Blog Post 2

The Iraqi government is now interrogating 4 men who were released from Guantanamo Bay about a month ago and returned home to Iraq. They were released while Bush was still in office, but are still being processed by the Iraqi government. The government is currently reviewing their files to see if any crimes were committed, but if the men are found not guilty, they will be released. President Obama has ordered that Guantanamo Bay be shut down within a year, but it takes an extremely long time for the prisoners to actually be returned and investigated in their own country.
One major problem with shutting down Guantanamo Bay very quickly is that extremely dangerous prisoners are being held there, and if they are returned into the hands of corrupt governments, they may be let loose to continue their terrorism. In this case, we are not sure if the 4 Iraqi men will be released or not. This case actually tests the new Iraqi government- the world will be watching how they handle the men and if the investigation was fair and complete. I think that even though it is important that Guantanamo Bay is closing, we need to be extremely careful in releasing the prisoners. They are still very dangerous, and even though they should be returned to their countries, it will be a long process in making sure they achieve justice.



UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, is planning on releasing names of U.S. clients who the government believes to be using off-shore accounts to help evade taxes. Recently,

“The bank admitted conspiring to defraud the Internal
Revenue Service and agreed to pay $780 million to settle a sweeping federal
investigation into its activities.”

The bank is not giving names to the U.S. government of its American clients. Not only does this hurt many Americans who have invested in Swiss Banks, but it lessens the reputation these banks will have among its clients; the bank will no longer be as reliable or trustworthy. The federal investigation of UBS is looking into 19,000 clients, but most likely not all their names will be released.

UBS is now closing the accounts of their American clients. This is a huge loss for them, since they benefitted $200 million per year in revenue. The U.S. has accused UBS of helping Americans hide their money and evade taxes, while UBS says some of its private bankers did such a thing; not the company and its employees. This investigation affects thousands of people, especially those who work at UBS. It is also causing tension between the Swiss and Americans. While this is not a huge issue, it is likely that this investigation will go on for a long time, and with the economy already hurting, many Americans will probably lose a lot of money.



Last week, a Dutch member of Parliament was not allowed into Britain because of his anti-Muslim remarks. Geert Wilders was not allowed through customs when his plane landed in Britain, and was sent on the next flight back to the Netherlands. Mr. Wilder was going to attend a showing of his movie “Fitna”, which

“juxtaposes images of the Koran with reports of the 9/11 attacks as well as
gruesome images of the Madrid bombings in 2004, the London transit attacks in
2005 and other atrocities. It also suggests that parts of the Koran have
contributed to provoking violence by Muslim extremists.”

This is extremely controversial because Mr. Wilder sees his removal as an act against free speech. British officials see him as a publicity seeker instead of an upstanding person.
Mr. Wilder has been known for his anti-Muslim and racist remarks against Middle Eastern people. He belongs to the Freedom Party, which holds 9 seats in the 150-member lower house of dutch parliament. Mr. Wilder insists that he should be let into Britain because of democracy and free speech, while many British officials see him as a social threat to their country. It is surprising to think Mr. Wilder holds a government office and I think the British have acted in a respectable way. At the same time, the actions of the British government may be speculated upon. Are they taking away Mr. Wilder’s free speech? I can understand why people would debate this, but I think the government is showing their respect towards Muslim citizens in Britain by not letting such a radical as Mr. Wilder into the country.