THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz finally got to go, back to Mauritania following his release from Guantanamo Concentration Camp. In what is becoming an American tradition, he was released six years after he was deemed innocent and fit for release.

A Mauritanian citizen held at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years despite never being accused of a crime and being cleared for release years ago by the U.S. government was finally repatriated to his home country, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz, 45, was told in 2009 by an inter-agency review task force created by the Obama administration that it no longer believed that that he needed to be detained in the U.S. prison camp. Yet there he remained, along with 53 other detainees who have also been cleared for release, out of a total 113 who remain at the controversial detention facility.

"While it's great that Ahmed is home with his family, it's 14 years late, and long after he was cleared," one of his lawyers, Clive Stafford Smith said. "His release was only delayed because he, an innocent man, routinely protested his mistreatment.”

The U.S. government has not said why, despite after being cleared for release in 2009, his repatriation has been repeatedly delayed. He is the 14th detainee to have been released this year by the Obama administration...

Mauritania, a sparsely populated West African country is one of the least developed nations in the Sahel region, but also a chief U.S. ally in the regional security issues. Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz ceased power in a military coup in 2008 and was elected president in 2009 and re-elected in 2014 — the majority of the opposition parties boycotted the later elections.

Mauritania under Abdel Aziz highly regards its relationship with the U.S., and it is virtually guaranteed “they will abide by the letter of the (prisoner) transfer agreement” with the U.S., said Nasser Weddady, a Mauritanian-American activist and expert on the African country. He believes the now former Guantanamo prisoner Aziz will be under mild surveillance and generally treated well as long as he keeps a relatively low profile.

Still, no one in Mauritania believes Aziz was or is Al-Qaeda, said Weddady. Meanwhile, civil society groups in Mauritania public have been supportive of the prisoners and there is “popular anger about Guantanamo,” Weddady said. “They believe these men have been unjustly lock upped” by the U.S. and successive Mauritanian governments “did zilch to help them.”

Six extra years of Uncle Sam's "hospitality" on top of the 8 years he never deserved in the first place. Damn! Are we great or what?