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June 16, 2009
Out Of GITMO the Uighurs Bask in Bermuda
Seaside leisure: Khelil Mamut, Ablakim Turahun, and Salahidin Abdulahat (left to right) enjoy butter pecan ice cream at a local Hamilton shop
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Former Guantanamo detainee Khelil Mamut, right, watches boats pass from a lawn overlooking the sea at the cottage where he and other former detainees are staying, in a suburb of Hamilton, on on the island of Bermuda, Monday, June 15, 2009
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Life in paradise as Guantanamo Four take a dip, eat ice cream, and plan first Uighur restaurant in British territory of Bermuda
They look like ordinary tourists as they stroll along the seafront on the British territory of Bermuda, but these four men are far from regular sunseekers for they have spent the last seven years locked up in Guantanamo Bay.
The former terror suspects are Uighurs - members of China's Muslim Turkic-speaking minority - and hail from a rugged province in the far west of the country.
Salahidin Abdulahat takes a dip in the Atlantic ocean off the shore near Hamilton
They were detained by the Americans, who eventually determined they were not a threat to the United States. But because no country volunteered to take them and it was feared they would be detained and tortured if they were returned to China, the men were left in limbo.
Now they have been given a chance by officials in the millionaire's playground - an island paradise that doubles as one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
And already they have dreams of opening the first Uighur restaurant.
Embracing the delights of their new island home, the Uighurs have already taken a sunset swim and caught a fish at their first attempt at fishing. They have also reverted to their real names after using pseudonyms since leaving China.
They encountered a fisherman while walking along the beach and became curious about the art of fishing, their lawyer said.
The man offered to teach them, and one of the former prisoners, Khelil Mamut, tossed a line into the ocean. He caught a 10-inch fish to the cheers of the other men, she said.
Government liaison Glenn Brangman later took them swimming and watched as they climbed the rocks and jumped into the ocean like he did as a boy.
'Normally Bermudians test the temperature of the water,' he said. 'But they just went to the edge and jumped straight in.'
'When we didn't have any country to accept us, when everybody was afraid of us ... Bermuda had the courage and was brave enough to accept us,' said Abdulla Abdulgadir, who at 30 is the youngest of the four men who relished their first weekend of freedom in seven years.
'We are not moving anywhere,' he said.
He and his companions have traded drab prison jumpsuits for comfortable cotton pants and knit shirts, and razor wire-encircled jail compounds for beach cottages, where they are staying at U.S. taxpayers' expense.
They hope to quickly find jobs in Bermuda - one of the world's wealthiest places because of its financial and insurance sector - and eventually start families.
The four Uighurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs) also have immediate priorities, such as learning to drive, scuba dive and bowl, said Glenn Brangman, a former military official who is helping reintroduce them to the world outside prison.
'I told them one step at a time,' Mr Brangman said. 'They're beginning to live all over again.'
The latest developments have sparked a rash of jokes with Bermuda's tourism slogan 'feel the love' satirically changed to 'Bermuda, it don't GITMO better than this'.
Thirteen other Uighurs at Guantanamo are hoping to move to the Pacific island nation of Palau.
Today the European Union said it was ready to help Barack Obama 'turn the page' on Guantanamo by taking in detainees - though it did not specify how many or which countries would do so.
All of the Uighurs were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan as suspected allies of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. But the men claimed they had only fled oppression by China and were never enemies of the U.S.
'We only have one enemy, and that's the Chinese,' one of the men, Ablikim Turahun, told a military tribunal in 2004.
'They have been torturing us and killing us all: old, young, men, women, little children and unborn children.'U.S. officials eventually declared the Uighurs innocent of any wrongdoing and authorized their release, but they couldn't be sent back to China because U.S. law forbids deporting someone to a country where they are likely to face torture or persecution.
Wild Thing's comment........
This all goes right along with Obama's reaction to 9-11 and how he felt badly for the Muslims beniig driven to do such a thing, that the US had been so mean to Muslims.
We must remember this:
That all four of the Uighurs admitted during their combatant status review tribunals (CSRTs) at Gitmo that they received training in the Taliban’s Afghanistan. And all four of them received this training at an ETIM/TIP terrorist training facility in Tora Bora, a key area once controlled by the Taliban and al Qaeda. Three of the four Uighurs transferred to Bermuda also admitted that they had firsthand ties to senior terrorists such as Hassan Mahsum and Abdul Haq – the leaders of the ETIM/TIP. Haq was recently designated an al Qaeda terrorist by the Obama administration’s Treasury Department, which noted that he is also a member of al Qaeda’s elite Shura council. Mahsum was killed in a Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold in northern Pakistan in 2003.
Posted by Wild Thing at June 16, 2009 05:49 AM
Comments
Gezzzz....my wife and I would love to have an all expense paid vacation to a resort island. But we can't afford it because MY TAX $$$$ IS PAYING FOR THESE NUMB-NUTS to enjoy life.
Posted by: Steve Gaston, USMC at June 16, 2009 07:35 AM
Not in my backyard.
Obama has probably dumped enough funds into the Bermudan pockets to offset any loss of tourism down there.
The Constitution of the United States, Art. III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort.
Which is it Barackus, all of the above???
Since Bermuda is harboring terrorists, does that make it a terrorist state? It certainly demonstrates the hypocrisy of the Obama administration.
Posted by: Jack at June 16, 2009 09:13 AM
Agree Steve and Jack.
A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist.
But then again in the eyes of the Islama Obama administration, so are we.
Bob A.
Posted by: Bob A at June 16, 2009 10:12 AM
The average American is now more highly suspect as a terrorist threat by our government than these Uighars are. And we are taxed while they are tax supported. Hmm, seems like something here is damned backasswards.
Posted by: TomR at June 16, 2009 12:00 PM
The Wee-gars or whatever, cost us 200 Million to send them to Bermuda. That's 50 million a piece. China would have taken them for nothing. What's wrong with this picture.
Posted by: Mark at June 16, 2009 12:06 PM
Hey Mark
Islama Osama Obama
Posted by: Bob A at June 16, 2009 09:45 PM
Thank you everyone so much!!!
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 16, 2009 11:47 PM
