There are 17 Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Chinese Muslims, imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay despite the fact that the government has determined that they are not enemy combatants. They have been cleared for release since 2003, but they have remained captive because the Chinese are demanding they be repatriated, and the U.S. suspects they will be tortured, and are instead trying to find homes for them elsewhere; several have been released to Albania and Sweden.
Yesterday, the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned an October 2008 decision mandating their release into the United States on the grounds that only the executive branch can decide who is allowed to enter the country. These people are trapped in the very definition of a legal black hole: they cannot be released because no one other than China has agreed to take them, but the U.S. doesn't really have the authority to continue holding them because it has determined they are no longer enemy combatants.
UPDATE: I must have published an earlier version of this post where I hadn't made my opinion clear on this subject: The U.S. should offer to take the Uighur detainees at Guantanamo in, or repatriate them to a country of their choice. Either way they should be released as soon as possible. The court's ruling puts the ball in Obama's court.
-- A. Serwer
