Guantanamo Bay detainees may get invite to (resettle) Berkeley

[kpete]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Guantanamo Bay detainees might have a new home in the United States: Berkeley.

The City Council is to vote Feb. 15 on a resolution to invite detainees who have been cleared of wrongdoing to resettle within Berkeley's sunny confines.

Of the 38 detainees who have been cleared, Berkeley would invite two: a Russian ballet dancer and an Algerian who was a top-rated Italian chef in Austria.

"Our hearts are with all those people who were never tried, held for years and in some cases tortured," said Wendy Kenin, chairwoman of the city's Peace and Justice Commission, which crafted the resolution. "As a municipality, this is one thing we can do to right some wrongs of our federal government."




Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/08/BAKB1HKFPN.DTL#ixzz1DWJygWCc

[tularetom]

1. Never a dull moment in Bezerkeley

That proposal sounds a tad bit elitist to me.

If you're a hoity toity ballet dancer or a chi chi Italian chef, we want you here.

You dirty peasants, stay away.

[aquart]

3. We locked up a ballet dancer?

[KamaAina]

7. So that's why they're called "pink-tutu Dems"!

:eyes:

[LanternWaste]

6. I'm afraid I missed the relevant portion...

I'm afraid I may have missed the relevant portion of the story that insisted they would take two and only two-- no more; and only within the "elitist" parameters you defined for us. Would you please point that out...?

[tularetom]

8. Seemed kinda obvious to me

But then I'm not real adept at reading all kinds of shit into things.

"Of the 38 detainees who have been cleared, Berkeley would invite two: a Russian ballet dancer and an Algerian who was a top-rated Italian chef in Austria."

[LanternWaste]

9. No... not reading all kinds of stuff into anything at all.

"real adept at reading all kinds of shit into things..."

Hoity-toity? Elitist? No... not reading all kinds of stuff into anything at all. :shrug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I think that's a great idea.

And with further study, perhaps others could be released there too...

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[alp227]

5. if they were sent back to their native countries, they'd probably re-enter terrorism?

And besides it's only 2 detainees! It's not like Guantanamo is moving to Berkeley. However, that's the perspective of the most popular comments after the article (and they're conTROLLED by Freepers). This is just a resolution not necessarily anything legally binding, and I guess that Berkeley's free to take its own stand on this issue...and remember it's only for those CLEARED detainees not anyone like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

(on edit) I discovered this McClathcy article reporting that Amherst, Mass. also welcomed the wrongfully held Gitmo detainees to asylum there.