UPDATE: Judge Orders 17 Gitmo Detainees Released

[babylonsister]

http://www.propublica.org/article/judge-orders-17-gitmo-detainees-released-107/

Judge Orders 17 Gitmo Detainees Released
by Eric Umansky, ProPublica - October 7, 2008 12:38 pm EDT

A federal judge has just ordered the release of 17 detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay. The 17 are Uighurs, a Muslim group from China that has long been in conflict with the central government there. The Uighurs were already no longer designated as "enemy combatants." The men haven't been released since they could face torture if sent back to China, and few other countries were willing to take them. (That has so far included the United States.)

What happens now isn't clear. It's possible the Uighurs detainees could be released in the U.S. Of course it's also possible that the men aren't going anywhere soon. According to the Associated Press, "Bush administration lawyers argued Tuesday that Urbina did not have the authority to order the Uighurs released into the United States."

Regardless of what happens, it's the first time a judge has ordered the release of any Gitmo detainees.

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Judge: Release some Gitmo detainees
Posted October 7, 2008 12:59 PM
The Swamp

by James Oliphant



In a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration, a federal judge Tuesday ordered the Pentagon to immediately release a small group of Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo Bay into the United States.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said in a landmark ruling that it would be wrong for the Bush administration to continue holding the 17 detainees, known as Uighurs, since they are no longer considered enemy combatants.

The Uighurs have been in custody for almost seven years and have been cleared for release since 2004, but the government has not been able to find a country willing to take them in. Bush administration lawyers argued Tuesday that Urbina did not have the authority to order the Uighurs released into the United States.

Urbina called the detention unlawful saying the Constitution prohibits indefinite imprisonment without charges. The detainees are to be placed into custody of a small, immigrant community of Uighurs in the Washington, D.C. area.

The detainees at issue are Muslims from western China, picked up in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on suspicion of having ties to the Taliban. Some Uighurs (pronounced WE-goors) are part of a movement that seeks separation from China to form their own Islamic nation.

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/10/judge_release_some_gitmo_detai.html

[madokie]

1. Thats good on so many fronts