In Blow to Bush, Judge Orders 17 Guantánamo Detainees Freed

[Hand]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Bush administration to release 17 detainees at Guantánamo Bay by the end of the week, the first such ruling in nearly seven years of legal disputes over the administration’s detention policies.

The judge, Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court, ordered that the 17 men be brought to his courtroom on Friday from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where they have been held since 2002. He indicated that he would release the men, members of the restive Uighur Muslim minority in western China, into the care of supporters in the United States, initially in the Washington area.

“I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for detention,” Judge Urbina said.

Saying the men had never fought the United States and were not a security threat, he tersely rejected Bush administration claims that he lacked the power to order the men set free in the United States and government requests that he stay his order to permit an immediate appeal.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/washington/08detain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[knowbody0]

1. a bright light on America's future

Tersely rejected Bush

[Betsy Ross]

2. K&R! n/t

[halobeam]

3. and another kick and rec!

[and-justice-for-all]

4. Kick...nt

[Dystopian]

31. and-justice-for-all-Perfect.

Your name jumped out at me in this thread.....
Sweet words indeed.
Justice for some at this moment... a blessing for these innocent souls who have endured much.
May there be justice for all in the near future...
We will keep the faith.

This is a long time coming....


peace~

[elleng]

5. VUNDERBAR!

I think Judge Urbina was a judge in Family Court years ago, and was known for wise decisions about children's welfare. This is ANOTHER great one!

[EFerrari]

6. Omg!

:woohoo:

[EFerrari]

7. dupe

[Solly Mack]

8. ...

...
k/r

[EFerrari]

17. I can't believe someone finally stood the hell up to those criminals!

:hug:

:woohoo:

[Oldtimeralso]

9. K & R for the Constitution n/t

[Usrename]

10. This is news.

Good news. The first in a very long time.

[Piewhacket]

11. At last....

but steady, we'll have to see....

[Cronopio]

12. The Bushistas get smacked down! This should have happened years ago. nt

[Gregorian]

13. By the end of the week! Da,mn, if that doesn't send a message.

Way too long. This whole nightmare should never have been allowed to even happen.

Good. Time's up.

[goforit]

14. So george.....whataya gonna do when all the cards fall.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Too bad they can't be compensated, very sad they'll never know normal people wish them well,

and deeply regret what happened to them at the hands of this dirty lunatic pResident.

Hope they return to life joyously, and will be able to heal after these 6 deadly, unforgiveable years.

[mithnanthy]

33. Maybe they can be called....

to testify at The Hague!

[lynnertic]

34. they will know, I hope, by the end of the week. n/ t

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. I think this is a pre-emptive strike. Once Obama and the new Congress....

are sworn in, I think Guantanamo will be closed. That would be the best thing for our image abroad.

[olddad56]

18. get those 17 cells ready for Bush and his band of fascist thieves and murders.

[Dem2theMax]

54. I just love the way you think.

:)

[stevedeshazer]

19. kr

[struggle4progress]

20. The Bushistas said years ago these folk posed no threat but, sadly enough, refused to release them

[Porschenut1066]

21. This Bush Admin has been using the detention without due process

as a threat to various groups especially editors of newspapers and mags that were critical or that leaked Government secrets. All Fascist regimes need a gulag Guantanamo was Bush's.

[lynnertic]

35. do you have anything to support that statement, that editors were threatened

with being detained if they dissented?

[Porschenut1066]

46. Mostly the FBI Interviews do not get reported but stories stop

Here is some further reading that may prove helpful :-)

http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2008/09/02/3295/amy_goodmans_arrest_when_journalists_are_the_story

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/2008/09/04/first-lets-arrest-the-journalists/

http://pressemitteilung.ws/node/135102

http://hefestusproject.com/?p=44

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/377611_amyonline04.html

http://www.ifex.org/alrtlrtlrtlrts/content/view/full/50610

http://www.ifex.org/alrtlrtlrtlrts/content/view/full/96/

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7892/29/

https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr001=c1nsevmoi6.app45b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=281

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20080903180802588

http://blog.simplejustice.us/2008/09/04/journalism-101-dont-get-busted.aspx

http://wcco.com/rnc/democracy.now.arrest.2.808094.html

http://media.www.hofstrachronicle.com/media/storage/paper222/news/2008/09/25/News/Journalist.Recalls.Recent.Arrest-3454024.shtml

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/2008/09/02/deputies-arrest-journalists-amy-goodman-at-rnc/

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/09/04/iraq.journalists.detained/index.html

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/6ygtg/police_arrest_journalists_trying_to_get_the/

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27625
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/essays/article795274.ece
http://www.cpj.org/news/2008/americas/usa05sep08na.html
http://www.election411.org/article/id/3530142/minneapolis-police-raid-homes-and-arrest-journalists
http://minnesotaindependent.com/6689/journalists-fair-game-video-of-amy-goodman-arrest
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=20489
http://www.overnightlows.net/2008/09/st-paul-preemptively-arrest-journalists.html ************
http://www.justicejournalism.org/crimeguide/chapter01/chapter01_pg12.html
http://www.rcfp.org/news/mag/27-3/new-somejour.html **************

http://www.truthout.org/article/why-we-were-falsely-arrested

http://disappearednews.com/2008/09/local-papers-omit-news-of-journalists.html

http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/naaja_protests_arrest_of_arab_american_journalist_and_two_colleagues_outsid/0016642

[lynnertic]

56. Thank you!

:)

[EFerrari]

23. Did they? All I remember is Rumskull calling them "the worst of the worst"

but that was years ago. And, we knew he was lying his ass off as usual.

[struggle4progress]

51. Basically, they're Chinese Muslims who oppose the Chinese government

US bombed them and sent the survivors to Guantanamo. Then US discovered they weren't anti-American and concluded there was no real reason to hold them. China regards them as criminals and wants them back. Uyghurs said they were persecuted in China. W House then had a dilemma: sending the Uyghurs to China would make them appear unconcerned about human rights in China and would also royally piss off the wingnut base; releasing Guantanamo detainees in the US would undermine their "worst of the worst" propaganda and also would royally piss off China, the Bushista bubble's favorite banker. So W House stalled, shopped around for foreign country that would host the folk as deportees. Not surprisingly, almost everybody said no. Albania eventually accepted five, after enormous arm-twisting efforts by W House.

It's just another example of W House's preference for a perpetual political campaign above any coherent policy: the Uyghur detainees don't pose a known danger to the US, but saying that undermines the myth of Guantanamo as a bulwark against terrorism; anyway, W House has needed China. When their solution ("try to ship the folks overseas somewhere") didn't work out, W House had a typically crappy backup plan ("we'll confine them indefinitely at Guantanamo, while babbling niceties about our concern for human rights")

... When U.S. forces started bombing Afghanistan, Uyghurs opposed to the Chinese government were living in a camp in Badakhshan Province adjoining Xinjiang.

The Americans bombed their camp suspecting it to be an al-Qaida camp, but later found they were Uyghurs who had fled Chinese persecution.

Several Chinese were killed in the bombing and 22 were arrested and sent to Guantanamo.

Five Chinese inmates have been accepted by Albania, but no other country is willing to accept the remaining Chinese for fears that it would hurt their relations with the Chinese government, Katznelson said ...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D913AKI80&show_article=1

15-11-04
Guantanamo detainees pose dilemma
By Neil A. Lewis
New York Times News Service

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - ... U.S. military officials have concluded that at least half of the Uighurs here are eligible for release ... That has sent U.S. officials scrambling to find a third country willing to accept the Uighurs. So far, several European countries, including Norway and Switzerland, have declined ... One of the Uighurs held at Guantanamo went before a special tribunal recently ... "Do you have any proof that I am with al-Qaeda? Any real proof?" When he was told that there was evidence of his association but that it was classified and he could not see it, he said, "I can't bring any evidence against the classified information I cannot see."

http://www.uyghuramerican.org/forum/showthread.php?t=213

Sweden denies asylum to Chinese Uighur, former detainee at Guantanamo Bay
The Associated Press
Published: June 19, 2008

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Sweden denied asylum Thursday to a Chinese Muslim who was released from Guantanamo Bay after the U.S. acknowledged he was not a terrorist.

Adel Abdu Al-Hakim, who belongs to a minority group of Turkic-speaking Chinese Muslims called Uighurs, fled China in 1999 to avoid persecution. He ended up in Pakistan, but was swept up in the U.S. dragnet for terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and was taken to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

After he was released in 2006, Al-Hakim went to Albania — the only country that would accept him.

In its ruling, the Swedish Migration Board acknowledged that Al-Hakim could not be sent back to China. But the board said he had no reason to seek refuge from Albania ...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/19/news/Sweden-Guantanamo-Chinese-Muslim.php

[lonestarnot]

22. Holy shit! Judge Urbina!

Habeas Corpus w/o Habeas Corpus! How the hell is he doing that?

[lligrd]

24. Hope And Change - Yes! nt

[LaPera]

25. There was no reason to hold these men for seven years. They now have homes to

go to, the Lutheran church is going to have 17 homes for them to go to when (and if) they are finally released, homes of the members of the church.

Bush believes no laws, no courts, no lawyers or judges orders can tell him what to do with prisoners at Guantánamo...He believes it's the excutive branches jail to do with as they please. No US laws, habeas corpus, civil rights apply to his human prisoners and Bush believes he can illegally throw anyone he chooses without counsel into Guantánamo for as long as he likes.

I hope if Obama becomes president...he'll use the same line of thinking and throw the murders Bush Cheney & Rove into Guantánamo and take away their rights and let them sit in there forever.

Using the same executive decisions drawn up by Cheney & company.

[Duer 157099]

26. The two magic words in one sentence! "Blow" and "Bush" IMPEACH!!

Can we impeach now???

[Thegonagle]

27. I want to know about my friend Mohammad Warsame,

who was "disappeared" by Bushco with the help of the FBI. A gentle-mannered guy, he may have accidentally got mixed up with the "wrong" people, but I know he was not a terrorist. None the less, he was arrested during finals week in 2002, and within a day, my cousin was interrogated at his apartment by the FBI because "Mo" had been at his apartment a few times tutoring him in algebra.

Where is Mohammad Warsame, Canadian citizen (do you know how hard it is to emmigrate to Canada?), and student at Minneapolis Community College in Minneapolis, MN? (Unabashed Muslim, yes, loving husband and father, yes, terrorist, no!)

[OakCliffDem]

28. The courts are finally going our way. Next - we put Bush in jail

Bush will look good behind bars

[MooseGoose]

29. The cool thing about the Constitution

is that it's never a "lame duck." It is very heartening to see the rule of law prevail here. I'll admit to not knowing the story of these men in any detail. They may be angels, or devils, or (like most of us) something in between. The bottom line is that their nature doesn't matter. The rule of law does.

[Demeter]

30. Chief Justice Urbina---Has a Nice Ring to It!

End of the Week! :popcorn:

[Dystopian]

32. KandR for Judge Urbina and justice. Finally!

peace~

[daggahead]

36. As Curley would say .. nyuk, nyuk nyuk! n/t

[Orrex]

37. I heard about these men last year on NPR

Their whole case is really sad, even in addition to Bushco's treatment of them. Bush et al have claimed that they can't release the men to China, because they'll face life-threatening persecution there. Nor could they release them to any other countries, they claimed, because no countries were willing to take them in. And, it was alleged, they couldn't release the men into America because of the never-defined threat that they posed to our great nation.

That's some catch, that Catch-22.

[marias23]

38. In Jail for Seven Years!

And they cannot return home. Inhumane. One can only hope that Bushco will be punished one day for their inhumane policies.

[pberq]

39. Finally some good news - nt

[onlyadream]

40. what took so long?

If these guys didn't hate us enough to kill us 6 years ago, they may now. Thanks Bush, gollygee, I feel safer now!

[chill_wind]

41. Seven years. None of us here can even begin to fathom that.

K & R

[Canuckistanian]

42. Oh, good news

I'm glad the Uighurs are finally getting their day in court.

And it's true, they have no fight with America, they're fighting for autonomous rights in China and getting brutally suppressed.

I really think they were doing a China a favor for some sick twisted reason, but now they're being called on it.

Excellent.

[paparush]

43. S E V E N F U C K I N G Y E A R S ! ! ! ! !

[pleah]

44. K&R for the good news, but, will the dicktater release

these people?

[roberto]

45. bush-ism is history ... no one fears him/them now...

[lovuian]

47. Anybody who supported this regime needs to step up and

reject them ...this is another sign of a turning point

Who are we? the Judge realized he was for Justice and these men didn't get it

[Crowman1979]

48. Ricardo M. Urbina should be nominated for a Nobel peace prize IMO.

[chill_wind]

49. OMG--- DOJ steps in-- "No we're not releasing them"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4193333

[Blue_Tires]

52. FFS

[Vinca]

50. They should be released in Crawford, Texas. nt

[Xenotime]

53. Wonderful! Now free all the other individuals

[Alcibiades]

55. The Uighur captives were never really enemy combatants

We went around offering bounties for any "foreigners" who could be captured. They got caught up in a financially motivated dragnet and put into a kind of limbo-land at Gitmo. Even their captors knew almost immediately that they were never enemy combatants.

No one has ever come up with a real solution to this. I think we should admit responsibility, make some sort of settlement, and settle them here in the states.

[AmyCamus]

57. 7 years. Bush and Cheney should serve the same term, in an Afghani jail.

I'll pay for the airfare.