A legal limbo, too!
"Some cleared Guantanamo inmates stay in custody; Lawyers call US system of hearings a sham" by Farah Stockman/Boston Globe November 19, 2007
GUANTANAMO BAY - About a quarter of detainees who were cleared to leave Guantanamo Bay prison after hearings in 2005 and 2006 remain in custody, raising questions among inmates and their lawyers about the legitimacy of the system of hearings to review evidence against the prisoners.
The military's failure to release all of those who were cleared to leave - combined with the fact that dozens of other inmates who were not cleared have nonetheless been released - has led many inmates and their lawyers to contend that the system is a sham, and that the real decisions are being made elsewhere.
The hearings are not the final decision on an inmate's fate, and that the Pentagon retains the power to hold even those who have been cleared.
Ramzi Kassem, a member of the clinical faculty at Yale Law School who represents an Algerian detainee cleared more than two years ago:
"It's pretty clear the process is a sham. There's strong evidence that the hearings are meaningless."
The hearings take place in austere trailers without lawyers and almost always without media present. While those detainees have languished, dozens of others have been sent home or declared eligible to leave even though they were not cleared through the hearings. Among a planeload of 14 Saudis sent home last week, only one appears to have been cleared through the hearings.
Sort of like flying out the bin Ladens after 9/11, 'ey?
Closed-door negotiations between US officials and the detainees' home countries often play a larger role than the hearings in determining when and if a detainee is released.
The real decisions are made through a separate process in which the foreign policy interests of the United States and other countries takes precedence over fairness to the detainees."
Gee, I wonder what OTHER COUNTRIES they mean, hmmmm!
