So it looks like Palau has agreed to temporarily resettle the Uighurs, who have been detained at Guantanamo for no apparent reason for several years. As background, the Uighurs are Chinese Muslims. 17 of then were detained by the United States in Afghanistan, locked up in Guantanamo even though there wasn’t a shred of evidence that they were dangerous, were officially exonerated — and then still had to remain in Guantanamo because no one wanted to take them.
This has been a really nauseating episode. Remember: these people were completely innocent, except that the Chinese government continued to insist that they were somehow dangerous. Lots and lots of hypocrisy here.
The Obama Administration? It refused to admit them to the United States. So much for give me your tired, your poor.
What about the Muslim world, and all those leaders and fighters who claim that they are warriors for the umma? Didn’t hear a peep out of them. Apparently, supporting Islam means shooting up half of Bombay, but you can’t be bothered with, you know, actually caring for innocent Muslims.
I always thought that Israel should take them. Wouldn’t that have been a great PR coup? But apparently Israel is too busy talking about how it shares enlightened western values and being a light unto the nations to actually do the right thing.
So they are off to Palau.
“What they will encounter in Palau is paradise,” said Stuart Beck, an American lawyer who is Palau’s permanent United Nations representative. “From the time the first British vessel hit a reef in Palau in 1783, it has welcomed refugees.”
And now maybe it’s the only place left that does.