Just desserts.

Are you suggesting herring-flavoured ice-cream, Cal Gal?

Just joking; I'm happy for them too and agree it was long overdue. Hope their families can join them there soon.

The guy with the fish is on the right. Was the picture flipped?

Tomm: no, I just don't know my left and right, so often screw it up. I'll change it.

How in the holy hell did our country lock up a bunch of guys for eight years who were totally unconnected with Islamic terrorism? Dick Cheney probably cites this as what a good job he was doing. They were so tough on terrorism they even locked up the innocent guys. I'm just happy they are free now. Haven't been to Bermuda, but while Palau is off the beaten track, it is a tropical paradise.

There is nothing we can do to make up for what Bush/Cheney have done to remove these people from their lives.

I'd settle for war crimes prosecution and/or reparations from the Unites States for its' leaders duplicity, outright falsehoods and torture of innocents or the circumstantially guilty. Our shame is yet to be determined, until we hear the entirety of the ordeals our prisoners have endured, versus their relative burden of guilt and/or innocence. While it may be true that some worked against our interests, torture was never a legitimate answer.

Now, if they stay there, all is well.

Dick Cheney probably cites this as what a good job he was doing. They were so tough on terrorism they even locked up the innocent guys.

Schrecklichkeit. Plain and simple.

They do look healthy and well fed.

It would be really cool if we could do something nice for these guys. Like take them to Disneyland (in Orange County, of course). Maybe Mike K. could take them out for a sail on his raggedy-ass boat?

Tomm: no, I just don't know my left and right, so often screw it up. I'll change it.

In that case you may want move the other guy to the left. Now they're both on the right and probably getting in each other's way.

I must say it's nice to see them out and enjoying their freedom. Unlike a certain Mike K., I think it would have been even nicer if we'd had the grace and courage to let them enjoy, along with their freedom, the society of their fellow Uighurs in the U.S. who offered to take them in. But as these things go, Palau is doubtless better than where they've been.

I'm thinking that anyone who encourages these guys to dwell on the extreme injustice that was done to them and how they deserve a fortune in compensation via lawsuits is doing them no favor.

OTOH, someone like Gates should give each of them a million out of petty cash.

"How can I express it," he said yesterday, describing the new tropical home where he now lives with the three other former Guantanamo detainees. "It is so great, so beautiful."

"This may be a small island," added Abdullah Abdulqadir. "But it has a big heart.""

So these guys are Cheney's worst of the worst. I'd have a beer and drown a worm with them. It is amazing that they can smile and enjoy life. If some country locked me away with no trial and with torture, I doubt I'd be smiling much without some turnabout fair play.

what a beautiful picture.

thank you for this bit of happy news on the cusp of a new week.

In some ways, it's better for them that they were sent to Bermuda. Bermudians, in general, are way more polite and respectful than Americans. Funny, though, to see that the Canadian press isn't much better than ours, calling Bermuda "tropical," lol.

They do look healthy and well fed.

That's because they were held in a separate section of Gitmo once the Bush administration figured out they were arrested by mistake. The US government has known for at least three years that these guys are not terrorists and have been treating them accordingly ... except for the minor detail of keeping them imprisoned.

Ay... I just read the last paragraph of the Star article and almost cried... Make sure you read it. And also consider a vacation in Bermuda! It's a wonderful, wonderful place!

I weep over their innocence.

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers12%5Cpaper1172.html

THE UIGHURS

51.This year has also seen Chinese engineers and other experts working in Afghanistan and Pakistan being targeted by suspected terrorist elements. Uighurs allegedly trained by the IMU were suspected of involvement in the explosion in Gwadar in Balochistan on May 3 last in which three Chinese engineers were killed and in the explosions on July 31,2004, at the same town in which no casualties were reported.

52. These incidents were followed by the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers working in an irrigation project in South Waziristan by a group of pro-bin Laden jihadi terrorists in the beginning of October,2004, and the death of one of them on October 13,2004, during a rescue operation mounted by the US-trained Special Services Group, the parent Army unit of Gen.Pervez Musharraf.

53.Talking to a group of senior Pakistani newspaper editors after a visit to China last year, Musharraf was reported to have stated that he was shocked by the strong language used by the Chinese leaders while talking of the activities of the Uighur jihadi terrorists from Pakistani territory. Since then, the Pakistan Army and its ISI have mounted special operations to smoke out the Chechens, the Uzbeks and the Uighurs operating from the FATA in co-operation with each other. Apart from killing or capturing a few Uzbek and Chechen terrorists and killing an Uighur terrorist, these operations have not produced any significant results. In the meanwhile, the Hizbut Tehrir, which has a strong presence in Pakistan and the CARs, has started wooing the Uighurs in an attempt to set up sleeper cells in Xinjiang. Amongst the major successes claimed by the Pakistani authorities since March last are the killing of Hassan Mahsun of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and of Nek Muhammad, a local Pakistani tribal leader, who was allegedly assisting the Al Qaeda and the Taliban remnants and causing serious injuries to Yuldeshev.

54. Following the Gwadar explosion of May, a number of Chinese intelligence officers from its Ministries of State (external) and Public (internal) Security have reportedly been deployed in Balochistan and South Waziristan to assist the Pakistani authorities in their investigation and in their hunt for the Uighur jihadi terrorists.

Yes, luther, the Nazis had an expression for what you imply with your quotes, it was called 'Sippenhaft'.

Er, the Nazis had more than an expression as they elevated the old Teutonic rule into law. Yes, indeed, guilt by blood infects an entire family was their belief. If, one is "bad", then wipe out all of their kin.

Hey, DocMikey, you could take them shopping at your favorite store, Fredericks of Hollywood. They were innocent, Doc.

At least we made the small step of freeing these particular guys. I hope they are able to rebuild their lives.

I'm ashamed our gov't ever bothered to keep them in prison once it was apparent they were innocent. Of course it's classic Bush: he never admitted he was wrong and let his successor clean up his mess, just like other people have cleaned up his messes since he was an alcoholic running amok in Texas.

Now, if they stay there, all is well.

Who cares where they stay? They're harmless. The only people who are scared are the idiots dumb enough to believe Dick and Liz Cheney. I worry more about people walking the streets who are actually that stupid and gullible.

Ahhh, just like Wheel of Fortune... a lovely parting gift.

I weep over their innocence.

Yes, they must be incredibly powerful terrorists if they were able to direct terror attacks from their prison cells at Gitmo even after being held there for at least two years at the point that the report you linked to was written.

So your claim is that the Bush administration was so incompetent that terrorist leaders were still able to order terror attacks while being held at Gitmo, right? I'm willing to believe pretty much any level of incompetence by the Bushies at this point, but I think you need a little more proof that Gitmo was so completely unsecured that prisoners there were able to keep planning and carrying out terrorist attacks while they were imprisoned by the US.

"I'd have a beer and drown a worm with them."

they being observant Muslims, probably not...