Deleted:Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay
The United States were holding a total of 112 Yemeni citizen at Guantanamo Bay.[1]
By January 2008 the Yemenis in Guantanamo represented the largest group of detainees.[2] On March 12, 2008 Mark Falkoff of the Center for Constitutional Rights issued a call for the repatriation of the Yemeni detainees, reporting that 95 Yemenis remained in detention, and they now constituted more than a third of the detainee population.[3] Falkoff wrote that the delay in his release is due to a failure of the USA and Yemeni governments to reach an agreement on the security arrangements for the detainees, following their repatriation. By contrast, almost all the 133 Saudi detainees in Guantanamo had been sent home in 2006 and 2007.
A delegation of Yemeni officials visited Guantanamo shortly after it opened in January 2002.[4]
Contents
Impact of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's alleged attempted suicide bombing
On December 25, 2009, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to set off a suicide bomb on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. By December 27, 2009, responding to rumors that Abdulmutallab had confessed to being trained and equipped in Yemen, various American politicians, including Joe Lieberman, Pete Hoekstra, Peter T. King and Bennie Thompson, called for American President Barack Obama to halt plans to repatriate the Yemenis.[5][6][7][8][9]
Repatriated detainees
Several returned Yemeni detainees were charged and stood trial, following their repatriation.[10] Yemen established a special Criminal Court for Terrorism where their trials took place.[11][12][13][14]
On June 7, 2008 the Yemeni site Al Sahwa Net reported that negotiations were advanced for the repatration of approximately seventy Yemeni detainees.[15]
On June 7, 2008 Yemen Online reported that several Yemeni detainees had recently been allowed to their first phone calls to their families.[16] The article also reported that "informed sources" said Stephan Seche, the American ambassador had returned to the USA to brief the Bush Presidency on Yemen's rehabilitation program for repatriated detainees.
Secret terms in the US-Yemeni repatriation negotiations
An article published in the Yemen Post on November 13, 2012, reported on secret terms in the US-Yemeni repatriation negotiations.[17]
Yemen recently had a change in administration. Officials of the new administration said, "Saleh demanded $200 million in return for receiving the Yemeni detainees, but the US offered him only $20 million. The two sides could not reach an agreement to release the detainees by then."
List of Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo
See also
References
- ↑ "Citizenship - The Guantánamo Docket". The New York Times. http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/by-country.
- ↑ Michael Melia (January 11, 2008). "Yemenis now biggest group at Guantanamo". San Jose Mercury. http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_7945058?nclick_check=1. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
- ↑ Mark Falkoff (March 12, 2008). "Guantánamo Attorneys Say Detainees Will Not Be Tortured If Returned to Yemen". Center for Constitutional Rights. http://www.ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/guant%C3%A1namo-attorneys-say-detainees-will-not-be-tortured-if-returned-yemen. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
- ↑ "Yemen to Inspect Condition of 21 Yemeni Detainees at Guantanamo". Yemen Times. 3 February 2002. http://www.yementimes.com/02/iss5/front.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-05. [dead link]
- ↑ "Following Path of Least Resistance, Terrorists Turn Yemen Into Poor Man's Afghanistan". Fox News. 2009-12-27. Archived from the original on 2009-12-27. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fpolitics%2F2009%2F12%2F27%2Ffollowing-path-resistance-terrorists-turn-yemen-poor-mans-afghanistan%2F&date=2009-12-27. "'They should stay there. They should not go back to Yemen,' Hoekstra said. 'If they go back to Yemen, we will very soon find them back on the battlefield going after Americans and other western interests.'"
- ↑ Sudeep Reddy (2009-12-27). "Lawmakers Focus on Yemen in Wake of Attempted Bombing". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2009-12-27. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.wsj.com%2Fwashwire%2F2009%2F12%2F27%2Flawmakers-focus-on-yemen-in-wake-of-attempted-bombing%2F&date=2009-12-27. "The 23-year-old suspect in the botched attack, Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab of Nigeria, allegedly told U.S. officials that he received his explosive device in Yemen and learned to use it there."
- ↑ "Lieberman: The United States Must Pre-Emptively Act In Yemen". Huffington Post. 2009-12-27. Archived from the original on 2009-12-27. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alternet.org%2Frss%2Fthe_wire_provided_by_huffington_post%2F101306%2F_lieberman%3A_the_united_states_must_pre-emptively_act_in_yemen%2F&date=2009-12-27. "In his appearance on 'Fox News Sunday', Lieberman also argued that the botched attack should compel the Obama administration to abandon efforts to transfer suspected-terrorists out of the holding facility at Guantanamo Bay, saying that the complex is now well above international standards."
- ↑ "Gitmo transfer to Yemen in doubt". United Press International. 2009-12-27. Archived from the original on 2009-12-27. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upi.com%2FTop_News%2FInternational%2F2009%2F12%2F27%2FGitmo-transfer-to-Yemen-in-doubt%2FUPI-67591261928832%2F&date=2009-12-27. "'I'd, at a minimum, say that whatever we were about to do we'd at least have to scrub (those plans) again from top to bottom,' said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss."
- ↑ Josh Gerstein (2009-12-27). "Bomb plot complicates Gitmo plan". Politico. Archived from the original on 2009-12-28. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdyn.politico.com%2Fprintstory.cfm%3Fuuid%3DCD70C0DB-18FE-70B2-A8665EFC42F4E403&date=2009-12-28. "'Yesterday just highlights the fact that sending this many people back—or any people back—to Yemen right now is a really bad idea,' said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. 'It's just dumb….If you made a list of what the three dumbest countries would be to send people back to, Yemen would be on all the lists.'"
- ↑ "Yemen to try fighters coming from Iraq, ex-Guantanamo prisoners". Kuwaiti News Agency. January 26, 2006. http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=808668. Retrieved 2008-05-09. [dead link]
- ↑ Mohammed Al-Qadhi (June 21, 2004). "Advocates quit again: Court bans publishing hearings of 15 al-Qaeda suspects' tribunal, military trial proceedings claimed". Yemen Times. http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=748&p=front&a=1. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ↑ "Gitmo stalemate for Yemeni detainees: Home country refuses to lock them up; detention center enters 7th year". MSNBC. January 11, 2008. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22616052/. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ↑ Kathy Gannon (July 4, 2007). "Yemen Employs New Terror Approach". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/04/AR2007070400992_pf.html. Retrieved 2008-05-05. "There are more men from Yemen held at Guantanamo Bay than from any other country."
- ↑ Andrew Mc Gregor (May 10, 2007). "Yemen and the U.S.: Different Approaches to the War on Terrorism". 5. Global Terrorism Analysis. Archived from the original on 2008-02-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20080214181901/http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373384. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
- ↑ "U.S. intends to hand over 70 Yemeni Guantanamo detainees". Al Sahwa Net. June 7, 2008. http://www.alsahwanet.net/view_nnews.asp?sub_no=403_2008_06_07_63879. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
- ↑ "Yemen plans rehabilitation program for Guantanamo returnees". Yemen Online. June 7, 2008. http://yemenonline.info/news-731.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
- ↑ "Yemen refuses extraditing Guantanamo detainees to third state". Yemen Post. 2012-11-13. Archived from the original on 2012-11-13. http://yemenpost.net/Detail123456789.aspx?ID=3&SubID=6211&MainCat=3. ""Saleh demanded $200 million in return for receiving the Yemeni detainees, but the US offered him only $20 million. The two sides could not reach an agreement to release the detainees by then," the US officials told Hadi."