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Britain hopeful for Guantanamo detainee's release after US election
Top Obama administration officials have told the United Kingdom that the country's last remaining resident still at Guantanamo Bay could be set free under the new defense spending bill, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia native Shaker Aamer was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and has been at Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) since 2002. He is one of 56 detainees cleared for release by the executive branch who have so far failed to meet the requirements imposed by Congress in annual spending bills.
“Senior U.S. officials have confirmed that the National Defense Authorization Act 2012 has the potential to make Mr. Aamer’s release more likely than the act of the previous year, but no releases have yet taken place under that act and the criteria for the national security waiver remain unclear,” Hague told the British Parliament. “We will certainly be pursuing this with the reelected or incoming U.S. administration.”
The new law “will now permit the Secretary of Defense to waive the onerous certification requirements for GTMO transfers overseas — including the requirement that there not have been any earlier cases of recidivism in the receiving country — if he certifies that 'alternative actions will be taken' that will 'substantially mitigate' the risk that the individual will engage in future terrorist activities,” the blog reported in December. “We hope this new provision will provide Secretary Panetta the flexibility necessary to allow resumption of the Administration’s efforts to transfer the dozens of GTMO detainees who were slated for such transfer … but whose transfers appear to have been blocked by transfer restrictions in earlier spending bills.”
Aamer says he was tortured into confessing links to al Qaeda. Britain has been demanding his release for years.
