Editorial: Administration's Guantánamo defeat

Editorial: Administration's Guantánamo defeat

03:26 PM CDT on Thursday, October 9, 2008

Rarely has the detention of individuals at Guantánamo Bay seemed as blatantly unconstitutional as in the case of 17 Chinese Uighur Muslims held there since 2002. A federal judge this week correctly ruled that their indefinite detention is unjustified and unlawful.

Having forcibly brought these men under U.S. jurisdiction, it is now the Bush administration's job to restore their freedom, and it must do so without further delays or excuses. We're talking about fundamental human rights abuses of men who, the government concedes, do not belong in prison.

Where they go next is a government-created quandary that the White House must solve. But one place they cannot continue to remain is Guantánamo.

"After detaining 17 Uighurs [pronounced WEE-gers] in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for almost seven years, free until recently from judicial oversight, I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light ... of constitutionality on the reasons for that detention," U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina stated in his ruling Tuesday.

An appeals court has given the administration up to one week to make its best case to overturn the ruling, but the government's prospects are exceedingly weak. An appeals court in June already had ordered one of the 17 to be released because the government stipulated he was not a member of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and had "never participated in any hostile action against the United States or its allies."

The government acknowledges there are no substantial differences between his case and those of the other 16. As far back as 2003, it said that 10 of the 17 qualified for release. Yet all remain imprisoned because the government can't find anyone to take them.

This case underscores the fragility of the Bush administration's argument for continued detention without trial of 260 Guantánamo detainees. Although a small number are truly dangerous and pose an ongoing threat to U.S. security, hundreds have fallen closer to the situation of the Uighurs: captured in the wrong place at the wrong time, but guilty of no crime and posing no danger to America.

The government acknowledges it has no case for imprisoning the Uighurs but says they must remain at Guantánamo indefinitely until another country accepts them.

That's not good enough by a long shot. And, for the sake of the basic liberties this country is fighting to uphold around the world, it must never be.

Source