 European countries that have offered to help the Obama administration close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have begun raising questions about the security risks and requirements if they accept prisoners described by the Bush administration as "the worst of the worst," according to diplomats and other officials.
| It shows how naïve the Bambi administration is: they think they can sell something to the cynical, back-stabbing Euros that Bush correctly labeled as 'worst of the worst'. |
The concerns, and a deep suspicion of whether the American intelligence community will share full information on the prisoners, are likely to complicate the resettlement effort, which is critical to President Obama's fulfilling his pledge to close Guantanamo within a year of his taking office.
You want full info, you take them and torture question them yourselves. |
The offers, from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland and other countries, have been widely seen as efforts to win favor with the new administration by helping to close the camp, which was a contentious issue during the Bush years.
Still, with a first round of talks on the Guantanamo issues scheduled for Monday in Washington between Obama administration officials and a high-level delegation from the European Union, several European leaders have recently emphasized that they can make no firm commitments until they are given complete details on the prisoners. "We'd have to study concrete cases," MarÃa Teresa Fernandez de la Vega Sanz, Spain's deputy prime minister, said in an interview last week.
| You could always dust off the pliers Franco's boys used ... |
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently told reporters she was "quite encouraged at the positive, receptive responses we've been getting" to requests for help in accepting Guantanamo detainees.
| Which demonstrates that the Hildebeast is either completely clueless or completely cynical in her job ... |
But some European officials said the Obama administration had yet to detail what would be involved in resettling detainees and whether the United States would also open its doors to Guantanamo prisoners, which the Bush administration declined to do.
It is not clear exactly what conditions the Obama administration may wish to impose, what the detainees' immigration status would be or whether any detainees released to Europe would be eligible for complete freedom. "We understand, you have a big problem," said one European official who said he would speak only if not identified. "And we appreciate what President Obama has said about closing Guantanamo. But that doesn't automatically mean putting all the remaining inmates on a plane and sending them to Europe."
| It doesn't mean putting any on a plane. The Euros wanted Gitmo closed but --as usual -- they don't want to help us in any material way. The modern leftists want all the angst and none of the responsibilities ... |
Obama administration officials say some 60 of the remaining 241 detainees, those who cannot be sent to their home countries for humanitarian or other reasons, could be resettled in Europe.
A senior State Department official conceded that there were some concerns in Europe about accepting Guantanamo detainees. But the official argued: "It is really just a small effort to help us deal with a legacy of the past. This is something we inherited, too."
| That's what happens when you win an election, bubbo. You get all the problems as well as all the opportunities. And blaming Bush isn't going to work much longer. You have a perfect solution in front of you -- keep the thugs in Gitmo. |
A senior French official said that France was "ready to help," but that "Guantanamo is an American responsibility."
| Makes it easier for the French to complain that way ... |
"It's not an absolute condition, but it would be easier if the U.S. administration is willing to take some detainees," said the French official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as did several officials in other countries, to avoid antagonizing the Obama administration.
| We're as likely to move some of the hard-boyz into homes in Chicago as you are to park them in Lyon. And that's the problem: all the adolescent lefties are now beginning to figure out that these boyz are in fact dangerous, crazed killers who are happy to kill infidels, be they Americans or Frogs. |
American officials conceded that talks with Europe were likely to be complex, but said they were working with intelligence agencies to provide as much information about detainees as possible. The senior State Department official said that the White House was considering whether any detainees might be admitted into the United States, in part because of the European focus on that issue.
| Want to guess who goes first on that one? We'll take some thug-boy, put an ankle-bracelet on him, and shrug when he murders a bunch of people in his new community. |
The detainees most often mentioned for resettlement in the United States are 17 Uighurs, members of a Chinese Muslim minority, who American officials say cannot be returned to China for fear of mistreatment. The men have argued that they were allies of the United States who were wrongly rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. After court battles, the Bush administration conceded that the men were not enemies of the United States.
| Still doesn't explain why they were in Afghanistan. And crazed killers who were out to kill some infidels can't be trusted to live amongst other infidels. |
Both American and European Union officials described the talks scheduled for Monday as a critical first step for any possible resettlement of Guantanamo detainees, saying that common European ground rules would ease the way toward decisions by individual countries.
| Until the Germans realize that the French are going to let them hold the bag ... |
Jacques Barrot, a European Union vice president who is to lead the European delegation, said there was an opportunity "to turn together a dark page" in the history of the fight against terrorism. But officials said the delegation was arriving with far more questions than answers.
Among the host of questions, European officials said, was whether the former prisoners would need to be monitored, whether they would have full travel rights in Europe and whether detainees might entangle their countries' courts in years of legal battles by suing former American officials for their imprisonment and treatment.
| Let's see: do crazed killers need to be monitored? Will they be allowed to travel to visit their buddies so as to plot new mass murder? Will they be permitted to use western legal systems to attack their enemies? Let's consult the Common Book of Wisdom ... |
Obama administration officials are working on a two-pronged plan to close the prison. They are analyzing how many detainees might be tried, most likely in the United States, and working toward transferring scores of the others.
| Or we could hold field tribunals, execute the nastiest ones, and keep most of the rest at Gitmo. The ones that are safe to release can go to France. |
The Bush administration often failed when it asked other countries to accept detainees, partly because those requests were usually accompanied by public comments defending the imprisonments by describing the detainees as dangerous terrorists.
| It was truth-in-advertising, since Bush knew he'd be excoriated if a released thug killed someone in Belgium or Italy. |
The new administration is sending a different message. "We are less vested in trying to prove that these people are rightly held," the senior State Department official said.
Given that stance by the Obama administration, some European officials say Washington's focus on sending the detainees to Europe raises many questions. Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has suggested publicly that if Guantanamo detainees pose no security risk, there is no reason the United States should not take them.
| Which is the retort the Euros will make when Bambi asks again. You bagged them, you own them. |
Pekka Lintu, Finland's ambassador in Washington, said, "We should know what is being asked of us."
| Haven't you figured it out yet, Pekka? You're being asked to be a stooge ... |
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