Thank you for coming to rally us around this cause and for all the work you do and have done for years.

Shameful. He must be released along with all the others who have been cleared (along with most of the rest who should be cleared).

I can’t recall now whether the article made the comparison to how the Italians were treated after Mussolini fell, and Italy stopped being an active party in the war. Anyhow, they got day paroles, were able to hold down jobs.

After the detention camp was opened the Guantanamo base’s population ballooned, about ten fold. Several thousand of the new workers, the ones who perform support roles are foreign workers, employed by private contractors, who perform non-military duties, like preparing the food.

I think it would be an excellent idea to offer employment on the base to all the captives who have been cleared for release.

The USA could publish a list of all the captives who have been cleared for release, and let all the nations openly consider whether they should offer asylum, or refugee status to any of the captives.

But as we learned during the long negotation over the repatriation of Bisher al Rawi, instead of an open and transparent process, the USA has engaged in closed, opaque confidential negotiations. Why were the negotiations closed, confidential? Because, as we learned when frustrated British negotiators let the cat out of the bag, the USA has wanted to require potential host countries to agree to quietly impose restrictions on the freedom, or privacy of the captives, once they have been transferred.

The British negotiators, in 2007(?) wanted to see Bisher al Rawi repatriated, because the British public had learned his only activity that could be meaningfully described as an association with terrorism had been when he had agreed to help Abu Qatada at MI-5 supervision. Abu Qatada wanted help finding a new apartment, thinking by staying there he could fly under MI-5′s supervision. MI-5 had al Rawi arrange for Abu Qatada to stay in an apartment where MI-5 had installed a full suite of bugs. The negotiations stretched out for years, because, as the British negotiators leaked, the Americans wouldn’t transfer al Rawi without pre-conditions. The UK had to (1) agree to accept all the other Guantanamo captives who had been long-term residents of the UK; and (2) they had to either imprison the men upon their repatriation, or keep them under 24×7 surviellance.

What confidential conditions did the UK evenutally agree to?

In most civilized countries there is some kind of justification required before an individual can be subjected to long-term 24×7 surviellance. The US negotiators were trying to get the UK negotiators to agree to a kind of surviellance that would be a breach of UK law. During the Cold War, when the USA propped up tin-pot dictators like Mobuto Sese Seko, they would happily have agreed to impose draconian conditions (for a price). It seems that the Bush administration thawed out some Cold Warriors who wanted to treat Canada, the UK, and other EU countries as if they were tin-pot dictatorships, with no history of respect for the rule of law.

Innocent Canadian Maher Arar was held in New York for two weeks prior to his “extraordinary rendition” to Syria, where he was tortured. Canadian security officials had been told, post-9-11, to be more cooperative with their US opposite numbers. US suspicions of Maher Arar were based on information shared with the US by cooperative Canadian security officials. Those Canadian security officials were informed when Arar was captured. American security officials discussed with Canadian security officials the possibility of simply deporting Arar back to Canada, rather than subject him to extraordinary rendition to Syria. American security officials told their Canadian opposite numbers that they would not deport Arar to Canada unless Canada (1) imprisoned Arar, or (2) subjected him to draconian surviellance.

Canadian officials told the US officials that Canadian law only authorized imprisoning citizens who had been convicted of a crime, or who had been charged with a crime, and were awaiting trial. And since there was no reason to suspect Arar was associated with any crimes, they couldn’t promise to imprison him, or keep him under long term, draconian surviellance.

In the McClatchy interviews many of the former captives told the reporters of the requirements they report to police HQ on a frequent and regular basis.

I think it is safe to assume that Albania agreed to impose conditions upon the NLEC captives sent there. They were on day parole, but were required to sleep in the refugee camp by night.

Did the Obama administration relax the conditions they imposed on host countries? Maybe. But they clearly did not transition to a fully open and transparent process.

Were the three North African captives transferred to Italy get sent there with an understanding that Italy would charge them? I think so.

Both Palau and Bermuda do not grant citizenship to anyone not born in their countries. So they can’t get Palaun or Bermudian passports.