John Rosenthal
On first glance, the report in the popular German tabloid Bild could have seemed like a bad joke. “Guantánamo Detainees Slated to Go to Hamburg,” the headline ran. “Despite protests…,” the article began, “[German] Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière appears to be determined to accept three of the 183 suspected terrorists still detained at the US camp in Guantánamo.” “After their arrival in Germany,” it continued, “the detainees, who are allegedly not dangerous, are supposed to be housed at first in Hamburg, Bild has learned.” Yes, Hamburg.
The report, which was the talk of the German news media in the days before Chancellor Merkel’s mid-April visit to the United States, went virtually entirely ignored by the American media. One of the few English-language news articles to touch upon it was a chatty English-language offering from the German wire service DPA, which emphasized Hamburg’s “cosmopolitan,” “multi-ethnic,” “anything-goes” character. It did not mention that it was in precisely the “cosmopolitan,” “multi-ethnic,” “anything-goes” city of Hamburg that Mohamed Atta and the other members of the eponymous Hamburg Cell planned the 9/11 attacks.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/gitmo-hamburg