Condi, her tenure as SecState just about up -- with zero achievements
to show for her time -- unless you count WAR CRIMES and CRIMES AGAINST
HUMANITY -- is crawling before and kowtowing to rogue states Algeria
and Tunisia for help in accepting GITMO prisoners.

This is her boss's and ex-feeler-upper's latest ploy to empty GITMO
before the tortured, half-crazed prisoners can be debriefed by the
next administration.

------------------------

"In Tunisia and Algeria, Rice Asks for Cooperation"

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 7, 2008; A19

ALGIERS, Sept. 7 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed
leaders of two oil-rich, autocratic North African countries on
Saturday for better cooperation on counterterrorism and help in
reducing the number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Rice, whose North African tour has included a historic meeting with
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, hopscotched from Tunisia to Algeria,
two former French colonies with weak democratic traditions.

Although at least 25 Algerians and 12 Tunisians have been held at the
facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the United States has released only
a handful to either country because of fears they will be tortured or
otherwise mistreated. Two men who were transferred to Algeria in July
after six years of detention promptly disappeared, alarming U.S.
officials and human rights activists, although they were recently
located, U.S. officials said.

Rice denied that she was seeking to empty Guantanamo of its 270
detainees before President Bush leaves office. "We would like to move
as much of the population of Guantanamo as we possibly can," she said.
But she added, "We are going to do this in a way that is rigorous,"
balancing the security needs of individual countries with human rights
protections.

"We feel we have a good working relationship with Algeria on this
issue, and we hope to move it forward," she said here.

Algeria has experienced an upsurge in terrorism-related violence in
recent years, with more than 100 people killed last month.

An al-Qaeda-related organization based in North Africa issued a public
threat in the past week against Rice, calling her a "poisonous swamp
rat" and saying her visit was "the opportunity of a lifetime" to
assassinate her. But security did not appear particularly high as
Rice's motorcade moved through the graceful French colonial streets of
Algiers, the capital.

"Our counterterrorism people think that cooperation here is good,"
Rice said. "But there is always more that you can do to tighten
sharing of information, to make sure you have all the right channels
to give technical support in terms of the terrorism threat."

Algeria and Tunisia have long records of human rights abuses,
including harassment of political reformers. After leaving Tunisia,
Rice told reporters traveling with her that she had a long discussion
with President Zine Abidine Ben Ali, who took power in a coup more
than two decades ago and is seeking a fifth term next year. He
invariably wins landslide elections under dubious circumstances.

"We talked about internal matters here in Tunisia and about the course
of reform," Rice said. "We have been very clear that we would hope
that Tunisia would do more."

In Algeria, where President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has ruled since 1999
after an election marred by accusations of widespread fraud, Rice was
gracious as she appeared before cameras with him. Bouteflika is "truly
one of the wise men" of the region and the Middle East, she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/06/AR2008090600777....