Australia Receives White House Request to Accept Uighur Gitmo Detainees
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Australia's Foreign Minister Steven Smith has received a specific request from the Obama administration for Australia to accept six of 17 Uighur detainees ordered released from Guantanamo Bay, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported.
Smith said the government would consider the request on a "case-by-case basis," judging each Uighur's case individually.
Australia twice before turned down Bush administration requests to accept Uighur detainees in January for "national security and immigration" reasons.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Obama White House did not dispute Smith's characterization of the Uighur request. An official tracking developments closely declined to speak on the record, saying only the White House will not comment about on-going negotiations or any arrangements until they are finalized.
The Chinese Muslims had been ordered released as early as 2003, but U.S. government officials fear China will torture them if they are returned. The U.S. is also unwilling to accept the Uighurs.
China says the Uighurs belong to a separatist group and wants them returned. The Chinese government has warned other nations not to accept them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In papers filed with the Supreme Court, the administration said the Uighurs are being lawfully held at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba even though they are not considered enemy combatants.
The administration says a federal appeals court ruling that blocked the Uighurs' release in the United States should be upheld.
The Uighurs' "continued presence at Guantanamo Bay is not unlawful detention, but rather the consequence of their lawful exclusion from the United States," Solicitor General Elena Kagan told the court.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The men are held apart from the other detainees, in the least restrictive conditions, Kagan said.
"They are free to leave Guantanamo Bay to go to any country that is willing to accept them," she said.
A federal judge determined in October that the Uighurs should be freed because the Pentagon no longer considered them enemy combatants. U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said they should be allowed into this country because the administration could find no other country willing to accept them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Bush administration appealed Urbina's decision and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said Urbina had gone too far in ordering the men released into the United States.
The three-judge appeals panel suggested the detainees might be able to seek entry by applying to the Homeland Security Department, which administers U.S. immigration laws. But the court bluntly concluded that the detainees otherwise had no constitutional right to immediate freedom after being held in custody at Guantanamo without charges for seven years.
The Uighurs argue that last year's Supreme Court ruling that granted Guantanamo detainees the right to go to federal court to seek their freedom is meaningless if they can continue to be held.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Uighurs are from Xinjiang, an isolated region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations. They are Turkic-speaking Muslims who say they have long been repressed by the Chinese government. China has said that insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang. The Uighur detainees were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001.
Albania accepted five Uighur detainees in 2006 but since has balked at taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China.
FOX News' Major Garrett and the Associated Press contributed to this report.