Litigation

Washington Post Urges Obama to Release Uighurs

By Jason Barrett

A Washington Post editorial calls on President Obama to allow the 17 Chinese Uighurs still in captivity at Guantanamo to be allowed entry into the United States.  The Uighurs have been detained in Guantanamo since 2002, despite a lack of evidence to hold them.  The Bush administration dropped all charges against the 17 men, but never determined their future.

The editorial states that President Obama has the power to grant one or more of the Uighurs asylum after China has made it clear that it is displeased with men they consider terrorists finding refuge in other countries.  U.S. allies have balked at taking them in for fear of angering China.  

A U.S. Court of Appeals this week determined that Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was not within his power last October when he ordered the Uighurs be released into the United States. That ruling put the men’s fate in the hands of the Obama administration.

According to the editorial, granting asylum to the Uighurs “could go a long way toward persuading other countries to open their doors, too, to these and other Guantanamo Bay detainees.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).