Update June 13th: People in mostly Christian Palau are pretty unhappy with the, now 13 Uighurs, coming to Palau. AP has the report here. The other 4 have already gone to Bermuda.
Apparently getting desperate and trying to find a “home” for 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay, the Obama administration first tried Europe and Canada to no avail. They have finally settled on the tiny Pacific Island country of Palau which has agreed to take them— temporarily—whatever that means. Hat tip: Blulitespecial
But is Palau getting a little extra sweetner for its lemonade? From Fox News:
The South Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to “temporarily resettle” the 17 Uighurs, or Chinese Muslims, currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, an official with the Palau government told FOX News.
“Palau’s accommodation to accept the temporary resettlement of these detainees is a humanitarian gesture intended to held them be freed from any further unnecessary incarceration and to restart their lives anew in as normal a fashion as possible,” according to a press release provided to FOX News by the official.
Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, said the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.
The issue of what to do with Chinese Islamic radicals that China wants returned has been plaguing the Obama Justice Department for some time. Afterall, China wants a chance to torture its own Islamic separatist terrorists.
We have been following this issue since it began because one option was to treat them as asylees and release them to a neighborhood near you. Needless to say, no one wants them in their back yard.
One controversial option considered was to release the Uighurs into the United States. In fact, a federal court ordered the U.S. government to do just that, but an appeals court blocked the move, ruling that the federal court lacked the necessary authority.
The US resettlement option was pretty much killed by the Uighurs themselves when they had a few choice words about America and a question for our dear leader.
Last week, during a press tour of their detention camp, some of the Uighurs approached the fence around the facility and — with phrases written on an art pad — compared the U.S. government to that of China and Nazi Germany. One Uighur asked in English, “Obama is a Communist or a Democrat?”
Read more about how sweet-natured the Uighurs sound and what they think of the United States in Judy’s post of last week, here.
Then, believe it or not, a lawyer for the Uighurs says, ‘well maybe they don’t want to go to Palau!’ Let’s see Gitmo, China, or Palau?
Sabin Willett, a lawyer for six of the Uighurs, said he has been left in the dark about the U.S. government’s plans for the Uighurs. If Palau has in fact agreed to take them, he said, “the real question is whether the Uighurs will want to go.”
Hey, here’s a thought, maybe Obama could hand them over to the Chinese government in exchange for a favor from China—afterall, we desperately need China to cut us some slack on Obama’s national debt.
I also would like to know who is going to guarantee they stay put in Palau?