The US’ desire to close its military prison in Cuba remains “unabashed” even though a deadline set by Washington to do so has passed, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Friday in Toledo, Spain.
US President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Jan. 22 last year — two days after he took office — promising to close the US military prison in southern Cuba within the first year of his mandate.
“The plan is to still work for closure,” Napolitano told a news conference in Toledo when asked about the passing of the deadline.
“We have known for some time now that it was not going to be met because assembling the information about the detainees and moving them out of Guantanamo is very difficult and we have to do it in the right way,” she added.
“We have had cooperation from many countries, in Europe and other continents, but it takes time to do it in the right way. That is the intent we will continue to [move] in that direction, if it takes longer, it takes longer,” she said.
“The goal and the intent remain the same and the will to do so is unabashed,” Napolitano said.
Some 196 detainees remain at prison, including dozens already cleared for release, down from around 250 when Obama took office. Most have been held without charge or trial.
The prison is widely seen as a symbol of abuses carried out in the name of Washington’s war on al-Qaeda and other extremists.
But a Gallup poll published in November found almost two-thirds of those questioned were opposed to the detention center closing and to prisoners being brought to the US.
Napolitano was in Toledo to take part in a informal meeting of interior and justice ministers from the 27-nation EU.
In related news, at least 80 Guantanamo detainees will be brought to the US to face trial, military commissions or continued imprisonment without charge under recommendations from a presidential task force, two US government officials said yesterday.
The two officials said that a task force had recommended 35 detainees for prosecution. Attorney General Eric Holder has already decided that five of those will be tried in New York federal court for their alleged roles in the 2001 terror attacks.
Another six have been chosen to face military commissions. A venue for those commissions has not been decided, but the most likely place is a planned Illinois prison facility to house terrorism-era detainees. The Obama administration still needs money from Congress to renovate that facility.
As part of Obama’s plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, the task force has recommended 47 detainees be held indefinitely without charge. Another 17 detainees who are Yemenis are likely to be held for some time to come, until US counter-terrorism officials can find a secure place in their home country or other foreign countries to send them, the officials said.
They also said that a total of about 110 detainees have been approved for transfer.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the findings of the task force.
The new figures were first reported in Friday’s edition of the Washington Post.
The group’s conclusions are not binding, and could be changed by the National Security Council.
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
ENHANCED SECURITY: A Japanese report said that the MOU is about the sharing of information on foreign nationals entering Japan from Taiwan in the event of an emergency The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Taiwan and Japan had signed an agreement to promote information exchanges and cooperation on border management, although it did not disclose more details on the pact. Ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said the ministry is happy to see that the two nations continue to enhance cooperation on immigration control, in particular because Taiwan and Japan “share a deep friendship and frequent people-to-people exchanges.” “Last year, more than 7.32 million visits were made between the two countries, making it even more crucial for both sides to work closer on immigration and border control,” he said. Hsiao
RSS