The Human Right to Remain in GITMO

This just in from Human Rights Watch: humans now have a right to NOT be sent home from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, if they don't want to go. According to a report by HRW, two jihadis from Tunisia were released from U.S. custody 11 weeks ago only to be put into prison back home. Prison in Tunisia is so disagreeable, it seems, that the two regret ever leaving GITMO, where they had lived in comparative comfort and ease for five years.

HRW wants the U.S. to give GITMO detainees a chance to contest their repatriation in a U.S. court. What's up with that? For six years all we've heard from the human rights-types is what a hell-hole the U.S runs in GITMO, how it's a torture center, an outrage to all humanity, the worst Carribean prison camp since the French closed Devil's Island. And now they admit that there are worse places???

I say keep these guys in GITMO. Problem solved.

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http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/09/05/tunisi16792.htm

US: Don’t Send Guantanamo Detainees Home to Torture and Abuse

‘Diplomatic Assurances’ Once Again Prove Inadequate

(Washington, DC, September 5, 2007) –

Authorities in Tunisia mistreated two former Guantanamo detainees who were sent home in June despite Tunisia’s pledge to the US government that it would treat them humanely, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today ........................

The Tunisian government is now holding both men, Abdullah al-Hajji Ben Amor and Lotfi Lagha, in prison; the men have told those who visit them that things are so bad they would rather be in Guantanamo, Human Rights Watch said ........................

The 43-page report, "Ill-fated Homecomings: A Tunisian Case Study of Guantanamo Repatriations," describes the experiences of the two Tunisians returned home 11 weeks ago and urges the US government to set up a process that would give detainees advance notice of their transfer, and allow them the opportunity to contest it before a federal court if they fear torture or ill-treatment upon return to their home countries .........................

Of the 355 detainees the US is still holding in Guantanamo, approximately 50 come from countries such as Algeria, China, Libya, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan – all countries with known records of torture – and have told their attorneys that they are so fearful of torture or other abuse that they do not want to return home.