The Ben Ali government has informed the Obama administration that it will do its part for the international community and take in all Tunisian nationals at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba as the U.S. government seeks a way to close what quickly became an embarrassing image for the United States.

[nj.com]

The Tunisian authorities informed U.S. officials that once handed over the Tunisian detainees will be tortured with the most care. “We wanted [U.S. officials] to know that these men will not just be tired and locked up, but they will be tortured repeatedly, some to the point of death,” stated Tunisian Presidential Press Secretary Ahmad Mahdi.

“President Ben Ali is serious about torture and we attend to the task with great precision,” Mr. Mahdi further commented to a gathering of Interior Ministry-funded Tunisian journalists.

Tunisian professor of political Ilyas Sawsi stated that it would be good that the Tunisian nationals would be placed in Tunisian hands because although the U.S. government has picked up torture as of late, “Tunisia has years of experience and excels in torture in ways the C.I.A. could only dream of.”

“If one is to be tortured, this is the place to be,” added Professor Sawsi.

Tunisian Defense Minister was contacted for comment, but his office said he could not be spoken to for he was attending a torture session at the moment. They provided this statement, however.

The Tunisian Defense Minister looks forward to with great anticipation the prospect of torturing more people. These men at Guantanamo are Tunisian nationals and the President and the Defense Minister both believe it is only fair that they be tortured by skilled Tunisian secret people and not the new-to-the-game C.I.A. officers. The Minister is filled with great anguish when he thinks about the men still locked up in a faraway Cuba for he thinks of all the lost torture time. It is time they return to be tortured in the land of their birth.

The Tunisian Foreign Minister stated that they expect the men to be handed back no later than next month and the torture will start on the plane ride back home.