Human Rights Watch today praised President Obama for saying he will close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba in a year. Of course, in a briefing earlier, Obama couldn’t say (because they don’t know, they are winging this!) where the prisoners will go.
Human Rights Watch said he should demonstrate his resolve by letting 17 Uighers (Chinese Muslims) be resettled as refugees (asylees?) to your town right away.
The executive order does not resolve the fate of the Chinese Uighurs, a group of 17 men who have been cleared of the “enemy combatant” designation, but cannot be returned to China due to credible fears that they would be tortured upon return. [Editor: That is because China doesn’t want any Muslim troublemakers]. In October 2008, a US federal court ordered the Bush administration to admit these men into the United States.
Members of the Uighur community in the United States and refugee resettlement groups promised to provide the men with housing, and language and job training. But the Bush administration appealed the ruling, and the men have not yet been admitted to the United States.
“President Obama has laid out a long-overdue plan for closing Guantanamo,” said Daskal. “He should jump-start the process by agreeing to resettle the Uighurs in the United States.”
As soon as we know what town they are going to, we will let you know!
And, now that President Obama has shown what nice people we Americans really are (after we got rid of that meany Bush) we will see terrorist recruiting decline worldwide according the Human Rights Watch experts!
“With the stroke of a pen, President Obama will make great progress toward restoring America’s moral authority,” said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. “By shutting down a global symbol of abuse, he will deprive terrorists of a powerful recruitment tool.”
Readers, now that Obama has spread joy and good will to the whole world, we will be eager to see the news accounts of Islamic terrorists laying down their bomb belts and going home to a quiet life with the wife and kids. When you see those stories, please send us links!
See all of our earlier posts on Gitmo and Uighers here.