Uruguay to accept five Guantanamo detainees at U.S. request

[n2doc]

Source: Rawstory/ AFP

Uruguay said Thursday it agreed to take five prisoners from Guantanamo, as US President Barack Obama works to fulfill his years-old promise to close the controversial jail for terror suspects.

Confirming the report first published in the weekly Busqueda newspaper, a high-level government source told AFP Uruguay will host the former inmates for at least two years.

“Obama raised the issue in recent weeks to his Uruguayan counterpart, Jose Mujica, through emissaries, the wish of the Washington government for Uruguay to be one of the countries to receive prisoners from Guantanamo,” the paper reported.

The paper did not give further details about the agreement, but, citing political and diplomatic sources, said “Mujica decided to accept the proposal, after a series of consultations, and to send envoys to the United States and to Guantanamo.”


Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/20/uruguay-to-accept-five-guantanamo-detainees-at-u-s-request/

[lark]

1. Baby steps in the right direction.

Better than going backwards.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

2. From the article

"Some 154 inmates remain at the prison, erected at a US naval base in Cuba by former president George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Most have never been charged or tried for any crime."

So that leaves 149? Still A LOT!

[okaawhatever]

3. It's been tough because many of the detainees can't be sent back to their home country.

Media stories:

"Just more than a week after the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon announced the transfer to Slovakia of the last three Uighur detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. At one time, the prison held 22 Uighurs -- members of an ethnic group from China -- and their detention was a major point of criticism from those lobbying for the closure of the prison. The Uighurs could have faced torture and execution if they were sent back to China."

From the Washington Post
"The fourth route, freedom, actually already applies to 86 of the 166 detainees. The U.S. government believes they can be safely released back into the world, but it has nowhere to send them. For many of these individuals, their home country will not take them or might torture them, meaning the U.S. has to find an entirely different country to release them to."

[maxsolomon]

4. Its been tough because our Congress is controlled by fanatics

who refuse to allow any funds to be spent on closing the prison.

[okaawhatever]

5. Oh yeah. That too. Congress has finally gotten out of the way, so hopefully some of the guys can

go home or to a third country that will treat them decently.

[Sunlei]

6. That's a step in the right direction. Many of them have no place to go.

[struggle4progress]

7. Last April, HRF reported that of the 242 detainees still at Guantanamo when

Obama took office, 166 still remained, 86 of whom had been cleared for release: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/USLS-Fact-Sheet-Gitmo-Numbers.pdf

[kelliekat44]

8. Sad we have to turn to foreign countries to help close GITMO because our own Congress and

citizens refuse to support the President in closing this dastardly place. But it makes a nice read on how GITMO is another broken promise by the President...and the beat goes on.