Bombing validates U.S. policy

    The U.S. government has been condemned soundly for continuing to hold a variety of prisoners accused of terrorist activities. Most of them are incarcerated at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


    Critics from other countries and a substantial number of U.S. liberals have demanded that the Guantanamo Bay prison be shut down. Many of those held there should be released, critics say.


    Some have been released. One, Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, was taken from Guantanamo Bay in 2005. He was sent to Kuwait for trial on charges involving terrorism. A court there acquitted and released him.


    On April 29, nine people died and 31 were injured in a series of suicide bombings in Mosul, Iraq. One of those who blew himself up, taking others with him, was Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, investigators confirmed this week.


    So much for the argument that inmates at Guantanamo Bay pose little or no danger. And so much for the argument that most of them are innocent victims of U.S. hysteria regarding terrorism. Some of them are very dangerous, indeed. Deciding which detainees to keep in custody and which ones to release is an extremely difficult task.