Leaks: Gitmo bargain,N Korea worry

That unusual discussion in March 2009 was one of hundreds recounted in a cache of secret State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks that reveal the efforts by the US to safely reduce the population of Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba so that it could be closed.

In a global bazaar of sorts,the US officials sweet-talked and haggled with their foreign counterparts in an effort to resettle the detainees.

Slovenia,seeking a meeting with President Obama,was encouraged to “do more” on detainee resettlement if it wanted to “attract higher-level attention from Washington”; its Prime Minister later “linked acceptance of detainees to ‘a 20-minute meeting’ “with the US President”,but the session — and the prisoner transfer never happened. The Maldives tied acceptance of prisoners to US help in obtaining International Monetary Fund assistance,while the Bush administration offered the nation of Kiribati “an incentive package” of $3 million to take 17 Chinese Muslim detainees. In discussions about creating a rehabilitation programme for its own citizens,Yemen’s President repeatedly asked Brennan,“How many dollars will the US bring?”

Obama won praise when he ordered the Guantánamo Bay prison closed in a year. Bush administration transferred over 500 Guantánamo detainees and the Obama administration winnowed population to 174. But he has missed his deadline.

Dispatches also illuminated the difficulties of resettling Uighurs,Chinese Muslim prisoners. China was deemed likely to abuse them,but Beijing demanded their return. At an October 2009 meeting in Beijing,a Chinese official linked the Uighurs to US hopes to secure supply routes through China for the Afghan war,saying,“More ‘prudent’ actions by the US on the Guantánamo Uighurs would help remove ‘some of the obstacles’ on the Chinese side to helping with the shipments.” An aide to Finland’s Prime Minister confided in August 2009 “that Chinese diplomats have repeatedly warned them about the damage to bilateral relations should Finland accept any Uighurs,” a cable said.CHARLIE SAVAGE & ANDREW W LEHREN