By Andy WorthingtonThe Public Record
In the Obama administration’s campaign to persuade other countries to rehouse prisoners from Guantánamo who have been cleared for release, but who cannot be repatriated because of fears that they will be tortured if returned to their home countries, progress has been slow.
Why European nations are reluctant to accept cleared Guantánamo prisoners
Despite an apparent accord being reached on June 15, when the European Union and the United States made a joint statement in Luxembourg on the closure of Guantánamo, which, as the Guardian described it, “cleared the last hurdles for up to 50 Guantánamo detainees to be accommodated in EU countries,” no one has been released in Europe in the last two months, and the number of prisoners welcomed into any European countries since Obama came to office is just two: Binyam Mohamed, the British resident, notoriously subjected to “extraordinary rendition” and torture, whose release in February appears to have been designed (not entirely successfully) to fend off further legal challenges and embarrassing revelations regarding his treatment; and Lakhdar Boumediene, an Algerian cleared by a US judge in his habeas corpus hearing last November, who was resettled in France in May....(Remainder.)
