Federal judge orders release of Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
Federal judge orders release of Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
In what the AP calls “a landmark decision,” a federal judge has ordered the release of a small group of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay into the United States. The detainees, who the Bush administration no longer considers enemy combatants, had been held for almost seven years. NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams reports that the Bush administration doesn’t want the detainees coming to the U.S. because “that sets a legal precedent.” Watch it:
Before the ruling, the Bush administration argued that the judge, Ricardo M. Urbina, did not “have the authority to release the men into the United States and that they should not be sent back to China where they likely would be tortured.”
Transcript:
HOST: Some breaking news, for the first time, a federal judge has ordered the release of some detainees held in Guantanamo Bay. Let’s go to NBC’s Pete Williams with the details. Pete, what can you tell us?WILLIAMS: Well, this is a big deal because for the first time in the six plus years that Guantanamo Bay has been a detainee center for enemy combatants picked up overseas a federal judge has ordered that some of them should be released and released into the U.S., a step that the Justice Department and the Bush administration have continually opposed. Now these are twelve people who are from China originally. They’re Muslims are from China, an ethnic minority known as Uighurs. They’ve been held for quite some time at Guantanamo Bay, but just recently the Justice Department and the Bush administration said they were no longer considered by the U.S. enemy combatants. So, the question has been, what to do with them. They can’t be sent back to China, the U.S. and the Uighurs both believe because both parties believe that they’d be tortured if they were sent back there. The U.S. has been unwilling to accept them here. And today a judge said, well, they have to come here because there’s no where else to send them and you no longer have any right to hold them at Guantanamo Bay because they’re no longer enemy combatants. So, the next step here is will the Justice Department appeal this, will they try to get higher courts to block the release into the U.S. That could be a very difficult mission. And you know, that does raise a larger question about Guantanamo Bay because as the U.S. tries to get other countries around the world to accept some of the detainees that the U.S. itself believes should no longer be held there. Many of those countries are saying, “hey, you set up Guantanamo Bay, you, you know, you should take some of them too.” So this is a very key issue in the history of Guantanamo Bay.
HOST: So, Pete, give me a little more detail on the appeal that might come forward. How soon would we know about that and what’s the procedure moving ahead?
WILLIAMS: Well, I think we would know quite soon. The Justice Department and the Bush administration have been very steadfast in opposing any of the detainees coming here for a couple of reasons. One is, I think the larger reason, is they don’t want to set a legal precedent because once these detainees set foot on U.S. soil that changes their posture in terms of the kind of access to the courts they have and while it may not be a big deal for the Uighurs, they don’t want to set a precedent here that other detainees at Guantanamo Bay could follow. How quickly? It would happen within a matter of days, I think, that the government would appeal.
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Of course the U.S. should be responsible for its prisoner errors. That it took seven years is an absolute embarrassment for the world’s “leading democracies.”
They don’t want these folks anywhere near American media.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:47 pmMore unitary executivity shot down. Good work, judicial branch.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pmI have a feeling this group will have some interesting stories to tell.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pmCheney and Addington must be shaking in their boots.
I wonder how you say “lawyer up” in Uighur…
October 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pmWe should at least offer them the opportunity of coming to the US – and watch firsthand as our economy goes over a cliff.
Through interactions with their captors, after seven years of incarceration, they can probably speak English as fluently as most Mexican immigrants, and they might find some small solace in witnessing the whole thing crater.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:57 pmBefore the ruling, the Bush administration argued that the judge, Ricardo M. Urbina, did not “have the authority to release the men into the United States and that they should not be sent back to China where they likely would be tortured.”
Because we’ve been assured that’s never happened during their pleasant Carribean vacation in Gitmo.
PEACE
October 7th, 2008 at 12:58 pmThat’s great. They were only falsely imprisoned for seven years. It’s too bad the EO think they’re above the law or this would be a good ruling. They won’t be released before a new prez takes over, but this would give hope to the hopeless, I suppose.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:59 pmNow what would the US say if Americans were held by a country for 7 years knowing those Americans were innocent. Yes we tortured innocent people and held them for no reason and this will come back to us one day. Blame will be put on everyone but those who did it but Americans too must accept blame because we knew it was wrong and did nothing about it. George W. Bush does a a legacy and it’s that he with Dick Cheney and fellow supporters from both Parties have changed the USA forever. Even with a new honest President our pass horrors will always come back.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:59 pmThe fact that America has become a “torture nation” disgusts me – and shames me – more than I can say…
October 7th, 2008 at 1:01 pmWill Reid and Conyers extend an invitation to these men to come up on the Hill for a little question and answer session about their “humane” treatment while being held in illegal incarceration for SEVEN years?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:01 pmsuperid Says:
I have a feeling this group will have some interesting stories to tell.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
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No doubt the real reason the administration doesn’t want them released here.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:02 pmbarfly Says:
We should at least offer them the opportunity of coming to the US – and watch firsthand as our economy goes over a cliff.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
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Good point. If the economy keeps tanking, Xinjiang might look like a better alternative after all, torture or not.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:05 pmthe Bush administration doesn’t want the detainees coming to the U.S. because “that sets a legal precedent.”
Hey! That’s the same reason they don’t want Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton testifying! What a coincidence!
October 7th, 2008 at 1:06 pmNow we know what to do with ‘The Big Dick’ & ‘The Little Chimp’…
Send them to China as a hedge against our debt.
Yes, they will be tortured, but who started this game, anyway?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:07 pmBush administration doesn’t want the detainees coming to the U.S. because “that sets a legal precedent.”
There’s that funny word again…. LAW!
October 7th, 2008 at 1:08 pmWhich this administration knows nothing about!
Since we are the reason why these innocent men can’t be sent back to China, then I think we owe them asylum in this country. Why Bush thinks it’s OK to keep these innocent men in Guantanamo speaks volumes about Bush’s compassion.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:10 pmthe Bush administration doesn’t want the detainees coming to the U.S. because “that sets a legal precedent.”
What precedent would that be? That people who the government decides aren’t terrorists may visit America?
Anyhow, maybe someone can be creative and, say, release them somewhere other than China or America. Crazy idea, no?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:14 pmBilbo Hussein Baggins Says:
Why Bush thinks it’s OK to keep these innocent men in Guantanamo speaks volumes about Bush’s compassion.
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Uh, didn’t you really mean to say… Bush’s “UTTER and COMPLETE lack of compassion”
October 7th, 2008 at 1:15 pmI cannot imagine that these men would want to live here after what they’ve gone through, but, I would think that it’s this country’s responsibility to find them somewhere to live.
My understanding is that some of them were hoping that Turkey would grant them political asylum.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:20 pmSomeone help me out here: If they were sent back, why would they be tortured? For some reason, I’m not following the logic of their argument. Or I’m missing something.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:26 pmIsn’t it funny to think that if these men were Americans that were tortured and held captive for years they would somehow be uniquely qualified to be President?! What a bunch of patriotic mavericks those Chinese Muslims are!
October 7th, 2008 at 1:29 pmIgnoranceIsNotBliss Says:
Someone help me out here: If they were sent back, why would they be tortured? For some reason, I’m not following the logic of their argument. Or I’m missing something.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
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They’re most likely sympathetic to the East Turkestan resistance movement, which opposes the Chinese colonization of Xinjiang province. China had them sent to GTMO to get rid of them, and to win style points with us. They tied the Uighur rejection of colonial rule with al-Qa’ida, and we bought it.
Torture and dissapearances of Uighur political prisoners is a commonplace occurrence in Xinjiang.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:38 pmThanks ht.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:55 pmIts sad and ironic. These Uighur men, mostly simple farmers fled persecution in China, and left their families behind to seek a better life for them and their families in the United States. But then in 2001 they were sold as “terrorists” or “Al Qaeda members” to US forces in Afghanistan or Pakistan and locked up indefinitely by the very same country where they had hoped to find freedom and justice
October 7th, 2008 at 1:56 pmthey should not be sent back to China where they likely would be tortured.
Yeah, the Bush administration wouldn’t want to see that happening.
I mean, why outsource torture, when there are so many thugs in the US who are willing to do it, and many more mouthbreathers happy to support and advocate the practice?
October 7th, 2008 at 2:00 pmYou mean they won’t be released to China , so they can be TORTURED AGAIN, and can we get off this ” ERROR” crap , this is a deliberate inhumane attempt to hold these guys indefinitely and torture them in the mean time, and remember the act of losing your freedom ALONE and being locked up like an animal, IS A FORM OF TORTURE, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE 100% INNOCENT .
October 7th, 2008 at 2:00 pmThese CRIMES taken place , not meeestaaakes, not errors, not accidents, goddamn crimes by the bush regime .
Leftside Annie Says:
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The fact that America has become a “torture nation” disgusts me – and shames me – more than I can say…
I agree and that we will be responsible for captured Americans to be tortured as well. I am surprised the Obama hasn’t called out mcan’t for his vote against the anti-torture bill.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:04 pmHow many of the innocent prisoners at gitmo will want to join
AQ when they do get released?
I’m tired of hearing what the administration wants or doesn’t want. You’ve received a judicial order. Shut up and comply, or go to prison.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:33 pmLet me be dumb and take everything at face value. They aren’t welcome in the US because they may hurt us. They would be tortured if sent back to China.
So the best possible solution for these innocent folks is to hold them in a maximum, maximum security facility arranged around breaking folks ?
You’re saying we can’t find some way which is a more relaxed setting ?
October 7th, 2008 at 2:50 pmOh, I should have added, can I suspect that the cost per prisoner per year is probably enough to float a small country ? couldn’t we divert those funds to a luxury room at the Hilton ?
October 7th, 2008 at 2:51 pm…and that they should not be sent back to China where they likely would be tortured.”
Right, let’s torture them here and save the airfare.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:34 pm