St. Augustine famously said, “Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.” The modern European equivalent is ‘let the prisoners of Guantanamo go, but don’t send them to us’. VOA reports:
After years of criticizing the camp, European countries must now consider whether to take in ex-inmates – a prospect that may present legal and security challenges. European countries have largely hailed U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within a year.
Now comes the hard part. Will any of the countries take in ex-Guantanamo inmates? To be sure, Washington must first make that request – and experts suggest that would not come before months of negotiations. …
In an interview this week on French radio, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France would consider taking terror suspects into France on a case-by-case basis. But he said, Guantanamo must first be shut – and its inmates must request to be sent to France. So far, he said, only one detainee has done so.
Other European countries, including the Netherlands and Denmark, appear much more reluctant to take in detainees. In the case of Germany, the question has divided the government, with the country’s foreign minister suggesting Germany could take 20 ex-prisoners, but its interior minister ruled out the prospect.
How about sending them back to their countries of origin? No can do, say the Europeans. Because those countries don’t meet the European standards of human rights. How about billeting them with the Code Pink people then? No, you can bet that’s not going to work either.
Long Live Pol Pot! Long Live Castro! Long Mao Tse Tung! But that’s for you, not for us.
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