The Stories of the Two Somalis Freed From Guantanamo

[StarfarerBill]

By Andy Worthington

Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald broke the news on Saturday that 12 prisoners have been released from Guantánamo. The news followed hints in the Washington Post on Friday that six Yemenis and four Afghans were set to leave, but Rosenberg -- and the East African media -- reported that the men had already been freed and that two Somalis were also released. I'll be writing soon about the Afghans and the Yemenis, but for now I'd like to focus on the stories of the two Somalis: Mohammed Sulaymon Barre and Ismail Mahmoud Muhammad (identified as Ismael Arale).

Rosenberg reported that the two men "were processed by the Somaliland government and then released to rejoin their families in Hargeisa," the capital of "the breakaway region in northern Somalia that has its own autonomous government." She added, "The United States does not recognize the government in Somaliland and there were no official statements on how Arale and Barre arrived there. A local newspaper, the Somaliland Press, said they arrived aboard a jet provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross, suggesting that the United States had released the men to the Red Cross in a third country."

As President Obama attempts to close Guantánamo, with the administration recently announcing its intention of purchasing a prison in Illinois to hold some of the prisoners, the release of these two men -- as with the overwhelming majority of releases from Guantánamo -- yet again demonstrates how hysterical and unsubstantiated are Republican claims that Guantánamo is full of hardcore terrorists, as their stories demonstrate."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/the-stories-of-the-two-so_b_399000.html