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Obama Administration Asserts Uighur Detainees Have No Right to Come to US
May 30, 2009 8:09 PM
The Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to reject a request for a hearing from 17 Chinese Muslims currently being held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, arguing they have no right to come to America despite a district judge's orders last Fall that they immediately be brought to the U.S. and released.
"Petitioners are free to return to their home country, but they understandably do not wish to do so, because they fear inhumane treatment there," reads the filing, signed by US Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Assistant Attorney General Tony West, and other Justice Department officials. "Petitioners are also free to go to any other country that is willing to accept them."
Many European countries are waiting for the US to accept the Uighurs before they agree to accept any more detainees from Guantanamo, but there is strong resistance from Congress, which recently voted to keep any detainees out of the US -- even out of US prisons.
But not to worry -- the Obama administration says the Uighurs' detention isn't so bad, considering.
"In contrast to individuals currently detained as enemies under the laws of war, petitioners are being housed under relatively unrestrictive conditions, given the status of Guantanamo Bay as a United States military base," Kagan writes, saying they are "in special communal housing with access to all areas of their camp, including an outdoor recreation space and picnic area." They "sleep in an air-conditioned bunk house and have the use of an activity room equipped with various recreational items, including a television with VCR and DVD players, a stereo system, and sports equipment."
Asked for comment, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said, "a federal judge ordered the release of the Uighurs during the previous administration, and we have been working hard to implement that court order, bearing in mind that we will not release any detainee who would endanger the security of the American people."
On October 7, 2008, the D.C. District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered that all 17 Uighurs be released into the United States by Friday, October 10.
The Bush administration appealed the case to the DC Circuit Court which on February 18, 2009, reversed the lower court's decision.
On April 3, 2009, the Uighurs asked the US Supreme Court to hear their case.
The Obama administration on Friday urged the Supreme Court to not hear the case of the Uighurs, and to uphold the appellate court ruling.
You can read the filing in the case Kiyemba v Obama HERE.
Ironically, the Obama administration is now using Congress's refusal to allocate funding for the closing of Guantanamo as further reason why the Uighurs should not be freed. Mentioning that the House of Representatives passed a supplemental defense appropriations bill containing a provision specifying
that “(n)one of the funds made available in this or any prior Act may be used to release an individual who is detained" at Guantanamo.
The Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim minority from the Xinjiang province of far-west China, were living in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan run by the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, a Uighur independence group the State Department designated as terrorist three years after their capture.
Evidence indicates that some of the Uighurs intended to fight the Chinese government and received firearms training at the camp.
They fled to Pakistan after U.S. aerial strikes destroyed their camp after September 11, 2001 and were turned over to the U.S. military and detained as “enemy combatants" though they had no apparent animus towards the U.S.
A prior case involving the Uighurs, Parhat v Gates, resulted in the court concluding there wasn't enough reliable evidence in the record to establish that the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement was “associated with” al Qaeda or the Taliban or that the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement engaged in hostilities against the US or its allies -- two criteria the Bush administration acknowledged were necessary to justify the long-term detention of the Uighurs. The Bush administration ruled it would no longer try to hold the Uighurs as enemy combatants.
Kagan also wrote that the Obama administration "is engaged in extensive and high level efforts to arrange their resettlement in other countries."
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Obama administration has asked the Australian government to accept six of the Uighurs. A spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said "The Australian Government will consider this request, on a case-by-case basis, and in accordance with the Government's strict immigration and national security requirements."
- jpt
May 30, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (17)
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These very four Uighurs were trained by and are allied to the Taliban by their own admission.
That's not my idea of innocent.
Posted by: drjohn | Jun 11, 2009 1:43:00 PM
Uighurs in Guantanamo are innocent people. they are suppressed by chinese gov. and forced to flee from their homes .They have no harm to any people around the world.
Posted by: hm | Jun 4, 2009 3:37:14 PM
Uighurs in Guantanamo are innocent people. they are suppressed by chinese gov. and forced to flee from their homes .They have no harm to any people around the world.
If US don't want to settle down them , where is the America's democracy , then ?
Posted by: hm | Jun 4, 2009 3:35:15 PM
a terrorist is a terrorist. doesn't matter if his target is the US, China, or any country in the world. i sure don't want these men as my neighors.
Posted by: martin | Jun 4, 2009 2:41:51 AM
Didn't I read about Uighurs in a Rabelais novel?
Posted by: MarkLeavenworth | Jun 1, 2009 4:20:31 AM
Why not let them all settle in Chicago and attend Rev. Wright's old church? I'm sure we can provide them with public assistance until they learn English and find jobs here...
Posted by: Dave | Jun 1, 2009 3:00:26 AM
It is hilarious watching the liberal Messiah carry on the same policies for the same reasons as Bush did.
But of course when Bush did it,it was a war crime.
When Mr. 57 states does it, it's "smart power".
Obama has broken promise after promise after promise.
Liberals refer to this as being "pragmatic".
People based in reality refer to this as lying or political calculated flip flopping.
So much for "Change" I guess.
Obama has carried on many of Bush's policies such as:
Keeping the troops in Iraq based on the conditions on the ground.
Rendition.
Enhanced interrogation.
Signing statements.
Use of state secrets.
Bombing villages and killing civilians from the sky with drones (at least they were not waterboarded or forced to feel the horror of a caterpillar in their room right liberals).
Indefinite detention.
NSA wiretapping.
On and on and on Obama uses the same policies that liberals are calling for war crime trials against the Bush administration for and they give their
deficit king a total pass.
It is as if all that yelling and screaming from liberals about abusing the constitution and international war crimes was not about justice and truth,but all about politicizing our National Security for political gain.
Nobody is vindicating President Bush and vaporizing any credibility of the democratic party any better than Obama.
Posted by: Baxter Greene | May 31, 2009 7:44:37 PM
..see if Palin will let them go to Alaska.. technically.. had the land bridge not been sunk by ancient global warming, they could have been natives.. having followed the wooly mammoth.. now extinct due to climate change..
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | May 31, 2009 3:10:00 PM
I would say that this sort of dilemma is 'unbelievable', but I may have to remove that word from my current events vocabulary.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | May 31, 2009 2:33:00 PM
Why should Australia have to deal with America's problems?
Why can't you guys take responsibility and accept them yourselves.
Posted by: Dennis | May 31, 2009 1:54:20 PM
Vindication for Bush/Cheney.
Sweet
Posted by: ross | May 31, 2009 11:21:34 AM
Club Gitmo is back baby!
Posted by: robert verdi | May 31, 2009 10:20:26 AM
NOW would seem to be not too soon to use that "Barack W. Obama" header...
Posted by: Carla Bond | May 30, 2009 10:25:05 PM
Why should they continue to be our headache? Send them to China, where I am sure they will be dealt with properly. We'll never have to worry about hearing from them again.
Posted by: paul | May 30, 2009 10:18:29 PM
Obviously, we can't let them loose in the USA without enraging many of us who don't know any difference between the Uighurs and the terrorists that are the subjects of our deepest concerns. Also, we have trouble enough releasing them to other nations, seeing as our important partner, China, would be seriously offended. If we release them to China, we have many important allies that would be seriously offended. So we must take the lead in offering rewards to China so that they realize we do not mean to offend them to appease our other friends.
Posted by: MarkLeavenworth | May 30, 2009 9:53:28 PM
Well done, barky administration.
Kind of surprising, seeing this ship of fools do something right...but they did, so good job barky- yet another move that validates the Bush Administration's methods of fighting psychotic terrorists.
Posted by: 2Brixshy | May 30, 2009 9:47:02 PM
If they came to the USA lets make them Bush's next door neighbors Tapper!
It could become a reality show.
Posted by: Tapper Fan | May 30, 2009 9:31:49 PM
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