Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Financial Times
March 16, 2009
By Stanley Pignal, in Brussels
Up to 60 Guantánamo Bay detainees could be taken in by European Union countries, according to the bloc's senior justice official.
Jacques Barrot, the vice-president of the European Commission, said Europe's response to any US request that it take former detainees would be a "test issue" ahead of a trip he is making to Washington this week.
Mr Barrot said: "We are open to co-operation to help close Guant-ánamo as long, of course, as the methods used there are not replicated in other places." The US would need to give the EU complete information on the background of the detainees sent to Europe, he said.
The Obama administration stopped calling Guantánamo inmates "enemy combatants" on Friday and incorporated international law as its basis for holding the prisoners while it works to close the facility.
The US justice department filed court papers outlining a further shift from the anti-terrorism policies of George W. Bush, the former president, which were condemned as violations of human rights and international law.
Europe is being sounded out to take some of the 245 who will not face charges in US courts but cannot return to their countries of origin for fear of persecution.
Mr Barrot said any decision to relocate detainees would have to be taken by national capitals, some of which have been approached informally by the US.
"We have had no formal request yet. When we do, we will have questions about who we are taking in . . . and we expect full information before we make a decision.
"The latest information is that we are looking at 50 or 60 people, who are probably innocent . . . ," he said.
Some countries, including Portugal and France, have indicated they would be willing to take in some former detainees while others, led by the Netherlands and Sweden, have balked at the idea.
An internal EU policy document, jointly written by Mr Barrot, recently raised questions about a detention centre at Bagram air base in eastern Afghanistan.
"It would not be in conformity with EU fundamental rights policies to simply transfer Guantánamo elsewhere (ie, to Bagram) without solving the underlying question of the detention of terror suspects for indefinite time and without trial," the report said.
Mr Barrot and Ivan Langer, interior minister of the Czech Republic, who represents the EU as his nation holds the group's rotating presidency, will meet Eric Holder, the US attorney general, and Janet Napolitano, head of homeland security.
--Agencies
March 16, 2009
By Stanley Pignal, in Brussels
Up to 60 Guantánamo Bay detainees could be taken in by European Union countries, according to the bloc's senior justice official.
Jacques Barrot, the vice-president of the European Commission, said Europe's response to any US request that it take former detainees would be a "test issue" ahead of a trip he is making to Washington this week.
Mr Barrot said: "We are open to co-operation to help close Guant-ánamo as long, of course, as the methods used there are not replicated in other places." The US would need to give the EU complete information on the background of the detainees sent to Europe, he said.
The Obama administration stopped calling Guantánamo inmates "enemy combatants" on Friday and incorporated international law as its basis for holding the prisoners while it works to close the facility.
The US justice department filed court papers outlining a further shift from the anti-terrorism policies of George W. Bush, the former president, which were condemned as violations of human rights and international law.
Europe is being sounded out to take some of the 245 who will not face charges in US courts but cannot return to their countries of origin for fear of persecution.
Mr Barrot said any decision to relocate detainees would have to be taken by national capitals, some of which have been approached informally by the US.
"We have had no formal request yet. When we do, we will have questions about who we are taking in . . . and we expect full information before we make a decision.
"The latest information is that we are looking at 50 or 60 people, who are probably innocent . . . ," he said.
Some countries, including Portugal and France, have indicated they would be willing to take in some former detainees while others, led by the Netherlands and Sweden, have balked at the idea.
An internal EU policy document, jointly written by Mr Barrot, recently raised questions about a detention centre at Bagram air base in eastern Afghanistan.
"It would not be in conformity with EU fundamental rights policies to simply transfer Guantánamo elsewhere (ie, to Bagram) without solving the underlying question of the detention of terror suspects for indefinite time and without trial," the report said.
Mr Barrot and Ivan Langer, interior minister of the Czech Republic, who represents the EU as his nation holds the group's rotating presidency, will meet Eric Holder, the US attorney general, and Janet Napolitano, head of homeland security.
--Agencies