From: "John Beamish" 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-12-15-gitmo-freed_x.htm?csp=34

AP: 'Vicious killers' from Guantanamo Bay routinely freed by other countries
Updated 12/15/2006 2:23 PM ET   E-mail | Save | Print |

By Andrew O. Selsky, The Associated Press The Pentagon called them
"among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face
of the earth," sweeping them up after Sept. 11 and hauling them in
chains to a U.S. military prison in southeastern Cuba.

Since then, hundreds of the men have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay
to other countries, many of them for "continued detention."

And then set free.

Decisions by more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, Europe and
South Asia to release the former Guantanamo detainees raise questions about
whether they were really as dangerous as the United States claimed, or
whether some of America's staunchest allies have set terrorists and
militants free.

[snip]

ƒ ›The Afghan government has freed every one of the more than 83 Afghans
sent home. Lawmaker Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of Afghanistan's
reconciliation commission, said many were innocent and wound up at
Guantanamo because of tribal or personal rivalries.

[snip]

The United States insists that the fact that so many of the former
detainees have been freed by other countries doesn't mean they weren't
dangerous.

"They were part of Taliban, al-Qaeda, or associated forces that are
engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition
partners," said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.

But Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer representing several detainees, says
the fact that hundreds of men have been released into freedom belies their
characterization by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as "among the
most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the
earth."

"After all, it would simply be incredible to suggest that the United
States has voluntarily released such 'vicious killers' or that such men had
been miraculously reformed at Guantanamo," Colangelo-Bryan said.

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