Some Chinese Guantanamo Detainees Likely to Be Released In U.s.
The fate of the Chinese nationals, who were captured after the Sept. 11 attacks, has been a quandary for U.S. officials. While the Bush administration cleared the Uighurs for release or transfer between 2003 and 2008, the government hasnt been able to find a country willing to accept them.
Their release would give fresh fuel to lawmakers who have objected to the possibility raised by the Obama administration of sending terror suspects housed at Guantanamo to U.S. prisons. President Barack Obama promised to close the detention facility by January and needs to relocate the prisoners. The State Department has had trouble persuading other countries to accept the roughly 240 detainees, including the Uighurs, whose lawyers say they would be persecuted if returned to China.
“Its a virtual certainty that the Obama administration will announce at some point that some small number of Uighurs will be settled in the United States,” said John B. Bellinger III, a State Department legal adviser during the Bush administration who is now a partner at the law firm Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington. “Its going to be impossible to get European counties to agree to resettle any detainees unless we take some.”
Internal Dispute
There were disputes among Bush administration officials about whether the Uighurs posed a danger, Bellinger said in an interview. He said he advocated releasing some in the U.S.
In October, a judge ordered the Uighurs set free in the U.S., and the Bush administration appealed. The Obama administration hasnt said publicly whether it favors releasing them in the U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have in recent months left open the possibility that Uighurs may be resettled in the U.S. The government had been making preparations to resettle some in the U.S. last month, though nothing has happened.
Robert Gibbs, a White House spokesman, was asked in April about a report that as many as seven Uighurs may be transferred to the U.S., and said he had no announcements on individual cases. Tommy Vietor, another spokesman, said today the White House had nothing to add to that response.
Task-Force Review
The U.S. has convened a multiagency task force to review each of the Guantanamo detainees to determine whether they should be released, tried in court or held indefinitely. The Justice Department, which is leading the review, wont comment on where the Uighurs may be released, said spokesman Dean Boyd.
The government “is making individual determinations on a rolling basis, based on the national-security and foreign- policy interests of the United States as well as the interests of justice,” Boyd said in an e-mail.
The transfer didnt happen. Representative Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, raised objections with the administration about the plan and sent Obama a letter on May 1, saying he understood that a decision on the release of “a number” of Uighurs into the U.S. was imminent.
Grave Concerns
Wolf wrote that he has “grave concerns about this action, which I believe could directly threaten the security of the American people.” To determine whether the Uighurs pose a threat, Wolf said he wants classified U.S. records made public.
“Who are they? Where were they arrested?” Wolf said in an interview. “We want to know everything. What are they afraid of letting out?”
Several Uighurs this week expressed dismay about their status to reporters at Guantanamo by displaying statements written on paper saying: “America is Double Hetler in unjustice,” according to Fox News, which said the word was meant to read “Hitler.” Another statement said: “America destroys human rights by oppressing innocent people in the jail,” according to Fox.
Training in Afghanistan
The Uighur detainees are from Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim far-western region of China. Before Sept. 11, they traveled to Afghanistan to train in camps in the Tora Bora mountains, according to U.S. court filings.