[Peace-discuss] Let's bring the Uighurs to Urbana

[Robert Naiman]

What do you think? There's only 17 of them. We could ask the mosque to
find them homestays till they get settled. We could try get them jobs
at the University. I think they'd make a great contribution to our
community. It would put Urbana on the map. :)

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USA Today
March 19, 2009
Pg. 5

Holder: Detainees Could Be Let Into U.S.

Some Chinese Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Bay could be released in
the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder said. He was asked by
reporters whether members of a group of Uighurs at the U.S. military
detention facility in Cuba could be released on U.S. soil. "I don't
know. We're trying to come up with places for them," he said.

He added later: "The possibility exists."

The U.S. has cleared 17 of the Uighurs for release from Guantanamo but
insists it will not hand them over to China because the Uighurs fear
they will be tortured. A federal judge in October ordered that the 17
men be allowed to enter the U.S. over the objections of the Bush
administration. Last month, a federal appeals court overruled that
decision, saying the 17 must stay at Guantanamo. The men were captured
in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001.

-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org