Judge orders release of Chinese Muslims from Gitmo into USA (Order Stayed)

[Wretched Excess]

I can understand them being released if they are no longer a danger.  I can understand the bush administration
not wanting to return them to the PRC.  I can't understand a federal judge ordering them released into the US.

Judge orders feds to release Chinese Muslims from Gitmo, let them enter USA

This just in from the Associated Press: A federal judge ruled this morning that the U.S. government must release a group of Chinese Muslim prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allow them to enter the United States since they're no longer deemed "enemy combatants."

"They have been in custody for almost seven years and have been cleared for release since 2004. Although the Chinese government has demanded custody of the Uighurs, supporters and the Bush administration fear they would be tortured if turned over to Beijing," the wire service says.

Link

[Chris_]

Although the Chinese government has demanded custody of the Uighurs, supporters and the Bush administration fear they would be tortured if turned over to Beijing,"

And that would be a bad thing be-cause.....

*******it, Mr. President!  These shitbirds wouldn't be in Gitmo unless they were REAL BAD ACTORS.  If China wants to do us the courtesy of squashing these walking piles of dogshit, and you're fettered by two branches of government who forget that one had only limited say over how you prosecute the war that's been brought to our shores, and the other has NO SAY, then by all means avail yourself of the help that the enemy of your enemy wants to offer.

****in' retard;  How hard do you have to make it for yourself?

[Wretched Excess]

I remembered reading something about these guys.  it's hard to tell for certain, but it sounded like they MAY have just blundered into the wrong place . . . this wasn't the story I was reading a couple of weeks ago, but this was all the background I could google up in just a few seconds.

The Uighurs are natives of northwestern China who have been demanding an independent homeland. Chinese authorities consider them separatists. Over the years, some have sought military training in other countries.

In 2001, most of the Uighurs now in Guantanamo Bay were living in camps in Afghanistan until U.S. airstrikes drove them into neighboring Pakistan. They were captured there and turned over to U.S. authorities.

The government has asserted that the Uighurs were members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and trained at camps affiliated with the Taliban or al-Qaeda. The Bush administration designated ETIM a terrorist organization in August 2002, after the Uighurs were taken into custody.

The Uighurs' attorneys have said the men never took up arms against the United States. And the Uighurs have told military court officials that they are sympathetic to the United States.

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[Wretched Excess]

this is a good sign, at least.  that clinton appointed judge clearly overstepped his bounds, but this
is the inevitable result of the SCOTUS ruling that granted habeas corpus rights to prisoners of war.

Appeals Panel Issues Stay of Order Freeing Detainees

A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday issued a temporary stay of a federal judge’s order that had directed the Bush administration to free 17 Guantánamo detainees by releasing them in the United States on Friday.

The order, from a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, made clear that it was intended to give the appeals court time to review the government’s request for a longer stay of the order from a federal district court judge in Washington, Ricardo M. Urbina. On Tuesday, Judge Urbina had directed that 17 men, members of the Uighur Muslim minority in western China, be brought from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to his courtroom where they were to be freed.

The brief order from the appeals panel said it was issuing what it called an administrative stay so that it could consider a Justice Department request for a stay of Judge Urbina’s ruling while the department appealed. The Wednesday night order said it “should not be construed in any way as a ruling” on the Justice Department’s request for a stay of Judge Urbina’s ruling.

Judge Urbina had said he would release the men, who have been held in Guantánamo since 2002. He said that the men had never fought the United States and that the government had presented no evidence that they presented a security threat to the United States.

The Wednesday order followed two days of legal confrontation between the Justice Department and lawyers for the Uighur detainees.

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