Gitmo Detainees to Receive Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Cards on Obama’s First Full Day in Office

The New York Times reports today that P.E. Obama plans to issue an executive order to close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on his first full day in office. Though the article cites legal experts and Obama advisors who state that the closure might take up to a year, this is still an incredibly dangerous move. One main issue in closing Gitmo is sending the remaining detainees back to their countries of origin. The problem is that many of these countries have refused to accept these terrorists, which clears the way for their release into the United States; also, countries that have already accepted Gitmo detainees have a tendency to release them from custody immediately allowing them to return to terrorist activity.

As of July 2007, at least 30 detainees were confirmed to have returned to terrorist activity in Pakistan or Afghanistan, most being either killed or re-captured by Coalition forces on the battlefield. In April of 2008, Adullah Saleh al-Ajmi, a Gitmo detainee who was caught in Afghanistan and later released to his home country of Kuwait, blew himself up in a suicide attack in Mosul, Iraq that killed 6 Iraqi police officers. JudicialWatch.org, reports today on its blog that “the Department of Defense says that the number of Guantanamo prisoners—all suspected Middle Eastern terrorists—who have returned to “the fight” since their release from custody has nearly doubled in a short time from 37 to 61.” There are 248 enemy combatants remaining in custody at Gitmo, and it appears the Obama team has not yet offered a plan for what to do with them. Releasing these people into the United States—or for that matter anywhere in the world—is just asking for more attacks, and endangers the lives of free people around the globe.

UPDATE: The Challenges of Closing Guantanamo, In the Room for Debate blog at newyorktimes.com, It’s worth a read.(h/t Andy McCarthy)