Breaking news: Two Yemenis To Be Sent To Spain From Guantánamo

8.9.09

The flag of SpainFrom Spain, via my journalist friend Carlos Sardiña Galache (who provided invaluable help with my recent article about Judge Baltasar Garzón) comes the breaking news that Cadena SER, the main Spanish radio station, has just announced that the Spanish government has agreed to accept two Guantánamo prisoners, who, it is stated, will arrive in the country in October or November. According to Cadena SER, both men are Yemenis, seized in Afghanistan following the US-led invasion of October 2001, although no other information is available at present, beyond an explanation that, according to the government, they didn’t have ties with al-Qaeda, but “had ties with the Taliban.”

It was also announced that neither man will enjoy the benefits of resettlement that were recently extended to two former Guantánamo prisoners in Portugal. Cadena SER stated that they will not be considered as political refugees but as immigrants, and that they will be kept under surveillance by the police and will not be granted freedom of movement, even within Spain’s borders — although it is difficult to see how such an expensive and futile policy can be maintained, and it is to be hoped, instead, that this statement is designed to reassure critics, within both the United States and Spain, that men held without charge or trial for nearly eight years, and permanently stamped with the taint of Guantánamo, will continue to be dealt with in a robust manner.

This sounds like a better deal than remaining in Guantánamo, of course, but if confirmed it suggests that the Obama administration is beginning to give up on hopes of concluding a satisfactory repatriation and rehabilitation plan with Yemen for the nearly 100 Yemeni prisoners still in Guantánamo (who make up nearly half of the remaining population), and if this is the case, then Obama has a colossal logistical problem on his hands, with just four months to go until his deadline for closing Guantánamo, for which the Spanish government’s acceptance of just two prisoners is little more than a drop in the ocean.

Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed, and also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009.

Leave a Reply

Back to the top

Back to home page

Andy Worthington

Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker. Also, photo-journalist (The State of London), and singer and songwriter (The Four Fathers).
Email Andy Worthington

CD: Love and War

The Four Fathers on Bandcamp

The Guantánamo Files book cover

The Guantánamo Files

The Battle of the Beanfield book cover

The Battle of the Beanfield

Stonehenge: Celebration & Subversion book cover

Stonehenge: Celebration & Subversion

Outside The Law DVD cover

Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo

RSS

Posts & Comments

World Wide Web Consortium

XHTML & CSS

WordPress

Powered by WordPress

Designed by Josh King-Farlow

Please support Andy Worthington, independent journalist:

Archives

In Touch

Follow me on Facebook

Become a fan on Facebook

Subscribe to me on YouTubeSubscribe to me on YouTube

The State of London

The State of London. 16 photos of London

Andy's Flickr photos

Campaigns

Categories

Tag Cloud

Abu Zubaydah Al-Qaeda Andy Worthington British prisoners Center for Constitutional Rights CIA torture prisons Close Guantanamo Donald Trump Four Fathers Guantanamo Housing crisis Hunger strikes London Military Commission NHS NHS privatisation Periodic Review Boards Photos President Obama Reprieve Shaker Aamer The Four Fathers Torture UK austerity UK protest US courts Video We Stand With Shaker WikiLeaks Yemenis in Guantanamo