c/o Ben Fox, Associated Press:
The U.S. government has dropped its opposition to releasing a Guantanamo Bay prisoner with severe mental and physical illnesses, apparently conceding the argument that he is far too sick to keep locked up at the U.S. base in Cuba...
[Ibrahim Idris] has been held for more than 11 years as an enemy combatant despite being diagnosed as mentally ill soon after his arrival at Guantanamo.
The court filing was couched in careful language that avoided saying why the government would no longer resist legal efforts to release Idris.
Might we be looking at an isolated act of compassion by the Obama administration? Of the kind denied Lynne Stewart and Herman Wallace? Or is this political calculation to avoid another prisoner death at all cost (4 Guantanamo detainees have expired under Obama's watch)?
Idris' physical condition probably guarantees that he is incapable of "spilling the beans" about his treatment at the U.S. concentration camp. Whether he will receive appropriate care upon anticipated return to his native Sudan is anyone's guess.
