Friday, June 30, 2006

Europe all Cheers over Gitmo but Refuses Responsibility

Europe all Cheers over Gitmo but Refuses Responsibility

It’s not in my back yard or NIMBY with a little twist, according to the Washington PostEuropean lawmakers and human rights groups have demanded that the U.S. government shut down the Guantanamo prison as soon as possible.

Now according to the WP they were all cheers because of the Supreme Court decision limiting President Bush’s authority to hold military tribunals at the prison at Guantanamo Bay. They hope that the terrorism prison camp will be shut down by the end of the year.

"UK Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman told the BBC on Sunday the camp should be moved to the US or shut down.

If it's perfectly legal and there's nothing going wrong there - well, why don't they have it in America and then the American court system can supervise it?"


Calls in Europeto shut Guantanamo have become louder in recent months, particularly since U.S. officials announced that three detainees had committed suicide at the camp on June 10.

But…Some of the Prisoners affect by the Court’s ruling would have to be returned to their countries of origin and that presents two problems for the self-righteous Europeans.

About a dozen Guantanamo prisoners have citizenship or residency status in Europe. Those with residency status in Europe have it because their own governments do not want them or have declined to intervene on their behalf. European countries -- Britain, Bosnia and Germany -- have balked at requests to accept their own citizens or former residents who are at Gitmo because these people are accused of having al-Qaeda links.

Also if a prisoner is a citizen of a country that might aggressively hold these Gitmo detainees responsible for terrorist acts, the self-righteous Europeans are insisting that these prisoners not be returned to their country of origin.

So let’s recant, Europeans want Gitmo closed, they want prisoners, alleged terrorist, released but they will not take back their own alleged terrorist citizens and they don’t want citizens of other countries returned to their own countries, countries that might persecute them for terrorism.

No wonder Europe is going to hell in a hand basket! And the U.S. will soon follow if it adopts policies to appease the Europeans.