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June 13, 2009

British left out of the loop on Gitmo transfer

Rick Moran
Despite Bermuda being a British overseas territory, the Obama administration deliberately withheld information on the negotiations with the Crown colony in order to "assure success."

Um, yeah. Whatevah. And not very surprising given how the president has treated our former #1 ally in the world. (God knows who that might be now. Maybe the Palestinians, I don't know.)

The Brits are our "former" #1 ally because Obama has made it painfully obvious by his continued deliberate snubs of the British government that he no longer believes we have a "special relationship" with 10 Downing Street - a relationship that had endured for more than a century.

Yeah, but Obama was elected to "change" things. And if in the process, this change ends up making us and the rest of the world a little less secure, hey! That's the price you pay for change.

The BBC notes:

The unnamed senior official also told the BBC that Washington was attempting to shield the UK from Chinese anger.

Beijing has demanded the return to China of all 17 Uighurs held by US forces but Washington says they could face persecution in China.

Um "persecution?" Or is it "prosecution?" You see, these fellows trained in al-Qaeda camps - a fact no one disputes. Neither does anyone dispute the fact that the Uighurs have resorted to terrorism against the Chinese government.

So yes, it might be understandable why the Chinese would want to get their hands on the Uighurs. Now, it is a fact that the Chinese court system is not very fair nor is it necessarily up to the standards of western justice.

Be that as it may, the transfer of the prisoners to Bermuda is causing quite a row with Britain blaming the island nation for not living up to its agreements:

For the time being London has reserved its expressions of ire for Bermuda, with a spokesman for the UK prime minister insisting Bermuda bore "the primary responsibility for ensuring that the constitutional requirements on the Bermudan government were adhered to".

Britain is supposed to handle Bermuda's defence, security and foreign affairs, but it delegates the authority to make decisions on immigration to Bermuda.

The Foreign Office said it would "also be looking at the operation of the 'General Entrustment' which gives Bermuda the authority to conduct certain external relations on our behalf".

Britain is also now helping Bermuda carry out a security assessment of the resettled detainees.

A "security assessment?" Now?" Isn't that kind of like closing the barn door after the terrorist blew  up the barn?

I think this shows the Obama administration will do anything - including actions that would threaten our national security - to close Gitmo. To allow a political consideration to interfere with our safety says a lot about our Keystone Kops foreign policy.

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