http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/16/un.guantanamo/index.html

To be honest I'm not sure that's a bad idea. They've surely been out of the loop now that any information we could gather from them would be dated right?

Close down this messy PR bullshit so we can move on to current issues.

Important ones that eat up a true Bushy hating Liberals days.

Like the lack of a damn hunting stamp!!!

Fandros

IMO Gitmo should have been run as a POW camp from day 1 for those captives not actively wanted for crimes in their home countries.

IMO Gitmo should have been run as a POW camp from day 1 for those captives not actively wanted for crimes in their home countries.

I am pretty much in agreement with this. If these were enemy combatants, then treat them as POW's. If we are indeed at war, and these people were taken prisoner while engaged in that war, that would then make them Prisoners of War. All the silly dancing around that the administration has done regarding rights, and Geneva Conventions, etc, has done little more on an international scale than belittle the former prestige of the US.

This report (http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf) examines the background of 517 Guantanamo detainees. It was issued by counsel for two of the prisoners (always worth noting), but was based on data (http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/index.html) supplied by the Defense Department. Among the report's findings:
1. Fifty-five percent (55%) of the detainees are not determined to have committed any hostile acts against the United States or its coalition allies.

2. Only 8% of the detainees were characterized as al Qaeda fighters. Of the remaining detainees, 40% have no definitive connection with al Qaeda at all and 18% are have no definitive affiliation with either al Qaeda or the Taliban.

3. The Government has detained numerous persons based on mere affiliations with a large number of groups that in fact, are not on the Department of Homeland Security terrorist watchlist. Moreover, the nexus between such a detainee and such organizations varies considerably. Eight percent are detained because they are deemed "fighters for;" 30% considered "members of;" a large majority - 60% -- are detained merely because they are "associated with" a group or groups the Government asserts are terrorist organizations. For 2% of the prisoners their nexus to any terrorist group is unidentified.

4. Only 5% of the detainees were captured by United States forces. 86% of the detainees were arrested by either Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and turned over to United States custody. This 86% of the detainees captured by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance were handed over to the United States at a time in which the United States offered large bounties for capture of suspected enemies.

5. Finally, the population of persons deemed not to be enemy combatants - mostly Uighers - are in fact accused of more serious allegations than a great many persons still deemed to be enemy combatants.
Based on number 4, one has to wonder at the background of the 95% of the detainees who were brought forward by Pakistani officials, North Alliance, mercenaries, etc. How many were simply political undesirables or targets of convenience for those seeking substantial reward? A flyer handed out in Afghanistan is certainly tantalizing:
Get wealth and power beyond your dreams....You can receive millions of dollars helping the anti-Taliban forces catch al-Qaida and Taliban murders. This is enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life. Pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people.
It's not difficult to see how this system could be abused, and how relatively innocent individuals could wind up in Guantanamo or another prison. And the prisoners we do have with terrorist connections aren't very impressive. The Taliban had an array of administrators both in central and city government, but "None of these individuals are at Guantanamo Bay."

I agree with the "POW camp" assessment above and that these individuals need to be dealt with in a lawful manner.

well lets see if we release lets say 60% of those people who have been detained since 2001 2002 in a foreign country thousands of miles away from their home land... what is to say that they end up going home and strapping a bomb on their body to get even with the us? it is almost like having a innocent guy in prison that gets free and then murders the Warden and his family we made him that way in the first place. I say we have an "Accidental" fire and remove gitmo off the map.

Gitmo should become a place to house people like this scum.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/cbuckett/Loser.jpg

How a man can blow up one of our Naval ships cost us US lives and major $$$ and not be imprissoned in some sort of US punishment..only to be allowed to escape from some shitty prison system in a 3 world country is beyond me.