Location, Location, Location

News reports indicate that the State Department is closing numerous embassies throughout the Middle East this Sunday due to security concerns involving a terrorism threat from al-Qaeda.  The embassies that will be closed include:

U.S. Embassy Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

U.S. Embassy Algiers, Algeria

U.S. Embassy Amman, Jordan

U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq

U.S. Embassy Cairo, Egypt

U.S. Consulate Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

U.S. Embassy Djibouti, Djibouti

U.S. Embassy Dhaka, Bangladesh

U.S. Embassy Doha, Qatar

U.S. Consulate Dubai, United Arab Emirates

U.S. Consulate Erbil, Iraq

U.S. Consulate Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

U.S. Embassy Kabul, Afghanistan

U.S. Embassy Khartoum, Sudan

U.S. Embassy Kuwait City, Kuwait

U.S. Embassy Manama, Bahrain

U.S. Embassy Muscat, Oman

U.S. Embassy Nouakchott, Mauritania

U.S. Embassy Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

U.S. Embassy Sana’a, Yemen

U.S. Embassy Tripoli, Libya

A cross-check against the list of terrorist detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay as of 23 July shows that nearly all of the countries on this weekend’s closure list are represented amongst the detainee population at Gitmo.

It has long been a bad idea to transfer the remaining detainees out of Gitmo — whether to locations inside the United States or to other nations where the security situation is questionable at best — particularly given the nearly 28% recividism rate amongst former Gitmo detainees as reported last year by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the recent jailbreak in Iraq that saw the escape of senior members of al-Qaeda.   The closure of these embassies — located in countries to which many of the world’s most dangerous terrorists will conceivably be returned if transferred out of Gitmo — is only the latest reason for President Obama to reconsider his misguided efforts to shut Gitmo down.