Everyone from George W.Bush to Barack Obama wants the prison for terrorists at Guantánamo Bay shut. But how to do it? Step forward the European Union, led by the Portuguese, who are offering to take the 60 most dangerous terrorists locked up in Gitmo and keep them in maximum security jails. There are about 250 “enemy combatants” at Gitmo, many of whom cannot be returned to their own countries, like the Yemen, because there are inadequate facilities. Or because they would face certain torture or death. Yet there is inadequate evidence to convict them in a court of law. The Portuguese are urging other European nations to help America out of its embarrassment by taking the terrorists captured in the wake of 9/11. “This is a major milestone in our efforts to secure help … in closing Guantánamo,” said John Bellinger of the State Department. So far only Albania has taken detainees who were not its own citizens: five from Uighur in western China who would be tortured or killed if returned to the communist country.
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