Arms and influence

Good news devolves into bad

I shouldn't write posts like this one. Celebrating the news that a federal judge ordered the release of the 17 Uighurs held at Guantanamo Bay just jinxed it for them. A circuit court judge ordered the Uighurs' continued imprisonment until the court had a chance to consider the DOJ's plea.

Even more repulsive, the DOJ argued that imprisonment was in the interest of the Uighurs:

The Uighurs had been cleared for release in 2004 but the US says they may face persecution if returned to China.

The White House said if they were released it could set a precedent that would allow "sworn enemies" to seek US entry.

The government says the 17 also pose a security risk if released into the US.

No word yet on whether the same "logic" will apply to Native Americans flying to Canada, Kurds traveling to Turkey, or Sikhs traveling to India.

Here's a link to the SCOTUS Blog's summary of the case so far. It's worth taking a look at Judge Urbina's decision (now in limbo) to order the release of the Uighurs.

Enough with the Uighurs

One piece of good news on an otherwise dreary day: a federal judge has ordered the release of the 17 Uighurs whom the US government has imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for the last seven years.

At a hearing packed with Uighurs who live in the Washington area, Urbina rejected government arguments that he had no authority to order the men's release. He said he had such authority because the men were being held indefinitely and it was the only remedy available. He cited a June decision by an appellate court that found evidence against the Uighurs to be unreliable.

Urbina said in court that he ordered the release "because the Constitution prohibits indefinite detention without cause." He added, "The separation of powers do not trump" the prohibition against holding people indefinitely without trial.

And if you were curious how broken the Justice Department still is, wonder no more. The DoJ attorney, John O'Quinn, who had been making the argument for holding the Uighurs until the stars fell from the skies, intimated that, upon release, the US government might detain them again. In other words, having failed to produce any evidence that the Uighurs were terrorists bent on killing Americans, the Justice Department asserted that it would hold the Uighurs again because the US government accused them of belonging to a terrorist organization.

Maybe the US government is trying hard to keep the Uighurs in prison to keep Chinese leaders happy. However, I suspect that the DoJ's "assert executive fictional executive powers with maximum effort" policies, created and perfected during the Bush Administration, have as much or more to do with the continued effort to keep these 17 Uighurs in one prison or another. If you find that hard to believe, listen to this podcast before jumping to any conclusions. Ashcroft and Gonzales may be gone, but most of the people that the DoJ hired or promoted in the last several years are still there. Many are stalwart public servants with great respect for the Constitution and the laws...And some have different ideas.

Innovative ideas for Olympic security

The Chinese government has tried to cover as many Olympic security threats as possible. Beware if you are flammable. Think twice if you are water-soluble. And for God's sake, if you're a slow-moving terrorist bent on exploiting the Beijing Olympics, steer clear of these guys.

[Thanks to The Garden of Forking Paths for these links.]

Softies

There are two levels to this news story about US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay "softening up" Uighur prisoners before handing them over to the Chinese. First, of course, there's the fact that we are handing them over to the Chinese, even though we know that the majority of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay shouldn't be there in the first place.

Second, there's the equally uncomfortable question, if the Chinese were not holding a huge amount of the US government's staggering debt, would US officials be transferring these prisoners into Chinese custody at all? If US foreign policy is at all being distorted by this debt burden, the next President and Congress need to make the reduction of this debt a high priority.