US asks Germany to take Gitmo prisoners

[Richard]

Ah-ha! This little piece of news ties in neatly with what McCarthy was saying in his recent letter to the AG and his article in NR on the dilemma of offering the Uighurs asylum in the US. ;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

US asks Germany to take Gitmo prisoners
Torsten Holtz, AP, 3 May 2009

The United States has asked Germany to accept some Guantanamo prisoners when the facility is closed, the Interior Ministry said Sunday, confirming German media reports.

An Interior Ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the ministry's policy, confirmed a report in Der Spiegel magazine that the U.S. has provided a list of names of prisoners it would like Germany to accept.

"There is a concrete request," the spokesman said, saying he could not provide any further details.

Der Spiegel reported, without citing sources, that the U.S. had asked Germany to accept 10 prisoners.

Top-selling Bild newspaper, meanwhile, reported the 10 were Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs. It also did not cite sources.

President Barack Obama has ordered the military prison in Cuba shuttered in the next nine months.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at the end of April that the U.S. Justice Department is still trying to determine how many of the 241 prisoners in Guantanamo will be taken by other countries.

Also at the end of April, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spent several days privately asking European leaders in London, Prague and Berlin for help relocating prisoners the United States wants to set free.

In Berlin, Holder said the United States had made decisions on a group of about 30 prisoners, but had not yet decided where it wants to send them.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090503/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_us_guantanamo;_ylt=AoUtI8sKI3BG1KUfDAvZ K3l0bBAF

[swpa19]

Think I'll pull this pin and throw IT away.........uh oh Now what do I do.

[x SF med]

The Uighur were the tribe of Mongols that bore Temujin into the world. Temujin was better know to most as "Ghengis" Khan. They are not truly Chinese, except through assimilation, and they are still known for their ability to wage war as Mongols are wont to do.

Hopefully the Germans realize that these are not going to be plain old Muslim prisoners from Gitmo, but pissed off Mongols with an agenda.

Our current administration apparently does not have anybody versed in military history helping guide these decisions...

[Utah Bob]

I can't imagine anything more scary than a Mongol Muslim on the loose!
(other than a few of my in-laws maybe)

I'm thinking the Germans are going to say "You caught 'em. You keep 'em".

[mojaveman]

Whether the Europeans like it or not they too must share some of the burden of this war on terror. As much as they have complained about the U.S. keeping prisoners at Guantanamo I would be glad to see some of the major players in the EU accept and keep prisoners on their soil.

[pjg45]

Why not just turn them back to their countries to deal with? The thought that they will be exicuted or tourtured is not our problem. After all according to the liberals we need to stay out of their culture and quit imposing out capilist american values on their beautiful and ancient culture. If their beautiful culture means they tourture and kill a few AlQueda its not our place to say, after all at gitmo they were really treated bady with waterboarding. :rolleyes:

See we cannot do that because under our Commander-in-Chief we are being good citizens of the world. To actually think that if we released bad guys to their native countries they might be punished, well thats just not being a good citizen of the world and being a compassionate human being. You know, its not like they would take up arms and join the fight the very next day, right? They have been rehabilitated. :munchin

[x SF med]

Whether the Europeans like it or not they too must share some of the burden of this war on terror. As much as they have complained about the U.S. keeping prisoners at Guantanamo I would be glad to see some of the major players in the EU accept and keep prisoners on their soil.


Funny, in the 70's, 80's and early 90's the European and Mediterranean nations were saying pretty much the same thing about the US. Since the attacks and captures tended to happen in Europe, we had them keep the members of PLO, Brigante Rosa, Baader-Meinhof, the FLF, and the Basque Liberation Movement in their countries. There were US targets, in Europe mostly, and we aided in some of the captures, but their soil, their capture, their prisoner.

Currently, those members of the EU who have taken an active role in the GWOT, probably do have prisoners on theri soil - but the media is not alerted every time a soldier guarding them farts and violates the clean air act.