I get what you are saying, but we have no clue why these men were held. The unknown part of it is the problem. Now our country obviously is capable of being dicks and if they detained people for no valid reason I wouldn't be shocked. On the other hand sometimes we do get it right, so again I just wonder why they detained them.
If it was legitimately for no reason then yes it is bad.
AFAICR, they're held as "enemy combatants", which I have no problem with if true. But charge them with a crime(s), have a trial and if found guilty; sentence them to whatever fits. Be it 10 years, 40 years, life etc.
Throwing them in a hole for over a decade and then going "oh, our bad" is offensive. Imprisonment without trial is something the US used to shit on the former USSR and dictators like Saddam.
As reported by US News and World Report, “Five men held by the U.S. at its base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been released and sent to the United Arab Emirates.The Pentagon says the five Yemeni men were accepted for resettlement in the Persian Gulf nation after U.S. authorities determined they no longer posed a threat. The Defense Department said in a statement Sunday that their release brings the Guantanamo prisoner population to 107.
Each of the five released over the weekend had been held for more than 13 years. They were not charged but were detained as enemy combatants
Ok, so these people were not charged with a crime, are well over a decade out of date with any contacts, and are on the other side of the mid east from any fighting. The US military has judged them not-a-threat.
I'm supposed to be afraid of them... why now?
Even granted that these people *once* fought against us, I don't get the paranoia about 'em.
Originally posted by Surtur
That is the problem I think too many secrets are kept. We should be informed why the were held.
The general reason is "for a variety of reasons, it's been really hard to release anyone that's been held in Gitmo, even if they were picked up for relatively minor reasons." If someone thought they were important but they weren't, they still stayed because people go, "Gasp, they're from Gitmo, you can't bring them there!". So, being 'enemy combatants' may be the entirety of the reason. And it is the military saying, "Yea, these guys are, like, no threat."
Toss in that Daesh did not *exist* when they were arrested and many of the groups we were fighting at the time don't *like* Daesh....
The odds of these people even wanting to run back and join a completely new fight seems rather low. Especially as the UAE likely has higher quality-of-life than where they came from.