It would appear that German born Turkish national Murat Kurnaz is scheduled to be released from Guantanamo and returned home to Germany, by tomorrow. Kurnaz is one of numerous detainees (the overwhelming majority, actually) against the whom the evidence of terrorism connections is… attenuated at best, and in reality, ludicrous. My interview with Baher Azmy, one of Mr. Kurnaz’s attorneys, is here.
Kurnaz is easier to release than most of the prisoners: we’re not likely to see Germany imprison or torture him, unlike, for example, Saudi Arabia or Yemen where many or most of the Gitmo prisoners are from (or, for example, China as in the case of the Uighurs.)
Alas, the answer is ultimately going to have to be a “we broke it we bought it”… if we can’t find homes for these overwhelmingly innocent men, we’re going to have to eventually absorb them (or perhaps, if and when Mr. Castro kicks off, I suppose we can always try to leave them on the other side of the Gitmo fence line.)
tdog
Many processes and events in government and society are unfair when hostile actions threaten nations and their citizens. The fear of the unknown outcome or the inability to succeed in facing such a challenge cause decisions to be made on an unrealistic timetable. In the case of “detainees at Gitmo”, I do not doubt some are being held who do not deserve it and even if some do they should not be required to remain indefinitely.
Based on my first reads of your blog, it seems you prefer party politics, specifically the Democratic party. That is why blaming George Bush seems to me based less on your sympathy for detainees and more on your dislike of the Republican party. I am no fan of President Bush. I am also not a fan of either major party for they only present two solutions for each problem. Life is more complicated than that.
Keeping suspects detained at Gitmo indefinitely is unfair. But it or something like it is probably necessary. As fair and honest as we would like to view ourselves, if the threat of death was close enough to you personally you would likely allow unfair actions to secure your safety. If the Administration has an honest desire to protect this country they will likely do what they think it takes to prevail rather than do less and be accused of incompetence or worse after the fact.
Seomtimes life just sucks and you need to carry on. Like the unfair effects of poverty, disease or the actions of others.
Based on my first reads of your blog, it seems you prefer party politics, specifically the Democratic party.
Gee, that was hard. Now scroll over to the sidebar, and read the (God damned) interviews with Gitmo and War on Terror players, including might I add, military officers. Oh hell, start with this one for the statistics, then if you want, go to
this one for a military man’s eyewitness account; that one has links to the others. My biases and opinions are worn on my sleeve. On this subject, however, my friend, I also deal in evidence.
Based on my reading of your blogroll (Atlas Shrugs, Hugh Hewitt.com,
Instapundit, Michael J. Totten,
Taegan Goddard\’s Political Wire,
The Reality Hammer Blog,
Truth, Justice & the American Way), I’m guessing that we’re not going to get along… but we can always agree to disagree… on everything.
Keeping detainees at Guantanamo in the manner we are doing so is not only unfair, it is, in the arbitrary and abusive manner we are keeping then, illegal, counter-productive, and ultimately self-defeating. It is undermining our moral credibility, and is a major rallying cry for today’s (and tomorrow’s) jihadists.
If the Administration has an honest desire to protect this country they will likely do what they think it takes to prevail rather than do less and be accused of incompetence or worse after the fact.
“The ends justifies the means” arguments are fine and good in dictatorships. We’re not supposed to be one.
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/deutschland/artikel/581/83498/
The legal advices of the German Turk become released from the US camp Guantanamo raised substantial reproaches against the USA. Even with the delivery to the German authorities it was bound. During its whole time the shank of four-three-quarter years lived Kurnaz only in sharp neon light, which was never switched off. “this young man lived in a cage”, said attorney Bernhard docks in Bremen before journalists. Even with the commitment to Germany on Thursday Kurnaz was degraded. It was chained at hands and feet bound to the soil of the transport aircraft, its eyes was stuck together. “entwuerdigt humiliated,: In this condition it became then the German authorities uebergeben”, which had been” humanly shocked “. Kurnaz ‘ US lawyer Baher Azmy spoke of systematic torture, with which it had concerned to break the will of the arrested ones. Azmy explained, during the shank in Afghanistan had been suspended Kurnaz of most brutal physical torture. Into Guantanamo it concerned to disturb and make the arrested ones hopeless with systematic torture in its orientation.
I think this is what we need to wonder about….
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