Also JH which international laws is the US currently breaking?

Brian, Portland, USA

As an American, I am sorry, I guess all that we can do is to fall back within our boders, and keep to ourselves. Bring back our military, our embassies, and most importantly, our foreign aide. We can save billions, reduce taxes, and take care of all of our domestic issues with the savings. This is a great idea, thank you world for pushing us to it.
The next time you need our help, ask France instead, I'm sure they would be more than willing to shed their blood to help out, for now I'm not so sure that one drop of American blood is worth the trouble it always seems to bring us.
To those who mean us harm, take notice that any attacks on our soil will result in massive bombings of where ever it is you come from, don't say you were't warned.

Bruce, Annapolis, USA

There's an awful lot of people on here convinced of these people's guilt when the Bush administration has been very unwilling to present any EVIDENCE.. Perhaps these are the same people who believed Donald Rumsfeld when he claimed Gitmo was only holding the 'worst of the worst', before subsequently releasing hundreds of inmates without charge.

Why do you continue to believe these liars? I know Americans want someone to blame for what happened on 9/11, but there's little point in blaming the wrong people. And if you're so sure of their guilt, then why aren't they being tried in a standard court of law?

Owen, London, UK

I noticed Britian is demanding the release of 5 British citizens from "Gitmo". Does Britian need any more radicals ? The country is overrun with them now ,so much so that Britian poses a greater threat to the U.S. than any other country ! I guess a few more want matter . It will be interesting in a few years to read the blogs when Britians population becomes predominantly muslim.

Jay, Dixie, U.S. S.C.

To, Geoff, Chelmsford, England
This is how you spell Farrukh.

Re: Gitmo and all the International law breaking the USA has and is doing will come back and haunt you all one day.
You never learn:

First Vietnam and now Iraq and some where in between is Afghanistan.

Please some explain to me what is the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist?

JH, London, UK

The bottom line; democracy is worth fighting for, so is freedom of speech and religious freedom. While the west is not perfect - what is? - I would rather be a citizen of the west than a paranoid from the 15Th century.

John , Moscow,

American blind patriotism, how different is it from the blind following of religious fundamentalism? Oh thats right, not much, you both think you are right and that your aims justify your methods. You both are wrong.

Do you really think that forcing someone to live in a cage for years on end, torturing them (and their families) is the way to convince the countries which oppose you that you are a civilised nation, and to convince them that the autocities that they commit need to stop?

I am as horrified by the acts of terrorism that have been increasingly committed in the Western world, but has stooping to their levels reduced the problem or increased it? The number of terrorist acts increases every year, and thats not because they have more time on their hands.

Maybe instead of unquestioningly following the leadership of Bush, you should look at the results of your nations' behaviour.

Supposedly a christian nation, was Jesus about torture and retribution?

B.Holmes, Newcastle,

Farruchk of Woking.
Are you an immigrant by any chance?
or New Labour MP?
This guy was found in a war zone, we dont want him here, just as we dont want ANY militant extremists of ANY faith.
If you choose to believe in a god, or the tooth fairy, thats your choice, just keep it to yourself.
Send him home, or concede to his request to stay where he is,
Also, all you do gooders should move to Iran or Iraq or shut the !!! up and stop criticising America, our closest ally.

Geoff, Chelmsford, England

I guess it's time we Americans apologise to the world...
I have been reading leftist news web sites and learned the following:
1. Everytime an American bomb is dropped, it only hits innocent civilians. ( Just as there were no Nazis in Germany in 1945, there are apparently no dangerous Jihadis in the middle east now)
2. Gitmo is filled with innocent tourists who were vacationing in Pakistan and accidentally crossed into Afganistan where some evil warlords/peasents sold them to American spys.
3. When we use some harsh questioning techniques on these unfortunate innocent tourists, or put ladies' underwear on the heads of innocent tourists in a prison in Iraq this is torture, much worse than when vietnam used various implemtents on our guys (breaking bones and causing permanent injuries) or when the Japanese ate some of our guys, or when the Germans did interesting medical experiments...

So sorry. In the future we should use our power as Japan, Germany, China and Russia would have...

Tim Quick, San marcos, USA

LH,
Define torture, is loud music torture? Also if the detainee's are being so badly tortured why does this prisoner want to stay in gitmo so badly? Now for the "no proper evidence" what is proper evidence? A warzone is not a courtroom .These men were in a warzone doing something that made the soldiers suspicious enough to pick them up. Are you saying you know better than the people in the field? As for your nazi comparison Id like to point out we arent picking people up wholesale and dropping them into ovens, Since 2002 750 men have been held in Gitmo ( as opposed to the 6 MILLION jew killed in the nazi concentration camps. ) and almost half of those have been released. Also I think its funny that people such as yourself whine and cry about those "poor prisoners" in gitmo and yet have nothing to say about the people who routinely behead their enemies and have booklets out on how to use power drills and acid as interrogation techniques. ( Ill give you a hint it not the US doing it )

Brian, Portland, USA

where does this poor chap say he went to fight? he says he went to study (and even the tribunal merely found him guilty of "association"). when you bring a war to a civilian area, what is the difference between a non-uniformed combatant hiding amongst civilians and... um... a civilian?

is there actually much evidence against him at all, except being a foreigner in pakistan, passed on by ignorant villagers for a reward?

if you're going to shoot him just for being there, why not shoot all the civilians?

oh... hang on.... the yanks do that too. when they're not shooting brits.

whether there is evidence for a proper charge (in which case, try him) or no evidence, it seems harsh to send him back to algeria. give him an asylum hearing, at least. if he missed the original hearing because he was in guantanamo.... it's hardly fair to consider his application failed on account of his non-appearance at the original hearing.

"we're" better than "them", aren't we?

jem, london, uk

Also my previous statement was about the Geneva Convention. All I can say about that is if you want protection under the convention you had better follow the rules laidout in the document ( ie wearing uniforms ) War is harsh and so the rules for war are equally harsh. As a previous poster said according the the conventions these non-uniformed combatants can be summarily shot would you prefer that?

Brian, portland, USA

Small correction he wasnt actually picked up by soldiers but villagers although a military tribuanal did rule his incarcaration was justified.

Brian, portland, USA

Florian -

If Americans had adopted Germany's WW2 ways, there wouldn't be any prisoners to release.

This poor 'tortured' soul is begging to stay because he knows what REAL torture is (and it's not a ham sandwich). He and his ilk are playing dim-witted liberals like you for the fools you are.

This is not a criminal matter. It is a war matter. None of the 400,000 German POWs, held in the continental U.S. during WW2, had lawyers or court trials or habeus corpus rights or culturally sensitive meals prepared for them. Guantanamo isn't as fun as murdering infidels or beheading Afghan girls going to school, but it is better than Algeria.

Wake up or you might just be his next victim.

M. Fernandez, San Francisco,

to brian from portland,
are you saying that torturing people, some of whom are jailed with no proper evidence, is all right because they don't wear uniforms ? Guantanamo isn't any better than the nazi concentration camps as far as I'm concerned. And if America's aim is to spread democracy and freedom, they should do it democratically. Those sort of words are no better than a fundamentalist's.

LH, godalming, england

Oh, geoff, the right-wing folks have a dictatorship control over American and the UK now? First I'd heard of it!

...

MM, Andover, UK

"Get his council house ready! He's on his way!"
John Tomlinson, Brentwood, UK

Sums it all up really. The UK has been morally bankrupted by NuLabour. We have no principles left.

Heartbreaking.

Cliff, Marseille,

Some people want to go home others plead to stay prisoners, the u.s has signed a treaty with the Algerian government,,,,meaning we had couple of your citizens and at this time we do not need to keep them a live ....take theme back, and what happen on your soil stays in your soil. Political understanding...lol

bourba, Los Angeles,

'Over 30 ex Guantanamo (I detest that flip abbreviation) have gone back to commit terrorist acts.'

Do the job you promised properly then. Find the terrorists, free the innocent. Mr Bush is, by his own assertion, a 'war president.'

It's not complicated.

Pu Li, Guangxi,

Matt (Andover),
Do you think the liberal minded people of the US and UK are in charge of their armies?

geoff, london,

To Nick re why do people who hate the west live still want to live here... Exactly... How about we go to Mecca and demand rights for women. I'm sure they'd love that.. not. That is their problem, they want it all but aren't willing to compromise. If you want to live like a fundamentalist go and live where you are welcome. We've lost too many people fighting world wars to protect the rights of all people (including women) to go backwards for a group of 15th century hoods.

Bill, London,

Alex,
The problem is, those liberal-minded Iranians are not in control of the military in Iran.

Matt MacDonald, Andover, UK

Alex, Reading, Berks

Another muslin radicalized in the UK. Mr Belbacha admits to going from the UK to Pakistan to wage jihad.

Some of the 9/11 terrorists were radicalized in Germany.

You are 100% right; American foreign policy is stupid and dangerous. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan should be under our radar. I would add to that list several countries in Europe.

RG, NC, US

Prisoners of war do not have to be released until the end of the war (meaning, the war in Afghanistan in the case of people captured there). Not to mention the people fighting are *non-uniformed*, and it is entirely their fault that some innocent people are also detained (how are we supposed to see the difference? What, the western is omniscient now? Then why does everyone hate us? They should worship us! </sarcasm>)

Non-uniformed combatants have no rights, under the geneva convention.

I feel sorry for the guy if he is innocent, I really do. I feel sorry for all the victims of that war. But, they are victims of political/extremist Islam, not the so-called "Great Satan".

MM, Andover, UK

Farrukh of Woking UK has a nice sense of irony. I am not sure that Jimi, Milwaukee, WI got the joke.

What's the problem? Send him home.

Charles, Charlottesville,

Nick - Most Iranians do not hate the West. In fact Iran, depsite the rule of Ayatollah's, is actually a fairly liberal Muslim state. I have friends from Tehran who enjoy a similar lifestyle to those of the west, drinking alcohol, & even when the women have to wear the hijab, it does not have to even fully cover their hair. Saudi is the most radicalised Islamic state sharing deep seated anti-western sentiments allied with an increasingly radicalised Pakistan. However neither of these countries seems to come up on your radar. As an Englishman who can (hopefully) appreciate that a lot of American foreign policy is dangerous & stupid, I am surprised you've swallowed whole them trying to turn Iran into the next big enemy.

Alex, Reading, Berks

To M.Fernandez

I am sure that if i was tortured for a few years in guantanamo i definitely would seek for revenge and become a terrorist myself

So another thing the americans adopted form us germans, WW2 gave them a lot of inspiration.....

Florian , Cologne, Germany

Wait, Islamist are peace loving aren't they? Nothing to fear from them.

Joe , Tulsa, USA

D,

I d like to point out to you that the Geneva Conventions only apply when the enemy is a UNIFORMED combatant, also it only applies when both sides of the conflict are signees of the conventions.

Brian, Portland, USA

This flies in the face of all the arguments the Left is saying against the war, and against our treatment of prisoners.
We have been treating these prisoners better than they have been treated all their lives. We've bent over backwards to give them adequate medical care than they would have over in the Middle East, provided them with culturally appropriate food, and so much more.
We have done far more for them than they would ever dream of doing for us, and that's a fact.

Todd, Cape Cod, MA

It's a place where prisoners are supposed to be in "legal limbo." Yet, this man would prefer to stay than go home? And his free lawyer has a case pending in federal court to make it happen? Oh, these poor, innocent political prisoners. My heart just aches for them.

Greg, Boston, MA

Funny that Britain won't take him, but some Britons are so quick to say that he should be let loose over here. Give him a one-way air ticket to whichever country will take him, but anyone stupid enough to take him in deserves the forthcoming suicide bombing.

Common law, and common law rights only apply to citizens of common law countries. Right to a trial by jury doesn't apply to unlawful combattants, prisoners of war, or aliens unless expressly granted to them. (ie. by a green card or european equivilent) Fighting in a war zone without wearing a uniform is against Geneva and every other law of war.

B. Mabry, New Orleans, LA, USA

Action follows choice. Action has consequences.
So be it.

We are not responsible for what may or may not happen to Ahmed Belbacha. It could just as well be a ploy to get into a western country and create more terror. After all, was that not his first intent?

Dr Why, Atlanta, USA/Georgia

A fair trial. Well, lets see. Out of uniform on a battlefield. Hiding among a civilian population. Lets see what the Geneva convention prescribes for those offenses. Oh, yeah, he can summarily be shot. And he should have been, if it wasn't for the intelligence needs of the US army, and perhaps, if you know Americans at all, a bit of mercy, too. Do you recall what the warlord Dosten did with the rest of the prisoners? He shut them all in big steel shipping containers, told them to have a nice day, and "forgot" about them.

At best, the Gitmo prisoners should be sent back to Afghanistan to be tried under Sharia law for their crimes against that country.

Again, under the Geneva conventions, these men are already under sentence of death. They deserve it. Are you truly naive enough to believe their transparent and self serving excuses? They were ALL found on the battlefield out of uniform or trying to hide among civilians. ALL of them. That's why they are at Gitmo.

Bruce Dearborn Walker, West Haven, CT

i'm getting fed up with the continued whining about gitmo.what do you do with a bunch of people who decide it is their god given right to kill anybody they don't happen to agree with.
they have no geneva convention, give no mercy and are living so far in the past they should be dust.
maybe there were innocent people caught up in the net and taken to gitmo, and at the first it was probably brutal...
however, with all the liberal whining that has gone on, conditions have improved and most of the inmates probably have a higher standard of life than they've seen before.
as i understand it, they get religious privilages (does that happen for christian prisoners in the islamic countries?), halal food, a choice of menus, red cross visits, first class medical attention....plus lawyers, and then it's called a gulag.
i'm sorry if some innocents are caught in the net, but at least they're still alive to talk about it!

arthur, brighton, sussex

Farrukh of Woking UK wants citizenship, compensation, and an apology from the USA for this guy? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. That was the best joke I have heard all day. Maybe Mr Belbacha could try obtaining compensation from the villagers near Peshawar using the Pakistani legal system.

Jimi, Milwaukee, WI

CLUB GITMO!!!
"Your tropical retreat from the stress of Jihad..."

David, Liberty, SC/USA

However, I have absolutely no sympathy for this man. His story is the same as the Brits who were released 2 years back: "Oh, I er.. well I got talked into learning about religion... Then I was mis-lead to Pakistan... Then I decided that I'd just pop over the border to the warzone of Afghanistan, although you have to appreciate I really didn't want to be there & it was all a bit of an accident. & then what do you know I've been set up & suddenly I'm in Gauntanomo."

You know what you're doing when you cross into a religious warzone. Non of my friends, no matter how hard they tried, could ever get me to study radical religion, let-alone go to a warzone! This guy was an accountant, a clever man, so the argument of "Oh I kinda just was in Afghanistan & then I got arrested" is a slap in the face to anyone he tells it to. Sure, he may regret becoming radicalised & he may now see that it was wrong, but trying to lie your way out of it is pathetic & he deserves everything he gets..

Alex, Reading, Berks

This man is now our responsibility and it would be irresponsible to place him in danger because of our incompetence. Gitmo is against the Geneva Convention as is the War in Iraq and we have a responsibilty to make sure the we end this horrible mistake in the best fashion that we can which will save and restore lives, not destroy or take anymore.

D, Tuscon,

This man's fear of being returned to his`native Algeria is not a positive reflection on the inhuman Guantanamo prison regime which cannot be condoned by any country believing itself to be a force for good in our deeply troubled world.But governments like those in Algiers do not pay any attention to the decisions of international coiurts or pressure groups like Amnesty International.Hence torture is`used widely often with the tacit consent of the US, Britain and others where the writ of the executive still runs..

Whatever crime this`man may have intended to commit whilst in Afghanistan there is no evidence that he succeeded .If the US is aware that forced deportation will result in his torture then it must convince the British to reconsider his original request for asylum

BILL JACKSON, NOTTINGHAM, UK

Perhaps he should go to a country more suited to his beliefs, such as Iran! Why is it that all of these people who hate the West still want to live there?

Nick Hill, London,

Guantanamo is a deep wound to the Justice system of the USA. All inmates should be moved to the US and given a proper trial in a US court or released to countries where they previously lived. In the case of foreign nationals with previous UK residence, they should come back to the UK and helped to get back to life under supervision. There is no excuse for the US to abuse people in this way; it shows a great disrespect for justice and liberty.

Clerkenwellman, London,

to abhi,

Yep, gitmo has been a sane move. It will also be sane to return Mr Belbacha to his home country.

David Williamson, Tucson, USA AZ

Get his council house ready! He's on his way!

John Tomlinson, Brentwood, UK

He should be granted American citizenship, given an apology by the US government for the injustice he has had to endure and given sufficient compensation to allow him to buy a home as well as get himself started in a new life somewhere in the. That is the least the US gov can do given that he is threatened by terrorists in his homeland Algeria and has been mistreated by those 'hunting terrorists'.

Farrukh, Woking, UK

Guantanamo Bay: The Caribbean holiday of a lifetime. Make that for a lifetime.
If you'd been held in Guantanmo for some five years, I dare say you wouldn't be feeling so well disposed towards the United States. So if you weren't a terrorist before ...

Andrew Milner, Yokohama , Kanagawa

to M. Fernandez, SF

Really... operating "gitmo" has been a sane move by your country?!?

abhi, Lancs, Lancs

Geez, my heart is breaking. Over 30 ex-Gitmo detainees have gone back to commit terrorist acts. If Britain takes him, you are fools.

M. Fernandez, San Francisco,