Miami Herald Logo

Yemen human rights minister to Washington for Guantánamo talks | Miami Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Site Information
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Herald Store
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • YouTube

    • Sections
    • News
    • South Florida
    • Miami-Dade
    • Broward
    • Florida Keys
    • Florida
    • Politics
    • Weird News
    • Weather
    • National & World
    • Colombia
    • National
    • World
    • Americas
    • Cuba
    • Guantánamo
    • Haiti
    • Venezuela
    • Local Issues
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • In Depth
    • Issues & Ideas
    • Traffic
    • Sections
    • Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Pro & College
    • Miami Dolphins
    • Miami Heat
    • Miami Marlins
    • Florida Panthers
    • College Sports
    • University of Miami
    • Florida International
    • University of Florida
    • Florida State University
    • More Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Auto Racing
    • Fighting
    • Golf
    • Horse Racing
    • Outdoors
    • Soccer
    • Tennis
    • Youth Sports
    • Other Sports
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Florida Influencer Series
    • Sections
    • Business
    • Business Monday
    • Banking
    • International Business
    • National Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate News
    • Small Business
    • Technology
    • Tourism & Cruises
    • Workplace
    • Business Plan Challenge
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Cindy Krischer Goodman
    • The Starting Gate
    • Work/Life Balancing Act
    • Movers
    • Sections
    • Living
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Pets
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Wine
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Dave Barry
    • Ana Veciana-Suarez
    • Flashback Miami
    • More Living
    • LGBTQ South Florida
    • Palette Magazine
    • Indulge Magazine
    • South Florida Album
    • Broward Album
    • Sections
    • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Games & Puzzles
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music & Nightlife
    • People
    • Performing Arts
    • Restaurants
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Jose Lambiet
    • Lesley Abravanel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Miami.com
    • Contests & Promotions
    • Sections
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Op-Ed
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Jim Morin
    • Letters to the Editor
    • From Our Inbox
    • Speak Up
    • Submit a Letter
    • Meet the Editorial Board
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Blog Directory
    • Columnist Directory
    • Andres Oppenheimer
    • Carl Hiaasen
    • Leonard Pitts Jr.
    • Fabiola Santiago
    • Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Place an Obituary

    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Apartments
    • Auctions/Sales
    • Automotive
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Employment
    • Garage Sales
    • Legals
    • Merchandise
    • Obituaries
    • Pets
    • Public Notices
    • Real Estate
    • Services
  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Real Estate
  • Mobile & Apps

  • el Nuevo Herald
  • Miami.com
  • Indulge

Guantánamo

Yemen human rights minister to Washington for Guantánamo talks

By Adam Baron

    ORDER REPRINT →

May 02, 2013 07:46 PM

With a weeks-long hunger strike focusing new attention on conditions at the United States’ controversial detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the minister of human rights for Yemen is due in Washington for talks next week she hopes will lead to the repatriation of at least some of the scores of Yemenis held at the island prison.

Speaking on the eve of her trip, Hooriya Mashhour told McClatchy Thursday that the Yemeni government’s ultimate goal is to gain custody of all its citizens currently held at Guantánamo – about 90 of the 166 men imprisoned there. But she said her current hope is more modest – the return of the two dozen or so Yemenis that a special Obama administration task force determined in 2010 could be returned to their homeland.

“At the very least, we want the release of the detainees who have been cleared – those who have already been determined to present no threat to the U.S.,” she said. “That, however, is just the first step.”

What to do with the Yemenis at Guantánamo is one of the major decisions that President Barack Obama must make if he is to accomplish his first-term campaign pledge to close the detention center – a goal he reiterated at a news conference Tuesday.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

The State Department said this week that 26 of the Yemenis at the center have been cleared for release, and that 30 others could be transferred to Yemen if the government could take “appropriate measures to reduce the risks associated with their return.” But their return is blocked by a moratorium on the transfer of any detainees to Yemen, which Obama imposed after the attempted Christmas Day 2009 midair bombing of an aircraft over Detroit. The Nigerian who confessed to that attempt said he’d been recruited for the mission by al Qaida-linked people in Yemen.

Yemenis at Guantánamo also include two men facing death-penalty tribunals as alleged co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and Osama bin Laden's former media secretary, the prison's lone convict serving a life sentence.

The White House said this week that the moratorium remains in place, even as pressure rises on Obama to do something to ease tensions at Guantánamo, where the Pentagon counts 100 of the detainees as hunger strikers. Twenty-three of those are being force-fed up-to twice daily, a step that has been denounced by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the American Medical Association as a violation of prisoner rights.

The disposition of Yemeni detainees is also a potent political issue here, where anxiety over the hunger strike is adding to anger that swept the country after the suicide in September of Yemeni detainee Adnan Latif.

For much of the past decade, Yemeni officials have petitioned for the detainees’ release. But they have won the return of only a handful of men under the presidency of longtime leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted last year in the wave of Arab revolts. While U.S.-Yemeni relations have warmed under Saleh’s successor, former Vice President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi, no Yemenis have been sent home, and Hadi has been sharply critical of his American allies.

Hadi has cast the Yemenis’ imprisonment without trial as “clear-cut tyranny,” while officials have noted that preparations already had begun for the detainees’ “rehabilitation” process upon return. Saudi Arabia and other countries have instituted similar programs – to mixed success – in an effort to reintegrate former Guantánamo detainees into society.

With whom Mashhour will meet in Washington is unclear.

The State Department did not respond to requests for information. Last month, Mashhour said she would seek permission to visit the prison to see for herself the conditions of the Yemenis there. But previous requests for such a visit have been denied, and Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale said Thursday he was unaware of any current request from Mashhour to visit Guantánamo.

Breasseale said such visits typically are restricted to foreign intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Mashhour’s delegation includes officials from Yemen’s intelligence service and the Foreign Ministry, she said.

Barron is a McClatchy special correspondent. Hannah Allam and Matthew Schofield contributed from Washington.

  Comments  

Videos

Guantánamo Bay naval station holds ‘We Will Never Forget’ 9.11 km memorial run

US military adjusts for Ramadan at Guantánamo

View More Video

Trending Stories

Haiti is once again on edge, and humanitarian aid groups debate whether to go or cancel

February 14, 2019 07:24 PM

He was robbed while mowing a lawn. He talked. Then 40 bullets were fired into his house

February 14, 2019 08:45 AM

Dolphins sign former second-round defensive end and a young cornerback

February 15, 2019 03:30 PM

Hearts are heavy, attendance is light at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

February 14, 2019 09:05 AM

Inside exclusive Ocean Reef community, charges of sex and ‘control’ against top manager

February 14, 2019 11:23 AM

Read Next

Why is Guantánamo seeking a wheelchair-accessible three-cell compound? Contingencies.
Video media Created with Sketch.

Guantánamo

Why is Guantánamo seeking a wheelchair-accessible three-cell compound? Contingencies.

By Carol Rosenberg

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 08, 2019 05:34 PM

In the same week the Pentagon said Guantánamo is still an option for ISIS prisoners in Syria, the war-on-terror prison seeks contractors to bid for a three-cell, ADA-approved compound. Price tag? Unknown.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE GUANTÁNAMO

U.S.: Guantánamo still an option for ISIS captives in Syria who can’t go home

Guantánamo

U.S.: Guantánamo still an option for ISIS captives in Syria who can’t go home

February 06, 2019 06:37 PM
Sept. 11 trial judge cancels Guantánamo hearing, is airlifted to US for emergency eye surgery

Guantánamo

Sept. 11 trial judge cancels Guantánamo hearing, is airlifted to US for emergency eye surgery

January 29, 2019 07:10 PM
Sept. 11 defense lawyers threaten hearing boycott over FBI interview of paralegal

Guantánamo

Sept. 11 defense lawyers threaten hearing boycott over FBI interview of paralegal

January 28, 2019 03:41 PM
Military judge schedules February 2020 for next war crimes trial at Guantánamo

Guantánamo

Military judge schedules February 2020 for next war crimes trial at Guantánamo

January 24, 2019 02:09 PM
GOP Senators urge Trump to send Islamic State prisoners captured in Syria to Guantánamo

Guantánamo

GOP Senators urge Trump to send Islamic State prisoners captured in Syria to Guantánamo

January 23, 2019 11:46 AM
Pentagon shipping jumbo cell to Guantánamo court for al-Qaida trial from hospital bed

Guantánamo

Pentagon shipping jumbo cell to Guantánamo court for al-Qaida trial from hospital bed

January 14, 2019 09:40 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Miami Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Public Insight Network
  • Reader Panel
Advertising
  • Place a Classified
  • Media Kit
  • Commercial Printing
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story