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US 'stuck' with Guantanamo Bay prisoners

By John Hirst

US 'stuck' with Guantanamo Bay prisoners

The United States is "stuck" with its Guantanamo Bay prison and cannot decide what to do with inmates who cannot be charged or set loose, the American defence secretary admitted.

Robert Gates told the Senate he believed the prison should be closed, but had not found a way to do it.

"I think the brutally frank answer is we're stuck. And we're stuck in several ways," he told Senator Dianne Feinstein of California.

He said the US was prepared to send 60 or 70 prisoners home but either could not persuade their countries to take them, or could not trust them not to free them.

There are now about 270 detainees at Guantanamo.

They include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed planner of the September 11 attacks, and a number of other "high value" al-Qa'eda operatives awaiting trial under a military tribunals system.

Many inmates who have been there for several years have not been charged and remain in legal limbo.

Isn't it more a case of once the US has kidnapped the inmates from freedom it is they who are stuck with the US?

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on May 21, 2008 (boomark / email).