The Center for Constitutional Rights is alarmed over the involuntary transfer of former Gitmo detainee Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed to Algeria, following victory in his habeas case. The CCR released a statement saying, "We are deeply concerned for his safety upon return to Algeria, including the threat of persecution by private terrorist groups against whom the Algerian government cannot assure his protection."
This appears to be the second involuntary transfer to Algeria during the Obama administration. Months ago, the U.S. involuntarily transferred former Gitmo detainee Abdul Aziz Naji to Algeria, where his attorney says he subsequently disappeared. Naji said he feared that the Algerian government believed he was a member of the GIA terrorist group, which, his attorneys say, might actually target him over his service fighting Islamic extremists in the Algerian Army in the 1990s. Needless to say, conservatives find the idea of involuntary transfer of people the government lacks justification for holding to countries where they may be tortured amusing and funny, because they think it means Gitmo must be some kind of holiday resort.
In a speech early in the Obama administration, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan suggested that the U.S. would be relying more on the detention powers of other nations because of its intention to close Gitmo. While the Obama administration has banned the use of torture, it's quite clear that some of the allies we're relying on to detain terror suspects have not. I would like to see Gitmo closed, but this isn't the way to do it.
