2 European nations accept Guantanamo detainees as part of US plan to one day close the prison
By Daniel Woolls, APWednesday, February 24, 2010
Spain takes 1st Guantanamo inmate, Albania 3
MADRID — The United States got help from Europe on Wednesday in its troubled drive to shut down Guantanamo Bay, as Spain accepted a former inmate from the prison for terror suspects and the tiny Balkan nation of Albania took in three more.
Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters the man who arrived in this country is Palestinian, but would not give his name or any other information, citing privacy concerns. He reiterated that Spain will take in as many as five Guantanamo inmates, the largest commitment yet from a European country since President Barack Obama pledged to close Guantanamo.
“We do not want to give more details simply because our aim is for those who come to Spain to be able to live their lives,” Rubalcaba said.
The minister said the Palestinian met a key condition, which is that he does not have charges pending in the United States, Europe or the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian will be able to work in Spain and move around the country freely, but cannot leave it, in accordance with an agreement among European Union countries.
Rubalcaba said Spain is still studying case files on other candidates for coming to Spain from the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
Separately, Albania’s Interior Ministry said the country had taken in three more former Guantanamo detainees — a Tunisian, an Egyptian and a Libyan national — under an agreement with the United States. They arrived Tuesday.
The ministry statement said Albania has a concrete commitment “to support President Obama’s administration in closing the Guantanamo center.”
Since 2006, Albania has taken eight former detainees from the U.S. prison in Cuba, including five members of China’s Muslim Uighur minority. They have been offered assistance in finding jobs but are not allowed to leave Albania.
Other European countries that have agreed to take in Guantanamo inmates include France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and Portugal. Most have agreed to take in one or two, or three at most.
Obama had pledged to close the Guantanamo prison in January but missed that deadline.
His special envoy for this task, Daniel Fried, met with Spanish officials in Madrid in June and asked Spain to take in four prisoners. From the outset Spain was receptive, and during later talks the Spanish apparently agreed to consider taking in as many as five.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been eager to establish good ties with the United States and Obama, after angering then-President George W. Bush in April 2004 by withdrawing Spanish peacekeepers from Iraq.
Zapatero also has agreed to send more Spanish troops to Afghanistan in response to a plea from Obama for more allied help in fighting the Taliban.
AP writer Llazar Semini contributed to this report from Albania.
