Kuwaiti detainee repatriation shows Obama administration’s haste to close Guantanamo Commentary
Kuwaiti detainee repatriation shows Obama administration’s haste to close Guantanamo
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Gregory D. Lee [Nationally Syndicated Columnist and Criminal Justice Consultant]: "The transfer of Kuwaiti National Fouad Al Rabiah to his home country is a further attempt by the Obama administration to reduce the number of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay as much as possible before his self-imposed one-year deadline arrives in January.

What disturbs me is the administration's haste to reduce the number of detainees without regard to the reasons these people became detainees in the first place. Upwards of half of all previously released detainees have returned to the jihad battlefield, and there is no reason to believe Al Rabiah won't do the same.

The US counter-terrorism strategy appears to be in retreat. Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and four others in the Southern District of New York, yet try other detainees by military commission at Guantanamo, gives KSM the forum he requested at the time of his capture. If military commissions are a viable mechanism to try some detainees, why not all of them? Why offer the highest valued detainee to date the opportunity to be on the world's stage and subject New Yorkers to unnecessary security concerns, costs, and the dredging up of the horrible memories of the events of 9/11?

The military commissions need to crank up and start trying these detainees so justice can finally be served."

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