Palau agrees to take 12 Uighurs from Guantanamo: U.S

These Caribbean and Pacific islands sure are stepping up. Last I read, there were just over two hundred left (can't find the exact stats, but here is the Wiki page). Oh and Hungary just took one.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has agreed with Palau to transfer up to 12 of the 13 Uighur Chinese detainees still held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Pacific island nation, according to a letter obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

So far, six Uighurs have agreed to go to Palau and the Obama administration hopes two more will agree soon, according to a letter from the U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court which is considering whether to hear an appeal by the detainees to be released.

Another four Uighurs have already been moved to Bermuda from the controversial U.S. military prison which President Barack Obama has pledged to close by January 2010. At present there are still some 226 detainees at the facility.

Were Chinese agents at Gitmo?

By GottaLaff

I heard this on Thom Hartmann's show yesterday and couldn't believe my ears. Well, yes I could:

A fight is brewing between Capitol Hill and the Pentagon over allegations that Chinese government agents were allowed to interrogate some detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Jay Alan Liotta, principal director of the Defense Department office responsible for detainee policy, told a House subcommittee on Thursday that he would not publicly comment on whether officials from China or any other nation were granted access to foreign citizens held at the detention facility.

He offered to release that information to the committee during a closed, classified session. Lawmakers weren’t happy about his answer. [...]

Members of Congress have been routinely denied access to the Guantanamo detainees.

“The American people have a right, without compromising national security, to understand what happened at Guantanamo, particularly in this case of the Uighurs,” said Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., chairman of the subcommittee that conducted the hearing. “The answer that it should be in a classified setting is absurd.”

Ranking Republican Dana Rohrabacher of California agreed, saying he recently was denied access to terrorism detainees. [...]

Three former Uighur detainees submitted testimony through legal counsel on Thursday alleging that all 22 detainees of the Chinese Muslim minority group were interrogated by Chinese government officials during a seven- to 10-day visit in 2002.

There is obviously so much more information to come on this subject, but note the recent pace at which it's been released. As it is reported, I promise to pass it along.

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

VIDEO: Rachel Maddow's Palau report... amended

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rachel may have been mistaken about this one:

U.S. and Palau officials said Wednesday that the island nation was not taking the Uighurs in return for additional U.S. aid.

But Palau already was set to receive a big boost in aid from Washington. The government of Palau is renegotiating a compact with the United States, first signed in 1994, that could add as much as $200 million in coming years, U.S. officials have said.

"This long-standing agreement . . . is not linked to any other discussions we may be having with the government of Palau," said Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman.

Or am I missing something here?

Whiplash: Gitmo edition

By GottaLaff

Huh? How'd I miss this one?

The Obama administration filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Friday asking the Court to block the 17 Chinese Uighurs detained at Guantanamo from entering the United States — this, despite a court ruling last year ordering their release. The petition argues that the Uighurs “have already obtained relief” and that the government had no legal obligation to settle them in the U.S. [...]

Somewhat shockingly, as ABC’s Jake Tapper notes, the Obama administration’s petition suggests that the Uighurs’ imprisonment “isn’t so bad,” and trumpets their comfy quarters at Guantanamo:

“In contrast to individuals currently detained as enemies under the laws of war, petitioners are being housed under relatively unrestrictive conditions, given the status of Guantanamo Bay as a United States military base,” Kagan writes, saying they are “in special communal housing with access to all areas of their camp, including an outdoor recreation space and picnic area.” They “sleep in an air-conditioned bunk house and have the use of an activity room equipped with various recreational items, including a television with VCR and DVD players, a stereo system, and sports equipment.”

Furthermore, the petition cites the Senate’s recent vote to block Guantanamo detainees from entering the U.S. as further reason to deny their release — despite the fact the vote was in defiance of a White House request. The petition comes just a week after President Obama, in a speech defending his plan to close Guantanamo, declared that “the wrong answer is to pretend like this problem will go away if we maintain an unsustainable status quo.”

Hotel Gitmo must have escaped my travel agent's attention the last time she booked a luxury vacation for us.