Below you can find a text from my wife, who is a member of Brussels parliament. We think that it is unbelievable that our minister of foreign affairs is proposing to take ex-Guantanamo detainees into Belgium! Our party will protest strongly against this madness.
And here’s Bart’s translation of the letter from Valérie Seyns:
Belgium is not even able to offer shelter to the ex-detainees of Guantanamo!- - - - - - - - -
The Belgian minister of foreign affaires, Karel de Gucht will propose to his American colleague, Hillary Clinton, to offer shelter to the ex-detainees of the American Guantanamo prison on Belgian soil.
The mere idea raises a lot of questions. First of all, it’s my belief that our territory shelters more than it’s share of potential Muslim fundamentalists. Almost every time that Islamic terrorists are caught somewhere in the world, there’s a link with Belgium, the murderers of Massoud, the Madrid-bombers; even the 9/11-terrorists could be linked to Belgium. It seems to me the greatest foolishness to jeopardize the safety of our country even further, especially as it’s solely for the benefit of and in servitude to the American president.
Secondly, I want to point out that the Belgian government is barely able to do the necessary follow-up on these released Guantanamo detainees. In 2006 we had an international political scandal because the Belgian secret services managed to lose track of the Turkish terrorist Fehriye Erdal. Our minister of foreign affairs seems to have forgotten what happened in the Erdal case. On top of that, our police forces are confronted and challenged every single day with recidivism of our own ex-convicts, which proves the Belgian government isn’t even able to do the necessary follow-up of its own “pilferers”, let alone the American ex-detainees.
Valérie Seyns
Member of Brussels Parliament
9 comments:
I know this is completely of thread, Steen has a very nice photo of you on his Blog. Its nice to see you sunning yourself on Buddha like on Amager Torvet.
My god! Is Debie actually under house-arrest???
Because his officers are accused of roughing up a turkish arrest? He was n't even there himself! The guy has done nothing wrong,save thinking the wrong thoughts, and working for the wrong party!
It really is high time the EU install an airtight first amendment, before everybody is fired, fined or put in jail
Good lord! You'd think Charles Johnson was already advising Brussel on how to fight European fascism..
While I absolutely agree that Belgium should not have to take a single Gitmo detainee, I have to say that the EU plays a large part in the villification of Gitmo; screaming their lungs out about the "Gulag" and demanding "human rights" for the poor terrorists.
What you sow you also must reap. The EU spent 7 years villifying the U.S. about terrorist detainees. Now, their jails are full and can't possibly accept a single one of them.
So, while it seems that the EU is rather fond of posturing about their human rights record; and correct me if I am wrong but several people have died while being incarcerated at the ICC and no one has died at Gitmo, they are not so swift to actually take action...
Now, my personal feeling is that there is no reasonable solution other than to continue to house the terrorists at Gitmo. While our current admin brays on about how the rest of the free world hates us because of Gitmo, maybe it would be instructive to hear what solution "our allies" have to the problem if not to use Gitmo. (would it help if we changed the name and posted a huge sign "under new ownership?")
My personal solution would be to return the enemy combatants to the country in which they were apprehended, Iraq and Afghanistan, and let those gov'ts decide what to do with them. Forget about repatriating them to their home country or another. If the Iraqi gov't would like to line the terrorists against the wall and shoot them, fine with me. If the Afghanistan gov't would like to send them down a hole and let them starve to death, fine with me. The crimes the terrorists were accused of took place on their soil.
Given the choice of staying in club U.S. Fed. Med. or going back to Iraq or Afghanistan, I'm pretty sure which one I would choose...
One of the upsides of an Obama admin is that the EU can no longer scream at us... Seven years of listening to your back seat driving. Now, you have one of your own at the wheel. What is it that you want to have happen? This missive you post sounds rather hysterical.
I only hope that Mr. Debie is able to read my response.
In light of last week's events, this is particularly stupid. Last week, the Belgian government signed a mutual agreement with the Dutch government to house Belgian prisoners in Dutch prisons, due to a lack of empty prison cells in Belgium. (while the Netherlands have a surplus of empty prison cells as we speak) This is just a temporary measure, however, until Belgium is able to rehouse these inmates back on Belgian soil. How on earth can such a policy be justifiable if Belgium for the moment has a lack of prison space ? This is ridiculous !
On the other hand, this policy is going to prove even more desastrous than we can imagine at this point. I think it's a safe bet to assume that these people will eventually be integrated into Western society, rather than being kept in prison in the long run. The USA has already proven than these people can't actually be integrated, at heart they remain Jihadis. This doesn't bode well for Belgium, and neither does it bode well for Europe as a whole !
After 7 years of bashing the Bush admin policy as it pertains to detainees, I would very much like to know what YOUR SOLUTION IS.
I have given my opinion above. I welcome anyone that has an opinion on this matter that is concrete in terms, not just rhetorical flourish.
I really would appreciate it if the Europeans that read this site lend their thoughts.
No points to anyone that wants to replay the last 7 years (Bush lied us into war,etc) We are where we are and your thoughts about the detainees would be appreciated.
babs,
I say keep them in Gitmo, and keep it open until perhaps your suggestion above might see the light of day. I see no use in releasing these thugs back into any country except the country where they committed their acts of terrorism. If those countries do not want them then let them be tried under military tribunals as prisoners of war that have committed terrorist acts and let them be sentenced to death if that is what it comes to. I have zero
sympathy for thes scum bags in Gitmo and could not care lees if they are waterboarded or worse. If such actiions save even 5 innocnet lives then that is worth it. Nick Berg and David Pearl were treated so fairly by their islamofacist captors before they got beheaded. The only place these bastards should be released is straight into the pits of hell.
We can have a range of Gitmos. Once those who are to be released are around, they can enjoy open Gitmos with door open only to the islamic countries. Let them arrange their visas/papers. They are free to contact more than 50 embassies.
We get a nice tool to blame islamic countries as rahim-less. Merciless. Including allah. "Allah should soften the hearts of muslim leaders." Use their rhetorics.
I am also fine with torture of muslims. Torture is part of their "mohammad=theology in action" culture.
If you dislike torture, quit islam.
If you want participate in a higher human culture, quit your barbaric one in all points. Do not pick our cherries and blame us at the same time.
Those detainees voted for Gitmo, saying they are scared to death of jails in China, Russia, Egypt, SA etc. Gitmo is great. Just work with the officers and you get no-torture status, nice food, even your filthy quran on a silver plait.
The idea to keep the detainees - members of illegal armies with no uniform - outside the Western soil is simply great. If we allow soldiers to run around without uniforms or unspecified military headquarters somewhere else, we end up becoming occupied countries without even noticing it.
Are your islamo-neighbours soldiers or not? Who knows. Allahs headquarters? Some imam in his place "of worship"?
I think the best solution to the Gitmo problem would be if an accident happened while flying over to Europe an the plane dives into the Atlantic ocean. Problem solved and no endless whining from the muslim huggers of the world. Having seen a few execution videos over the years from beheadings to stonings to other equally barbaric methods, I don't have any compassion toward these scum. Military tribunals and executions sounds fine to me. Torturing them with waterboarding and Metallica around the clock is also fine by me. Since there seems to be an almost endless supply of new jihadists, perhaps opening up even more Gitmos would be something to ponder about?
I vote for returning them to the countries they come from originally. Many of them are wanted for various kinds of radical activities, and would be put directly into jail on arrival.
What happens them after that is none of our concern.
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