Gitmo Terrorists Trigger Public Backlash in Palau

Islam in Action ^ | June 12Th, 2009 | Christopher Logan

[Islaminaction]

While the released Gitmo terrorists might be doing their best Beach Boy impressions, the locals are not happy. But hey, all that matters is that Obama is happy.

Chinese Muslims trigger public backlash in Palau By TOMOKO HOSAKA

KOROR, Palau (AP) — The tiny Pacific nation of Palau's decision to allow 13 Chinese Muslims from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to resettle there has sparked anger among islanders who fear for the safety of the tranquil tourist haven.

[worst-case scenario]

Five of them did attend a Taliban training camp, back when the Taliban were still our friends, before we were attacked on 9/11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_detainees_in_Guantanamo Those attendees were interested causing trouble in China, where the Uighers are persecuted. That’s why China is insisting that they get the Uighers returned to that country ... so they can be “re-educated.” They were never involved in any anti-American activity.

The others were passing through the region on their way to seek political asylum in Turkey. There were more reasons that these guys were in Turkestan than just terrorist training to fight America, or a vacation. And the government of Bermuda didn’t have any problem taking four of the Uighers, seeing them as no threat. (The Brits only raised issue with the Bermuda transfer because of a dispute over territorial control.)

After the were all declared innocent non-combatants, they ended up free but stateless. They had no place to go.

Deb, some of your statements have no bearing on the case. Yes, the Bush administration released “hundreds of detainees” - do you believe that these released former detainees were innocent of the charges? So why were they held so long? Or was their detention justified - in which case, why were they released? And how does the release of those detainees have any bearing on the treatment of the Uighers?

And yes, Musharraf was our principal ally in the GWOT at the time (although he was apparently letting Al Qaeda build new camps in the SWAT Valley all during the period, camps are presently being destroyed.) But what does that have to do with whether or not Musharraf had his own internal political reasons for wanting the Uighers out of there? Were we supposed to keep these guys incarcerated just on Musharraf’s say-so? It seems like our former ally wasn’t doing a very good job getting rid of the real Al Qaeda, but found our detention facilities a useful way to disappear his own problems. That certainly is no proof that these guys were terrorists who wanted to destroy the US.

[worst-case scenario]

The BUSH administration said they were not terrorists, last year, It’s the OBAMA administration that doesn’t want to give them asylum here.

And it was the BUSH administration that didn’t want to return them to China because they might be tortured or executed there.