"The Quandary Of Gitmo Detainees"

Under heavy guard, a Guantanamo Bay detainee walked into a civilian U.S. courtroom for the first time Tuesday, underscoring the Obama administration's determination to close the Cuban prison and hold trials here despite Republican alarms about bringing terror suspects to America.

Ahmed Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused in two American Embassy bombings a decade ago, pleaded not guilty — in English — in a brief but historic federal court hearing that transported him from open-ended military detention to the civilian criminal justice system.

President Barack Obama has said keeping Ghailani from coming to the United States "would prevent his trial and conviction." Taking a drastically different stance, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio labeled Tuesday's move "the first step in the Democrats' plan to import terrorists into America."

Ghailani, accused of being a bomb-maker, document forger and aide to Osama bin Laden, was brought to New York to await trial in connection with al-Qaida bombings that killed 224 people — including 12 Americans — at the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.

Ghailani's trial will be an important test case for Obama's plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo in seven months and bring some of the terror suspects there to trial.

Attorney General Eric Holder said, "The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case."

The U.S. response to the 2001 terror attacks — including the opening of the Guantanamo detention center — could also complicate Ghailani's case, as defense lawyers are likely to mount legal challenges based on the circumstances of his capture, detention and treatment over the years.

Justice Department officials would not say Tuesday what would be done with Ghailani if he were acquitted, but in past cases a non-citizen defendant would be turned over to immigration authorities for deportation. (Read Full Article)

NAME: Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani.

BIRTH: Born around 1974 in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

AL-QAIDA LINKS: Ghailani allegedly helped coordinate the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Prosecutors say he later traveled to Afghanistan, trained at an al-Qaida camp and became a top document forger for the network following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was also allegedly an aide to Osama bin Laden.

HIS VERSION: He told a military panel at Guantanamo that he unwittingly delivered the explosives used by others for the bombing in Tanzania and apologized to the U.S. government. He said he went to the al-Qaida camp because he wanted military training for self-defense.

DETENTION: Ghailani was arrested after a gunbattle in Gujrat in eastern Pakistan in July 2004. He was held in secret CIA custody and then was transferred to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September 2006. U.S. marshals took him to New York on Tuesday. (The Article Source)

The Harper government has rejected a request from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to accept a group of Chinese Muslim detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday night that Ottawa's position on the Uighurs remains unchanged: Canada is not willing to accept any Guantanamo detainees as refugees.

We had a previous request from the Bush administration as well," said Kory Teneycke. "But given that these detainees have no link with Canada . . . I do not see our policy changing. I don't see us taking any detainees from Guantanamo."

The U.S. base is still holding 17 ethnic Uighurs, despite the fact that a U.S. judge last year cleared them of posing any terrorist threat to the United States and ordered them released.

China has demanding their return, claiming that they are terrorists who are seeking an independent Muslim homeland in the northwestern part of the country. (Read Full Article)

In exchange for development aid worth $200 million, the government of the former US dependency is understood to be willing to accept some if not all of the 17 ethnic Uighur detainees who have become a symbol of Mr Obama's difficulties with closing the controversial prison.

A federal judge in Washington last year ordered them to be released in the United States after the Pentagon determined they were not "enemy combatants", only for an appeals court to halt the order and leave the Uighurs in legal limbo.

American states that were initially amenable to accepting the group have got cold feet, while none of the major US allies have been willing to help. Washington has determined the Uighurs ca o't be returned to China because they might be persecuted. All had reportedly trained at terror camps in Afghanistan and allegedly belonged to a separatist movement in the western Xinjiang region. (Read Full Article)

   What to do with acquitted Gitmo detainees?  Whether truly innocent or guilty of terrorist activities in the past, if the evidence warrants acquittal the detainees must be set free. In all probability if they weren't terrorists before their detention they are now after their unjust detention. Understandably no nation wants to give refuge to these released detainees, unless the US pays for it, as it is doing with the Chinese Muslims.  Acquitted detainees should be released to the country they are citizens of, period. As I see it, the incarcerated convicted terrorists make the city holding them, targets for terrorist attacks. Guantanamo Bay should remain the now humane detention camp for convicted terrorists, as I see it. Shutting down Guantanamo Bay will not soften the heart of any radical Muslim terrorist. Maintaining Guantanamo Bay is a national security issue, as I see it.

tags: war on terror  politics  guantanamo bay  war  warpeace  national security  

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