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Clearing out prison, US sends 15 Guantanamo detainees to UAE
[IsraelTimes] Largest release of terror suspects under Obama comes as president tries to make good on promise to shutter facilityFifteen prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center were sent to the United Arab Emirates in the single largest release of detainees during the B.O. regime, the Pentagon announced Monday. The transfer of 12 Yemeni nationals and three Afghans to the UAE comes amid a renewed push to whittle down the number of detainees held at the US prison in Cuba that President Barack Obama teachable moment... wants to close. The Pentagon says 61 detainees now remain at Guantanamo, which was opened in January 2002 to hold imported muscle suspected of links to the Taliban or the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. During the Bush administration, 532 prisoners were released from Guantanamo, often in large groups to Afghanistan and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... The latest batch of released prisoners had mostly been held without charge for some 14 years at Guantanamo. They were cleared for release by the Periodic Review Board, comprised of representatives from six US government agencies. The UAE successfully resettled five detainees transferred there last year, according to the Pentagon. Lee Wolosky, the State Department’s special envoy for Guantanamo’s closure, said the US was grateful to the United Arab Emirates for accepting the latest group of 15 men and helping pave the way for the detention center’s closure. "The continued operation of the detention facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent murderous Moslems," Wolosky said. Obama has been seeking to close the detention center amid opposition from Congress, which has prohibited transferring detainees to the US for any reason. The administration has been working with other countries to resettle detainees who have been cleared for transfer. Naureen Shah, One man's rights are another man's existential threat. , said the transfers announced Monday are a "powerful sign that President B.O. is serious about closing Guantanamo before he leaves office." According to Amnesty, one of the Afghans released to the UAE alleged that he was "tortured and subjected to other cruel treatment" while in US military custody. The man, identified only as Obaidullah, was captured by US special forces in July 2002 and allegedly admitted to acquiring and planting anti-tank mines to target US and other coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan. In clearing him for transfer, the review board said he hasn’t expressed any anti-US sentiment or intent to re-engage in bad boy activities. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... a Pentagon detainee profile also said he provided little information and they had little "insight into his current mindset." One of the Yemeni men sent to the UAE was identified as Zahir Umar Hamis bin Hamdun, who traveled to Afghanistan in 1999 and later apparently acted as a weapons and explosives trainer. A Pentagon profile from September 2015 said he expressed dislike of the US, which they identified as "an emotion that probably is motivated more by frustration over his continuing detention than by a commitment to global jihad." Posted by: trailing wife 2016-08-16 |
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