Italy May Take 3 Guantanamo Detainees

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi met with Obama at the White House today and apparently they discussed gitmo detainees.
Some detainees, cleared of being terrorists, already are enjoying life in Bermuda and more are headed to Palau.

Italy will consider taking in at least three detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, an aide to Silvio Berlusconi said Monday ahead of the Italian premier's meeting with President Barack Obama.

Obama has been banking on foreign countries to take in some of the detainees who cannot go to their own countries for fear of ill-treatment, and on moving others to maximum security prisons in the U.S. mainland.

The Berlusconi aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two leaders would discuss Italy's offer to consider accepting at least three of the prisoners from the detention center in Cuba, although it would want to evaluate each individual case first. Last month, Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said Italy was considering a U.S. request to take two Tunisian prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. MSNBC

New Life in Bermuda For Gitmo Detainees

Palau

ST. GEORGE, Bermuda — Almost exactly seven years after arriving at Guantánamo in chains as accused enemy combatants, and four days after their surprise predawn flight to Bermuda, four Uighur Muslim men basked in their new-found freedom here, grateful for the handshakes many residents have offered and marveling at the serene beauty of this tidy, postcard island.

In newly purchased polo shirts and chinos, the four husky men, members of a restive ethnic minority from western China, might blend in except for their scruffy beards. Smelling hibiscus flowers, luxuriating in the freedom to drift through scenic streets and harbors, they expressed wonder at their good fortune in landing here aftera captivity that included more than a year in solitary confinement.

“I went swimming in the ocean for the first time ever yesterday and it was the happiest day of my life,” said Salahidin Abdulahat, 32.

Over a lunch of fish and chips on Sunday, they praised Bermuda for showing courage in the face of potential Chinese pressures that, in their view, powerful European countries had failed to muster. Read more at NYT

So, after 7 years of being locked up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (they were captured unarmed by the Pakistanis for reward money and have been cleared of being terrorists), they're free. Congress was afraid to let the Uighurs (wee gers) settle in the U.S., so Bermuda stepped up. Suprisingly, the Uighurs are not bitter:

But proposals to resettle them in the United States caused a political furor the Obama administration did not want to aggravate. On Sunday these four expressed a surprising lack of bitterness toward the United States, saying — as they had during interrogations years ago in Guantánamo—that they had never been anti-American and just want to get on with their lives.

“Before we were asking, ‘Why are the Americans doing this to us?’” said Mr. Abdulahat. Now, he said, with others nodding in agreement, “we have ended up in such a beautiful place. We don’t want to look back and we don’t have any hard feelings toward the United States.”

The remaining Uighurs are being sent to Palau, another beautiful island.

The tropical Pacific island nation of Palau said Wednesday that it had agreed to temporarily take in 17 Chinese Muslims held at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay.

Palau's government said it would accept the detainees, known as Uighurs, both as a humanitarian gesture and to help President Barack Obama fulfill his promise to close the controversial prison for foreign terrorism suspects on the U.S. Naval base in Cuba.

Many in Congress oppose transferring them to U.S. soil when the prison is closed. National Post

Obama: Cheney's Philosophy Breeds Anti-American Sentiment

Indeed. Dick Cheney is a horrible scurrilous mole, especially since he outright said that the country isn't safe under Obama. Obama talks about Cheney and Geithner -- he's staying -- on 60 Minutes tomorrow. 

Swamp: President Barack Obama has an answer for former Vice President Dick Cheney's contention that the new president has put the nation at greater risk with his plans to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and prohibit torture of prisoners:

"How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn't made us safer,'' Obama says in an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes airing Sunday evening. "What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment."

As far as rolling Geithner's head:

In the interview taped at the White House, Obama also addresses criticism for his Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, suggesting that resignation is not a consideration.

Were Geithner to tender his resignation, the president says, he would tell him, "Sorry, buddy, you've still got the job."

The Bush Sweep Up Continues

The Obama Administration has jettisoned yet another important vestige of the Bush Administration.

The Justice Department announced today that it will no longer use the term "enemy combatant" to describe detainees held at Guantanamo.

Also, the Obama Administration is not basing its power to detain individuals on the controversial power the Bush Administration asserted belonged to a president during a time of war by virtue of Article Two of the U.S. Constitution.

Instead, and importantly, the administration says the authority arises from the interplay of international law and congressional authorization.

One noteworthy aspect of this is that it's an instance of a president voluntarily relinquishing some power claimed by a predecessor. Presidents tend to be very jealous of presidential power, not wanting to weaken the institution for them or their successors.

But President Obama, a former law school teacher of constitutional law, is clearly sending the message that he believes President Bush interpreted Article Two wrongly. The dropping of "enemy combatant" reinforces that message. The Bush Administration coined the term to deal with suspected terrorists captured on the battlefield.

DOJ release:

In a filing today with the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice submitted a new standard for the government’s authority to hold detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. The definition does not rely on the President’s authority as Commander-in-Chief independent of Congress’s specific authorization. It draws on the international laws of war to inform the statutory authority conferred by Congress. It provides that individuals who supported al Qaeda or the Taliban are detainable only if the support was substantial. And it does not employ the phrase "enemy combatant."

The Department also submitted a declaration by Attorney General Eric Holder stating that, under executive orders issued by President Obama, the government is undertaking an interagency review of detention policy for individuals captured in armed conflicts or counterterrorism operations as well as a review of the status of each detainee held at Guantanamo. The outcome of those reviews may lead to further refinements of the government’s position as it develops a comprehensive policy.

"As we work towards developing a new policy to govern detainees, it is essential that we operate in a manner that strengthens our national security, is consistent with our values, and is governed by law," said Attorney General Holder. "The change we’ve made today meets each of those standards and will make our nation stronger."

In its filing today, the government bases its authority to hold detainees at Guantanamo on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which Congress passed in September 2001, and which authorized the use of force against nations, organizations, or persons the president determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the September 11 attacks, or harbored such organizations or persons. The government’s new standard relies on the international laws of war to inform the scope of the president’s authority under this statute, and makes clear that the government does not claim authority to hold persons based on insignificant or insubstantial support of al Qaeda or the Taliban.

The brief was filed in habeas litigation brought by numerous detainees at Guantanamo who are challenging their detention under the Supreme Court’s decision last summer in Boumediene v. Bush. A copy of the brief is attached.

Eric Holder's memo regarding detainees.

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