US Rejects Gitmo Detainees

Seventeen Chinese Muslims imprisoned in Guantanamo since 2002 had their liberation postponed today, as a federal appeals court ruled that they were not welcome in the US. The detainees—who are Uighurs, an embattled minority in western China—have been in limbo for several years as they try to find a country to offer them refuge. (The men, who are no longer considered enemy combatants, don’t want to be sent back China because they fear torture there.) Their detention has been challenged on the grounds of their right to habeas corpus; in October, a judge ordered they be released into the US. But, as is customary at Gitmo, a long, drawn-out process has reached a bureaucratic roadblock.