Saturday, January 24, 2009

Pentagon to Declassify Report on Former Gitmo Detainees

Looks like Obama’s going to get some serious internal pushback. 

The Pentagon is preparing to declassify portions of a secret report on Guantanamo detainees that could further complicate President Obama’s plans to shut down the detention facility.

The report, which could be released within the next few days, will provide fresh details about 62 detainees who have been released from Guantanamo and are believed by U.S. intelligence officials to have returned to terrorist activities, according to two Pentagon officials who asked not to be identified talking about a document that is not yet public. One such example, involving a Saudi detainee named Said Ali Al-Shihri, who was released in 2007, received widespread attention Friday when Pentagon officials publicly confirmed that he has recently reemerged as a deputy commander of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Al-Shihri, once known publicly only as Guantanamo detainee No. 372, is suspected of involvement in a thwarted attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen last September.

The decision to release additional case studies from the report is in effect a warning shot to the new president from officials at the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies who are skeptical about some of his plans. Some Pentagon officials, including ones sympathetic to Obama’s goals, note the political outcry would be deafening should another example like Al-Shihri become public six months from now—and it turns out be a Guantanamo detainee released under Obama’s watch rather than by the Bush administration. “The last thing Obama wants is for one of these guys [at Guantanamo] to get released and return to killing Americans,” said one senior Defense Department official who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivities.

Newsflash: these guys are terrorists.

(13) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2230 hrs
Military + Politics + Politics - General

  1. This decision by the President will not be the cakewalk he had hoped.  There are obviously some aspects of his promise that he did not consider, when making the politically convenient pledge.

    Posted by yoSAMite on January 24, 2009 at 2329 hrs


  2. This is a good thing, it should be public.  The previous report the Pentagon released classified detainees as “returned to the battlefield” because their lawyer’s spoke out, or they filed suit against the US.  We should know who really is a danger and who is not.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 25, 2009 at 0034 hrs


  3. If they’re terrorists, then let’s give them a full trial and prove that they’re terrorists.  That’s not so hard, is it?

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on January 25, 2009 at 0144 hrs


  4. Maybe, recess, you missed it, but they are having trials or at least they were until Obama stopped them.  What an idiot (Obama)

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 25, 2009 at 0324 hrs


  5. RS - how are you going to give them a trial. Any evidence would be thrown out of a federal court because the terrorists weren’t marandized, didn’t have a search warrant, etc etc etc

    These are enemy combatents - and terrorists, not some guy who knocked over a liquor store on the corner.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 25, 2009 at 0902 hrs


  6. RS - why exactly should we be granting them the constitutional rights of US citizens and expecting soldiers to act in accordance with the US legal system on the battlefield again? 

    I love how everyone thinking that Obama’s declaration is the greatest thing since Tootsie Rolls assumes that the Bush Admin/Justice Department didn’t do ANY legal evaluations on what to do/how to try these guys.  Seems that multiple AG’s for Pres Bush took a look at these cases and the military tribunals were the best solution.  But, by all means, please try them and release them in NY, SF, LA, and Hollywood.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 25, 2009 at 0913 hrs


  7. There have been plenty of terrorists who had been detained overseas, brought back to the US, tried in a Federal court, and convicted.  The Bush administration made it a lot more complicated than it had to be.

    I am also concerned about the people who were wrongly detained and the US was too embarrassed to release them.  The seven Chinese Ughers is an example, as is the two Bosniaks.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 25, 2009 at 1218 hrs


  8. The report, which could be released within the next few days, will provide fresh details about 62 detainees who have been released from Guantanamo and are believed by U.S. intelligence officials to have returned to terrorist activities,

    When were these detainees released? How are they able to know that they have returned to terrorist activities? If they followed them home then why didn’t they blow up the nest?

    What happens from here is on Obama and his administration.
    Please don’t twist what happened before, such as the 62 terrorists returning to terror, into an attack on Obama.

    We need to see what happens before we panic. I don’t think they are going to release them into U.S. prisons. If they did then they are not returning home to plot more attacks. Letting them go on the streets of NY, LA etc. is absurd fear mongering.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 25, 2009 at 1446 hrs


  9. Yeah, because it’s too much to ask my government to prove its accusations in some kind of forum, be it civilian or military, instead of simply detaining people indefinitely without anymore than a wink to the American people and a request to trust their judgment.

    If the evidence is so overwhelming, there’s no reason that the process can’t be completed in a matter of months, maybe a year or two at the most.  If you can prove your case, prove your case.  But don’t detain people for years on end because you think they kinda maybe sorta could possibly, you know, be up to no good.  That’s just an affront to human decency - the equivalent of government rounding up people at random and incarcerating them indefinitely just because it can.

    Thing is, I have no doubt that in the vast majority of these cases, the government can prove its claims.  So why doesn’t it just do it, and do it in a timely manner?

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on January 25, 2009 at 1619 hrs


  10. Looks to me like Barack is off to a great start by closing Gitmo, on track to keep his word and restore some international credibility for the US

    Posted by coffee on January 25, 2009 at 1953 hrs


  11. RS - i’m fine with a military tribunal - which what was going on before the mighty O decided to end it.

    Looks to me like Barack is off to a great start at making the US a much less safer place.

    When the first released terrorist strikes here - we’ll have you goofy people to thank.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 26, 2009 at 1434 hrs


  12. Why? Bush was the one who released people who should have been detained. He’s also kept people who should be freed.

    Consider that the Bush administration didn’t even keep a central file system to compile evidence against the detainees in Gitmo. Doesn’t sound like people who take what they are doing seriously.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 26, 2009 at 1648 hrs


  13. I never said that I was for or against closing Gitmo, for the record.  What I am for is making certain that those who are being held have their cases processed in a timely fashion, something the Bush administration was notoriously bad at.  If you’re holding someone in custody, you presumably have the evidence to prove your case.  At least you should.  So prove your case or release them.

    Also, Steve-O makes a good point.  All these allegedly dangerous detainees released, weren’t they released on Bush’s watch?

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on January 26, 2009 at 1734 hrs


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