We have enough homegrown terrorists, why import more?
Posted by:
Emma
()
Date: May 23, 2009 03:16AM
Two Congressmen demand Uighur Gitmo jihadists be brought to U.S.
They were members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and were captured at an Al-Qaeda training camp. Bring them to the U.S.! Let McGovern and Delahunt put them up!
"Lawmakers demand Guantanamo Uighurs move to US," from AFP, May 21 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Two lawmakers of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party appealed Thursday to let Uighurs locked up at Guantanamo Bay move to the United States, saying they were victims of injustice.
The plea came despite an overwhelming Senate vote a day earlier to block money to transfer inmates out of the deeply controversial "war on terror" prison in Cuba, which Obama on Thursday vowed again to shut down.
US authorities four years ago cleared 17 imprisoned Uighurs -- members of a largely Muslim group in northwestern China who the State Department says face worsening persecution by Beijing.
But they are stuck at Guantanamo Bay due to fears that Beijing would torture them if they return. The United States has asked Germany, home to a large Uighur community, to take them in.
"We cannot expect the world to miraculously resolve this problem of our own making," Congressman Jim McGovern said.
"It is not enough, quite frankly, to ask that they be placed in Germany or in some other European country. I believe that we have an obligation to resettle at least some of the Uighurs here in the United States."
He and other lawmakers were addressing a world assembly of Uighurs, including dissident leader Rebiya Kadeer, who were meeting at the US Capitol in a bid to showcase their international support.
"Despite all of our words and our resolutions, we have let you down and we have put America's judicial system and our moral standing in the world at risk," said Bill Delahunt, like McGovern a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts.
"The Uighur people are not enemies of America. In fact, I know you admire our fundamental ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," he said....