Life After Guantanamo in Uruguay

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Detainees
Posted on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 08:13:00 AM EST
Tags: Guantanamo, Dick Cheney (all tags)

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The Miami Herald has 26 great photos of several of the six recently released Guantanamo detainees in Uruguay. The AP has this article on their new lives.

These men were held for 12 years and cleared for release in 2009. No charges were ever brought against them. I was glad to see some of them smiling in the photos. They are learning Spanish, taking hikes, walking along the beach, shopping for food, and cooking at barbecues.

Thank you Uruguay. [More...]

And then there's Dick Cheney. Yesterday on Meet the Press, he told Chuck Todd:

"I’m more concerned with bad guys who got out and released than I am with a few that in fact were innocent,".... Todd pressed Cheney, asking if he was okay with the fact that about 25 percent of the detainees interrogated were actually innocent.

"I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective.

Dick Cheney may have the darkest soul of the last half century. Transplant notwithstanding, he certainly has no heart.

The released men are Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi from Tunisia, Ali Husain Shaaban, Abedlhadi Omar Faraj and Ahmed Adnan Ajuri from Syria, and Palestinian Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan. Last week, Abedlhadi Omar Faraj wrote a letter to the Uruguayan people:

“Were it not for Uruguay, I would still be in the black hole in Cuba today,” said the letter. “It is difficult for me to express how grateful I am for the immense trust that you, the Uruguayan people, placed in me and the other prisoners when you opened the doors of your country to us.”

Uruguayans have welcomed the former detainees with open arms, cheers, clapping and even hugs. They have job offers through the local trade union, which is providing their housing.

I hope the detainees know how many of us in America are cheering their freedom. I'd also like them to know that Dick Cheney is nothing more than a retired politician who speaks only for himself. He's an embarrassment to our nation. He will probably have his own room in our Hall of Shame.

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Life After Guantanamo in Uruguay | 16 comments (16 topical)

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Those photographs are wonderful (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by sj on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 12:10:36 PM EST

I'd like to go to Uruguay...

: I have a totally irrational identification (5.00 / 4) (#10)
by ruffian on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 12:27:33 PM EST

with Uruguay due to a clerical error on my father's death certificate that listed Uruguay as his place of birth.
They are doing me proud!

: sj, Punta del este, Uruguay (none / 0) (#15)
by fishcamp on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 02:59:02 PM EST

has the longest, whitest beaches in the world. Many movie stars and internationally famous people go there. But all the girls are topless.

Dick Cheney...playing to his fan base (5.00 / 2) (#11)
by ruffian on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 12:30:13 PM EST

of fellow psychopaths. The thought that anyone around the world may think he speaks for any more than a sliver of Aemrcias makes me sick.

Yes. (5.00 / 2) (#12)
by Zorba on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 02:06:43 PM EST

In a sense, he was more "believable" when he had the heart pump and didn't have an actual pulse.
And his self-absorption and lack of any kind of empathy is palpable.

"The way I think of it from a psychological standpoint is that it's my new heart, not someone else's old heart," Cheney continued. "And I always thank the donor, generically thank donors, for the gift that I've been given, but I don't spend time wondering who had it, what they'd done, what kind of person."
The seeming lack of empathy from Cheney, who's been out promoting his new book, "Heart: An American Medical Odyssey," didn't sit well with some.
"It's a window into his utter entitlement and self-absorption, and he comes off as an even bigger monster than I'd thought," Salon's Joan Walsh wrote. "Most people would at least feign interest in the donor; Cheney can't manage it."

Link from last year.


: Maybe He Can Wrote One... (5.00 / 1) (#13)
by ScottW714 on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 02:21:58 PM EST

...about his days as VP:
"Black Heart: An American Medieval Fantasy"

Wow (none / 0) (#1)
by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 07:36:05 AM EST

We have distinguished service members coming home who can't find jobs and these guy go to tiny Uruguay and get jobs.
Thanks to an evil Union.

I am so ashamed if my government. And as sad as it makes me to say it, my country. How on earth are we going to roll this back and become again a place we can be proud of.

Unions in Latin countries (none / 0) (#2)
by fishcamp on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 07:47:01 AM EST

are not the same as unions here in the US. They are groups of people that help other people, and not at all like the large, corrupt, monied, or other unions you may be thinking about, that exist here in America. They are merely quiet peaceful people. I am sympathetic with your thoughts regarding our service members.


I was attempting snark (5.00 / 3) (#4)
by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 08:22:48 AM EST

unions here may be riddled with self interested aholes but I am a union guy. Balls to bones. My retirement is going to be a happy place thanks to the years I spent in the screen cartoonist local 839.


: No OT replies please (none / 0) (#5)
by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 08:37:56 AM EST

i got started a swerved more than I intended.
Sorry.

: Well, I was in the cameraman's union (none / 0) (#14)
by fishcamp on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 02:55:30 PM EST

IATSE, local 659, in Hollywood for years myself. Unfortunately the retirement package was not available for remote guys like me, that lived in faraway Colorado. They took but didn't give back. Imagine that.

I know. (none / 0) (#3)
by Ga6thDem on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 08:06:01 AM EST

Conservatives should be ashamed too if they had a conscience but I'm having my doubts about that.


Checney on Meet the Press... (none / 0) (#6)
by ScottW714 on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 08:50:09 AM EST

...yesterday claimed enema feeding to innocent people did not meet 'their' definition of torture and actually mentioned how great it worked.

Yeah, I bet innocent people, who were part of nothing had all kinds of valuable information, Dick...


And (none / 0) (#7)
by Politalkix on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 09:17:59 AM EST

conservatives are thanking Cheney in Red State for his services as VP and lamenting that he did not run for the Presidency. The rot runs quite deep!


: All that is proving (none / 0) (#8)
by Ga6thDem on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 09:30:45 AM EST

is how morally corrupt the bible belt is in general and evangelical Christians in particular.

Words fail me. (none / 0) (#16)
by Chuck0 on Mon Dec 15, 2014 at 04:00:38 PM EST

To describe the low-life scum that is the former vice president of the United States. I wish on him a fate similar to Il Duce.