A Chinese Muslim in Gitmo Legal
Limbo
Though eligible for freedom, detainee labeled a foe
of China is going nowhere
By James Oliphant
Chicago Tribune, September 29, 2008
go to original
See Article III.3
Suspension of Due Process
| |
Huzaifa Parhat: A man with no country.
China doesn't want him back, so U.S. taxpayers
will apparently foot the bill for his incarceration
to keep China happy.
Source: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty
Images
|
WASHINGTON — The United States held him for
seven years and then ultimately, decided that he poses
no threat to national security. But he's still sitting
in prison at Guantanamo Bay because no other country
will take him. Nor will the U.S. let him come here
to live, even temporarily.
In the Kafkaesque world of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
being eligible for freedom doesn't make you free.
He is Huzaifa Parhat, who now promises to be the
next test case in detainee rights in the war on terror.
Parhat is a Uighur, a Muslim from western China, picked
up in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on suspicion
of having ties to the Taliban. Some Uighurs (pronounced
WE-goors) are part of a movement that seeks separation
from China to form their own Islamic nation.
The Chinese government considers Uighurs a threat
to the country's security and is accused of widespread
human-rights abuses in their home province of Xinjiang.
The U.S. State Department will not return Uighur detainees
at Guantanamo to China because of fears that they
will be imprisoned or tortured.
But the U.S., too, has recently branded Uighur separatists
as terrorists, even though a decade ago they were
cheered by conservatives such as the late Sen. Jesse
Helms for opposing the Chinese government.
Parhat scored a major victory in June when he became
the first Guantanamo detainee to have his detention
ruled invalid by a U.S. federal appeals court. Since
then, his lawyers have been trying to free him from
the naval prison, but the Bush administration has
resisted, arguing, in essence, that even though there
is no longer any basis to hold him as an enemy of
the state, it still has the power to decide how, where,
and when to let him go.
Now his lawyers are pressing for a court to order
an extraordinary remedy. They want Parhat to come
to the U.S. to testify that he poses no threat. And
after that, they want him released in the U.S. to
live until another home can be found for him.
Essentially, they are asking that he be paroled.
A federal judge in Washington will hear the request
Oct. 7.
"The Uighurs are really the poster boys for
what happens when you exclude judicial review from
something like Guantanamo," said Jason Pinney,
a Boston-based lawyer for Parhat. "You get abuse."
The Justice Department says that it won't allow Parhat
to even set foot in this country. Atty. Gen. Michael
Mukasey has long resisted any efforts to allow detainees
inside the country, even for court hearings.
But cases such as Parhat's will grow increasingly
common as the Pentagon pushes to empty Guantanamo
and resettle detainees who are no longer deemed to
be enemy combatants or guilty of war crimes. And the
results of his litigation could help establish whether,
at some point, the government forfeits control of
its captives' movements.
Parhat's situation provides a little insight into
the Pentagon's grounds for holding some of the detainees
in the first place. In Parhat's case, a three-judge
panel held that there was simply no evidence in the
record to support a finding that he should have been
held as an enemy combatant. The government had argued
that it was enough that Parhat was a Uighur, that
he had been "affiliated" with a Uighur independence
group, and that the group had been "associated"
with Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
While details of his capture and imprisonment are
murky, it is known that Parhat traveled from China
to Afghanistan in 2001. There, he lived briefly in
what his lawyers say was a Uighur refugee camp but
what the government terms a terrorist training site.
He was turned over to American forces in 2002.
Still, the Defense Department has produced no evidence
that Parhat was looking to wage war against the U.S.,
and Parhat told interviewers that his enemy is China.
Parhat's lawyers suggest that Parhat and about 20
other Uighurs were held at Guantanamo because the
U.S. wanted to enlist China's support for the invasion
of Iraq in 2003.
Pinney said the Bush administration branded a Uighur
separatist group a terrorist organization only after
the Uighurs were imprisoned at Guantanamo, noting
that the Pentagon gave access to Chinese interrogators
to speak to the detainees. "If you connect the
dots, it does not look good," he said. "The
government knew it did something wrong, picked up
the wrong people."
But the Pentagon denies the Uighurs were held to
curry favor with China. "This assertion is categorically
untrue," said Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Defense Department
spokesman. "For years, we have been hard at work
with the international community in resettlement options
for the Uighurs at Guantanamo, as we do not repatriate
detainees to countries which cannot provide credible
assurances of humane treatment."
The State Department says that more than 90 countries
refused to accept the Uighurs. "They want to
blame the international community. They won't accept
these poor Uighurs," Pinney said. "You've
brought them here and you have labeled them terrorists.
The worst of the worst. Cold-blooded killers."
That leaves resettlement in the United States as
perhaps the most workable option for the Guantanamo
Uighurs. About 2,000 Uighurs live in the U.S., and
their status as enemies of the Chinese government
makes them eligible for political asylum here.
Except, that is, for the Uighurs at Guantanamo Bay,
even though they for the large part have been cleared
of wrongdoing. Why? On that issue, the Pentagon defers
to the Department of Homeland Security, which says
the detainees have ties to terrorist organizations.
News
Archive:
Don't forget
Torture Migration Day
Air Force Instructor
Details Harsh Interrogations
Top Officials
Knew in 2002 of Harsh Interrogations
Anti-war veterans
unfurl 'Arrest Bush/Cheney' banner at National Archives
Fein: Impeachable
offenses?
On Anniversary
of Civilian Shootings by Blackwater in Iraq:
Amnesty International Calls on U.S. Government to
Hold Military Contractors Accountable
DOJ Says Cheney's
Testimony in Valerie Plame Leak Classified
Attorney for Gitmo
inmate works to drum up support
CIA snatch trial
goes ahead: But intelligence officers to be heard
behind closed doors
Cheney Linked Hussein
to Al-Qaeda, Ex-GOP House Leader Says in Book
Mr. Bush's unitary
executive doctrine
Did White House ties
power pipeline approval?
Bush Secret
Order To Send Special Forces Into Pakistan
Suspected US
missile kills 12 in Pakistan
McDermott joins call to oust Bush
Kucinich Ramps Up
Impeachment Efforts Against Bush
Widespread
cell phone location snooping by NSA?
Lawsuit to Ask
That Cheney's Papers Be Made Public
The next step is to get Gitmo out of him
Hunger Strikers
Should Not Be Force Fed
Cheney colleague
admits bribery in Halliburton oil deals
US seeks delay in
Guantanamo detainees habeas appeal
Report Faults Handling
of Wiretap Notes
Katrina 3 Years Later
Suicide on the
Brink of Release
Executive privilege showdown looms for Congress, White
House
A Wake-Up Call
from Dennis Kucinich
Conyers questions Iraq
‘forgery’
89 Afghan civilians
die in 'tragic' US air strike
CIA More Fully Denies
Deception About Iraq
FISA amendment forces
appeals court to punt on wiretap case
Guantanamo Briton wins
high court battle
White
House Signing Statements “Unsubstantiated,”
Report Says
Anti-Regulation
Aide to Cheney Is Up for Energy Post
Bush guts a legal
system he had sworn to defend
Nancy Pelosi gets
pilloried at AJU
How Tenet 'betrayed' the
CIA on Iraq
Mukasey Won’t
Charge Former Justice Officials Over Hiring Practices
Pelosi Takes Heat from
Right and Left
RIGHTS-US: Hamdan’s
Future Remains Unclear
Verdict is in
on Bush-style justice: Guilty
Afghan Civilian
Casualties Mount: UN
New Book Says Bush Committed
Impeachable Offense
Media Blackout On
Cheney Iran False Flag Story
Source: British Territory
Used for US Terrorism Interrogation
Miers and Bolten
ordered to answer congressional subpoenas
House panel recommends
citing Rove for contempt
Kucinich gets his Day
The People, the Press
and the Case for Impeachment
U.S. Military
Says Soldiers Fired on Civilians
Impeachment supporters
get dais in spotlight
Rep. Kucinich Gets
His Day to Air Impeachment Article
Letterman: 'Bush's
Administration is Clearly Guilty of War Crimes?'
Exposing Bush's
historic abuse of power
Gitmo and Habeas
Corpus
Rebuff Pelosi Passes
the Buck; Gore Let Off the Hook at Netroots Nation
Conyers Plans Bush
Impeachment Substitute
Ashcroft Defends
Waterboarding before House Panel
Turley: Impeachment
hearings must consider evidence Bush committed crimes<
Congressional Panel
To Review Kucinich’s Call to Impeach Bush
