Ireland has agreed to accept two inmates from the Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba within the next two months, Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern announced Wednesday.
Ahern said the two men belong to a group of about 50 prisoners who are "no longer regarded as posing a threat to security but who cannot return to their own countries." The United States has appealed to European Union countries to give most or all of those men sanctuary, but until now only France has stepped forward to accept a specific detainee.
The justice minister declined to identify either detainee. Other government officials and the human rights group Amnesty International confirmed that both come from Uzbekistan and were seized in neighboring Afghanistan in bitterly disputed circumstances in 2001.
Ahern made his accouncement as he met newly appointed U.S. Ambassador Dan Rooney. Last week Irish officials visited Washington and Guantanamo to negotiate terms of the Uzbeks' transfer.
Wow, think Dan Rooney had anything to do with this? I know he voted for Obama. That would be quite the feather in the cap of a successful NFL owner and, from what it seems, a genuinely well-respected guy.
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