[Vision2020] Our Afghan Allies Ask for Their Men Back

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Dear Visionaries,

I wonder how many Americans, especially those who think that anyone wearning a turban is a terrorist, would become bounty hunters if President Bush offer $1,000 for every terror suspect in America?  This is how many of the men at Guantanamo were arrested.

Do we as a country support the rule of law, habeus corpus, and due process, or do we want to be jut like our enemies?  The future of America depends on a leader who does the former.

Nick Gier

June 15, 2006, The New York Times

Delegation Seeks Release of Afghans Being Held at Guantánamo 
By CARLOTTA GALL

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 14 — An Afghan government delegation to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, said Wednesday that about half of the 94 Afghans being held there were not guilty of serious crimes and should be released. 

The remainder, including several high-level members of the former Taliban government, should be tried in Afghan courts, said the leader of the delegation, Abdul Jabar Sabit, a legal adviser to the Ministry of the Interior.

"The delegation concluded that some of the detainees should not stay longer in prison on the basis of the allegations against them and they must be returned to their country," Mr. Sabit, a former prosecutor, said at a news briefing. "We want to assure our people that the detainees will return to the country." 

The officials said the Afghan detainees were not being held in bad conditions, and during private interviews, without the presence of American guards or officials, only one or two detainees had complained. "The conditions were humane," Mr. Sabit said.

The nine-member delegation, consisting of representatives of the Interior, Defense and Justice Ministries and National Security officials, made a 10-day visit to Guantánamo at the end of May to interview the Afghan detainees, establish whether they really were Afghans and work on plans for their return home. President Hamid Karzai and President Bush agreed in May 2005 that the Afghan detainees would be returned to Afghanistan once facilities run by Afghans were prepared and personnel trained to handle them.

Gen. Abdul Salaam Bakhshi, the chief of the main prison in Kabul, said Wednesday that it would take months to prepare for the return of the detainees, but that those whose crimes were not serious could be returned and released "soon." 

Mr. Sabit said the government delegation had interviewed detainees and drawn up a list of those who could be released immediately. The remainder, who face more serious charges, would be returned and dealt with by the Afghan judicial process. 

The American military is financing the refurbishment of a wing of Pul-i-Charkhi prison, the large Russian-built facility on the eastern side of the capital, to house some 650 detainees from Guantánamo and Bagram Air Base, and is training prison personnel to take charge of the detainees. The prison is expected to be ready by next spring.

It has not been decided what kind of judicial process the detainees would face on their return, but being considered are Afghan military tribunals or trials in civilian courts run by the National Security Directorate, which has jurisdiction over terrorism and other serious crimes.

An American official in Kabul said the detainees considered for release could go into the peace and reconciliation program far sooner than next spring. Under the program, former Taliban members are allowed to return home under a guarantee from their communities that they will not fight the government. "The sooner we can get them back and into the reconciliation process the better," said the official, asking not to be named because the negotiations with the Afghan government are still taking place.

Afghan officials have visited Guantánamo before and secured the release of a few prisoners, but this was the first comprehensive survey of all the Afghan detainees.

The detainees were dispersed through the five camps that make up Guantánamo, and many were in the most lenient camp, where they had access to television and radio, Mr. Sabit said. Those who had broken prison rules were under more severe regimens. The delegation asked that all of the Afghan detainees be placed in one block, he said.

The American-led coalition in Afghanistan announced that two coalition soldiers died on Tuesday as a broad offensive against Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan was beginning. It will involve 11,000 troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States, an American military spokesman said.

"This is not just about killing or capturing extremists," the spokesman, Col. Tom Collins, said at a news briefing in Kabul. "We are going to go into these areas, take out the security threat and establish conditions where government forces, government institutions, humanitarian organizations can move into these areas and begin the real work that needs to be done."