I know all the buzz tonight is about "Obama vs. McCain II, This Time It's In Tennessee", but I thought you'd like to know that Bush has just lost his 3rd Gitmo case in a row.
For almost 7 years, we've been holding a handful of Chinese Uighurs at Gitmo.
The Uighurs are Chinese Muslims. Persecuted in China, some of them settled in Afghanistan. After our invasion, there was a booming market in "Al Qaeda" operatives and dozens of Uighurs were sold to the US by bounty hunting war-lords.
Literally no one thinks the Uighurs have any connection to Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group. Even the Bush administration admits they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yet they have been held in Gitmo because, after naming them the "worst of the worst", Bush has had trouble finding a country willing to take them. Surprise.
Today U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina in Washington ruled that:
it would be wrong for the government to continue holding the detainees, known as Uighurs (WEE'-gurz), who have been jailed for nearly seven years, since they are no longer considered enemy combatants.
In a too rare nod to civil rights and the rule of law, Urbina ruled:
"Because the Constitution prohibits indefinite detentions without cause, the continued detention is unlawful," Urbina said in a ruling that brought cheers and applause from a standing-room only courtroom filled with dozens of Uighurs and human rights activists.
He ordered them freed by this Friday. It's unclear where they will go permenantly, but for now the Uighur community in DC will take them in.
I've written about Gitmo before here, here and here.
Gitmo is a stain on our national honor. I hope Obama closes the damn thing down before midnight on January 20th.