Sunday, December 27, 2009

Xmas Bomb Bid Complicates Gitmo Plan

A watchtower at the Guantanamo detention facility.
Photo from
Radio Free Europe

From Politico:

“I’d expect Yemen’s handling of returned Guantanamo detainees to come under intense U.S. scrutiny,” said Matthew Waxman, a Columbia law professor who was an assistant Defense secretary for detainee affairs under President George W. Bush. “In the past, the Yemeni government has not shown great capacity or reliability, but the U.S. hopes to build a stronger partnership and improve that record, in part because it has few other options in this important region.”

Read more ....

My Comment:
This is probably one of the the top 5 issues (on foreign affairs) that the U.S. President is now focused on. His failure to close Guantanamo in the time promised has only made the White House even more intense in its determination to close the prison and to transfer the bulk of the detainees (who are from Yemen) back to their home countries. But as Yemen quickly becomes a safe haven for Al Qaeda cells and sits on the brink of its own collapse .... closing Guantanamo may become a even more difficult exercise than what the White House would like to think is possible.

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