These guys have been out of the loop for fifteen years. Presumably, we’ve already wrung all the intelligence that we can out of them. It seems that there are plenty of terrorists on the outside that are more dangerous. Other than being potential recruiters, just how dangerous can these guys be? The other GITMO prisoners that have been released seem to have been neutralized.
Why not just let them go?
Because almost nobody wants them to be let go, for starters. This includes Congress, which has annually passed laws to prevent their release into the United States and puts limitations on their transfer to foreign countries.
Which country is willing to accept them?
Some of them should be imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Some of them shouldn’t be but after the way they’ve been treated they may want revenge. Someone may want revenge on them also. As mentioned above, nobody wants them. And if they get out they’ll unleash a wave of accusations about torture, war crimes, and innocents imprisoned for no reason. No one in the government wants their name associated with the results. So far no one has lost their job for not closing Gitmo.
Syria and Iraq?
Not publicly.
‘Hey do you want to take some guys into your country that the US considered enemies of the state. They are supposedly safe and the US pinky swore they wouldn’t drone strike them after the fact’
I started this thread as a Devil’s Advocate and I’m hoping folks will play along.
So, here’s an idea, cargo load them onto a skid and whisk them off into a moonless night over Yemen with some water and rations?
Gitmo was a ridiculous mistake.
Oh? I’m not entirely certain that’s correct.
Almost 28 percent of the detainees transferred out of the U.S.-run detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have either returned to terrorism or are suspected of having done so, the Director of National Intelligence says in a new report.
Fair enough, but have any of those have taken more lives than those maniacs in San Bernidio?
Release the inmates where? They’re pretty much all non-Americans, right? So how do you release people who have no legal right to live in the US into the United States?
And if not the US, where? If you dump possible terrorists into a friendly country, that country may not stay friendly for long. Or do you dump people with a sense of grievance against the US into a foreign country that is not friendly, and which may do everything it can to foster that sense of grievance, coupled perhaps with some free weapons and a plane ticket back to places where the US has a presence?
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula has several former detainees in leadership posts. They claim responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo shooting. Does that count?
Illegal. Who is going to issue the order? Obama could be impeached for doing this.
Reasonable points, I’m just conducting a mental exercise; in the end, we have to do *something *with them.
As much as think its abhorrent they will probably stay there until they die simply because its too much of a political hot potato to do anything else with them. Spandau was kept running for 20 years with only Hess remaining there. Sometime around 2050 the last remaining Gitmo prisoner will die then they’ll finally close it down.
Is there any possibility of transferring them to some island resort somewhere and giving them a long extended holiday?
Could they be given jobs and invited to teach at American universities under some sort of “day release” programme while being housed in local prisons?
What part of “no country will take them” and “Congress passed legislation outlawing the transfer of these guys to US soil” is so hard to understand?
The no country will take them part is false at least for some of them. There are countries willing to take some of them but the Pentagon is being obstructive and slowing things down.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-gitmo-release-special-report-idUSKBN0UB1B020151228
However even if all of those willing to be taken by other countries were gone, there would probably be about 60 left with no countries willing to take them.
What should have happened is that the inmates should have seen trial. My problem is not and has never been with people being held indefinitely in prison, but it should only be done after it has been publicly established whether or not they have committed crimes justifying a sentence of life in prison.
The other thing that should have happened is that a whole lot of people at the CIA should have been tried, sentenced and executed for the use of torture. It wasn’t just evil, it was stupid - even Napoleon knew this shit didn’t work - so you’re not even robbing the organisation of hard men who make hard decisions, just a bunch of sadistic morons who might as well have been dunking witches to see if they float.
Yes to all the above. What we should do is try them and if we don’t have evidence, release them to their country of origin. Then we should give the entire base back to Cuba.