Just Say No to Yemen

Shocker. WHO didn't see THIS coming (via Memeorandum)?

"The Obama administration’s effort to return the largest group of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, their home country, has stalled, creating a major new hurdle for the president’s plan to close the prison camp in Cuba by next January, American and Yemeni officials say. “We’re at a complete impasse,” said one American official who is involved in the issue, speaking without authorization. “I don’t know that there’s a viable ‘Plan B.’

"The Yemeni government has asked Washington to return its detainees and has said it would need substantial aid to rehabilitate the men. But the Obama administration is increasingly skeptical of Yemen’s ability to provide adequate rehabilitation and security to supervise returned prisoners. In addition, American officials are wary of sending detainees to Yemen because of growing indications of Al Qaeda activity there.

"The developments are significant for the Obama administration because the 97 Yemeni detainees make up more than 40 percent of the remaining 241 prisoners. The question of what to do with them “is integral to the process of closing Guantánamo,” said Ken Gude, a scholar at the Center for American Progress who has written about closing the prison camp."

And to give credit where credit is due, the Obama administration is making the right call. Our problem with closing Gitmo and sending these enemy combatants back to Yemen is because of the high recidivism rate.

Just goes to show, you should think before you speak. If you're going to close down a perfectly good prison, one that meets Geneva, you should probably know ahead of time what you're going to do with the very dangerous people that live there. Of course, now we've just go to hope that they don't decide to release them into the United States.