Comments on: Guantánamo Envoy: US Should Have Taken Cleared Prisoners; Some Should Never Have Been Held

By: No Escape from Guantanamo: Uighurs Lose Again in US Court « EUROPE TURKMEN FRIENDSHIPS

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:17:43 +0000

[...] ought to be deeply ashamed. In this whole sordid story, only Special Envoy Daniel Fried, who has worked tirelessly to find new homes for the men, and former White House Counsel Greg Craig, who came close to [...]

By: More Dark Truths From Guantanamo as Five Innocent Men Released « freedetainees.org

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:20:22 +0000

[...] The fact that Georgia – the former Soviet satellite in the Caucasus – is the new home of three of these men and not the US, demonstrates another obstacle to the men’s release. Had President Obama acted decisively last April, two Uighurs (Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province, seized by mistake in December 2001) would have been freed in the US and others would undoubtedly have followed. However, when the president bowed to pressure from Republican critics and turned down a plan put forward by White House Counsel Greg Craig and backed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which involved bringing the two men to live in the US, the job of Obama’s Special Envoy Daniel Fried, who was charged with finding new homes for dozens of cleared prisoners from countries including Algeria, China, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Uzbekistan, was made considerably more difficult. [...]

By: Rubbing Salt in Guantanamo’s Wounds: Task Force Announces Indefinite Detentions | themcglynn.com/theliberal.net

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:31:15 +0000

[...] have been cleared for release,” experiences this year have indicated that other countries are reluctant to provide new homes for these men when the United States has washed its hands of [...]

By: Obama’s Failure on Guantanamo

Obama’s Failure on Guantanamo — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:10:28 +0000

[...] a law preventing any cleared prisoner being re-housed in the United States), but also made it difficult for America’s allies in Europe to take any of the dozens of cleared men — from Algeria, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Uzbekistan, as [...]

By: Will The Maldives Take Three Guantánamo Prisoners? « freedetainees.org

Will The Maldives Take Three Guantánamo Prisoners? « freedetainees.org — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:20:18 +0000

[...] news, the US Embassy in Sofia told AFP on Friday that “US Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure Daniel Fried visited Bulgaria from December 2-3 and met with Bulgarian officials,” who have been asked to [...]

By: Finding New Homes For 44 Cleared Guantánamo Prisoners by Andy Worthington « Dandelion Salad

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:46:34 +0000

[...] the United States (which fuels a reluctance to help in European countries, as Fried acknowledged in a recent interview with the BBC), there are disturbing signs that this reticence on the part of the administration to state openly [...]

By: Guantánamo Envoy: US Should Have Taken Cleared Prisoners; Some … | Job Fair News

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:46:49 +0000

[...] the rest here: Guantánamo Envoy: US Should Have Taken Cleared Prisoners; Some … Share and [...]

By: Andy Worthington

Andy Worthington — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:01:17 +0000

And jlocke123 wrote:

-”Some really are awful. Some qualify as “the worst of the worst,”

“worst of the worst”? Where have we heard that before? Can Obama point to any convictions, of these prisoners, in REAL courts? No. Outside America, we have a saying: “innocent until proven guilty”. But of course a “constitutional law professor” should know that.

By: Andy Worthington

Andy Worthington — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:00:29 +0000

rfloh wrote:

Indeed. The issue of detention without trial goes to the very heart of concepts of liberty and human rights.

The concept of liberty loses any meaning if detention without trial is acceptable. There can be no liberty if some authority can just decide to throw someone in a gulag arbitrarily.

By: Andy Worthington

Andy Worthington — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:59:54 +0000

Over on Common Dreams, Bill from Saginaw wrote:

“It’s not like we’re advancing liberty or making peace,” according to Mr. Fried, the man in charge of the “miserable” task of “cleaning up a problem” inherited from the Bush administration, by releasing or relocating hundreds of Muslim detainees swept up with great fanfare during the neocons’ seven-year global war on terror — all so that the infamous US military/CIA interrogation facility at Guantanamo can be closed.

I beg to differ. This is very much about advancing liberty and making peace.

If the folks in charge of carrying out this simple campaign promise of President Obama don’t recognize the significance of restoring respect for the rule of law and international human rights guarantees, this mindset is a big part of the problem now needlessly befuddling the DC beltway Democratic leadership.

It was neocon true believers like former vice president Dick Cheney and Senator Pat Roberts who created the Gitmo/Abu Ghraib black site gulag, largely for ideological hype and domestic partisan gain. Now, the same spinmeisters seek to Willie Horton themselves out of accountability for potential escapee/boogeyman blowback which may (or may not) loom ominously on the horizon.

If the DLC can’t figure out how to counter this fear mongering shell game, then it’s time for the White House to change not only tacticians, but also the whole frame of reference.