the sand, the beaches, the Gitmo terrorists free as birds:
Bermuda has been thrust into an international political firestorm by allowing four former prisoners of Guantanamo Bay to take refuge on the island. The move is likely to garner favour with President Obama, who has been desperate to find homes for former inmates after promising to close Guantanamo by January.
However, the Chinese government is furious, and says the U.S. should extradite what it calls “suspected terrorists” to China. The British Government, and Governor Sir Richard Gozney, are also less than impressed, and say Bermuda should have consulted with them before giving the four men a home.
It gets better in the Q & A:
Will the men be under any restrictions in Bermuda?
No. They will be free members of society, helped to gain employment and found housing.
So if you are a US tourist on the tiny Island of Bermuda (20.6 sq miles) with a population smaller than Fitchburg and Leominster combined you chances of sharing a town with a Gitmo terrorist are excellent.
Boy that’s exactly where I want to take my wife and kids, where they can mix with ex-gitmo inmates with no restrictions and pay for the right to do so. That makes for such a relaxing vacation.
The Bermuda sun is all over this.
If I’m Jamaica or the Virgin Islands I’m sending thank you cards to the Bermuda government for this one.
Via media blog.
Update: Hotair notes that England was kept in the dark:
They talked to them “before the Uighurs got on the plane”? Well, that was certainly sweet of them. Did they mention on which flight they’d be coming to Bermuda, or did they make the Brits guess that, too?
It’s a highly unusual move, all right. I don’t recall the last time an ally sent trained terrorists into a territory for which the other ally had responsibility for security without their permission. Why? Because it hasn’t ever happened before now.
These guys are really slick.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 
Do you understand who the Uighur are?
They are not now, nor have they ever been enemies of the United States.
That’s not my opinion, that’s according to the Pentagon. In 2003 and again in March of 2005. In 2008 the courts ruled they could appeal to force their release (Boumediene), and ruled that the “enemy combatant” status of one of them (Parhat) was invalid.
The DOJ responded in September of 2008 by quietly announcing that the remaining 17 Uighurs were no longer enemy combatants.
They’ve been in Gito for over seven years and have done nothing against the United States.
I understand that China and Britain might not be happy about this
The Uighurs are an embarrassing domestic problem for China. Britain wishes that Bermuda had checked with them before saying yes (they found out about this after the fact).
But none of that has any bearing on whether or not these men are dangerous terrorists. They’re not. Our government has known this for years, has said so publicly, and is finally doing something about it.
I do understand that their fight is with China and given their situation this is very hard for me because of what China actually is and does.
The fact that it tweaks China is actually a plus to me but I can’t divorce the China stuff from their history with with Al-Qaeda.
Bermuda is a beautiful, tiny and intimate island. These guys could prove me totally wrong adapt and change. Bermuda is a wonderful place to start anew.
It is also a hell of a choice if you want to hit the jackpot for a large target of unarmed westerners who show up with no expectation of trouble. Any incident will not bode well for the tourist industry in the Island.
When I look at radical islam over the last 8 years I’m not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt or take any risks with the only family I have when there are other choices out there.
(Note the end of the post was a dangling piece that I forgot to remove so I’ve edited it and corrected the bad link)
Setting aside China (because their sins have nothing to do with whether or not the Uighurs are dangerous) and the manifest dangers of radical Islam (which have nothing to do with the Uighurs) – the facts are pretty simple.
The DoD – the people responsible for imprisoning these men for the past seven years – (who have access to all of the information that is in the public domain and classified stuff besides) decided these men weren’t dangerous to the US. They were cleared for release.
Back in 2003. And again in 2005.
So you may be nervous. Gingrich might be nervous, but the hard charging minions of our previous president said these guys could be let go.
Mind you, these decisions were in the context of proceedings where the judges held all the cards and could have decided to imprison these men on a whim. The same administration that had the all power and all the motive in the world to declare these guys the “worst of the worst” instead said they should be released.
There’s a TON to criticize in all of this:
-Why did the US rush to pay bounties for Al Qaeda prisoners in 2001 without bothering to find out of we were getting played?
-Why didn’t the US do the right thing and let these men go as soon as it was obvious that they were not al-Qaeda?
-Why are we now paying foreign governments millions to take these people off our hands?
But maintaining the same foolish line that made us pick these guys up in the first place? after this long?
We know better.
The Hot Air post you cite is just that. He’s criticizing Obama for putting travel restrictions on the Uighurs. As if there is no other reason for restricting their US travel other than fear of their committing violence.
What other reasons could there be? I dunno, maybe he doesn’t want them to be in the center of a media circus. Give his political enemies a ready made distraction when he has other things to do.
Here’s a good one: maybe he’s trying to protect them from some right wing loon who might greet them at the airport and try to take “revenge” for 9/11.
It’s a mess. One he inherited – and he’s trying to clean it up. Frankly the prior administration screwed things up so badly there really aren’t good options at this point. What would you do with the Uighurs? Keep them in prison – despite ruling after ruling saying they should be let go?
The Weekly Standard article is more on point, but misses the essential facts – the DoD knew all of the things that article says (they MADE the transcripts the article cites, for crying out loud) and STILL they decided to clear these men for release. Cleared for release – under the Bush administration.
TWS, Hot Air, Gingrich and other right wing hay makers might not be convinced – but the Uighurs jailers were convinced years ago.
I’m thinking their assessment carries more weight.
It’s interesting that you find comfort in the assessments of the Bush administration considering your opinion of their truthfulness in the first place, but leaving aside for the moment their are a few points I would like to clarify.
I am at issue with the closing of Gitmo itself, but logically as the Obama administration has committed to do so they must of course decide what to do with the people there. Furthermore the people considered the least dangerous and the easiest are going to be released first. So from what I know of these guys they would be near the front of the line.
As far as payment goes it doesn’t bother me all that much since often in diplomacy one has to grease the wheels. Since wealth is one of the strength of the country naturally the administration will use it as a lever.
My beef is with the government of Bermuda. I don’t know if you’ve been (beautiful place by the way) but small and intimate is what the island is. It also has a very low crime rate compared with other vacation island, likely due to its more remote location.
I presume during the Bush administration people when people were released from Gitmo they were also considered safe enough to release yet we had a rate of I believe 14% of recidivism.
Now with any other prison system I’d say those are good numbers but applying that figure to the 4 released to Bermuda suggests that one might still decide that terror is the way to go.
Given those facts it would seem to me if I was in charge of the Island of Bermuda I would not trade the short term gain for the long term risk if there is an incident. I would also be very wary of giving the guys the run of the island without restriction. It is all downside and there is very little that Bermuda actually needs from America.
I’m reminded of a friend who had a Gaming LAN store. Next door unfortunately for him the landlord decided to rent to a meth clinic that also distributed clean needles. The presence of that stuff to his spot was a killer. He was as careful as he could be but parents weren’t willing to risk their kids particularly for lan parties later in the evening. It was the death of his business.
I’m not in charge of Islamic terror but boy if I was the ability to place someone in Bermuda would be a Godsend, it is a target rich environment and the defense of those targets is minimal.
Now it could be that in reality the authorities are keeping a close eye on these guys, I wouldn’t actually be surprised if they did, but for me it’s like having the choice of several restaurants one of which is in a bad neighborhood, with other choices available I can’t see going to the rough neighborhood.
Being of Sicilian decent my parents taught us to always have our trouble radar on. When my father went out he always sat so he could see every entrance, I’m exactly the same way. When I’m in Bermuda on vacation I tend to relax, I like it that way. If I can’t then I don’t see the point in going.
Time may prove me wrong and If these guys settle down and raise families and become productive citizens of Bermuda that would be awesome, it certainly is the setting for it.
But this week one. Until I see week 100 or so I think I’ll give it a pass for now.
It isn’t that I find comfort in the truthfulness of the Bush administration. Quite the contrary.
Their declaration that the Uighurs should be let go is given more credence because of their past willingness to lie to support their political and strategic objectives. If they could just lie without consequences – I believe they would have done so.
Their first clearances for release were done in secret. And they were kept in prison for years afterward.
The public declarations that they were not enemy combatants were obtained following court rulings. And they were still not released.
This is exactly in line with my assessment of of the Bush administration. They will pursue their chosen course of action, until they are forced, kicking and screaming, to do anything else.
I mean, how hard is it to let somebody go once you know they are innocent? Obama seems to have managed it in a few months. But Bush and Co. clearly had other priorities. Like covering their own backsides.
The recidivism rate you mention is a very interesting piece of the puzzle. The figures are heavily contested, and the DoD defends itself by saying the data it is based on is classified. Which leaves us without a verifiable number to cite.
What’s fascinating is that that recidivism rate is part of a number of over 500 people who have been transferred out of Gitmo.
Not all of those people were set free, but I believe the number was in the 200 range. That’s a staggering number of releases from a place that supposedly contained “the worst of the worst” and I don’t recall hearing much gnashing of teeth when those people were paroled.
Point is – our batting average at Gitmo is pretty bad. The Uighurs are just part of a larger pattern of mistakes and denial.
I’m actually cheering for you on this one, I still maintain it is foolish for Bermuda but you never know after all they are able to see what some others can’t.
The Restaurant idea is a good one:
A good restaurant is a lot of work but a Uighur would be quite a attraction down there. It would be a different place to go. How many restaurants world wide are run by ex-gitmo people?
Like I said I’ll give it a few years before I jump for joy on this one. I might be seeing a pal of mine who was stationed at Gitmo this weekend I’d be very interested in hearing what he has to say about it.