US eyes South Pacific to resettle Uighur detainees (Buying them an island!)

[JohnBrowdie]

when buying them an island is one of the better ideas that you've got, it should occur to you that maybe you are solving the wrong problem in the first place.  LEAVE THEM AT GITMO, FOR GOD'S SAKE.

$200 million to take in 17 detainees?  that's about $30 million per suspected terrorist . . .

US eyes South Pacific to resettle Uighur detainees

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press has learned the Obama administration is in talks with the remote South Pacific island nation of Palau (PA'-lau) to resettle some or all of 17 Chinese Muslims now held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Three U.S. officials familiar with the negotiations say the administration is looking at Palau to relocate the detainees known as Uighurs (WEE'-gurz). A federal court has ordered them freed but there is fierce opposition to releasing them on U.S. soil.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the negotiations. They said the U.S. is prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in aid to accept the Uighurs. Palau is an independent nation about 500 miles east of the Philippines that has close ties with the U.S.

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[Wretched Excess]

it's a done deal.  if GWB had done this, nancy pelosi would be screaming about shaking down poor little Palau to accept the uighur's so we could hide our war crimes in the middle of the pacific . . . as it is, I think this is about the best that could have been made of the situation. 

Palau to take Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – The tropical Pacific island nation of Palau announced Wednesday it will accept up to 17 Chinese Muslims who have languished in legal limbo at Guantanamo Bay despite a Pentagon determination that they are not "enemy combatants."

China's Foreign Ministry had no immediate reaction to the decision by Palau to grant Washington's request to resettle the detainees from China's Uighur minority who had been incarcerated at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. Palau is one of a handful of countries that does not recognize China and maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

President Johnson Toribiong said Palau was accepting the detainees "as a humanitarian gesture" intended to help them restart their lives. His archipelago, with a population of about 20,000, will accept up to 17 of the detainees subject to periodic review, Toribiong said in a statement released to The Associated Press.

"This is but a small thing we can do to thank our best friend and ally for all it has done for Palau," he said.

A former U.S. trust territory in the Pacific, Palau has retained close ties with the United States since independence in 1994 when it signed a Free Compact of Association with the U.S.

While it is independent, it relies heavily on U.S. aid and is dependent on the United States for its defense . . . .

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[JohnBrowdie]

the chinese aren't happy about the palau deal.

China rejects move to send detainees to Palau

BEIJING (AP) — Beijing said Thursday that the 17 Chinese Muslims the United States is sending to Pacific island nation of Palau are terrorists and should be handed back to China instead.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the United States should "stop handing over terrorist suspects to any third country, so as to expatriate them to China at an early date."

Palau President Johnson Toribiong said earlier in the week that Palau had agreed to a U.S. request to temporarily resettle the detainees, who were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 but later determined by the Pentagon to not be enemy combatants after being detained in Guantanamo Bay.

"China also opposes any country taking any of these terrorist suspects," Qin said. He did not say if China would take any action in response to the U.S. move.

Beijing says the detainees are members of extremist groups working to separate the far western region of Xinjiang from China.

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