From Guantánamo To The South Pacific: Is This A Joke?
by Andy Worthington
Andy Worthington is a journalist and historian, based in London. He is the author of The Guantánamo Files, the first book to tell the stories of all the detainees in America’s illegal prison. For more information, visit his blog here: http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/
Let’s face it, when it comes to Guantánamo, there’s little to laugh about, unless you’re an Islamophobic sadist – in which case, there’s still nothing for the rest of us to laugh about.
The Associated Press reports that, in a desperate effort to rid itself of the toxic human debris of Guantánamo, the Obama administration is eyeing up the tiny Republic of Palau, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles (800 km) east of the Philippines, to dispose of some, or all of the 17 Uighurs in Guantánamo.
The Uighurs are Muslims from China’s Xinjiang province, who were swept up in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, and sold to US forces by Pakistani villagers after fleeing from a run-down hamlet in which they had sought solace from their Chinese oppressors, or, in many cases, because they had found themselves unable to make their way to Turkey or Europe, to look for work, as they had originally intended.
Read More »From guantã¡namo to the south pacific is this a joke?