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| Down Under | |
| Australia unlikely to accept Guantanamo detainees | |
| 2009-01-02 | |
If I were W, I would leave them there as a "Present" for O to deal with.
Australia had rejected a similar request to resettle "a small group of detainees" in early 2008, said Gillard, who is filling in for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd while he is on vacation. "Australia, as an ally of the United States, is examining this second request," Gillard said in a statement. "Notwithstanding that, it is unlikely Australia would accept these detainees." Rudd's center-left Labor Party, which came to power in 2007, had criticized the detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, as unjust and had demanded the repatriation of two Australians held there. Habib said Friday that Australia should not accept the detainees because their histories were unknown. "It is a big risk to the country to bring (these) people here," he told Network Nine television news in Sydney. Obama has pledged to close the prison and American officials have expressed concern that some detainees might be persecuted if returned to their home countries. Many European nations -- which had long been loath to accept detainees from the prison -- more recently indicated a willingness to resettle inmates. Officials from France, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland have all said they are looking into accepting detainees from the U.S. prison. Australia's opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull, said the country should not accept any of the Guantanamo detainees, saying there are many other people already seeking to enter the country. "It would be difficult to imagine the circumstances in which any claims on humanitarian grounds should take priority over the many applicants for humanitarian entry currently awaiting approval," he added. | |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #3 Shark populations have strongly decreased. Feeding them would go a long way towards repopulating the oceans. |
| Posted by: JFM 2009-01-02 18:21 |
| #2 Woozle, you are assuming they SPOT that wake..... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2009-01-02 13:13 |
| #1 Please Aussies, reconsider. You of all places are best able to accept them. Before, you "resettle" them, you must reeducate them into being productive Aussies. They are desert rabble. Take them out to the reefs, teach them to swim. Put some pigs entrails on them, and send them away. They will probably flounder for a bit, but then begin to flail away in a most rabid pace once they spot that wake from the first fin. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 2009-01-02 12:11 |