Guantanamo/Detainees
State Department Officials Consider DOJ Gitmo Filing to be Inflammatory
Posted Oct 16, 2008, 09:36 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Justice Department court filing describing 17 Guantanamo detainees as “a danger to the public” has reportedly stalled State Department efforts to find a country willing to accept the men.
The State Department contends the legal brief harmed its efforts on behalf of the men, members of the Uighur Muslim minority in western China, the Washington Post reports. The department regarded the description of the men as inflammatory and impossible to prove, the story says.
Sources for the report were an anonymous administration official and people briefed on the issue.
A federal judge had ordered the detainees released into the United States since the government no longer considers them to be enemy combatants. An appeals court temporarily stayed the order after Justice Department lawyers filed a brief saying the men had “trained for armed insurrection against their home country” and posed a danger.
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