DUBAI (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)
Hungary hashed out talks with the United States about resettling "a small number" of Guantanamo Bay prisoners on Thursday as America's Attorney General said the U.S. government has decided the fate of about half the detainees, and no more than a quarter of them will go on trial.
Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, who is in charge of resettling negotiations, said Hungary was one of a number of European countries in talks to take so of the prisoners.
Spain and Italy already offered to put up a few detainees each, and other countries will probably include Portugal, Fried told reporters. The U.S. will not pay countries to take in detainees, he added.
President Barack Obama's order for the prison for foreign terrorism suspects on a naval base in Cuba to be closed by the end of January has met resistance in Congress where some lawmakers are opposing any transfers to the United States.
Last week nine prisoners were transferred to Saudi Arabia, Bermuda, Iraq and Chad. One prisoner, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, accused of involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, was sent to New York and became the first detainee transferred to the United States for trial by civilian court.
"We've gone through about half of the detainees at this point," Attorney General Eric Holder said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. |
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The fate of 229 captives There are 229 captives still being held at Guantanamo. The camp, opened after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, drew international criticism for holding prisoners indefinitely, many without charge.
When pressed on whether the number of detainees to go to trial would be 25 percent or less, Holder replied: "That might be about right."
A Justice Department spokesman said the final number of Guantanamo Bay detainees who would be recommended for trial had not been determined.
Obama has said that some of the prisoners may end up being held without trial, and Holder said in those cases there would likely be some form of periodic review of their status.
Some U.S. lawmakers who have expressed concern about bringing Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States say it would be too dangerous even to hold them in jail. |
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Disgruntled tourists " Bermuda is a place that's noted for tourism. You don't want to go there thinking about these issues that now seem to be on everybody's lips " American tourist Meanwhile Bermuda's Royal Gazette newspaper reported that several outraged tourists had threatened to boycott the island because of the government's decision to allow four detainees to resettle there.
The paper quoted several disgruntled tourists that were upset that their favorite holiday destination would be tarnished with politics.
"Bermuda is a place that's noted for tourism. You don't want to go there thinking about these issues that now seem to be on everybody's lips," the paper quoted a "grandfather from Boston" as saying.
The tourists were still upset after they learned that the Chinese Uighurs, twice cleared of being enemy combatants, would resettle on the Island.
"I'm not blaming any of those poor Chinese people," one of the American tourists was quoted as saying. "If we are the ones who have held these people unfairly, we should be the ones making amends." |
