" on closing Guantanamo.

Take your pick.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/198182.php