Innocent Yemeni Stranded at Guantanamo

Detainee Ordered Free, But Dispute Between Yemen and Saudi Arabia Means He Remains in a Cell at Gitmo

(AP)  Legally speaking, Guantanamo Bay detainee Alla Ali bin Ali Ahmed should be a free man. He remains behind barbed wire in Cuba because he has nowhere to go.

Ahmed, a 26-year-old Yemeni captured at a Pakistan guesthouse in 2002, was ordered released in May by a federal judge in Washington who found no credible evidence he was involved in terrorism. The government's deadline for appealing Ahmed's release has run out.

Yet Ahmed sits at Guantanamo as the U.S. tries to figure out what to do with dozens of detainees - many of them Yemeni - who officials say probably will be freed. Rather than just send them home, the Obama administration wants the Yemeni detainees to first go through rehabilitation centers in Saudi Arabia before they are released to make sure they pose no threat to Americans.

Ahmed's lawyer said he should be out of Guantanamo shortly.

"We're expecting Mr. Ahmed to be released soon, and we think it's the right result, and we're very pleased about it," Kit Pierson said Friday.

But Ahmed (recorded in court dockets as Ali Bin Ali Aleh) could still be locked up by next January, when the Obama administration plans to shut down Guantanamo.

Despite months of delicate diplomacy, a senior administration official said the U.S. has been unable to persuade Saudi leaders to let the Yemeni go through its rehabilitation center, in part because of a public-relations problem.

Thousands of extremists, including Guantanamo detainees, have received job training, psychological therapy and religious re-education in Saudi jihadist rehabilitation before being sent back to society.

The vast majority have not rejoined the fight. Yet some have. In an embarrassing episode for the kingdom, Saudi officials announced in February that 11 former Guantanamo detainees who went through the rehab program - including Yemenis - were on its government's most wanted terrorist list.

Citing "an ongoing dialogue with Saudi and Yemen," a second government official said the administration is "encouraged by their readiness to work collaboratively as we work through many of the security and legal issues involved."

Adding to the chaos is where the detainees still at Guantanamo will go when - or if - the prison is closed by Jan. 22.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were continuing.

Mr. Obama is looking at bringing them to an as-yet undetermined prison on U.S. soil to be held during prosecution, while they wait for transfer, or in a small number of cases, indefinitely. Congress has blocked money to pay for that until the administration releases plans to make sure Americans are not put at risk.

Duke Law School professor Scott Silliman said President Obama's deadline should be scrapped and Guantanamo kept open until detainees who have been cleared for release are sent to other nations. Doing so would mean that only a minority of detainees would ever be sent to the United States for trial or indefinite detention.

"A plausible option is to keep them outside the United States," said Silliman, director of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security. "Leave Guantanamo open for another six months and then continue to push diplomacy. If you can get rid of the folks you can't criminally charge, you've solved the big problem."

Glenn Sulmasy, an international law professor at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, said the U.S. can't expect other nations to take detainees if Americans aren't prepared to do the same.

"I think it'll help garner international support, even though it's not a perfect solution," Sulmasy said. "It's a recognition that we have to do our part, and if other nations are expected to take detainees, it seems that taking steps to provide a detention facility in the U.S. will be beneficial."


For more info:

• "60 Minutes": Reeducating Osama Bin Laden's Disciples (05.04.09)
• Ali Bin Ali Aleh v. George W. Bush (pdf)

[zonkzilla]

This story cannot be true. The right wing fascist gods Limbaugh, Hannity, and Ms. Beck (he acts so much like a woman I would be surprised if he was not a woman) said that all of the prisoners are Gitmo are hard core terrorists who want to kill us all.

[babooph]

He would fit in better at this White House than the last -THEY WERE ALL GUILTY.

[vivaviva44]

Innocent....

The August 15 is coming in this year too.
Innocent people in any countries should not be victimized by any powers any more.
We stop to do this.

Live forum
Date: August 4th (Eastern time 7:15 pm, Pacific time: 4:15 pm)
http://www.liveforum.org/hiroshima_en.html

I respect those brave people talk about their Hiroshima &Nagasaki experience
and it is not to blame USA but we have to move forward to do right thing.

[liveforum]

I agree with you.
The issue of abolition of nuclear weapons is not the matter of a country (Japan), but also the entire world. We have to focus on this matter as a global citizen. The experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should be transmitted to our next generation of all over the world.An atomic bomb survivor, just like Kaz Sueishi (82 years old) is one of the few survivors who can tell us the atomic bomb tragedy in English and Japanese.Please watch the mini documentary titled " From Los Angeles, No More Hibakusha (Atomic Bomb Servivor) 1,2,3...! " which we produced and webcasted on August 4th. at 4:15 pm (Pacific Coast Time) , at the same time, 24 hours before the the drop of the atomic bobm in Hiroshima 64 years ago.
The website is as follows:
http://www.liveforum.org/hiroshima09_en.html
You can also listen a peace message from the mayor of Hiroshima, Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba on the same site.

Best Regards,

Max Kimura
Executive Producer of the US-Japan Live Forum:
An educational non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status

[ramos1129]

Legally speaking, Guantanamo Bay detainee Alla Ali bin Ali Ahmed should be a free man. He remains behind barbed wire in Cuba because he has nowhere to go.
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This article has to be completely wrong. Just this morning Fox & Friends had a Republican Congressman from Michigan swearing that all remaining detainees were the worst of the worst. The hosts agreed with his assertion.

[TheMasses2009]

Put him in the White House where he'll have friends and there's plenty of room.

[TheMasses2009]

There's plenty of room and friends for him at The White House.

[abbe91]

This guy is not the only innocent in Guantanamo. When you give money to people to turn in "terrorists", what do you think happens ? They get their 30 silver coins ...

[DaVicar5]

An innocent terrorist is stuck in a jail cell in Cuba?

Awww, I think I'm gonna cry!

[abbe91]

What to do with people who were judged and declared innocent ? Keep them in jail ... what's next ? The Nazis' "final solution" ?