A good decision by the judge, but I think this will be stayed on appeal or, failing that, just plain ignored by the Pentagon:
A federal judge today ordered that 17 Chinese Muslims held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison be released into the United States by Friday, agreeing with the detainees' attorneys that the Constitution bars holding the men indefinitely without cause.
It was the first time that a U.S. court has ordered the release of a Guantanamo detainee, and the first time that a foreign national held there has been ordered brought to the United States.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina issued the landmark ruling in the case of a small band of captives, known as Uighurs, who have been held at Guantanamo for nearly seven years and are no longer considered enemy combatants by the U.S. government. ...
Urbina said in court that he ordered the release "because the Constitution prohibits indefinite detention without cause." He added, "The separation of powers do not trump" the prohibition against holding people indefinitely without trial. ...
The Uighurs are natives of northwestern China who have been demanding an independent homeland. Chinese authorities consider them separatists. Over the years, some have sought military training in other countries.
In 2001, most of the Uighurs now in Guantanamo Bay were living in camps in Afghanistan until U.S. airstrikes drove them into neighboring Pakistan. They were captured there and turned over to U.S. authorities.
The government has asserted that the Uighurs were members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and trained at camps affiliated with the Taliban or al-Qaeda. The Bush administration designated ETIM a terrorist organization in August 2002, after the Uighurs were taken into custody.
The Uighurs' attorneys have said the men never took up arms against the United States. And the Uighurs have told military court officials that they are sympathetic to the United States.
There is no way that the conservatives on the Supreme Court will permit the release of any Gitmo prisoners before the election for lack of evidence, because if that happens it will just snowball. If Kennedy goes rogue, then Sec. Gates will reluctantly have to decline to obey the court's order. Whatever rhetoric Judge Urbina uses about the separation of powers not trumping habeas corpus, I do not believe a federal judge will have the balls to order the Secretary of Defense arrested. Which is what it would take.
Also, look forward to McCain launching attacks on Obama for not denouncing this activist, terrorist-loving judge, too. What do you expect from someone who pals around with people who hate America?
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