Uighurs Relocate to New Beachfront Property
Some very good news indeed: the Obama administration has finally found a country willing to accept 17 of Guantanamo's Uighur detainees.
And now the funny bit: that country is...the tiny island of Palau. Of course, Micronesian hospitality isn't free. Per HuffPo, "the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year."
The population of Palau is just over 20,000 people. So we may be effectively paying each resident $10,000. Thank God we didn't pay to settle the detainees in Germany. (Anyone have a spare $800 billion?).
Or maybe we should think of it as a per-detainee payment; it's a steal at only $12 million. Of course, the resettlement is only "temporary," so maybe that's a bit high for a one year lease.
Of course, that $200 million isn't just to accept the Uighurs. It's also for "mutual defense." I'm kind of interested to hear how that would work out if the US was invaded.
All kidding aside, it's a good thing, regardless of cost.
And now the funny bit: that country is...the tiny island of Palau. Of course, Micronesian hospitality isn't free. Per HuffPo, "the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year."
The population of Palau is just over 20,000 people. So we may be effectively paying each resident $10,000. Thank God we didn't pay to settle the detainees in Germany. (Anyone have a spare $800 billion?).
Or maybe we should think of it as a per-detainee payment; it's a steal at only $12 million. Of course, the resettlement is only "temporary," so maybe that's a bit high for a one year lease.
Of course, that $200 million isn't just to accept the Uighurs. It's also for "mutual defense." I'm kind of interested to hear how that would work out if the US was invaded.
All kidding aside, it's a good thing, regardless of cost.
posted by Carbolic at 5:48 AM
11 Comments:
Can someone explain why this is a "good thing"? I don't understand... seems like we're just passing detainees around from country to country. What are we solving?
Carbolic, why is this funny? The US does this all the time, and always have. Lots of people we deport get sent to random third countries when their home countries won't agree to take them back or when they don't have citizenship anywhere, and it's always some sort of a quid pro quo.
And I don't know if it's a "good thing" per se, but it does help out both sides. The US gets rid of some politically difficult to deal with prisoners, and Palau gets lots of aid. And 6:20, I think the problem was that China wouldn't take them back, so they had to go somewhere.
China wanted them back actually...to torture.
Palau is getting smarter. They didn't charge us anything to join the "Coalition of the Willing" when we invaded Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21268-2003Mar24?language=printer
Palau hosted the tenth season of Survivor. Somewhere, Mark Burnett is thinking about how he can capitalize on this relocation.
Watching the Obama administration is feeling more and more like episodes of the West Wing. Not sure if that's good or bad.
I still don't know quite what to make of this news. On the one hand, it seems clear that the Obama administration is doing everything possible to avoid a SCOTUS ruling that courts have the power to order detainees released into the United States. On the other hand, if there was such a ruling, it would galvanize the right and muck up other areas of international relations. Case in point--Gitmo detainees. We were set to send some to Europe, but with all the rah rah from Congress about not wanting them in "our" backyards, the Europeans decided, "Hey well in that case neither do we." So, by avoiding the court fight, maybe the admin is trying to solve this mess more sub-rosa where it can cajole other countries. Meh.
On NPR last night, Palau's president said that the country is not getting additional assistance based on accepting the Uighurs (although he said he wouldn't say no if it was offered). He said the acceptance of the detainees was based on the special relationship with the United States (considering the country was under US control until the early 1990s).
6:20--It's a good thing because they are no longer detainees in a maximum-security military prison.
8:15--It's funny because Palau is really tiny. "1/5 the population of Berkeley" tiny. And it's the location for Survivor, which is funnier (though I didn't realize it). And we have a "mutual defense" treaty, which I know is absolutely ordinary, but is still kinda funny.
11:06--Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? I mean, they're not going to say, "Yes, we would only take them in if the USA bribed every single Palauan with a Kia."
WHEN WILL GRADES BE POSTED I AM GOING CRAZY
haha. poor, poor freaked out 1L. no sympathy from people on this board.
but an email 3Ls received from M*nd* yesterday seemed to indicate grades will be inputted for most classes on monday. so expect to wake up tuesday and check at 8:01 am.
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