Why is the Obama Administration Blocking the Release of the Innocent Uighurs at Guantánamo?

By Andy Worthington, AlterNet. Posted June 1, 2009.

This is an important point, and, sadly, it reveals nothing more than an administration that is rapidly losing its immediate post-election advantage by shifting in the wind and, as a result, giving more, and not less power to the cowardly or cynical politicians who have leapt on Obama’s promise to close Guantánamo -- as well as plans to move prisoners to the U.S. mainland, and to release the Uighurs -- with a despicable dose of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) that demonstrates cynical political maneuvering at its worst. 

As Eric Holder tours Europe looking for new homes for some of the prisoners that the administration’s inter-departmental review has cleared for release (who, like the Uighurs, cannot be repatriated because their home countries have notoriously poor human rights records), he is increasingly meeting resistance from countries whose governments argue, with some justification, that they cannot be expected to help out unless the U.S. is also willing to play its part by accepting prisoners.  

Without firm action by the administration, President Obama may just find that he has been outplayed, and that he will not only hand victory to the NIMBYists -- who would like nothing better than to see Guantánamo stay open forever -- if he is unable to close the prison by January 2010, but will also undermine his reputation abroad, and, in particular, in the Muslim world, where undoing the damage of the Bush years is critical.  

My hope is that the Supreme Court will accept the case, and will rule in the Uighurs’ favor, but if that doesn’t happen, Obama needs to find the courage to resist the shrill opportunism of some of his least principled colleagues, and to order the Uighurs’ release into the United States, resurrecting the spirit of justice that prevailed last October, when Judge Urbina stated, “I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for detention. Because the Constitution prohibits indefinite detentions without cause, the continued detention is unlawful.”

See more stories tagged with: supreme court, guantanamo, department of justice, uighurs, ricardo urbina, a. raymond randolph, karen lecraft henderson, judith w. rogers, elena kagan

Andy Worthington is a writer and historian, and author of The Guantánamo Files.

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