U.S. plans to accept several Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo

[BlueJessamine]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration is preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in the first release of any of the detainees into this country, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Their release is seen as a crucial step to plans, announced by President Obama during his first week in office, to close the prison and relocate the detainees. Administration officials also believe that settling some of them in American communities will set an example, helping to persuade other nations to accept Guantanamo detainees too.

But the decision to release the Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, is not final and faces challenges from within the government, as well as likely public opposition. Among government agencies, the Homeland Security Department has registered concerns about the plan.

The move would also incense Chinese officials, who consider the Uighurs domestic terrorists and want those held at Guantanamo handed over for investigation. U.S. officials no longer consider the Chinese Muslims to be enemy combatants and fear they would be mistreated in China.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-gitmo-release24-2009apr24,0,3355153.story?track=rss

[SkyDaddy7]

1. I agree with Obama but...

The Republicans are going to have freaking COW! FOX will be predicting the end of America, well, they have already predicted that so what do they have left? LOL!

[hugo_from_TN]

5. I recall that some of these guys admitted to being in Afghanastan for training

at AQ training camps. This could end very badly.

[Fozzledick]

10. They claimed that they were training to fight the Chinese government

They stated that they had no quarrel with the U.S., just with the Chinese Communists.

[Canuckistanian]

11. They have NO REASON to plot against the US

They're only devout Muslims and they probably had NO meaningful contact with the Saudi-based extremists. They didn't use their religion as a driving force for their actions. They just hate their Beijing oppressors and wanted to regain the small amount of self-government they once had.

I regard them as less of a threat than Indonesian Muslims - and no one's calling Indonesia a terrorist state.

[AlphaCentauri]

15. Tibet should welcome them

after all they have in common the same goal.

[EFerrari]

13. That isn't exactly the case. These people only had a beef

with the Chinese government.

[SkyDaddy7]

14. I know

It will be hard for some of our more information challenged Americans to understand many of the Islamic fighters who were rounded up in the very early days of the Afghan Invasion were not there to fight US...They were there out of some religious calling to fight for Islam against the Northern Alliance. However, after 8yrs of being told by the Bush Admin that basically everyone at GITMO is guilty of something or they would not be there...To many Americans, especially FOX TABLOID News viewers, every Muslim is TERRORIST it could be very hard for many Americans to understand.

OH well, President Obama has not been shy yet when it comes to taking on extremely HOT political problems left over by the worst Admin in history. We know what is coming from the Party of the Christian Right FEAR FEAR FEAR!!!

[Alcibiades]

2. These poor souls were obviously innocent from the beginning

This is the right call. If FOX News wants to sent these folks back to communist China to face execution, that's an argument I'm willing to have.

[Traveling_Home]

3. Do you know their history?

Were they really innocent from the beginning?

[ohio2007]

4. Well, some have been released in the past only to disappoint their lawyers

when they blew themselves up in open air markets,bus stops and funeral processions.

It seems these 'fighters' will be instant celebs to some that will be up for taking them in.
Where are they ultimately being released?

And how does China sit with this decision?

[Alcibiades]

16. Which Uighurs did that?

Really, I'd like to know.

How China sits with it shouldn't matter. We shouldn't give China veto power over what to do with folks fleeing Chinese oppression.

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. They Were Innocent Enough NOT To Have Any Evidence

To prosecute them for any crimes. If you like locking up folks forever for crimes they didn't commit, that's your Afrikaaner policy.

[Frank Booth]

8. Uighurs do not have a history of fundamentalist/militant Islam.

Their beef is with the Chinese government. We allow other dissidents to remain in the U.S. The Uighurs shouldn't be treated any differently.

[Traveling_Home]

9. Do you have a link? Thanks!! nt

[Frank Booth]

12. Sure. Here are a few.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2505186/Chinese-Muslims-cower-under-secret-police-crackdown.html

http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=162&catid=5&subcatid=89

http://www.gluckman.com/UighurT&L.html

I also lived in China for a few years, and anecdotally speaking, the Uighurs I encountered were more interested in selling kebabs, rugs and hashish than in practicing Islam.

[Alcibiades]

17. Actually, I do

We offered a $5,000 bounty on foreigners, by which they meant foreign terrorists. Needless to say, who is and is not a terrorist becomes fuzzy when that kind of money is being thrown around.

“Like hundreds of Guantánamo detainees, I was never a terrorist or a soldier. I was never even on a battlefield. Pakistani bounty hunters sold me and 17 other Uighurs to the United States military like animals for $5,000 a head. The Americans made a terrible mistake.”

We've known about this for years.

http://www.propublica.org/article/uighurs-sold-to-us-military-for-bounty-109

[grahamhgreen]

7. Cool. They are welcome at my place.