In defense of John Brennan, the former CIA man who is one of Obama's senior counter-terrorism advisors, I have to say that he put up a good fight when he appeared on the TV shows the previous weekend, defending how careful the administration has been in approving releases from Guantà �namo, and generally putting on a great performance as a career official who appreciates how Obama has learned from and has rectified mistakes made by Bush, for whom Brennan also worked, of course.
To my mind, Obama should have gone with Brennan -- perhaps sending him out again to tackle some of those spreading hysteria and misinformation -- instead of caving in, because I think Brennan's on his side and knows how to talk tough to the barking lunatics who are usually the only ones raising their voices. But it didn't work out like that, and I'm disappointed, as Obama only loses more ground and more authority when he backs down, instead of taking on his critics in a manner they understand. I actually think that the failure -- or inability -- of senior Democrats to shout down their opponents is one of their major failings.
Elizabeth Ferrari: We've been inundated with information -- or more precisely, with propaganda -- by the supporters of the "War on Terror," and it's very difficult to keep everything straight and clear. As I understand it, there is a group of detainees who had been cleared for release because they were found by a judge to be students in a guesthouse, not combatants in any way. They were going to be released to Yemen. Is it right that all of that has been tabled?
Why were they being released to Yemen and, if you can, can you give the numbers you've assigned to them so we can look them up in your Definitive Prisoner List<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/01/04/guantanamo-the-definitive-prisoner-list-updated-for-2010/>? It looks like these people are being held hostage to a political struggle in the United States. What will it take to get them released?
Andy Worthington: OK, so you're talking about Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, a student in a guest house in Pakistan, who triumphantly won his habeas corpus petition<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/05/14/judge-condemns-mosaic-of-guantanamo-intelligence-and-unreliable-witnesses/> last May and was finally released by Obama<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/10/11/two-more-guantanamo-prisoners-released-to-kuwait-and-belgium/> in October. There were around 15 other men<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/05/19/guantanamo-a-prison-built-on-lies/> seized in that house -- eight of whom are Yemenis -- but although one was cleared for release by a military review board under the Bush administration (because he was only visiting on the night of the raid and didn't even live there), and although the judge in Ali Ahmed's case -- Judge Gladys Kessler -- stated that she thought it probable that the majority of the others seized in the raid were also students, none of them have won any court cases, because the habeas petitions move so slowly (largely through Justice Department obstruction<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/08/11/guantanamo-and-the-courts-part-two-obamas-shame/>).
It may well be that they have been cleared for release after the deliberations of Obama's interagency task Force, which has been reviewing all the Guantà �namo cases since last January, and has cleared around 40 of the remaining 86 Yemenis for release, but there's no way of finding out, as only the Task Force and the prisoners' lawyers know, and the lawyers are prevented from discussing the Task Force's conclusions publicly.
As a result, I can't give you any specific prisoner numbers to look up in my list, but if you go through all four parts, you'll be able to find the 86 Yemenis who haven't been released, and to either follow links to their stories, or find where they're discussed in my book The Guantà �namo Files. Some were also cleared under the Bush administration, but were never released, and a few are amongst the 32 out of 41 prisoners who won their habeas corpus petitions last year, but have also not yet been released.
As for when any of these men will be released, your guess is as good as mine, after Obama's capitulation. I can only repeat what I've said before, which is that someone in the administration needs to find some courage to stick to principles, as pragmatism is a slippery road.
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