Euros Backing Away From Gitmo Prisoners

They loved him in January but soon enough it will be "Obama who?"

Europe’s Hedging on Inmates Clouds Guantánamo Plans
By WILLIAM GLABERSON and STEVEN ERLANGER

European countries that have offered to help the Obama administration close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have begun raising questions about the security risks and requirements if they accept prisoners described by the Bush administration as “the worst of the worst,” according to diplomats and other officials.

The concerns, and a deep suspicion of whether the American intelligence community will share full information on the prisoners, are likely to complicate the resettlement effort, which is critical to President Obama’s fulfilling his pledge to close Guantánamo within a year of his taking office.

The offers, from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland and other countries, have been widely seen as efforts to win favor with the new administration by helping to close the camp, which was a contentious issue during the Bush years.

Still, with a first round of talks on the Guantánamo issues scheduled for Monday in Washington between Obama administration officials and a high-level delegation from the European Union, several European leaders have recently emphasized that they can make no firm commitments until they are given complete details on the prisoners.

“We’d have to study concrete cases,” María Teresa Fernández de la Vega Sanz, Spain’s deputy prime minister, said in an interview last week.

Its early in the process so it ought to be easy to write this story, since some of the Euro-objections are reasonable, particularly their 'who are these guys' plaint.  On the other hand, the Times could have provided a bit of uplift had they found some Euro-leader pounding the table and declaring their commitment to making this work.

We especially like this obstacle:

The Bush administration often failed when it asked other countries to accept detainees, partly because those requests were usually accompanied by public comments defending the imprisonments by describing the detainees as dangerous terrorists.

The new administration is sending a different message. “We are less vested in trying to prove that these people are rightly held,” the senior State Department official said.

Given that stance by the Obama administration, some European officials say Washington’s focus on sending the detainees to Europe raises many questions.

Germany’s interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has suggested publicly that if Guantánamo detainees pose no security risk, there is no reason the United States should not take them.

Let's see - if the prisoners are dangerous, Europe doesn't want them; if they are not dangerous, the US ought to keep or release them.

I bet these guys had a lot of fun with "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" when they were kids.

[end of Gitmo]

Comments

[clarice]

What a surprise:Europe in a nutshell:
"Let's see - if the prisoners are dangerous, Europe doesn't want them; if they are not dangerous, the US ought to keep or release them"

[kim]

Really, just exactly why would anyone want to take these people? Absurd, the thought of it.

More manipulation of public opinion, and demonization of Bush. This won't work against real alien forces. Not for long, anyway. Eat your heart out, Axelrod. Go fix some brakes, Emmanuel.
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[kim]

Now I'll have to apologize to the local front end specialists, who play a role in our community similar to the blacksmiths of yore.
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[Charlie (Colorado)]

I wonder if Obama needs any used cars?

I'd sell him a bridge, but the recovery bill seems to have flooded the market.

[clarice]

In line with "We have always been at war with Eastasia", pretty soon O will declare that Gitmo no m longer exists, although there is a jihadi rest & relaxation center at Guantanamo.

[kim]

Germany is paying a premium to owners of older, less efficient, cars to buy a new, more efficient one. Biding my time, here. At one time I owned almost 100 cylinders, most of them firable.
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[royf]

No kidding Clarice, Zero has already repackaged many GWB policies. He might as well repackage one for Rush.

[kim]

The ones I most wish I had back were for a big fat four cylinder diesel in an industrial tractor. It was a positive ground machine.
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[MayBee]

This is a shocking new development, and one Obama had not planned for.

Countries seem to be, for the first time ever, acting in their own best interest. Previously, they had only ever acted in response to the US's bad behavior.

[Danube of Thought]

What a fiasco. There is absolutely no reason to close Gitmo; this entire bit of nonsense has arisen solely because of an Obama campaign promise to the left wing of his party. It is plainly in the best interest of United States security to keep these people right where they are. This amateur has made his bed, and now he's finding out what it's like to lie in it. Tough cheese.

[Danube of Thought]

Rasmussen favorable index down to a new low of +4.

A few days ago I posted an LUN, and now it won't go away. I have to delete it each and every time I post something, otherwise it will keep showing up. Any ideas?

[verner]

It was cost effective--both politically and economically-- to give in to the whims of the nutty Euro-left. Why spend euros when Uncle Sam is committed to shelling out Yankee dollars!

But of course, in private, they were cheering the US on! As Cheney noted, our...interrogation methods... have stopped more than a few terrorist acts. Just imagine how the economies of Western Europe and the US would have been effected if those planes had blown up over the Atlantic!

But now, as usual, when the rubber meets the road, they bail on us. And who can blame them? Ever see, for example, the percentage of the French population that is Muslim? Having ENEMY COMBATANTS (Yeah, I said it) would be a major domestic concern. Ditto UK, Germany, Italy and Spain to name a few.

Whatever. When we get hit again, I will refrain from saying "I told you so," It will just be too painful.

[clarice]

Dot is that link in the spot for your email addy? or the "WebSite Url" box? If so, delete it .

[Jane]

Any ideas?

Put something else in there. Of course you will be stuck with that too. Put FWDAJ in - I can use the advertising.

[Aubrey]

What? I thought these people were all simple, innocent shepherds and farmers that the evil American military had rounded up for skipping Sunday school. Is there some reason to suspect that they would not be productive, law abiding members of whatever society they are released into? Who knew?

[narciso]

True, but it's actually the culmination of the Saudi/Qatari lobbying strategy,'mission accomplished' Ironically, they in the Sauds
and the Al Thanis are more ultimately threatened by those forces, they have unleashed.

[MayBee]

I realize Obama is on my every last nerve.
He's making a speech about small business as if he's just learned of this amazing new thing.

[Dennis D]

Obama will no longer call them " Enemy Combatants". Will his new term be " Constituents"?

[Danube of Thought]

It's in the URL bar. I just tried to changed it to FWDAJ, but got hit with "please enter a valid URL," so I've deleted it yet again. The bar is now blank, but I'm guessing that the next time I go to post something the old link will show up again. We'll see...

Ed Rendell discloses that he and Biden put a full-court press on the reptilian Arlen Specter to switch parties. That bastard is looking at some extreme unpleasantness if he seeks another term in 2010.

[kim]

Yeah, and look, he's got nothing for small businesses but the promise to throw money at them. Can he do anything but promise that? This guy is ridiculous. Congress, step up to the plate. Oops, was that deep shit I just stepped into?
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[kim]

Pat Toomey is going to have plenty of money for his run, DoT. That's Mr Club for Growth, there.

That url business is unsettling. It used to be that you could leave it blank, but ever since I entered something there, it won't let me leave it blank anymore. Fortunately, I'm happy with leaving Watts Up for my link under name.
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[Jane]

He's making a speech about small business as if he's just learned of this amazing new thing.

WEll I wouldn't be surprised if that were true.

[kim]

Irony Medalist for the day(week?, month?, millenium?): Jane Hamsher, 'Who stole our country and how are we going to get it back?'.
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[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

With all the idiotic incompetence from this clown show domestically, it's easy to think our main problems are economic.
But before they're gone I'm afraid we'll be looking back in nostalgia to the days when taxes and spending were our biggest problems. I don't think this is going to end well, national defense wise. The sharks of the world would be idiots not to take some bites out of us while Bozo is driving.
How's that for a mixed metaphor?

[I'm a liberal--I want somneone else to pay for my lifestyle]

Try them via military tribunals and then execute them. This is not difficult.

[PD]

Heh. Obama has entirely disappeared on Rush's show today.

It's all "Obama's teleprompter says ...", personifying the teleprompter as the one making the policy declarations.

[DebinNC]

AFL-CIO promises Specter that if he votes for card check they'll get enough Dems to change registration to enable him to win his primary. LUN

[kim]

PD, Rush is on to something. You don't really think this is all Obama. It's Axelrod, and Emmanuel, and more cryptic string pullers. Obama is the figurehead and mouthpiece. And the committee can't decide what to do except demonize and cheerlead. Leadership has never been in their curriculum.
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[kim]

In one sense, this is the failure of post modern politics. When nothing is for sure, for sure, there is nothing.

This is the best they can do, folks. Forces outside their control are now in charge, including an awakening press.
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[kim]

Hope and change was supposed to all sweetness and light. Instead we get sour and dark. And cold.
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[MayBee]

PD, Rush is on to something. You don't really think this is all Obama.

Yeah, that's why they want to feed him "details" when he has future press conferences.

Geithner gets the same treatment. I posted the NPR account of his press person furiously scribbling notes, holding up signs, and making hand motions while he did a radio interview.

[MayBee]

Apparently Geithner is going to use the same power he has to block the Cuba legislation to now block AIG bonuses.

[kim]

Sad to say, populus rage is red meat for Axelrod. Watch the perversities unfold.
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[Jane]

Maybee, where is the NPR article?

[matt]

for a guy who has been on TV more than any of his predecessors, he sure doesn't say much......

[fdcol63]

"Try them via military tribunals and then execute them. This is not difficult."

Save the money and time, and skip Step 1.

[MayBee]

Here Jane.

[bgates]

We are less vested in trying to prove that these people are rightly held

Less vested than the evil lawless Bush administration, I presume.

[hit and run]

President Obama has squandered the global goodwill generated by his historic campaign and election!

Actually, Obama has actually squandered the same amount of global goodwill since his election as President Bush did after 9/11.

That is, in terms of some mythical goodwill that ever had a chance of resulting in real-world, on the ground commitments in matters of war, neither man squandered squat.

[Jane]

Thanks Maybee!

[Jane]

I've got Rush on in the background now and he keeps saying:

"Obama's teleprompter told him" and then he quotes him. I laugh every time he says it.

He was just talking about Vice President Cheney's remark that about Rush debating "Obama's teleprompter".

[narciso]

It's an irony, Europe is more directly threatened by Salafism, because of their
demographics but also because their liberal social policies are even more despised than ours. Without Gitmo, they really have no excuse to act in the typically European way
that we've seen behave toward outsiders.

[TCO]

Hang them or let them go. We are 7 years since 9-11 and still haven't done a single execution.

[kim]

Hey, let's turn 'em loose with ankle bracelets on. It's a law enforcement problem, right?
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[Cecil Turner]

What's the rush? Howzabout we just keep 'em in a POW camp until we're sure they aren't a threat? I'm not too keen on the "let 'em go" option, and it appears some of our allies are starting to come around to my way of thinkin'.

[TCO]

Then shoot them. Do like with the 50 prisoners at the end of The Great Escape.

[sbw]

Dot and Kim, Try this. If you are using Firefox, go to Menu: Firefox: Preferences and click on the Privacy tab. Click on Show cookies. Put typepadurl in the search window. Delete that cookie when it appears.