PR Worries Stalled Release of Gitmo Inmates
A 2006 memo from the State Department to the US Transportation Command suggested holding Guantanamo detainees after they had been cleared in order to avoid bad press "Got it Thank you," was the reply, and indeed, no prisoners flew out of Guantanamo for three months.
A 2006 memo from the State Department to the U.S. Transportation Command suggested holding Guantanamo detainees after they had been cleared in order to avoid bad press. “Got it … Thank you,” was the reply, and indeed, no prisoners flew out of Guantanamo for three months.
“Proposing to hold men for a month and a half after they were deemed releasable is inexcusable,” said a lawyer with one of the groups that released the memo.
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WASHINGTON — As the U.S. was accused of human rights abuses, a State Department official advised the military to delay sending Guantanamo Bay prisoners home in order to avoid more bad publicity.
“We need to definitely think about checking … to see if we can hold off on return flights for 45 days or so until things die down,” according to the 2006 e-mail. “Otherwise we are likely to have hero’s welcomes awaiting the detainees when they arrive.”
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As the clock counts down to the new year, another clock will continue ticking, counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds since May 23, 2013, the day President Barack Obama promised to free all those prisoners at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay who have been cleared for release.
American soldiers say Navy SEALs and members of the Afghan Local Police physically abused detainees, an offense The New York Times calls “among the most serious” that “an American service member can commit." And instead of disciplining the offenders, the military promoted three of them.
Military trials will resume at America's notorious island gulag. The president failed during the last two years to shut down the detention facility, which he says helps America's enemies recruit, and move trials to the civilian justice system. (more)
Indian police and security forces have allegedly tortured hundreds of Kashmiris as WikiLeaked evidence shows the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against detainees from 2005 to 2007.
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