Uighurs at Guantanamo urge court to hear case

The lead lawyer for Chinese Muslims confined at Guantanamo Bay says the Obama administration is acting a lot like its predecessor by trying to prevent Supreme Court review of controversial detention policies in the fight against terrorism.

The court should reject the administration's "ploy" and hear the Chinese Muslims' case as scheduled on March 23, Boston-based attorney Sabin Willett wrote Friday in a letter to the court. The Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs), argue that courts have the authority to release the detainees into the United States.

The administration is employing the "familiar tactic of imprisoning and delaying for years, then seeking dismissal at the last moment to evade review," Willett said, citing efforts by both the Obama and Bush administrations in earlier cases.

The Justice Department wants the court to back out of the case now that all seven Uighurs who remain at Guantanamo have received offers of resettlement in other countries.

The justices' resolution of the matter is important because it could affect other Guantanamo detainees - those who have been cleared for release but have no place to go - and further complicate President Barack Obama's now-delayed pledge to close the facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

The case grew out of the high court ruling in 2008 that Guantanamo detainees could challenge their confinement in federal court. That decision is worthless, the Uighurs argue, if a judge cannot ultimately order some detainees to be released.

The government agrees they pose no terror threat but also says they could be tortured if they are returned to China.

The administration's call for the court to dismiss the case stems from the decision by Switzerland earlier in February to take two brothers, including one who had previously not been offered a new home.

The administration acknowledges that an invitation to the other five detainees from the Pacific island nation of Palau has been withdrawn, but Palau's president recently said his country remains receptive to taking them. A second nation the administration refused to identify also at one point was willing to take the Uighurs.

The Web site of the president of the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, says the country is willing to take up to three Guantanamo detainees, although it doesn't identify them or their nationalities.

The court last week asked both sides to explain how the invitation from Switzerland affects the case. The administration has always opposed a court order that the Uighurs be released in the United States. With other nations willing to accept them, the administration said, the Uighurs may well no longer be able to claim they should be released in this country.