One of the more stunning Which-Side-Is-Obama-On items seems getting some notice from the mainstream media. But Holder seems to be sticking to his guns. Does he believe that members of the Al-Qaeda-linked East Turkestan Islamic Movement aren’t “terrorists”? We shall see.
An update on this story. “Holder: Terrorists Won’t Be Set Free,” from AP, May 7 (thanks to Block Ness):
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration will not release Guantanamo detainees thought to be terrorists into the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress Thursday as he sought to reassure worried lawmakers.
”We don’t have any plans to release terrorists,” Holder testified at a Senate hearing on the administration’s budget for the Justice Department.
But he also said some of the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility will be let go as the administration believes some held there are not terrorists….
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., pressed Holder to say whether he believed he had the authority to release someone with terrorist training into the United States. The attorney general did not directly answer Shelby’s question, but said the government doesn’t have any plans to release terrorists.
”With regard to those who you would describe as terrorists, we would not bring them into this country and release them, anyone we would consider to be a terrorist,” Holder said.
He added the government has no plans to release anyone considered a terrorist in a foreign country, either….