Legal Commentary

Uighurs Take on Newt

By Jeralyn

The 17 Uighur detainees at Guantanamo Bay are fighting back against Newt Gingrich. Via Ryan Grim at Huffington Post:

Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs, detained for more than six years and counting at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay, are firing back at Newt Gingrich, who has accused them of terrorist ties and says that releasing them into the United States would endanger the country. The seventeen Uighurs sent their message to the Huffington Post through their translator, Rushan Abbas, who has been working with them in Guantanamo since 2002, initially contracted by the Department of Defense.

[More...]

The Bush administration has cleared the Uighurs for release; five have already been released to third countries. If returned to China, there is a high probability they'd be tortured. A vibrant Uighur community in Northern Virginia has offered to take them in, but Gingrich and others are objecting.

Go, Uighurs! Here's part of their reply.

Why does he hate us so much and say those kinds of things? He doesn't know us. He should talk to our attorneys if he's curious about our background," Abbas relates. "How could he speak in such major media with nothing based in fact? They were very disappointed how Newt Gingrich was linking them to ETIM which they never even heard of the name ETIM until they came to Guantanamo Bay."

TalkLeft coverage of the Uighurs is accessible here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 19, 2009 (boomark / email).