Uighurs: So Much For Land Of The Free

Uighurs seen through torn Chinese propaganda poster

In yet another major setback for the Bush torture regime, a federal judge has ordered the immediate release of 17 Chinese Muslims because they cannot be considered enemy combatants. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled that the men be allowed to stay in the U.S., but that may be easier said than done.

The prisoners, ethnic Uighurs who fled a restive region in western China because of political oppression, were living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the U.S.-led coalition bombing campaign began a month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

They fled into Pakistan in the belief they would be safe there, but Pakistani villagers turned them over for generous bounties offered by the U.S. They were shipped to Guantánamo Bay where some were tortured and interrogators from China, which considers Uighurs to be terrorists, were allowed to question them.

Urbina's ruling followed a concession by the U.S. that none of the men were enemy combatants. All had been cleared for release, some five years ago, but because of fear of offending China, neither the U.S. nor any other country had agreed to take in the men, so the U.S. planned to keep them at Guantánamo indefinitely.

So much for land of the free, eh?

Photograph by Eugene Hoshiko/The Associated Press