Guantanamo prisoners gone back to "battlefield"

[sabra]

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http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-06-15T133632Z_01_MCC548975_RTRUKOC_0_SECURITY-USA-GUANTANAMO.xml

Guantanamo prisoners gone back to "battlefield"-US
Wed Jun 15, 2005 2:36 PM BST

By Marie-Louise Moller

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A dozen prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to "the battlefield" to fight against the United States, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Wednesday.

"There are several people that we have released that we know have come back and fought against America because they have been recaptured or killed on the battlefield," he said after meetings in Brussels with European Union officials.

He said 12 people may have been recaptured or killed.

He acknowledged that the prison camp for foreign terrorism suspects was causing concerns among U.S. allies, but he said Guantanamo detainees were treated in accordance with international law.

....

Gonzales said the camp would be closed eventually, but that the decision rested with President George W. Bush.

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[oneighty]

1. Yeah

sure they did.

How are we to know?

180

[DavidDvorkin]

5. We know because Gonzales tells us so

And we know the Bush people never, ever lie to us.

[formercia]

2. If they weren't enemies of the US before GITMO

they surely had their mindset redirected during their stay.

[rooboy]

3. Why is the US wasting its best chicken on these people? n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

12. ...and Pilaf! Don't forget the Pilaf...

So much for the adults being in charge...:crazy:

[mbperrin]

4. MAY have been captured or killed....

SO, they're not a threat, right, being captured or killed, right?

Oh, and I MAY have discovered a way to turn lead into gold, so just send me $100 for more info, right?

Alberto never was the sharpest pencil in the box, just the one most likely to his master's bidding!

[Roland99]

6. Hmm...wouldn't be innocents that got pissed off and fought back

after they were released, eh?


As I wrote a few months ago:

http://www.conjur.com/blog/2005/03/04/an-audience-with-seymour-hersh/#more-2

Hersh went into a bit of detail in the drafting of the so-called Torture Memo by Jay Bybee approved by now-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and consulted by now-Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. This Torture Memo was written with one goal in mind, creating a narrowly defined term of torture that would allow the Bush administration a great amount of latitude in its techniques for obtaining information. This all began with abuse and torture of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Some of the detainees at Guantanamo were elderly men, as old as being in their 80s, who were in no way a part of Al Qaeda or the Taliban in Afghanistan. When these innocent people were finally released, some released more than two years after being captured, Hersh opined, if they were not enemies of America before, they were now. U.S. techniques were creating more enemies and were resulting in useless information as detainees were confessing to anything in order to stop the torture and abuse.

[Igel]

7. A couple have been reported here (in DU, with links to the

appropriate overseas articles detailing their plans); and a couple have turned up dead, at least one in Waziristan, but I'm not sure I saw the links to those here, or not.

Mistakes go both ways when you pick up people on and near battlefields: it's hard to tell who's a combatant and who's not. Police have the same problem in their investigations, and we expect perfection from them and the military.

But the mistakes also go both ways in detention: the combatants and non-coms look real, real similar. Just as police have had some pretty bad people in custody, and then later released them, only to catch them later after they've done some more pretty bad things. And, again, we expect perfection at that stage, too.

I always like Hersh's "if they weren't" before line, which doesn't address the actual claim.

[consuming]

13. links please

[kayice]

8. Which is it?

You hear the 'detainees' have no rights at Guantanamo Bay cause they are bad, then Gonzales says the detainees were treated in accordance with international law.

Another 'let's make our own rules up as we go along'? Quaint.

[lawladyprof]

9. I heard a discussion of this--out of about 190, ten took up arms

against US troops/coalition forces/allies (Karzi (spelling?). And I'm thinking, "So we're supposed to keep 180 who wouldn't do any harm locked up forever because ten are going to do a bad act in the future?"

[grytpype]

10. Shit, I know I'd fight!

If I was tortured and humiliated in a prison camp for three years, I'd make it my life's work to get revenge. No doubt. You can't just get over it and go back to your life after something like that.

Gitmo isn't just an "intelligence factory," it's an enemy factory!

[Kadie]

11. kick n/t