Czechs Won't Take Obama's Gitmo Graduates

Czechs likely to refuse to accept Guantanamo prisoners

The Czech Republic will probably refuse to accept prisoners from the U.S. Guantanamo prison, Mirek Topolanek, outgoing Czech Prime Minister and chairman of the senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS), told the Impuls Radio today.

He said the National Security Council today recommended not to accept the Guantanamo prisoners and added that Guantanamo would be one of the topics during U.S. President Barrack Obama's visit to Prague at the weekend.

Topolanek, whose government offered its resignation last Thursday after the Chamber of Deputies voted no confidence in it two days earlier, said he expected Obama to express the U.S. position on the situation in Afghanistan and the planned missile defence radar base in the Czech Republic during his visit.

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Apart from meeting the heads of 27 EU member states and delivering a speech Obama will also have bilateral talks with Czech representatives.

Topolanek said, however, the talks would be formal.

He said he expected the U.S. request for transferring some of the Guantanamo prisoners to the Czech Republic to be one of the topics during Obama's talks with Czech officials.

Obama intends to shut down the U.S. prison situated in Cuba where people suspected of terrorism are detained.

"Many countries have a similar view. We do not expect to yield to the pressure for accepting the prisoners," Topolanek said on Impuls Radio.

"We held a meeting of the National Security Council today that did not recommend this step. We have no facilities for it. It will bring many problems," Topolanek said.

The planned building of a U.S. missile defence base in the Czech Republic could also be one of the topics, Topolanek said.

"The Americans expect that we are expecting them to express some position on the issue. We are expecting the Americans to announce no fundamental changes [in their position,]" Topolanek said.

He said the U.S. administration was now mainly solving the domestic economic problems.

"The radar is certainly not the number one topic in their foreign policy," he said.

No, it certainly isn't. The foreign policy of Obama is to give a hummer to Amahdinejad, Komrade Hugo and Putin. SecDef Gates says that the US is not prepared to shoot down Kim Jong mentally-Il's ICBM. I strongly suspect that the real reason is that El Jefe' is scared shitless that it would be just like February 28, 2008.

Topolanek added that the installation of the radar in the Czech Republic would probably be delayed.

The Czech government signed two treaties on the construction of a missile defence radar base in the Brdy military district, 90 km southwest of Prague, with the previous U.S. administration of president George Bush.

The Chamber of Deputies has not yet ratified the treaties and the opposition is opposed to them.

Obama is likely to present his key address European speech of the year during his two-day visit to the Czech Republic at Prague Castle around 10:00 on Sunday after his talks with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, according to CTK's unofficial information.

Obama's complete agenda is to be officially released this week.

On Sunday afternoon, Obama will probably meet former Czech president Vaclav Havel.

When you hang your allies out to dry, Barry, don't expect them to do you any favors.