|
Obama Closing the Gitmo to Yeman Express - for now
The U.S. will not transfer any detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Yemen right now, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.Ninety detainees in Gitmo are from Yemen, which is combating a resurgent Al Qaeda. Alleged Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is also said to have gotten training in Yemen before carrying explosives on a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. His attempt to detonate the bomb was foiled when his device malfunctioned and he was tackled by a passenger. "One of the very first things Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula used as a tool was Gitmo," Gibbs said. I think he meant that Al Queda used the presence of Gitmo as a recruiting tool - probably wrong but that's what Gibbs believes "We're not going to make transfers to a country like Yemen that they're not capable of handling (the detainees). actually we've previously sent detainees to Saudi Arabia and he should have commented on whether those transfers would stop also While we remain committed to closing the detention facility, the determination has been made that right now any additional transfers to Yemen is not a good idea." The announcement comes as President Obama misses his original deadline for closing the facility -- a pledge he made on his first week in office. Gibbs said court trials will begin for several individuals currently in Guantanamo Bay. Posted by: lord garth 2010-01-05 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=287228 |