The Center for Constitutional Rights approves of the court decision that the Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo should be released in the United States. I don’t understand the timeline of what has happened, since this is dated July 21. At any rate, it begins:

July 21, 2008, New York — Today, for the first time, a federal court ordered the release into the United States of 17 innocent Uighur men who have been imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay for nearly seven years. The men are refugees who would face persecution and imprisonment, if not death, if returned to their native China.

The story this group tells about the Uighurs is different from the government’s.

The 17 men currently imprisoned at Guantánamo left China amid increasing political oppression and found their way to Afghanistan, where they lived in small Uighur communities. In late 2001, they were forced to flee the aerial bombardment of the surrounding areas. Eventually, they made their way to Pakistan in the belief that they would be safer there. After crossing into Pakistan, the Uighurs were welcomed and fed by Pakistani villagers who then turned them over for generous bounties offered by the United States.

As I quoted in a previous post,

The government has asserted that the Uighurs were members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and trained at camps affiliated with the Taliban or al-Qaeda. The Bush administration designated ETIM a terrorist organization in August 2002, after the Uighurs were taken into custody.

And Andy McCarthy, who has more experience than practically anybody at prosecuting jihadists, wrote :

Jihadists — and there is not question that the Uighurs are jihadists — do not recognize distinctions based on the Westphalia world of nation-states. In their view, it is Dar al Islam or Dar al Harb: i.e., you are either part of the realm of the Muslims or the realm of war, and the goal is to turn Dar al Harb into Dar al Islam by any means necessary. Releasing trained jihadists into the United States on the theory that their beef is with the Chinese and they have no problem with us would be a delusional act of suicide.

I wouldn’t give much credence to the alternative view — those who want the Guantanamo prisoners released usually portray them as a just short of misunderstood angels — but the article says Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has called for the U.S. to grant protection to the imprisoned Uighurs, and he is someone whose views I usually respect. Still, I remain skeptical.

CNN reports:

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court Wednesday blocked the planned release of 17 Chinese Muslims from the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, granting the government more time to argue against the plan.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals granted the Bush administration’s motion for an emergency stay and set up a schedule for briefings over the next week to address the complicated issues of the case.

A day earlier, a lower court in Washington ruled the detainees — who had been in U.S. custody for nearly seven years — were to brought to the court by 10 a.m. Friday so a judge could set them free.

In an emergency motion filed overnight, Justice Department attorneys said only the executive branch — not the courts — may decide whether to admit an alien into the United States.

The government further argued the lower court’s decision to free the detainees “threatens serious harm to the interests of the United States and its citizens by mandating that the government release in the nation’s capital 17 individuals who engaged in weapons training at a military training camp.”

This is a welcome move. Background on this case is here and here.

Updating yesterday’s post on the Uighurs, the Washington Post reports:

A federal judge today ordered that 17 Chinese Muslims held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison be released into the United States by Friday, agreeing with the detainees’ attorneys that the Constitution bars holding the men indefinitely without cause.

It was the first time that a U.S. court has ordered the release of a Guantanamo detainee, and the first time that a foreign national held there has been ordered brought to the United States.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina issued the landmark ruling in the case of a small band of captives, known as Uighurs, who have been held at Guantanamo for nearly seven years and are no longer considered enemy combatants by the U.S. government.

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.

The Justice Department lawyer asked for a week’s stay but the judge refused. The Uighurs have to be in his courtroom on Friday and he will release them into the custody of Uighur families in the Washington area. The government will appeal.

Now here’s an alternate telling from a source I consider more reliable and sensible, Andy McCarthy at National Review’s Corner:

Judge Ricardo Urbina rejected the government’s arguments that he was without authority to order the release.  He reasoned, despite the fact that the Uighurs are non-Americans held outside the United States, that they are vested by the United States Constitution with a right against indefinite detention.  The government has been trying to find a country that (a) will take them and (b) will not persecute them.  Where in the Constitution it says these aliens have a right to enter the United States and live among our population is not clear.

Note that under the 2005 REAL ID Act, the immigration law grounds for excluding aliens from the United States were expanded to include, among other grounds, the following:  If the alien (a) “is a representative of (1) a designated or non-designated terrorist organization; or (2) any political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity”; or (b) “has received military-type training, from or on behalf of any organization that, at the time the training was received, was a terrorist organization.

McCarthy links to an article he wrote right after the Supreme Court’s Boumedienne decision, the one that granted the Guantanamo war prisoners the right to appeal their detentions in federal court. He said in that article:

These guys weren’t out of China on Hajj. They were getting combat training from Islamic militants in Afghanistan. Moreover, many…have been involved in serious incidents at Gitmo, including numerous assaults on U.S. military personnel and participation in riots incited by jihadists.

But, he adds, don’t worry. Judge Urbina thinks they’re suitable neighbors for you.

Update: The White House says:

We are deeply concerned by, and strongly disagree with, today’s decision by a federal district court ordering the release into the United States — by this Friday morning — of 17 Uighurs currently held at Guantanamo Bay.

This decision, we believe, is contrary to our laws, including federal immigration statutes passed by Congress.  The Department of Justice intends to seek emergency relief tonight to stay the court’s order and to request a prompt reversal of the order by the Court of Appeals.  The district court’s ruling, if allowed to stand, could be used as precedent for other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, including sworn enemies of the United States suspected of planning the attacks of 9/11, who may also seek release into our country.

Consistent with the safety of our citizens and the safety of the Uighurs themselves, the United States will continue working to find a country to which these men could be transferred.

 

Update: New post on judge’s decision is here.

Update:   CNN reports the Uighurs will be in a Washington DC courtroom this Friday (Hat tip:  Blulitespecial)

Thanks to the Supreme Court’s June Boumedienne decision, which gave habeas corpus rights to the Guantanamo prisoners, we’re now getting a new group of jihadists here. The Washington Post reports in Uighur Detainees May Be Released to U.S.:

A federal judge is considering whether to order a group of detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay released into the United States, in what would instantly become a landmark legal decision in the years-long battle over the rights of terrorism suspects there.