Obama Asks Australia to Take Guantanamo Detainees

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Obama asks Australia to take Guantanamo detainees

Fri May 29, 2009 9:42pm EDT

SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - The United States has made a new request for Australia to accept a group of detainees from Guantanamo Bay for resettlement, a government spokeswoman said on Saturday.

The request is the first by President Barack Obama's administration, which plans to close down the detention camp in Cuba within the next year.

Media reports have said the request involves a group of Uighurs from China's largely Muslim western province of Xinjiang. Beijing has reportedly been pressing Washington to return them to China, but U.S. officials have expressed concerns about their likely treatment there.

Earlier requests for resettlement in Australia late last year by former president George W. Bush's administration were turned down by Canberra in January on "national security and immigration" grounds.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSB461834

[Truthiness Inspector]

1. Who wouldn't want them?

They seem like such nice guys.

[Idealism]

2. I hope they accept our passing the buck

The Uighurs will be executed if they are released back to China. The absolute least we can do is to make sure these people aren't returned to China.

[depakid]

5. ABC's reported that the Rudd government will look at them on a case by case basis

The opposition of course, is loudly protesting- and chances are that Rudd would pay some political price, so if the Aussies agree to take any, the Obama administration will owe them one.

[Swagman]

27. since we in Australia helped create the whole debacle we are

obligated to assist the US. We are part of the "Coalition of the Willing" , a fact the current Opposition Leader and former Deputy Sheriff John Howard minister Malcolm Turnbull is conveniently over-looking. Of course we should take some.

[No Elephants]

31. I'm guessing the American taxpayer will be the one who owes them.

[merh]

7. Isn't that how Australia was settled

Criminals and rejects from Great Britain?

Like parts of Georgia, USA - the colonies were set up as penal colonies and/or a "new beginning" for those not wanted in England

[EFerrari]

11. Yep. And in those days, throwing someone in jail and keeping them there

was a racket -- just like it is here, now. A lot of times the worst thing those "criminals" did was to be poor and unable to defend themselves.

[merh]

12. Which is probably the same thing that can be said for

some, if not all of the 17 - but what is to be done with them?

If they are turned over to China they will face death.

I suppose the witness protection program could give a go at relocating them. That program has had great success.

Maybe an email to Holder

[EFerrari]

14. They'd probably do fine in San Francisco.

There's all kinds of peaceful groups of ethnic Chinese here working against the Chinese government. They have radio stations and newsletters and lunch clubs and parades.

Seriously, though, they will probably need a bunch of medical / psych attention wherever they go. The already released ones seem to be doing fine in Albania. I wonder why the rest aren't going there?

[merh]

15. From what I read, the ones that remain were those that no nation

would take. The witness protection program has had great success.

Why can't they set up a secret program for these detainees, to give them a new life and protection and monitoring, and base it on the witness protection program?

[EFerrari]

17. The program could do the job but the government probably doesn't want

the liability.

[merh]

18. Mafia assassins are members of the witness protection program

Many of them are more dangerous and black hearted than a terrorist.

Sending an email couldn't hurt, to throw the idea out there.

[EFerrari]

19. Yeah, it couldn't hurt. It's a good idea. n/t

[merh]

21. I've written them so many time, they probably have a waste can

with my name on it.

:rofl:

[Swagman]

26. yes..stealing a loaf of bread got you life at the other end of the world

[No Elephants]

32. Terrorist is not exactly the same as an embezzler or thief,.

[merh]

36. Actually, in Georgia most were debtors and religious/political prisoners.

And, it would appear you are not paying attention. The detainees that can be charged with criminal acts will be charged. Those that pose a threat will be detained, after due process proceedings held.

Apparently the 17 are not terrorists as no criminal charges will be brought against them. They are just political prisoners, held by our nation because we thought they were terrorist and detained so long and treated so badly, they may well want to do harm but they have not threatened harm.

[Selatius]

3. If Bush ran the US as a dictatorship, it wouldn't matter if they were returned to China or Australia

They'd be dead already.

[No Elephants]

33. Bush did run the US dang close to a dictatorship, just 4 years at a time.

[NYC_SKP]

4. But everyone said Bush=Obama was going to "preventively detain" them forever!!!

I'm glad I was right and the others were wrong.

I hope they find a safe home and forgive this country for what Bush/Cheney did to them.

:patriot:

[Truthiness Inspector]

6. And hope these wonderful guys

don't cause harm once released. If they do, that's on the release-cheerleaders hands...like yours. :patriot:

[NYC_SKP]

8. Actually,

If you've read my other posts and replies, you'd know that I'm with the president on being as careful as possible, even if it takes longer than many would like.

I'm not a release cheerleader and have had plenty of fights with assholes who say that the detainees "civil rights" trump what is safe for our citizens.

In this case, I'm thinking that they are not safe to release here but not so dangerous that we aren't willing to look for other places that may take them in the interest of preventing their murders.

If not Australia, I should think that there are settlements elsewhere, even in China, where they would be with like-minded people.

And if such like minded people are threats to us, then they shouldn't be released at all.

so, no, not a cheerleader.

[depakid]

13. Here's what the opposition in Oz thinks that sort of opinion:

"If the Americans believe they are safe enough to walk the streets of Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane then they would be safe enough to walk the streets of any American city."

I rarely EVER come close to agreeing with the opposition- but when I see things like what was just posted....

Then again, if I were someone who'd been treated like that by AMERICANS, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the country.

[mbperrin]

35. Yes, I've been wondering how come these "thoroughly dangerous"

folks are suddenly not dangerous when sent anywhere else. In fact, if they're so dangerous, isn't it dangerous to hold them behind only chain link and barbed wire at Gitmo?

Let's get our vocabulary straight, please. Gitmo is a gulag, a concentration camp. Gulags and concentration camps are authorized and run by criminals against humanity.

The US Constitution says charge folks with crime speedily, try them, and then release or incarcerate them, depending on the outcome. Everyone in the gulag has had that violated with no possibility of making them whole or of being able to salvage the process. They need to all be released now, and the US government needs to hope that the jury awards for violations of human and civil rights are small enough to just pay in lump sums.

I have been humiliated to live in a country that runs gulags. I am even more humiliated to live in one that will now own up to it nor remediate it. The only salve I have is that I have vocally opposed this shit from day one.

Whether the Red scare, Sputnik, Cuba, Terra Terra Terra or other bullshit the government has used now for nearly a century to rob Americans of their rights and most especially their money, I'm weary of it. I was a kid when we had to duck and cover, but I haven't been a kid for a long time now, and I'm not buying official bullshit now.

Every life we blight or end for Mammon is going to return in a painful and very real way. That's just math.

[EFerrari]

10. The Uighurs are an oppressed minority in China.

They had no beef with us whatsoever. Another one of Rumsfeld's fuck ups.

[EFerrari]

9. Not the Uighurs. They've been set for release for a long time

You have your detainees confused.

[snowdays]

29. Question. Doesn't preventive detention also refer to future

folks picked up????

[No Elephants]

34. Link, please.

[provis99]

16. so America shits all over the world and Australia has to clean up

why the hell aren't they settled in America, since we're the ones that fucked everything up in the first place?

[EFerrari]

20. Because the right wing owns the mass media. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

22. Amen!

[EFerrari]

30. That's one thing we will always agree on, FrenchieCat!

[Downwinder]

23. I'd take the Uighurs over Rupert Murdoch any day.

Talk of getting the rejects.

[Swagman]

28. the US has yet sussed out we dumped Rupert Murdoch on them

..don't alert them..they may send him back !:puke: :puke:

[MasonJar]

24. Since we won't take any. we have a lot of nerve asking our allies to

do so. The world is going to laugh in our face.

[fascisthunter]

25. embarrassing