U.S. to Free 140 Guantanamo War Detainees -Report

Reuters to My Yahoo! ^ | Nov. 30, 2003 | Anon.

[Pharmboy]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to release 140 of the 660 prisoners at its Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for suspects in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, Time magazine reported on Sunday.

Slated for release were "the easiest 20 percent" of detainees, a military official told the magazine. It did not identify its source, who said the military was waiting for "a politically propitious time to release them."

A Pentagon spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

No charges have been filed against any of the 660 prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. Defense officials say many are suspected of being members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network or Taliban fighters from the war in Afghanistan.

Human rights groups have criticized the United States for holding the detainees without charges. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a case involving two Britons, two Australians and 12 Kuwaitis, has agreed to decide if foreign nationals can use U.S. courts to challenge their incarceration at the base.

According to Time, activities leading toward release of the 140 prisoners have accelerated since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. It said U.S. officials had concluded some detainees were kidnapped for reward money offered for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Separately on Sunday, a British human rights lobbyist said five European nations were close to a deal to repatriate citizens held by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, possibly as soon as Christmas.

Stephen Jakobi, director of Fair Trials Abroad, said his group had been tracking negotiations over the prisoners between Washington and Britain, France, Denmark, Sweden and Spain.

Since the prison opened in January 2002, prisoners from 42 countries have been taken to Guantanamo Bay for detention and questioning. As of Nov. 24, a total of 84 prisoners had been transferred to their home countries for release and four were returned to Saudi Arabia for imprisonment.

[Pharmboy]

As long as they're the easy 20%...

[nwrep]

What does "easy" mean? Easy on whom?

[Pharmboy]

Yes...I am wondering about that myself. "Model"-type prisoners? Cooperative and gave information? If they go back to their al qeada cells, their comrades would definitely want to know why THEY were let out.

[Newbomb Turk]

What does "easy" mean?

Those are the one's who have not found the GPS tracking chips we implanted in their rear ends yet.

[adam_az]

Watch them all get job offers within a week to teach at UCB, write for al-Guardian, or work on the Kucinich campaign.

[Squantos]

Let em go from 20 thousand feet from the ramp of a C-130.......

[Indie]

..gave information...GPS tracking chips...

Geez it has to be one of the two you'd think! Why would we let out someone who can continue to be a threat or could kill again? Hopefully, when either of the two above possibilities is discovered by their AQ host cells, they will indeed cease to be a threat :)

[Conservateacher]

Can't wait for Dan Rather to interview them.

[Arpege92]

"If they go back to their al queada cells, their comrades would definately want to know why THEY were let out."

Hey, I think you're on to something here. Let these prisoners go, but make sure that information about their cooperation with American officials in Guatanamo Bay gets back to their communities. Even terrorists hate rats!

[Pharmboy]

LOL! And after he kisses up to all of them, guess whom he can visit?

[sarcasm]

The military official who spoke on condition that his name not be revealed said that one of the boys who would be transferred shot and killed a special operations soldier in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001 and 11,500 American troops remain.

The military official did not provide details about the incident, including the boy's age, name or where or when the alleged shooting occurred. But he said that the boy apparently pretended to be dead, then opened fire on the American.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks to sarcasm's link, here's an update from the Times:


U.S. to Transfer 100 Guantanamo Prisoners


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:16 p.m. ET

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- More than 100 men and boys will be transferred in the next two months from the U.S. jail for terrorism suspects in Cuba, including a teenager who allegedly killed an American special operations soldier, a U.S. military official said.

The first of two new transfers is scheduled for the end of December, and the other in January, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The detainees would be released from U.S. custody, but it was unclear if any would face further detention or prosecution in their home countries.

The official did not say where the prisoners would be sent and a military spokeswoman declined Sunday to provide details about future transfers from the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

``We do expect there will be other transfers but because of operational procedures, I can't talk about any details,'' Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said. ``We only talk about detainee movements after an operation is complete.''

The military official who spoke on condition that his name not be revealed said that one of the boys who would be transferred shot and killed a special operations soldier in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001 and 11,500 American troops remain.

The military official did not provide details about the incident, including the boy's age, name or where or when the alleged shooting occurred. But he said that the boy apparently pretended to be dead, then opened fire on the American.

The official did not know why the boy was being released from U.S. custody, but the military has said previously that the main purpose of the detention mission is intelligence gathering.

The United States holds about 660 prisoners from 44 countries at the base in eastern Cuba but the government declines to provide a breakdown of their citizenship, ages or the reasons they are being held.

The government has not charged them or given them access to lawyers.

The United States has released 88 of the prisoners since the government began holding suspects at the base in Cuba in January 2002.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the official in charge of the detention mission, said Wednesday that the three youngest boys at the jail, who range from 13 to 15 would be transferred soon, but he did not give a date.

Before their capture by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, some of the youths held at the base were sexually abused; and they have received therapy at Guantanamo, the official said. The boys are kept separate from the adult population at the jail.

Separately, Britain and the United States are negotiating a deal to send nine British detainees back home.

Clive Stafford Smith, a U.S.-based British human rights lawyer, told The Observer, a British newspaper, that two of the nine British detainees, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul, were likely to be released and not charged with a crime while the other seven would serve sentences in British jails after pleading guilty to unspecified charges in the United States.

The British Foreign Office declined to confirm the report and said that discussions with U.S. officials were continuing.

On Saturday, military officials announced another breach in security at the remote naval base in eastern Cuba.

Army Col. Jack Farr, a reservist on six-month assignment, was charged by the U.S. military with transporting secret documents illegally and lying to investigators, the U.S. Southern Command in Miami said.

[livius]

On Saturday, military officials announced another breach in security at the remote naval base in eastern Cuba...Army Col. Jack Farr, a reservist on six-month assignment, was charged by the U.S. military with transporting secret documents illegally and lying to investigators..

Oh?

[Grut]

...a politically propitious time to release them.

If this is literally true then these people are now literally political prisoners.

[nvcdl]

One of the techniques the French used in Algeria was to turn Terrorists into double agents and then set them free. At the very least it made all released prisoners suspect amongst their old comrades.

[dagnabbit]

Unfortunately, I'm afraid I doubt we have such capability. Hell, the terrorists were flipping their co-religionists in our military.

[GeorgiaYankee]

What does "easy" mean? Easy on whom?
_______________________________________

How about "easy to turn into spies for us"!

[Cindy]

A Link of Interest:

CAGE PRISONERS.com
http://www.cageprisoners.com

[Cindy]

Along the same subject:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1031387/posts

[Pro-Bush]

Tag em' first!