Lawyers for Yemeni Detainees at Gitmo Doubt Release

Strong talk from GOP leaders and former Bush officials, and the emergence of al-Qaeda links in Yemen have lawyers for Yemeni detainees at Gitmo pessimistic about releases that seemed certain just recently. “I feel like my two clients who left in mid-December have gotten the last train out,” says an attorney who represents many Yemeni nationals, the largest group still at the Cuban base. The development could complicate the Obama administration's attempts to close the facility.

The rhetoric from the right could be persuasive, given Yemen’s problem with terrorists. A former Bush Homeland Security official tells the Los Angeles Times the country is “reminiscent of Afghanistan before 9/11.” A GOP lawmaker wrote a letter to the White House imploring Obama to halt the release of detainees to “dangerously unstable countries.” Of the 200 remaining detainees, 88 are Yemenis.
(More Yemen stories.)