DUBLIN — Ireland’s agreement Wednesday to take two homeless Guantanamo prisoners demonstrates that patient diplomacy between the United States and Europe is starting to play its part in shutting down the notorious U.S. prison.
Daniel Fried, the Obama administration’s special envoy tasked with closing the camp, is back in Europe this week seeking to build on a European Union agreement clearing the way for any member of the 27-nation bloc to accept prisoners who could face persecution in their homelands.
While most European states remain frosty to the idea of taking Guantanamo prisoners off American hands, a growing number of nations — including Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain — say they definitely or probably will take at least one of the approximately 50 prisoners.
Ireland is the second EU nation, after France, to make a firm commitment to take particular prisoners. Slovenia is the next stop on Fried’s European tour.
The moves offer ammunition to critics of U.S. lawmakers who, faced with strong opposition from their home districts, have opposed any Guantanamo resettlements on American soil.
The human-rights watchdog Amnesty International says many European nations have complained about the illegality and injustice of the internments without trial in Guantanamo — and now must step up.
Meanwhile Wednesday, the Obama administration said it was prepared to release one of the youngest prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay, days after signaling it might bring him to the United States for a criminal trial.
Government attorneys asked a federal judge to give them three weeks to release Mohammed Jawad. He’s been held at the U.S. naval facility in Cuba for nearly seven years since being arrested for allegedly wounding two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter by throwing a grenade at their jeep in Afghanistan.
Just last week, the Justice Department said it wanted to hold Jawad at Guantanamo while conducting a criminal investigation, saying it had new eyewitness evidence and would speed up a grand jury investigation.
In the newest court filing, prosecutors also held out the possibility that they could turn over Jawad to another country rather than bring him to the U.S. for trial. Jawad’s lawyers have been trying for years to get him released to his native Afghanistan.
