Europe on Taking Gitmo Population: Maybe Not

Really, they don't want to have a bunch of Al Qaeda criminals in their backyards? But I thought the world would embrace us after Obama became president?

European countries that have offered to help the Obama administration close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have begun raising questions about the security risks and requirements if they accept prisoners described by the Bush administration as “the worst of the worst,” according to diplomats and other officials.

And how is the Obama admin dealing with these new obstacles, why Blame Bush:

A senior State Department official conceded that there were some concerns in Europe about accepting Guantánamo detainees. But the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not designated to speak publicly on the issue, argued: “It is really just a small effort to help us deal with a legacy of the past. This is something we inherited, too.”

A senior French official said that France was “ready to help,” but that “Guantánamo is an American responsibility.”“It’s not an absolute condition, but it would be easier if the U.S. administration is willing to take some detainees,” said the French official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, as did several officials in other countries, to avoid antagonizing the Obama administration.

Ah Legacy, the very word of the Obama admin. Anyway here is the political problem for Obama. He and the left made Gitmo out to be some evil camp and all of these poor detainees as victims who should have been mirandized on a battlefield, but if these guys are as horrendous and dangerous as Bush said, then what? Anyway we are being called on this:

Given that stance by the Obama administration, some European officials say Washington’s focus on sending the detainees to Europe raises many questions.Germany’s interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has suggested publicly that if Guantánamo detainees pose no security risk, there is no reason the United States should not take them.

But they are a security risk because many of them are terrorists and all of the Obama speeches in the world and stylistic changes will not end that truth.