U.S. to Release Prisoner From Guantanamo Bay

by CJaye | February 23, 2009 at 11:14 am

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What this article doesn't say is how this man was tortured. How he was tied by his wrist with leather straps and hung by them for a week at a time. Or how his genitals were mutilated while he was in custody of this horrible place that Bush sent these people because Bush thought he had connections with Osama bin Laden.

A Guantanamo Bay detainee the U.S. once charged with helping Osama bin Laden commit terrorist acts will be released and sent home to Britain, a sign that President Barack Obama is moving quickly to carry out his promise of closing down the offshore prison.

Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born man who holds British residency, won't face criminal charges or special security restrictions when he returns home, the British Foreign Office said Friday in announcing the release, though his immigration status will be reviewed. He is the first Guantanamo inmate to go through the Obama administration's review of indefinite detentions at the naval base in Cuba.

The announcement came the same day the Justice Department appointed a veteran federal prosecutor and national-security official, Matthew Olson, to head the review process. Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to visit the prison Monday.

Mr. Obama pledged shortly after taking office to close Guantanamo within a year. Some inmates may be moved to the U.S. to face trial, while others may be released. Mr. Mohamed had a clear destination once released: Britain, where there was widespread opposition to the indefinite detentions at Guantanamo, had long requested the return of its residents imprisoned there. The U.S. is pushing other European nations to accept some Guantanamo prisoners, and some European leaders have expressed willingness to consider the idea.

The White House declined to comment on Mr. Mohamed's release. The move would bring an abrupt end to a case involving serious allegations against both the detainee and the U.S. officials who apprehended him.

Mr. Mohamed was arrested at the Karachi, Pakistan, airport in April 2002, allegedly while traveling with Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen the Bush administration later accused of planning terrorist acts on American soil. Mr. Padilla was permitted to travel on to Chicago, where he was arrested, detained as an "enemy combatant" and later tried in civilian court for separate terrorism-related charges.