US - US 'should take terror detainees…' [2009-09-16 BBC News]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8260081.stm

Page last updated at 23:13 GMT, Wednesday, 16 September 2009 00:13 UK

US 'should take terror detainees'

By Jon Manel
Reporter, BBC Radio 4's PM programme

Daniel Fried: "The average Guantanamo detainee...is not a hardened terrorist, not an organiser"

The man officially responsible for closing Guantanamo Bay says more detainees could be resettled worldwide if some were transferred to the US.

Daniel Fried is the special envoy for closing the detention centre and is in charge of persuading other countries to take in detainees.

He says his job is miserable because he is "cleaning up a problem".

He also revealed he was reprimanded by the UK over his decision to send four detainees to Bermuda.

Daniel Fried has one of the most important and toughest tasks in the US government.

In an exclusive first interview since his appointment, Mr Fried told the BBC about the successes and failures of his first six months in the job.


'Huge problem'

Ordering the closure of the detention camps at Guantanamo was one of US President Barack Obama's first acts in office.
   
Saying it would send "an unmistakable signal", he set his staff the task of closing the facility by 22 January 2009. However, predictably, it is proving to be difficult.

Working out what to do with the remaining detainees is "a huge problem and a complicated one," says Mr Fried.

So far, the number being held there has been reduced by just 16 - and one of those committed suicide. There are now 226 left.

The administration is reviewing each detainee's case in order to decide which prisoners should be prosecuted, which should freed and which transferred to another country.

Ambassador Fried is dealing with those who are "cleared for release" by a special task force or by the courts.

Hungary is the latest country which has agreed to take a detainee. Other nations which have already done so or have pledged to help include France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium.

One of Mr Fried's successes was the deal he struck with Bermuda, which took four Guantanamo prisoners, all of them Chinese Uighurs - an ethnic minority from north-west China. However, Bermuda is a British overseas territory and Britain was not informed until the last minute.

"The British government, it is fair to say, cannot be considered part of the deal," Mr Fried says.

"This was worked out between the Americans and the Bermudans. I will say that I've been admonished by the British government in very clear terms."


'No Plan Bs'

He defended the agreement with Bermuda, however.

"We are very grateful to the Bermudan government and the behaviour of the four Uighurs has been exemplary, which really bolsters our contention that they were not any kind of threat."

"These are four people who are enjoying freedom who would otherwise be in Guantanamo."


Mr Fried's tough job has not been helped by the decision of Congress to block the transfer of any cleared detainees from Guantanamo to the US mainland.

He says he will not criticise Congress, but told me: "It is fair to say, as just an objective statement, that the US could resettle more detainees [worldwide], had we been willing to take in some."

"But I also have to state that parliamentarians in Europe and the US have raised questions about security - and we have to respect those opinions."

Mr Fried said he was confident - but would not guarantee - that the 22 January deadline would be met.

"President Obama's timetable is what we've got, we don't have Plan Bs, we're looking at that timetable. We've got a lot of work to do, we need help getting this done, and we're going to be working hard at it."

"But you're not going to have Guantanamo II. Whatever solution we come up with, it will be one based firmly on the rule of law and transparency."

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© MMIX The BBC

http://www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7d9a42f30030000&sectionId=60

What did Ewart think that just cuz he circumvented policy and boldly overstepped his authority that the situation would just be swept under the rug like all other bullsh!t in bermuda?

And i like how he spins it like "oh, it was said by a UBP MP, well then it's suspect."  THE GOVERNOR HAS PUBLICLY STATED THAT WHAT YOU DID WAS WRONG YOU CLOWN!  Jesus, he really is only concerned with his "agenda", and with his head so far up his own ass he won't even be aware that's he's incinerating Bermuda's economy down at Tynes Bay.   

Does anyone else see this?!?!  or is it those damn crazy pills again...

CC

                                         ****BREAKING NOOZE****

Premier Dr. Brown has just confirmed from the Club House that he will not be taking part in next years Grand Slam. Surrounded by his four new caddies he stated that this will be his last Grand Slam. When pressed by RG reporter Mon-Sun as to why this would be his last the Premier stated "I have carried my bag of clubs for years. Knowone has helped me more than my four caddies. Too this I owe them much.

I have played well sometimes,  par sometimes, underhanded...I mean par. I deceived a few when their backs were turned. I kicked a few balls when I shouted "Look out for that tourist". Whilst others looked away I was able too finish the hole that others dug and be a champion of the game.

Even though I lost in China, I won in Hawaii, Turks and Caicos, the London Open, and the Washington Open Season.

In actual fact, I am still the person with the lowest score and remain the Mid Ocean closed course champion.

October 2010 will see me leave as I must let others try and attain the balls that have held me here amongst my pars. Just let me add a final word before....FORE...........................................

*&^$#&&^$# My caddies and I have reached a settlement re pay and if they can follow me next year to keep my game going well.

I told them and I promised them that....................

"Wherever Uighurs go I go".. Thanks and may the balls be with you........................"

China - US connivance of terrorists, double-standard act… [2009-11-06 Xinhua (ChinaView)]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/06/content_12397938.htm   

U.S. connivance of terrorists, double-standard act
www.chinaview.cn

2009-11-06 00:21:05

by Xinhua writers

BEIJING, Nov. 05 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government recently sent six Chinese suspects of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement from a military prison at Guantanamo Bay to the Pacific island nation of Palau.

The short-sighted connivance was not only to the detriment of the interests of both China and the United States, it also was a blow to the international cause of antiterrorism.

The East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a group on the sanction list of the U.N. Security Council's 1267 Committee, has carried out a large number of violent terror attacks involving explosions, assassination, robbery, poisoning and arson in numerous countries since the 1990s.

The group which has an intimate relationship with al-Qaeda and the Taliban threatens stability and security in China and northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in particular, and poses general evil to the Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole. Its terrorist qualities have been long universally affirmed by the international community.

However, the U.S. has adopted an ambiguous attitude toward such a notorious and crime-ridden terrorist group. Although the U.S., as early as 2002, classified the group as being closely related with the al-Qaeda, it labeled a number of group members arrested in Afghanistan "non-combatants" and made an abortive attempt to release them in the U.S. territory.

From 2006, the U.S. transferred some terror suspects to Albania and Bermuda, and now it has the new target Palau.

Huge sums of capital were indispensable to realize the transfers. According to U.S. media, only for Bermuda's acceptance of four terror suspects affiliated with the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, the U.S. government squandered 200 million U.S. dollars, which were naturally garnered from U.S. tax payers who have agonized over the 9-11 attack, one of the most severe terrorist acts in history.

A victim of terrorism, the United States endured its pain and launched all-out wars against atrocities against humans. Unfortunately, its double-standard action of freeing terror suspects may offset its strenuous anti-terror efforts.

The inadvisable act impaired mutual trust between nations and undermined the basis of international anti-terror cooperation. The transfer of the suspects to a third party in defiance of China's strong opposition and repeated request for their repatriation breached relevant resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and was a refusal of fulfilling international anti-terror obligations.

The unwise act may provide a second birth to the released terrorists, who may finally jeopardize U.S. interests by copying Osama Bin Laden's way of growing on western support and swerving back to bite hard at a later date. Who knows how the East Turkistan Islamic Movement's current pledge of faith in the Western world and the United States will mutate in the future.

The U.S.-initiated war against terror was never sluggish in the eight years since the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York. Nevertheless, terrorist acts still haunt or even surge periodically in many parts of the globe. Reflection on its anti-terror strategies and rectification of some errors appears to be a reasonable job for the United States.

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Editor: Yan

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©2009 Xinhua News Agency.