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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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September 28th,
2009 - Obama Team Clears 75 at Guantanamo for Release |
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Obama Team Clears
75 at Guantanamo for Release By Jane Sutton Reuters September 28, 2009 Miami - An Obama
administration task force has so far cleared 75 of the remaining 223
Guantanamo prisoners for release as part of its effort to close the detention
camp, a military spokesman said on Monday. The review team is examining
each prisoner's case to decide who will be held for trial and who can be sent
home or resettled in other nations. President Barack Obama had
set a January 22 deadline to shut the detention camp although Defense
Secretary Robert Gates told ABC News in an interview broadcast on Sunday that
"it's going to be tough" to meet the deadline. As the review team makes its
decisions, military officials at Guantanamo post an updated list in the camps
to let the prisoners know how many from each nation have been judged free to
go. "It was an opportunity
to just provide better communication," said Navy Lieutenant Commander
Brook DeWalt, a spokesman for the Guantanamo detention operation.
"There's a lot of information out there and you get a lot of things from
a lot of different angles. It helps put it in a more succinct context for
them." The prisoners are well aware
of Obama's announcement that the camp would be closed and have heard
piecemeal information from their lawyers and relatives during phone calls
arranged by the International Committee of the Red Cross, he said. The list is posted in
Arabic, Pashto and English. The latest list of 78 prisoners includes two
Uzbeks sent to Ireland and a Yemeni returned to his homeland on Saturday, an
indication that some progress is being made in thinning the camp population
of those who are not considered a threat. "We are not focused on
whether the deadline will or won't be met on a particular day," White
House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "We are focused on making ... the
most progress that is possible." Some on the list are among
the 30 ordered freed by U.S. courts but still awaiting transfer, including 13
Chinese Uighurs. The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to accept most
of them. Also on the list are 26
other captives from Yemen, nine from Tunisia, seven from Algeria, four from
Syria, three each from Libya and Saudi Arabia, two each from Uzbekistan,
Egypt, the West Bank and Kuwait, and one each from Azerbaijan and Tajikistan. Most were captured in
Afghanistan and Pakistan after U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to
oust al Qaeda in response to the September 11 hijacked plane attacks on the
United States. Additional reporting by Ross
Colvin in Washington; editing by Bill Trott. © Thomson Reuters 2009. All
rights reserved. External link: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE58R4JV20090928 |