Take me home....to Gitmo

One of the long term demands of the anti-war left has been that we must close Gitmo. Most of those of us who support the war have usually answered that question with "release them to where?" It is an important question that never seems to get a serious answer. Well on the heels of the release of 16 Saudi nationals from Gitmo comes a story following up on two Tunisians who were released 6 weeks ago.

When two Tunisian men were sent home after five years in Guantanamo, they
thought they would be free. Instead, they faced imprisonment, abuse, threats and
solitary confinement. Now they say things were better back in the US prison
camp.

This is why the "release them where?" question is so important. Many assume that the inmates will just be "freed" and that is simply not the case. In the majority of the cases, the inmates are being released into the custody of a government that has a human rights violation record that makes our supposed record of abuse pale in comparison.

Abdullah al-Hajji left Tunisia in 1990 and had no idea that he had been
convicted in absentia in 1995 of being a member of a foreign terrorist
organization. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo
Bay.
According to HRW, when he landed back in Tunisia in June he was held at
the Ministry of the Interior for two days, where he was slapped and told his
wife and daughters would be raped. He was shaken repeatedly to keep from
sleeping and told to sign a paper he couldn't read because he needs new glasses.
He was then sent to the same military court that had convicted him in absentia,
told he would face a new trial on Sept. 26, and then thrown into solitary
confinement for six weeks. He told his lawyer that, if he had been told of the
conviction, he would have objected to returning to Tunisia.
Lofti Lagha, who
hails from a small village in southern Tunisia, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002
and held in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantanamo. He was never
represented by a lawyer at the US base, and only saw his Tunisian lawyer Ben
Amor in August. He said he was threatened with torture when he first got back to
Tunisia but was never physically abused. He was then put in solitary confinement
for more than six weeks and a judge recommended that he be charged with
membership in a terrorist organization.

The US government has committed not to sending detainees back to situations in their home country where they would be subject to torture. The Tunisian Government gave their highest diplomatic assurances (as have the Saudis) that the former Gitmo detainees would not be tortured. Well as the headline of the story said "'I'd Rather Return to Guantanamo".

Maybe that tells you just how badly we are really torturing these guys after all. Honey glazed Chicken with Rice Pilaf anyone? It's on the menu tonight at Gitmo!