TerrorismTwo Guantanamo detainees sent to Algeria over their objections

The Defense Department announced earlier this month that it had repatriated two Guantánamo Bay detainees to Algeria despite requests from both men to halt the transfers because of fear of persecution. The repatriations were announced a day after the Pentagon said that a Sudanese man would be repatriated to Sudan after serving a portion of his sentence as required by a pretrial agreement. The man, Noor Uthman Mohammed, pleaded guilty in 2011 before a military commission to terrorism-related charges.

The New York Times reports that Guantánamo’s inmate population has been reduced to 162, an indication of the Obama administration’s commitment to revive efforts to reduce the prison’s population following years of what seemed to be a stalemate and Congress-imposed legal obstacles to detainee transfers. A spring 2013 hunger strike by detainees refocused President Obama to his 2008 presidential campaign promise to close the detention center.

Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser, noted the increased effort to close the detention center during a speech last week on the administration’s human right policies. “President Obama remains deeply determined to close the detention facility at Guantánamo,” she said, adding, “We expect to announce more transfers in the near future.” Rice also called for Congress to remove restrictions on detainee transfers.

Not all parties are thrilled about the involuntary transfers to Algeria.The Times notes that some human rights advocates criticize the move based on humanitarian grounds, and some conservative groups consider the transfer as a national security risk.

Attorneys for the two former detainees denounced the move. “I think that these guys are numbers on a spreadsheet for the State Department,” said Wells Dixon, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights organization representing one of the men, Djamel Ameziane. “I think the State Department doesn’t care if it ruins their lives.”

Ian Moss, a spokesman at the State Department’s for Guantánamo transfer issues, insist that the United States has in the past repatriated fourteen other Algerians and was “satisfied that the Algerian government would continue to abide by lawful procedures and uphold its obligations under domestic and international law in managing the return of former Guantánamo detainees.”

“We understand that from time to time we will receive criticism,” Moss said, “but we are absolutely committed to moving forward with closing Guantánamo, and doing so in a responsible manner, consistent with the law, our national security interests and our longstanding humane treatment policies.”

Ameziane was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 and the other detainee, Belkacem Bensayah, was arrested in Bosnia also in 2001. The men were taken to Guantánamo in early 2002, and in 2009 an Obama administration task force approved their transfer if security conditions could be met.

“Mr. Bensayah was adamant that he would rather stay at Guantánamo than return to Algeria,” said Mark Fleming, a lawyer for Bensayah, “not only because he wanted to be reunited with his family in Bosnia after twelve years apart, which now seems increasingly difficult — if not impossible — but he also feared he would be a target for actual extremists in Algeria.” According to Fleming, Bensayah’s attorneys had failed to persuade Bosnia — which had revoked his citizenship — to accept Bensayah back in the country despite his wife and daughters maintaining residency in Bosnia. Fleming argued that the United States should have worked harder to gain Bensayah entry into another European country.

CCR called Ameziane’s involuntary transfer “as unnecessary as it is bitterly cruel,” and suggested that Ameziane could have returned to Montreal, Canada, his former residency, or to Luxembourg, which the CCR claim offered to accept Ameziane in 2010. According to the Times, Luxembourg’s interest had been “murky.” Jennifer Oscroft, a British lawyer who worked to resettle Ameziane, told theTimes that Luxembourg was a “serious opportunity” and with sympathy, Luxembourg sent a delegation to Guantánamo in mid-2010 to interview Ameziane. Oscroft said that the United States did not allow the delegation to meet with Ameziane for unknown reasons, and instead the delegation met with a detainee from Yemen.

A U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed the Luxembourg delegation’s visit but insisted that members of the delegation visited Guantánamo to meet with another detainee. Luxembourg did not resettle any Guantánamo detainees. Ian Moss for the State Department insisted that resettling Ameziane in another country was not a “viable” option.