|
U.S. to Transfer 100 Guantanamo Prisoners
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."Hi boys! Welcome to your new home in Bagram. Assume the position!" ``We do expect there will be other transfers but because of operational procedures, I canât talk about any details,ââ Lt. Col. Pamela Hart said. ``We only talk about detainee movements after an operation is complete.ââ "However, I am permitted to tell you that the detainees being released bear a strong resemblance to empty toothpaste tubes." 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 boyâs 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. Wonder what the juvenile detention facility looks like in Kabul? On Sunday, a Canadian citizen returned home after being released in October from Guantanamo. Abdulrhaman Khadr was captured in Afghanistan and held as an ``enemy combatantââ by U.S. authorities for nine months, he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Khadr, the son of a suspected al-Qaida financier, said U.S. authorities refused to return him to Canada and instead flew him to Afghanistan. After his release, Khadr went to Iran and then Turkey before arriving late last week in Bosnia, he told CBC. Hit all the Islamist tourist sites, did he? At the Canadian Embassy in Sarajevo, Khader, who did not have a passport, was given a special permit to return to Canada, he told CBC. He was accompanied on his return to Toronto by a Canadian Letâs see what our allies to the north do with him. 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. Sexually abused? Does that happen in a good, Islamic society? Posted by: Steve White 2003-12-01 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=22022 |