CANBERRA, Australia, Jan. 2, 2009
Australia Unlikely To Take Gitmo Prisoners
Acting Prime Minister Says Country Will Buck New Trend Of Wanting To Help Out Obama
-
Guantanamo Bay currently has about 250 prisoners. European officials said a number of governments are considering the logistics of resettling a majority of the 60 prisoners already cleared for release by U.S. authorities. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
-
Interactive Gitmo Tribunals Detainees on trial, photos and a history of the naval base.
Julia Gillard said President Bush's administration made the request in early December after President-elect Barack Obama announced he planned to close the prison. Obama has not made such a request, she said.
Australia had rejected a similar request to resettle "a small group of detainees" in early 2008, said Gillard, who is filling in for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd while he is on vacation.
"Australia, as an ally of the United States, is examining this second request," Gillard said in a statement. "Notwithstanding that, it is unlikely Australia would accept these detainees."
The Times newspaper of Britain reported Thursday that the government of the U.K. was reconsidering its own refusal to take in Guantanamo detainees - as a way to start the relationship with the new U.S. administration off on the right foot.
Rudd's center-left Labor Party, which came to power in 2007, had criticized the detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, as unjust and had demanded the repatriation of two Australians held there.
David Hicks, who was held at Guantanamo for 5½ years without trial, was sent back in 2007 after pleading guilty to supporting terrorism as a Taliban soldier in Afghanistan. He served a nine-month sentence in Australia. Mamdouh Habib, an Egyptian-born immigrant who was arrested in Pakistan in 2001, was returned to Australia in 2005. No charges were ever filed against him.
Habib said Friday that Australia should not accept the detainees because their histories were unknown.
"It is a big risk to the country to bring (these) people here," he told Network Nine television news in Sydney.
Obama has pledged to close the prison and American officials have expressed concern that some detainees might be persecuted if returned to their home countries.
Many European nations - which had long been loath to accept detainees from the prison - more recently indicated a willingness to resettle inmates.
Officials from France, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland have all said they are looking into accepting detainees from the U.S. prison.
Australia's opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull, said the country should not accept any of the Guantanamo detainees, saying there are many other people already seeking to enter the country.
"It would be difficult to imagine the circumstances in which any claims on humanitarian grounds should take priority over the many applicants for humanitarian entry currently awaiting approval," he added.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From War On Terror
Add a Comment See all 15 Comments
- Wow, Australia is just like the liberals: they want to whine and bit*ch about a problem, but they are unwilling to do ANYTHING to help solve it.
Of course, the fat-left libs just want to let the Gitmo criminals go. Just let ''em go, but where?
It never occurred to the libs exactly WHERE to let the prisoners go. All of them are foreigners, most are nationals of countries that aren''t as nearly caring as the US. We already know if we force countries such as Egypt and Syria and Pakistan to take these guys back, that most will be promptly tortured and executed.
Oh well, I guess the only thing to do is give them US citizenship and then place each one in an American liberal%u2019s household. Preferably in the townhomes of Boston, New York, and San Francisco. How does that work for you liberals? Ready to walk the walk? Sounds fun, eh? Just make sure you have a cozy room with prayer rugs and foot-baths all ready, OK? - Reply to this comment
- It has been learned that Australia will not accept detainees from Gitmo when Obama takes over the USSA, even though Australia thinks of itself as an "ally" of the USSA.
The only exception that Australia may consider is if the detainees sign a contract to appear as "extras" in the projected 4th Mad Max movie to be shot, as usual, in the Great Australian Wasteland and to be entitled "Mad Max Finds a Nuclear Power Plant"!
It is believed that Islamic fundamentalists may work better with Mel Gibson who seems to have a problem with other non-Christian groups.
SIG HEIL, HE WOULD HAVE MADE A GOOD NAZI!!!, BUSH!!! - Reply to this comment
- It has been learned that Australia will not accept detainees from Gitmo when Obama takes over the USSA, even though Australia thinks of itself as an "ally" of the USSA.
The only exception that Australia may consider is if the detainees sign a contract to appear as "extras" in the projected 4th Mad Max movie to be shot, as usual, in the Great Australian Wasteland and to be entitled "Mad Max Finds a Nuclear Power Plant"!
It is believed that Islamic fundamentalists may work better with Mel Gibson who seems to have a problem with other non-Christian groups.
SIG HEIL, HE WOULD HAVE MADE A GOOD NAZI!!!, BUSH!!! - Reply to this comment
- excoachken at 02:28 PM
Ah, just for the record, Australia was not "founded as a place to sent incorrigable (sic) criminals"; in fact most of those deported to Australia were deported for such unpardonable crimes as stealing a loaf of bread (because they were starving and/or had starving children) and so on. The English simply used to hang what were regarded as the true incorrigibles.
Also, I''m in Australia, and I haven''t heard Julia Gillard say what CBS claims she is saying. There is a heated debate going on about this very subject as we speak. I think we probably will end up taking some of those who''ve been cleared and treating them as simple refugees like any other refugees. - Reply to this comment
- Just take them out and shoot each one in the head. That is the traditional penalty for their war crimes.
- Reply to this comment
- OBie wants to free them - let him put them up in the White House. I''m sure it has a few extra bedrooms.
- Reply to this comment
- Ahhh, nice picture of the killer in his cage wondering when it will all end, it won''''t until we rid all the terrorists in the world. I say don''''t send them to Australia, put them on a boat in the middle in the Pacific, then sink it, problem solved. that is more than these killers gave the people on 9-11.
Posted by libssuck3
Quite Right; good idea! - Reply to this comment
- Australia, being founded as a place to sent incorrigable criminals, is EXPERT in these matters and has wisely determined that the detainees at Guantanamo do not qualify as REAL crooks, just POLITICAL PAWNS for the Cowardly Cowboy to play with.
- Reply to this comment
- ''i thought that these gitmo detainees are ''''poor oppressed'''' darlings?? so what is the problem?
Posted by LordSunTzu at 10:23 AM : Jan 02, 2009''
U been listening to Texans...
Bu$hCo bought these detainees because they needed some brown guys for dumb Americans to hate... They did not ''capture'' them. When Bu$hCo Pentagoons had finished their attack on NYC, they ignored all requests for an investigation into the WTC attack, and did history''s largest coverup while torching the Constitution. This was all about the oil - Texas/Oil, remember? - Reply to this comment
- Australia Unlikely To Take Gitmo Prisoners
Maybe Alaska can take them. They act like a rogue foreign nation, full of lawbreakers and incompetents any way.
Or maybe Texas. - Reply to this comment
- Why should Austrailia clean up the Bu$h mess? They used to clean up the Queen''''s messes, they should know better. These ''''detainees'''' are just idiots being used as a smokescreen for the Bu$h/Pentagoon 9/11 atrocity anyway... Bu$h = guilty of treason.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by inventagod2 at 09:50 AM : Jan 02, 2009
+ report abuse
************
i thought that these gitmo detainees are ''poor oppressed'' darlings?? so what is the problem? - Reply to this comment
- Why should Austrailia clean up the Bu$h mess? They used to clean up the Queen''s messes, they should know better. These ''detainees'' are just idiots being used as a smokescreen for the Bu$h/Pentagoon 9/11 atrocity anyway... Bu$h = guilty of treason.
- Reply to this comment
- Screw them, kill them they would do it to us and tried.If they wanted a war, there is a term called accepatable losses. I know we should forgive the, but I doubt they would show mercy for us.
- Reply to this comment
- Britain wants to "start off on the right foot"with Obama?? How ''bout Mexico??? Let Mexico "step up". We''ve been taking THEIR criminals for years.
- Reply to this comment
- Why should they take on our @#$%&! Seriously,a great solution, if we are not going to let them go, would be to move these detainees to Bush''''s Crawford Ranch.
Posted by endrepubs
I SECOND THAT!!
BETTER YET LOCK BUSH UP WITH THEM! - Reply to this comment
Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.
