Guantanamo release angers Bush

[TheHumbleWun]

A US judge has ordered the release of 17 Chinese Muslim detainees from the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in what has been seen as a rebuke to the Bush administration.

US district judge Ricardo Urbina said there was no evidence the men were a security risk and that the US constitution prohibits indefinite detention without cause.

Local Uighur residents and human rights activists cheered as he told a Washington courtroom the men, who have been in custody for almost seven years, should be freed.

The ruling is the first court-ordered release of Guantanamo detainees since the facility opened in 2002.

The Bush administration reacted with anger to the ruling, with a spokesman for the department of justice saying it presented "serious national security and separation of powers concerns and raises unprecedented legal issues".

The department said it would file an emergency request on Tuesday evening for a stay with the US court of appeals in Washington to halt the ruling.

If it loses, it has the option of appealing to the US Supreme Court, the highest in the country.

Lawyers 'thrilled'

Lawyers representing the men said they were "thrilled" with the decision.

"Justice has too long been delayed but today we saw a great judge give a principled and just decision," Sabin Willett, a lawyer for some of the men, told Reuters news agency.

The Uighurs, from the Xinjiang province in western China, had been living in a camp in Afghanistan during the US-led bombing campaign in the country that began in October 2001 after the September 11 attacks in the US.

They fled into the mountains and were detained by Pakistani authorities, who handed them over to the US.

The men have been cleared for release from Guantanamo since 2004 as they are no longer considered "enemy combatants", the official designation for those held in Guantanamo Bay, and would have been sent home.

However, the US has not been able to find a country willing to accept them.

Many Muslim Uighurs seek greater autonomy for the region and some want independence, however China has waged a relentless campaign against what it calls their violent separatist activities.

About 265 detainees are still held at Guantanamo, which was opened in 2002 to hold suspects captured during the US's so-called "war on terror" launched after the September 11 attacks.

Most have been held for years without being charged and some allege they have been abused or tortured.

Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/10/2008107231919438683.html

 

[cmelbouzaidi]

:salam2: Thank you, TheHumbleWun. Where to now for those brothers after their outrageous detention? It is hard to imagine that they had still been detained all that time since they had been deemed not to present any "threat" four years ago. such a terrible injustice to so many....

 

[TheHumbleWun]

Salaam,

And it only takes a human being to understand another human being. If Bush was to put himself in their shoes, I don't think he would want the court of appeals to halt the decision for something he never committed. Unfortunetly, the world knows he is not a human but a savage animal.

 

[Aapa]

Court blocks release of 17 Chinese Guantanamo detainees

Salaam,


FYI:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal appeals court Wednesday blocked the planned release of 17 Chinese Muslims from the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, granting the government more time to argue against the plan.


.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals granted the Bush administration's motion for an emergency stay and set up a schedule for briefings over the next week to address the complicated issues of the case.

A day earlier, a lower court in Washington ruled the detainees -- who had been in U.S. custody for nearly seven years -- were to brought to the court by 10 a.m. Friday so a judge could set them free.

In an emergency motion filed overnight, Justice Department attorneys said only the executive branch -- not the courts -- may decide whether to admit an alien into the United States.

The government further argued the lower court's decision to free the detainees "threatens serious harm to the interests of the United States and its citizens by mandating that the government release in the nation's capital 17 individuals who engaged in weapons training at a military training camp."

The appeals court's move will halt the release for at least a week.

"We are pleased that the Court of Appeals granted our request for a temporary stay, and we look forward to presenting our case," Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

The detainees, ethnic Uighurs from a mostly Muslim autonomous region in western China, have been in U.S. custody since 2001. They fled Afghanistan soon after the U.S.-led bombing campaign began that year, and Pakistani authorities turned them over to the U.S. military.

The United States said the 17 had engaged in weapons training at an Afghan military training camp. The United States determined in 2004 that the 17 Uighurs were not enemy combatants, but it kept them at Guantanamo while trying to persuade other countries to resettle them.


Officials said they were not returned to China because of credible fears that they could be persecuted if returned.

U.S. government lawyers say the law forbids the detainees' entry into the United States, but efforts to find another nation willing to accept them have been unsuccessful.

The U.S. district judge who ordered the detainees' freedom Tuesday had planned to hold a hearing to determine under what conditions they would be settled in the United States.

Wells Dixon, an attorney for the 17, told legal colleagues Wednesday night that he dreaded having to tell his clients Thursday about the Court of Appeals decision.

"I don't know how I can explain to them that now their release has been postponed indefinitely," Wells said.

Another attorney from the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York expressed hope that the prisoners would still be released in the not-too-distant future.

"We remain hopeful that justice still means something in this country and that the judge's release order will eventually stand," said Emi MacLean.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/08/court.chinese.muslims/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

 

[mali1]

Salaam,

And it only takes a human being to understand another human being. If Bush was to put himself in their shoes, I don't think he would want the court of appeals to halt the decision for something he never committed. Unfortunetly, the world knows he is not a human but a savage animal.

Comments like these make me upset..... Please do not compare Bush to animals..... Thats an insult to poor animals )) He is just dumb... I wish I cud swear on this site )

 

[TheHumbleWun]

Salaam,

Double standards & hypocracy on the part of the U.S. The executive branch (a.k.a the president) powers have become a dictatorship. He can go into war without Congress approval. He can order the Judicial branch to halt prisoners even if they are released. Democracy might as well be called hypocracy.

This is clear evidence that people can go to jail without any reason at the discretion of the president.

Now they're trying to find them a country that will accept them?? This is unbelievable.

 

[Aapa]

Salaam,


What is equally appaling is the irrationality of their thinking. I have gone crazy. They institue what they call universal laws..ok..it must apply to everyone...oh wait a minute..not everyone is included..now we must make an amendment to add another group but exclude one more sector.
There are no rules..They make them up as they go. There are no absoulutes. There is no reality!