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• Monday, November 17, 2008 01:09 PM

  America isn't so bad as the Ayers groupies would discover if they had to live elsewhere.

  Now, on the matter of Guantanamo Bay, a dainty little moral dilemma has arisen. Barack Obama proposes to shut the detention camp but where can the detainees go, considering that no country on earth is putting out the welcome mat for them?

  "Oybek Jamoldinvich Jabbarov, a 30-year-old Uzbek national who was living as a refugee in Afghanistan when he was captured in 2001, has been cleared for release but remains at the US detention centre because he cannot return to his native Uzbekistan for fear of torture or other ill-treatment" (The Irish Times, Monday, November 17, 2008). It seems odd that anyone would seek refuge in Afghanistan but Mr. Jabbarov might have found the harsh regime in that country more congenial than his own. A Ms. Jabbarov certainly would not. Anyway, the crux of the matter is that an Obama presidency wants to off-load at least some of these detainees to EU countries (but not Russia, for instance) and the response has been distinctly frigid. Last week Switzerland, noted for its peaceful policies, rejected asylum applications from three detainees who had been cleared for release; liberal Denmark has reacted frostily to requests for resettlement from two Uzbeks and one Lebanese. How they happened to end up off the coast of Cuba was not clarified but now they seem to yearn for the colder climes of northern Europe. It's going to be interesting to see how all this works out.

  —maureenodonnell Read maureenodonnell's other letters
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