US Fights Varied Gitmo Legal Battles
The government is fighting Guantanamo legal battles on two fronts, trying to keep some detainees behind bars at the same time it is trying to force others to return to their native countries.
In the case of Ahmed Belbacha, the government is opposing his effort to stop his transfer to Algeria, the New York Times reports. His request before Chief Judge John G. Roberts Jr. claims he risks torture or murder if he returns. (See this ABAJournal.com post for more information.)
In other instances, countries don’t want the detainees back, or don’t want to comply with U.S. requests to monitor their activities on return.
“We don’t want to be the world’s jailers,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. “At the same time, we also don’t want to see very dangerous people allowed to walk the streets freely so that they can pose a threat to our citizens as well as others.”
