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Former Gitmo Detainee Urges the Release of Innocents

by Barbara McPherson | May 25, 2009 at 10:00 am

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Abu Bakker Qassim, a Chinese Uighur, now living in Albania has been urging the American government to release 17 of his compatriots from the offshore prison -- Gitmo.
The debate about how to go about closing the prison in Cuba has been gathering steam and now many states have declared they have no wish to house, in prisons, those deemed terrorists. There are, however a number of people incarcerated at Guantanamo who are acknowledged innocents, having been caught up in the sweep to capture those suspected of bombing the Twin Towers.
Qassim was one of those. He left his homeland to try to make a better life for himself and family. Now he cannot return to China without facing imprisonment or execution. He has been separated from his family since leaving China in 2000.

In 2001, just days before the start of a US bombing campaign aimed at overthrowing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the Uighurs arrived in the Afghan city of Jalalabad.

Four days after their arrival, Jalalabad was bombed. The Uighurs left to seek sanctuary in neighboring Pakistan. They could not know that, after an arduous march through the mountains of Tora Bora, the villagers who would greet them warmly on the other side of the border had, only a few days earlier, been blanketed by fliers from US aircraft, promising that whoever "hunts an Arab becomes a rich man."

"In Kandahar, the Americans realized we had nothing to do with Al Qaeda, but they still shipped us to Guantánamo," Qassim contends. "At that point, we understood that we were flying into hell."

Qassim spent the next five years behind steel bars.

"The remaining Uighurs would pose a threat to no one, and Abu Baker is an example," Willet says, referring to Qassim. "He has lived peacefully in Tirana for more than three years, while the other Uighur men in Gitmo have essentially the same background as Abu Bakker and are as peaceful as he."

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Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 15:59 on May 25th, 2009

The following is a link on the Uighurs for your info:

Then, on January 5, 2007 the Chinese Public Security Bureau raided a suspected terrorist training camp in the mountains near the Pamir Plateau in southern Xinjiang. According to the reports, 18 terrorists were killed and another 17 captured in a gun battle between the East Turkestan Independence Movement and PRC forces. One police officer was killed and "over 1,500 hand grenades... were seized."[13]

In the runup to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, during which world attention was drawn by pro-Tibet protests along the Olympic torch relay , Uyghur separatist groups staged protests in several countries.[14] According to the Chinese government, a suicide bombing attempt on a China Southern Airlines flight in Xinjiang was thwarted in March 2008.[15]

On August 4, 2008, 4 days before the Beijing Olympics, 16 Chinese police officers were killed and 16 were injured by suspected ETIM members.[16] Chinese police injured and damaged the equipment of two Japanese journalists sent to cover the story.[17]

René

at 22:37 on May 25th, 2009

uh, running through Tora Bora. innocent? I got a bridge.....

Ravinwood_777

at 12:28 on May 28th, 2009

Obviously, if they can prove their innocence then by all means release them at once. As for the others what's with this detaining jazz? detained from operating a vehicle without a license? NO, too many DWIs? why don't we call them what they are "TERRORIST" who's only goal in life is to destroy the great Satan and the little one too.

Look here's my suggestion to solve the whole problem at Gitmo. Go-ahead give them their day in court, then shoot every last one of them, firing squad style.

And in the future we should kill the enemy, never capture them unless it's absolutely necessary to do so... This political correctness in a war situation scenario really stinks to high heaven!!!