WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2008
Court Blocks Release Of Chinese Muslims
U.S. Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Order Freeing 17 Gitmo Detainees
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(CBS/AP)
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In a one-page order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued the emergency stay at the request of the Bush administration. The three-judge panel said it would postpone release of the detainees for at least another week to give the government more time to make arguments in the case.
The appeals court set a deadline of next Thursday for additional filings but it is up to the judges to decide how quickly to act afterward.
"The decision is quite a blow," said Emi MacLean, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing many of the detainees. "We basically have to go to the men after telling them they would be released, and say that their detention is once again indefinite."
"It's hard to believe there is any sense of justice in a situation like that," she said. "We will continue to argue strongly that the judge's order is meritorious and continues to stand."
The three-judge appeals panel that halted the detainees' release included Judges Karen Henderson and A. Raymond Randolph, both appointees of the first President Bush, and Judge Judith W. Rogers, who was appointed by President Clinton.
The appeals court's move comes after U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina on Tuesday made a dramatic decision ordering the government to free the detainees by Friday. Urbina said it would be wrong for the Bush administration to continue holding the detainees, known as Uighurs (pronounced WEE'gurz), since they are no longer considered enemy combatants.
"We are pleased that the Court of Appeals granted our request for a temporary stay, and we look forward to presenting our case," Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said in response to the appeals court decision.
The Bush administration had asked the appeals court to block Urbina's order no later than Wednesday. The detainees were scheduled to arrive in Washington early Friday and appear in Urbina's courtroom for release to local Uighur families who have agreed to help them settle into the United States.
The government says the detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba had admitted receiving weapons training in Afghanistan and were a national security risk.
Earlier Wednesday, lawyers for 17 Chinese Muslim detainees urged the appeals court in filings not to interfere with Urbina's decision, which is the first court-ordered release of Guantanamo detainees. The detainees said they have been cleared of wrongdoing and have waited long enough for their freedom after being held at Guantanamo for nearly seven years.
"The government would prolong by months, and perhaps years, an imprisonment whose legal justification it has conceded away," the detainees' lawyers wrote in filings.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration said it was continuing "heightened" efforts to find another country to accept the Uighurs, since the detainees might be tortured if they are turned over to China.
"There are extensive efforts. We oppose the idea of their release here," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Albania accepted five Uighur detainees in 2006 but has since balked on taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China.
The Justice Department criticized Urbina's decision as undercutting immigration laws that dictate how foreigners should be brought into the country. It also cited security concerns over weapons training the Uighurs received at camps in Afghanistan.
Such a potential security risk outweighs the inconvenience the detainees might suffer in waiting a while longer at Guantanamo, government lawyers contended.
Uighurs are from Xinjiang - an isolated region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations - and say they have been repressed by the Chinese government.
The Uighur detainees were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001.
China has long said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang. The Beijing government has repeatedly urged the U.S. to turn the Uighurs over to Chinese authorities.
The Uighurs case is among dozens of Guantanamo cases currently being reviewed by federal judges after the Supreme Court ruled in June that foreign detainees at Guantanamo have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their imprisonment.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 36 Commentshttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2008/06/12/opinion/courtwatch/main417729
6.shtml
The ruling was as predictable as it was avoidable. For the fourth time the Supreme Court has forcefully said %u201Cnot good enough%u201D to the White House and Congress when asked whether the other two branches had created rules sufficient to fully and fairly treat those now held at Guantanamo... when you employ legal shortcuts, and when those trimmings undercut the rights of men, the courts will send you back to the drawing board... The dissenting expressed concern that an already chaotic situation - has just become more so. But no one ever said that the Constitution guarantees neat and tidy results. And the blame for the chaos of the past seven years and the chaos yet to come does not rest, as Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. suggested in his dissent, with his five colleagues in the Court%u2019s majority. It rests with the White House and the Congress. Both the MCA and the Detainee Treatment Act - were cobbled together in response to earlier Supreme Court decisions; both were shoved through Congress. In law, as in life, you reap what you sow. The White House sowed this ruling for years, long after the Court itself made clear, over and over again, that this is what the feds would reap. Now, who is to blame for that - and for this ruling?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/12/opinion/courtwatch/main4177296.shtml
The ruling was as predictable as it was avoidable. For the fourth time the Supreme Court has forcefully said %u201Cnot good enough%u201D to the White House and Congress when asked whether the other two branches had created rules sufficient to fully and fairly treat those now held at Guantanamo... when you employ legal shortcuts, and when those trimmings undercut the rights of men, the courts will send you back to the drawing board... The dissenting expressed concern that an already chaotic situation - has just become more so. But no one ever said that the Constitution guarantees neat and tidy results. And the blame for the chaos of the past seven years and the chaos yet to come does not rest, as Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. suggested in his dissent, with his five colleagues in the Court%u2019s majority. It rests with the White House and the Congress. Both the MCA and the Detainee Treatment Act - were cobbled together in response to earlier Supreme Court decisions; both were shoved through Congress. In law, as in life, you reap what you sow. The White House sowed this ruling for years, long after the Court itself made clear, over and over again, that this is what the feds would reap. Now, who is to blame for that - and for this ruling?
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Posted by StopSocialis at 08:57 PM : Oct 08, 2008
Just because you say so, dummy? Was there a trial, or even a tribunal? Since when did the U.S. decide to be like the Soviets or Red China?
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Posted by incog-nito at 09:04 PM : Oct 08, 2008
That''s what the MUSLIM EXTREMISTS ARE LIKE YOU TRAITOR. NOT THE USA.
Did Adolph Hitler deserve a trial according to your demented logic???? Huh???
The C in CBS has nothing to do with Canada!- Beat it.
Please please please God, let them move into Bush''s, Cheney''s, or Rumsfield''s neighborhoods. They weren''t suposed to even be here. Now they will be. I can''t think of better neighbors for any of these people.
They were likely "kidnapped" by bounty hunters in Pakistan and turned over to CIA in Afghanistan, and possibly never commited any US crime (nor convicted). I sincerly hope they get to keep and bear arms too! Thanks for yet another well thought out "plan" George W! Keep ''''em coming!
Opinionated7, where''s your proof? The gov''t won''t show it to you...it''s "classified". How convenient is that? By the same administration that swore up and down that Sadam was harboring weapons of mass destruction....oops...they really messed up on that one, eh? So, what makes u so sure they''re right on this one?
"but I bet you they would file injunction after injunction to prevent them from living next door to them."
Wrong again...they would be welcomed with open arms because they didn''t do anything wrong my friend...they were just accused of doing it....just because you''re accused of a crime...doesn''t mean you actually did it. Last time I checked, the constitution said you are innocent until proven guilty.
I say send them to China where they came from, and allow China to deal with them according to its laws.
I say send them to China where they came from, and allow China to deal with them according to its laws.
So, why is there any discussion at all about releasing them?
We live in upside-down-land.
Posted by CBS_Oliver at 08:24 AM : Oct 09, 2008
The discussion is about where to release them. I say not in the US. Let''s give them an option. We will release you to China, where you will likely be tortured and killed for being a terrorist, or you can stay where you are right now until your lawyers can arrange for some other country to take you.
The U.S. has no evidence against these 17 indicating that they are terrorists. They are not even labeled ''enemy combatants'' anymore. They just locked ''em up in guatanamo bay based on accusations of people. Now, they have tortured them and deprived them of their human rights for years...and yet the Bush administration is still not willing to admit mistakes and free these people. The bush admn. is responsible for creating terrorists...where terrorists didn''t exist before. Free these people...for the sake of humanity and give them their dignity back. And, for those of you that are scared...I say there is nothing to be scared off...and yes, I would invite them to live in my community with open arms...they did nothing wrong. Now, Bush...that''s who I would have a problem with living in my neighborhood. I''d be afraid that my property values would drop.
What is wrong with this judge?? what is wrong of US justice system?? are these 17 NOT followers of Bin Latin, Are they NOT belong to a terroiest group in Asia? Are they US citizen? If none of the above, then, why, then, have the right to live in the US, not in jail or country of origin? a judge should do its'' own job and duty as a judge, not politician. Don''t waste tax payers'' money for these..
Like their treatment, maybe?
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