CONUNDRUM: BRITS HAVE AL QAEDA AGENTS IN CUSTODY WHOM THEY CAN'T KEEP OR DEPORT

HERE'S THE CONUNDRUM:

What do you do with a Qaeda operative you think is a threat to your country, but who has not been charged with any specific crimes, and can’t be deported?

That’s the quandary that the British Government now faces, after a special commission ruled that a Pakistani who it believed to be an agent of Al Qaeda could not be returned to Pakistan because he faced the possibility of torture there.

The BBC reports that the commission described the Pakistani, Abid Naseer, as Pakistani native and alleged leader of a bomb plot, as “an Al Qaeda operative who posed and still poses a serious threat to the national security of the United Kingdom.” It said he and another Pakistani man, Ahmad Faraz Khan, had been planning a bomb attack in 2009 when they were arrested, along with nine other people, and that deportation would be “conducive to the public good.”

However, the commission said, because in Pakistan “there is a long and well-documented history of disappearances, illegal detention and of the torture and ill-treatment of those detained, usually to produce information, a confession or compliance,” neither man could be deported.

The new Home Secretary, Theresa May, released a statement saying that she was disappointed with the ruling, and adding, “We are now taking all possible measures to ensure they do not engage in terrorist activity.”

However, it was unclear exactly what measures the government would take.

The Times of London reported:

It is likely that both men will be put on control orders under which their movements, access to telephones and bank accounts can be restricted.

The ruling has ignited a debate about what to do in such cases, with Philip Johnston of The Guardian noting,

We may have a new government but we have the same old problem with alleged foreign terrorists — we can’t deport them because of their human rights.

On the BBC Web site, Dominic Casciani says:

The new government, meanwhile, has had a taste of the realities of counter-terrorism judgement calls — and the legal duty of courts to protect suspects from harm.

HERE'S THE SOLUTION:

SEND THEM TO GITMO!