The release is a first step in dealing with the largest group of inmates, write PETER FINN, SUDARSAN RAGHAVANand JULIE TATEin Washington
THE OBAMA administration is planning to repatriate six Yemenis held at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a transfer that could be a prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen.
The release is a significant first step towards dealing with the largest group of detainees at the prison – there are currently 97 Yemenis there – and towards meeting US President Barack Obama’s goal of closing the facility. But Yemen’s security problems and lack of resources have spawned fears about its ability to monitor and rehabilitate returnees. Critics of the administration say returning detainees to Yemen, a country where al-Qaeda is believed to be thriving, is tantamount to returning terrorists to the battlefield.
The six Yemenis, along with four Afghans, will be transferred out of Guantánamo Bay in coming days. The release follows months of high-level meetings between the government in Yemen and senior US officials, as well as a visit to the country last week by CIA deputy director Stephen Kappes, sources with independent knowledge of the matter said. The CIA declined to comment.
The transfer will be closely monitored and, if successful, could lead to the release of other Yemenis who have been cleared to go home by a US justice department-led interagency review team, which examined the case of each detainee held at Guantánamo Bay. Obama set up the process to accelerate the closure of the detention centre.
“It’s a breakthrough because the US and Yemen governments have been at an impasse,” said David Remes, a lawyer for seven Yemeni detainees. “Something has broken the logjam, and that’s good, because you can’t solve the Guantánamo problem without solving the Yemeni problem.”
Since the detention centre in Guantánamo Bay opened in early 2002, 15 Yemenis who were deemed not to be a threat have been repatriated: 14 by the Bush administration and one by the Obama administration.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to identify the latest detainees being released in advance of the transfer. A justice department spokesman would not comment.
Yemenis account for 46 per cent of the 210 inmates remaining at Guantánamo Bay. Three of those Yemenis have been ordered to be released by federal judges following proceedings in which they challenged their detention under the doctrine of habeas corpus. Two of those decisions have been appealed by the US government.
Although at least 34 Yemenis have been cleared for release, the fate of more than 60 others remains uncertain. Some will be tried in either federal court or military commissions, and others are likely to be held in some system of prolonged detention at a prison in Thomson, Illinois, once the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay is closed.
Yemen’s government has been struggling with a civil war in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and humanitarian crises as the economy crumbles. In this void, al-Qaeda has grown steadily, using the nation’s vast lawless, rugged terrain as a haven. US officials are concerned that al-Qaeda could use Yemen, strategically located in the heart of one of the world’s lucrative oil and shipping zones, as a launching pad for attacks against neighbouring Saudi Arabia and in the Horn of Africa.
On Thursday, the weak central government launched one of its biggest counterterrorism efforts in recent memory, as Yemeni forces, backed by air strikes, killed at least 28 al-Qaeda militants and captured 17 others in a predawn assault on an alleged training camp. Mohammed Albasha, spokesman for the Yemeni embassy in Washington, said the dead included Mohammed Saleh al-Kazemi, a leading al-Qaeda figure in Yemen.
The operation targeted militants planning suicide bomb attacks against Yemeni and foreign sites, including schools, according to a statement on a Yemeni website linked to the government’s military.
Several civilians were also apparently killed and homes destroyed, witnesses told local news agencies.
Obama phoned Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to praise the country’s efforts to fight terrorism, saying Thursday’s raids “show Yemen’s determination to face the threat of Osama bin Laden’s global terrorist network of al-Qaeda”, according to Yemen’s Saba state news agency.
Bin Laden has close ties to Yemen, where his father was born, and al-Qaeda has struck there repeatedly. Militants have carried out a string of attacks on US missionaries, foreign tourists and Yemeni security forces. Last year, heavily armed gunmen targeted the US embassy with a car bomb and rockets. The attack killed 16, including six assailants.
Against this backdrop, some US military and intelligence officials have blanched at the prospect of sending large numbers of Yemenis home from Guantánamo Bay.
Yemeni officials said none of the 15 former detainees had returned to terrorism and they are demanding the release of more of their nationals.
Officials in Yemen, the poorest Arab nation, also insist they need financial assistance from the US to reintegrate detainees. – ( Washington Postservice)