rssAppeals Court Blocks Release of Uighurs Held at Gitmo
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 2:40 pm
- 5 Comments
In case there were any lingering doubts as to just how Kafkaesque the U.S. detention policy for Guantanamo Bay prisoners has become, the latest chapter in the long and tragic saga of 17 Chinese Uighurs held at the facility should lay them to rest.
The Washington Post reports that a federal appeals court today blocked the release of the Uighurs — members of a small Muslim minority in Western China — into the custody of Uighur host families in the United States.
The 17 Chinese Muslims, all Uighurs, have been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002. In October, a federal judge ordered the men released into the United States after the government presented no evidence to justify their detentions. The government no longer considers the Uighurs to be enemy combatants and has been unsuccessfully trying to find other countries to accept them for years.
TWI’s Daphne Eviatar has written about the case here and here. Basically, the U.S. government can’t find another country willing to accept the Uighurs, but it won’t return them to China for fear that they will be tortured or killed. Despite a lack of evidence against them, the Bush administration fought their release and eventually punted to its successor. Now, it’s up to the Obama administration to figure out what to do with them — and the case has created an interesting legal question: If the executive branch can’t justify a prisoner’s detention, can a federal court force the president to let the prisoner go free?
While many are worried that early signs indicate that the President Obama is toeing a suspiciously close line to the Bush administration’s war on terror policies, the Uighur case presents a clear opportunity for Obama to come down forcefully on the side of justice, rather than indefinite, unjustified detention.
5 Comments
Pingback posted February 18, 2009 @ 4:54 pm
[...] Matthew DeLong wrote an interesting post today on The Washington Independent » Appeals Court Blocks Release of …Here’s a quick excerptAppeals Court Blocks Release of Uighurs Held at Gitmo … CATEGORIES AND TAGS IN THIS STORY:. Blog, Law, National Security, Obama, Rights, U.S., bush administration, china, detainees, Gitmo, Global War on Terror, Obama, Uighurs … [...]
Pingback posted February 18, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
[...] WriteChic Press wrote an interesting post today on Appeals Court Blocks Release of Uighurs Held at GitmoHere’s a quick excerptIn case there were any lingering doubts as to just how Kafkaesque the U.S. detention policy for Guantanamo Bay prisoners has become, the latest [...]
Comment posted March 5, 2009 @ 8:16 pm
…Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free,…
Its depressing how little action is accorded to the words of our politicians, including the winning ones.
I guess its hard to hold your convictions when you are the guy everyone will point to if something goes wrong. We need a “Buck stops here” President, who can spare a few moments to restore and defend the Constitution of the United States. Who admits what he knows to be true, that if you don't expose and punish the law breakers NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE, then we are doomed to do it all over again. I hope not in the next 8 years. I hope, hope….
Comment posted March 6, 2009 @ 4:16 am
…Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free,…
Its depressing how little action is accorded to the words of our politicians, including the winning ones.
I guess its hard to hold your convictions when you are the guy everyone will point to if something goes wrong. We need a “Buck stops here” President, who can spare a few moments to restore and defend the Constitution of the United States. Who admits what he knows to be true, that if you don't expose and punish the law breakers NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE, then we are doomed to do it all over again. I hope not in the next 8 years. I hope, hope….
Pingback posted April 8, 2009 @ 3:19 pm
[...] years, that wasn’t a problem. But ever since the court of appeals ruled that it doesn’t have the power to free the prisoners, the government started arguing — and the [...]
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