POLES PONDER ACCEPTING GUANTANAMO DETAINEES

C O N F I D E N T I A L WARSAW 000764 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR S/WCI SAM MUBANGU OR CATHY HARMS STATE EUR/PGI FOR ALAIN NORMAN E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/28/2017 TAGS: PREL PTER PHUM PINR KAWC XG PL SUBJECT: POLES PONDER ACCEPTING GUANTANAMO DETAINEES REF: SECSTATE 36991 Classified By: DCM Kenneth M. Hillas for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Witold Waszczykowski, Under Secretary of State Polish MFA, indicated that Poland may be prepared to consider accepting Guantanamo detainees in response to DCM delivery of reftel demarche on March 28. Waszczykowski asked how many detainees we might want Poland to take and when. Without making any commitments, he requested a list of available nationalities, which post is in the process of forwarding. Waszczykowski said he would be back in touch with us after internal Polish deliberations. ¶2. (C) We also reviewed with Waszczykowski the Polish response to our previous request to accept Cuban refugees (not detainees) from Guantanamo. Poland declined on the grounds that would-be "refugees" had to be in Poland to make their application. Waszczykowski offered to look into the matter and determine if there were legal hurdles with regard to accepting detainees. In response to Waszczykowski,s question, DCM gave assurances that the released detainees were no longer considered by the US authorities to pose a terrorist threat. ASHE