Reason Morning Links

Radley Balko | June 10, 2009

• U.S. will pay Pacific island nation of Palau $200 million to take Chinese Uighurs detained at Gitmo but cleared of enemy combatant status.

• Cintonista Terry McAuliffe gets trounced by relatively unknown state senator Creigh Deeds in the Virginia gubernatorial primary.

• Ten banks to repay TARP loans.

• Gitmo detainee and terror suspect Ahmed Ghailani arrives in New York for appearance in federal court.

• Car bomb kills at least 28 in Southern Iraq.

Comments

robc|6.10.09 @ 9:15AM|#

Is a Cintonista one of those candles that keeps mosquitoes away?

Because, I would think McAuliffe would attract blood suckers.

robc|6.10.09 @ 9:16AM|#

its decision on Tuesday to let 10 big banks repay federal aid that had sustained them through the worst of the crisis

Journalist Eric Dash is a tool. Those banks didnt NEED the aid to sustain them through the worst of the crisis. That is why they didnt want the money in the first place.

|6.10.09 @ 9:30AM|#

Car bomb kills at least 28 in Southern Iraq.

I read that link and I must say I'm shocked to find that we are having some sort of war. I was pretty the only news that was happening right now was a downed French airliner and the titillating assertion that some guy with eight kids had an affair behind the back of his super-bitch wife.

When do the mid-term elections start?

creech|6.10.09 @ 9:33AM|#

Wow, Palau gets nearly $12 million a piece for the Chinese detainees. What a bargain! I want Barry and Hil on the other side next time I enter tough negotiations.

Gimlet|6.10.09 @ 9:39AM|#

RI Senate Backs Marijuana Stores:

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/local_wpri_providence_senate_passes_medical_marijuana_compassion_center_bill_20090609_nek

|6.10.09 @ 9:51AM|#

First paragraph: Palau President Johnson Toribiong said ... his country was "honored and proud" to resettle the detainees from China's Uighur minority as a humanitarian gesture.

TENTH paragraph: Two U.S. officials ... said the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million ... in return for accepting the Uighurs.

|6.10.09 @ 9:52AM|#

Will Palau take me?

|6.10.09 @ 10:05AM|#

Wow, Palau gets nearly $12 million a piece for the Chinese detainees.

Hell, I'd have taken one for half that.

|6.10.09 @ 10:13AM|#

Morning Links Continued:

Goths In Hot Weather

Xeones|6.10.09 @ 10:26AM|#

Goths In Hot Weather

You know, i'd always wondered about that.

catMoses|6.10.09 @ 10:48AM|#

They could have seasteaded the Uighurs.

|6.10.09 @ 10:55AM|#

Does "relatively unknown" mean "unknown outside of Virginia, the place where people were voting?" Because Deeds at least had run for statewide office in Virginia, for attorney general against his general election opponent for governor this year. Neither Moran nor McAuliffe had run a statewide race in Virginia before, though of course there were more famous in DC and the national press, Moran for his brother.

Fluffy|6.10.09 @ 11:01AM|#

The Uighur story is truly shocking once you realize exactly what we're buying.

We aren't paying that money to avoid having the Chinese take offense. The Chinese are already offended that we won't give the Uighurs back to them.

We're paying that money because there's a statistical chance that one of those Uighurs will commit a crime inside the US if they're released here. If that happened, the Obama administration would be embarrassed. So we're spending $200 million taxpayer dollars to avoid creating the chance that Barry will be embarrassed.

I'm happy these poor bastards are getting released, but I am once again outraged by the cavalier way that tax dollars are spent for frivolous purposes, the frivolous purpose in this case being to cover Barry's ass for a decision he should be fucking man enough to take without cover.

Spoonman|6.10.09 @ 11:08AM|#

Spending $200 million on a place that's virtually a US protectorate, too.

|6.10.09 @ 11:12AM|#

What's to prevent the Uighurs from leaving Palau once they've arrived?

And if they do, will we get a refund?

Abner MacGillicuddy|6.10.09 @ 11:26AM|#

"What's to prevent the Uighurs from leaving Palau once they've arrived?"

Probably the fact that no other country will let them in.

Somehow I doubt that Palau will issue them passports and no carrier will let them board for a foreign destination without one.

So, their only option would be to get on their own boat and spend the rest of their lives drifting around the world like "The Man Without a Country".

Which is kind of the situation they're in now.

..|6.10.09 @ 11:49AM|#

What the article doesn't say is that the Chinese Uighurs will be interred in a laundry facility.

SpongePaul|6.10.09 @ 11:56AM|#

can i get 12 mil for moving to paulua, if so, book me a ticket, i will be there come sunrise, lol

|6.10.09 @ 11:58AM|#

They could have seasteaded the Uighurs.

And given them a giant radio transmitter, to broadcast subversive music and messages to the Chinese mainland.

But that would almost seem like justice.

|6.10.09 @ 12:06PM|#

"""We're paying that money because there's a statistical chance that one of those Uighurs will commit a crime inside the US if they're released here. If that happened, the Obama administration would be embarrassed."""

By embarrassed, do you mean assailed upon by the right-wing?

Fluffy|6.10.09 @ 12:14PM|#

By embarrassed, do you mean assailed upon by the right-wing?

No, I mean embarrassed.

Naturally the right wing would assail them. But this action shows that they care that they would be assailed, and that caring is the part that constitutes "embarrassment".

If it were my decision to make, I would have released them here the way our political asylum laws require, and when assailed about it I would not have given a shit and therefore would not have been embarrassed. And that would have saved us 200 million bucks.

Syd|6.10.09 @ 12:17PM|#

John Thacker | June 10, 2009, 10:55am | #
Does "relatively unknown" mean "unknown outside of Virginia, the place where people were voting?" Because Deeds at least had run for statewide office in Virginia, for attorney general against his general election opponent for governor this year.

Came within a few hundred votes of winning, too. He may well be the strongest candidate the Democrats had.

Syd|6.10.09 @ 12:19PM|#

We should have settled the Uighurs on our own territory. I've glad to see they'll have a place to stay.

|6.10.09 @ 12:38PM|#

I would have released them here the way our political asylum laws require,

Err, no. These guys were picked up in a Taliban training camp. Current law prohibits their release in the United States.

Abner MacGillicuddy|6.10.09 @ 12:45PM|#

"Err, no. These guys were picked up in a Taliban training camp."

Really? I was under the impression they were sold to us by a "friendly" worlord. Like cattle.

|6.10.09 @ 12:52PM|#

"""Current law prohibits their release in the United States."""

Curious, which law?

Rhywun|6.10.09 @ 12:55PM|#

I like how Palauians "are allowed to enter the United States without passports or visas" but United States citizens aren't. WTF?

Invisible Finger|6.10.09 @ 12:55PM|#

Palau gets nearly $12 million a piece for the Chinese detainees

I'll have to remember that the next time I serve on a jury in a wrongful death case.

FDR|6.10.09 @ 1:29PM|#

"By embarrassed, do you mean assailed upon by the right-wing?"

Well if you can't take the heat...

This boy ain't a thing like me.

Kreel Sarloo|6.10.09 @ 1:51PM|#

"I like how Palauians "are allowed to enter the United States without passports or visas" but United States citizens aren't. WTF?"

I'm having a hard time finding out if this is reciprocal. But as near as I can tell Palau is still a US possession like Puerto Rico (but with a different status). Citizens of each don't need a passport to go there.

On the other hand, because of the difference in status (independence vs Commonwealth) it is my understanding that palauans can't settle in the US automatically like Puerto Ricans can.

Could be wrong, of course. About all of it.

http://studenttravel.about.com/od/uspassports/a/passports.htm

wingnutx|6.10.09 @ 1:55PM|#

$10 says the Chinese snatch those guys from Palau within the year.

|6.10.09 @ 1:59PM|#

Current law prohibits their release in the United States.

For bone-breakingly full discussion, read Solicitor General Kagan's brief in support of denying their habeas corpus petition (go to the Solicitor General's website and search for "Uighur"). It was one of the post-9/11 "national security" laws that has a blanket prohibition on anyone who has terrorist training being allowed to enter the country.

Really? I was under the impression they were sold to us by a "friendly" worlord. Like cattle.

All the accounts I have seen indicate they were picked up in a training camp near Tora Bora.

Fluffy|6.10.09 @ 2:02PM|#

Err, no. These guys were picked up in a Taliban training camp. Current law prohibits their release in the United States.

Even the Pentagon's kangaroo courts concluded these guys weren't enemy combatants.

And our State Department agrees that they face political persecution if returned to their country of origin.

That means that US clearly requires us to grant them political asylum if they ask for it. No enemy combatant status + in US custody + valid asylum claim = the law says they should be released here. The trial judge in this case was absolutely correct and the appeals court ruling staying their release is nothing more than a plain-faced defiance of statute dressed up as deference to the executive.

Warmongering Lunatic|6.10.09 @ 3:01PM|#

What's to prevent the Uighurs from leaving Palau once they've arrived?

Sanity? When the PRC wants your ass extradited, the safest course is to stay in a country which recognizes the ROC instead.

|6.10.09 @ 3:35PM|#

Even the Pentagon's kangaroo courts concluded these guys weren't enemy combatants.

Yes, because the Pentagon concluded that they weren't our terrorist enemies, but China's. They were getting terrorist training from Al Qaeda, but to use against China. Which may make them freedom fighters, to some, but certainly complicates giving them asylum here.

|6.10.09 @ 3:37PM|#

And when I said training from Al Qaeda, I meant Taliban. Stupid mistake.

The point remains. Of course, shipping them to Palau will still piss off the PRC.