While the liberals are all hell-bent on closing Gitmo, here are two stories that should be told:
Commander Provides Insight on Guantanamo
By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service
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WASHINGTON, June 27, 2007 – The men being held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, would kill again if given the chance, U.S. officials have said. More than 2,000 U.S. servicemembers and civilians ensure the terrorists at the detention facility don’t get a chance to launch more attacks, said Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo. The soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen of the command ensure the safe and humane detention of enemy combatants and the gathering of intelligence for the global war on terror, the admiral said. “We are going to continue to do that as effectively and efficiently as we can without getting anyone hurt,” he added.
About 370 enemy combatants are being held in the facilities. These are men taken off the battlefields primarily in the U.S. Central Command area of operations. They are fighters, facilitators, financiers, couriers or people involved with organizations such as the Taliban and al Qaeda that are conducting operations against U.S. or coalition forces.
“They were apprehended there and brought to us so we could keep them off the battlefield and gain intelligence from them,” Buzby said.
The admiral doesn’t doubt the detainees wish more harm to America. “I haven’t found a one yet who salutes the colors when we raise the flag in the morning,” he said wryly.
“We are keeping them off the battlefield,” the admiral said. “What is unique about this situation is that in a time of war we’re actually transferring many of them out of this facility -- many back to their own countries for release or to go into custody in their own countries.” To date, the United States has returned 405 men to their own or other countries. .................
and then this is what happens when they get released - TOO SOON:
Russia: Ex-Guantanamo detainee killed
By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 27, 3:06 PM ET
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MOSCOW - A man formerly held in the U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was killed Wednesday in a shootout with security agents in a restive North Caucasus republic, Russia's top security agency said. Ruslan Odizhev was killed amid gunfire that erupted when agents tried to arrest him and another man in Kabardino-Balkariya, a region near Chechnya that is plagued by violence linked both to crime and to religious tensions, the Federal Security Service said in a statement.
The service, known by its Russian acronym FSB, said Odizhev had been held at Guantanamo Bay and was believed to have been a supporter of the Taliban. Odizhev was one of seven Russians released from the detention facility in 2004; his whereabouts recently had been unknown.
The FSB did not specify why agents were trying to detain him, but said he was a suspect in the 1999 bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk and that he took part in a 2005 insurgent attack on police and government facilities in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya.
That attack left 139 people dead, including 94 militants. Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who was killed in 2006, claimed credit for planning the attack.
The FSB said Odizhev was the "spiritual leader" of Yarmuk, an Islamic extremist organization connected to an array of violence in the region.
The office of the republic's top prosecutor, Oleg Zharikov, said Odizhev was killed in Nalchik and that three homemade explosive devices were found on his body. It said he and a rebel named Anzor Tengizov were cornered by agents in the courtyard of an apartment building across the street from a mosque in the city.
Odizhev and six other Russians who had been detained in Afghanistan were released from Guantanamo in 2004 after investigators said they found no evidence of their involvement with the Taliban. Several, including Odizhev, were briefly jailed after returning to Russia.
It was not clear why the men were released then, especially if Odizhev had been considered a suspect in the 1999 bombings.
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