Germans Balking at Taking Guantánamo Detainees

NY Slimes ^ | 06/04/09 | Judy Dempsey

[freespirited]

German interior officials said that the inmates from the Guantánamo Bay detention center whom the United States wants Germany to accept could pose a major security risk because they had spent time in terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

The United States has asked Germany to take 12 Chinese Uighurs, members of a Muslim minority located mostly in western China. The Uighurs have been persecuted by the Chinese authorities, according to human rights organizations, and American officials say they cannot be returned to China because they might be mistreated.

But Uwe Schünemann, the conservative interior minister of the state of Lower Saxony, who along with the other 15 regional interior ministers must respond to the U.S. request, said that accepting the detainees was “not without danger.”

“The information we have is that the Uighurs we are being asked to accept were in terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and then they were sent to Guantánamo Bay,” Mr. Schünemann said. “We need much more information from the U.S. about these detainees before we are prepared to make any decision....”

Germany’s reluctance reflects a general lack of enthusiasm across the European Union to accept detainees, even though its members have repeatedly called for Guantánamo to be closed....

Mr. Schäuble, a conservative, has said he was displeased with the information about prisoners that his U.S. counterparts have provided. In late April, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. presented Germany with a list of prisoners it wanted Germany to accept and said he was prepared to share as much information as possible with the Europeans.

But Mr. Schäuble and other regional interior ministers said the information, so far, was insufficient.

[freespirited]

The Uighurs have been persecuted by the Chinese authorities, according to human rights organizations, and American officials say they cannot be returned to China because they might be mistreated.

Moral of the story: before you make reservations at Camp Qaeda, think about how doing so might affect you when you come home.

[ex91B10]

Stalin knew how to handle that problem.

[MuttTheHoople]

The Krauts would rather dance.

[blackminorca]

They’ll take 90 year old men though!

“Germany Prepares a Show Trial”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2255921/posts

[truemiester]

I saw BOR talking to Dennis Miller about these folks and he asked where would they go back to? Uighuristan?

The answer is no they want to call there land East Turkmenistan. It is now xingiang provence. They used to number 80% of the provence. And Islam is the only protected religion in the chicom ‘constitution’, for what that is worth.

Since the building of the three rivers dams, the population of Han chinese have been resettled in xingiang provence. Now the Uighurs are about 40% and falling.

So they got a beef with China.

What if we told China that we could not find them. Must have left the gate open or something. And somehow they turned up back home, with an attitude.

Just saying.

[ozzymandus]

The Germans could have put them in Spandau prison, where they kept the Nuremburg prisoners (Hess, etc.), but they tore it down.

[WarEagle]

German interior officials said that the inmates from the Guantánamo Bay detention center whom the United States wants Germany to accept could pose a major security risk because they had spent time in terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

Well, DUH.

Man, you gotta hand it to these Germans. They're really sharp.

[pepsionice]

You won’t find a single political party in Germany which sees logic in bringing the Gitmo guys into the country. The German media has kinda quieted down over Gitmo as this topic continues on. When Obama finally put the ball into the court of Germany...now, it’s just not a nice thing to talk Gitmo.