This article on MSNBC doesn't shock me one bit... other than that fact that they're finally admitting this is an issue after years and years of bashing Gitmo:
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett last week issued the latest European demand to close down the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba....According to documents made public this month in London, officials there recently rejected a U.S. offer to transfer 10 former British residents from Guantanamo to the United Kingdom, arguing that it would be too expensive to keep them under surveillance....In addition, virtually every country in Europe refused to grant asylum to several Guantanamo prisoners from China who were not being sent home because of fears they could face political harassment there. The Balkan nation of Albania agreed to take in five of the Chinese in May, but only after more than 100 other nations rebuffed U.S. pleas to accept them on humanitarian grounds, State Department officials said....The Pentagon has already freed all but a few European citizens from Guantanamo. But U.S. officials have struggled to persuade Britain, Germany and other allies in Europe to accept prisoners who once had legal residency there, or who are effectively stateless.
I don't understand. If Guantanamo Bay is such a travesty, and if none of these people are as bad as you think... then why won't you take them back Europe? Many of them came from your countries in the first place anyway. Don't you want your own citizens to return home? And in the ultimate bit of irony, there was this gem:
Also slowing the process is a U.S. policy stipulating that prisoners cannot be transferred to nations with a record of human rights violations unless there are written assurances that they won't be mistreated.
I thought we were all heartless torturers?
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.