Revealed: The Nationalities of Guantanamo

[MrPrax]

Revealed: The Nationalities of Guantanamo

By John C. K. Daly

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- At least 160 of the 650 detainees acknowledged by the Pentagon being held at the United States military base at Guantanamo, Cuba -- almost a quarter of the total -- are from Saudi Arabia, a special UPI survey can reveal.

In UPI's groundbreaking and detailed breakdown of the nationalities of the detainees, some arrested far from the 2001 battlefield of Afghanistan, the other top nationalities being held are Yemen with 85, Pakistan with 82, Jordan and Egypt, each with 30.

Afghans are the fourth largest nationality with 80 detainees, according to the detailed UPI survey that has now for the first time established the homelands of 95 percent of the total number of prisoners.

One member of the Bahraini royal family is among those detained, according to his lawyer Najeeb al-Nauimi of Doha, Qatar, who was Qatar's 1995-97 justice minister and has power of attorney from the parents of about 70 prisoners.

The Pentagon's own list of nationalities detained at Guantanamo may be flawed. Yemeni officials have told UPI they fear more than twice as many of their citizens are held than the Pentagon count.

more
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040204-051623-5923r

[Sliverofhope]

1. Look at all of those Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, and Libyans!

Whew, Bush and his company are on the right track.

[MrPrax]

4. Not to mention North Koreans!!

Good to see all the evil people are lock up...

If this is a reliable breakdown, then it explains another problem * and his pals have regarding Gitmo...(besides the legality of it)

So many Saudis--are they kidnapped and what's the ransom?

[stanwyck]

2. I've been attacked for bringing

up the Saudis and their involvement with terrorism. To me, the Saudi connection is another reason why our invasion of Iraq is senseless. Sixteen of the terrorists who murdered our citizens held Saudi citizenship. The Saudi Royals have been playing a dangerous game with terrorist appeasement. And the Bush administration has compounded this tense situation by appeasing the Saudis. We have to be relentless about terrorists. Playing a game of pretend about the sources of virulent, and deadly, anti-Americanism, protects no one. The Arab world knows our duplicity. The Bushies can be bought and told to look the other way.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. Yeah, and Osama is a Saudi too... and is probably in SA

and has been for a long time.
Of course, since the Saudi Royal Family and the Bin Ladens are buddies, and business partners with the BFEE, I don't think we will find out any time soon.
Oh, unless he happens to be needed to win, say, an election?

[Aidoneus]

7. technically, Usamah's family is Yemeni

the border region there is a bit ambigious (and artificial, since that's just where al-Saud's armies temporarily stopped when "Saudi Arabia" was declared). Saudi Arabia is their adopted homeland and the base of his extended families' business interests. He personally was born in Riyadh and raised in the Hedjaz, but technically speaking..

[Aidoneus]

6. that's a bit misleading

all things considered, there exists no more of a pro-American regime in the Mideast than Saudi Arabia, and that'll never change until the texas tea runs out or they find a new sugar daddy (*ahem*, Russia, EU, or China--that's you*cough*). S.A. doesn't send these people to act as they do, but drives them to it through the craven servility of the monarchy to those that should be considered their enemies. The so-called "anti-Americanism" is a direct reaction and could be measured as an exact correlation to the enforcement of "americanism" (effectively, not always what the ad blitz may lead one to think) on the region and the world.

In that sense, there should be no surprise that the most prominent amounts of people come from the lands that are most firmly under the US thumb--Saudi Arabia & Egypt. The militants dislike their regional puppets, with good reason, thus seek to go after those that hold the strings as well.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. Yes, that and the well-documented biz ties with Saudis

with Bush41 and company.
That is the real reason there are no trenches in SA.

[RamboLiberal]

5. One Iraqi - guess he and Saddam were the reason we had to attack Iraq

eom