A Failure of Rendition Policy

You've heard of all those dangerous Guantanamo detainees that the US government has foolishly let go back to their native countries. Well, the New York Times notes this Muslim character, Binyam Mohamed, who has returned to his country of origin - the United Kingdom - after seven years of absence. The UK government released him from detention on the same day that he arrived, after the US government had dropped all charges, including one of planning "dirty bomb" attacks.

Mr. Mohamed, 30, was captured in Pakistan in April 2002; American officials said that he was part of a conspiracy to detonate a dirty bomb on American soil. But all charges against him were eventually dismissed. He has said he was held for 18 months in Morocco, where he says he was tortured, then was moved to Afghanistan and then to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The C.I.A. has repeatedly declined to say if Mr. Mohamed was held in Morocco, and has steadfastly denied that he, or anyone else in its custody, was ever tortured. Britain, where Mr. Mohamed established residence 15 years ago, had been seeking his release since August 2007.

The United States and Britain have wrangled in court over what documents related to his case can be released. The case has been viewed by some as a test for President Obama and his promise to break sharply from his predecessor regarding the treatment of detainees. Continued detention of a prisoner with no charges against him, whose release was sought by the United States’ closest ally in the war on terrorism, loomed as potential source of diplomatic tension for the new administration.

David Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary, said that he was “pleased” Mr. Mohamed had been given his release, and that it had come after “intense negotiations.”

Mohamed is a thirty-year-old Ethiopian native who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1994. He admits to traveling to Afghanistan in June 2001 and receiving paramilitary training from a Taliban training camp. He traveled back to Pakistan after 9/11, and when he was trying to return to the United Kingdom, he was grabbed by the Pakistani government, bounced around a few secret CIA prisons for three years, and then landed in Gitmo. The US government charged him with conspiring with Jose Padilla to build a radiological dispersal device. You all remember how well that case went - the US government eventually dropped the "dirty bomb" charge against Padilla.

In August 2007, he was one of five Gitmo detainees whom the British government requested released from detention, since they had all been granted refugee status. The US government response was to refile charges against Mohamed in June 2008, leading to continued petitions from the British government for his release, or at the least, evidence of his crimes and alleged abuse. The British High Court decided that this was unnecesssary, as it might damage the "special intelligence relationship" wth the United States. But he's out now, after seven years of confinement, torture, and no trial.

He's out, and although there was no evidence that he ever had the capability or knowledge to make a "dirty bomb," he just might now. We better give DHS hundreds of millions of dollars to build that global nuclear detection architecture and to make sure that he doesn't ever slip the United Kingdom and come visiting the United States. Because payback is a bitch. And then there's our detainees in Bagram, Afghanistan, which (as Kilo notes) we studiously ignore. I hope President Obama is being up front about shutting down Gitmo's detention facilities, because it's just amazing to me what serious damage the Bush administration has done to America's reputation by these kind of actions.

Comments

[B]

Hello and Good Morning - call it a casulty of war if you will but poor Mr. M is not so innocent as your writing would portray him as - if memory serves me correctly the Bush Administration had charecterized these "types" (those who had gone and received training) as terrorists - now forgive me for contradicting you here but the question we should be asking (since we dont have all the "facts") is why on earth does this guy need para-military training? I know - he wants to go back to England and be part of the solution! Mark my words (this is where I agree with you) this piece of garbage will be picked up at some point in the future attempting to execute some type of nefarious act either in Britain, Afghanistan or the US and every liberal politician and "Bush Hater" will say it was because he was kept at Gitmo and tortured! They will all forget about the fact that this piece of scum actively sought out AQ and wanted to cause somebody or some country pain and continue the fight against the crusaders and the infidels. We should all support rendition as an act of pre-emption!

Again - I have always enjoyed your writing but lets leave the left slanting liberal dogma at home - this was not "joe six-pack" who was wrongly imprisoned for stealing cookies at the market - if you forget that then you might as well start writing for Cottage Living!

B

[J.]

And yet we needed to keep him in foreign and secret prisons for three years and in Gitmo for four years because he received training similar to that given to militia groups within the United States?

This isn't "Minority Report." You don't get to imprison people based on what they might do and on top of that without a trial. It's about time that our government returned to its original principles of inalienable human rights.

[B]

I dont disagree with you regarding the trial - all for that in an expeditious manner as well! I do not think that our political system as well as legal system can handle this type of criminal - I dont disagree with you about the training in the US but this guy was training with the enemy - BIG DISTINCTION and even BIGGER DIFFERENCE! The issue with this guy is how the system failed to move him expeditiously through it to a logical conclusion (trial) - I think that is what Mr. Holder and others will have to wrestle with in the coming months

B

[Kilo]

" The issue with this guy is how the system failed to move him expeditiously through it to a logical conclusion (trial)"

Well that, plus the torture involve slicing up his genitals. One of the two.

Maybe that that's what he was screaming while they took a knife to his knob "I can't believe this is taking so long. Is there any way we could streamline this".