Which is More Fun: Bermuda or Tora Bora?

From Brent Baker at Newsbusters comes this transcript of a Fox News Report in which Catherine Herridge interviewed the four Chinese Uighur former Gitmo detainees who may be-- even at this moment--swimming in the private pool attached to their pink beachfront cottage in Bermuda.

CATHERINE HERRIDGE: They say the worst moment at Gitmo came when the U.S. allowed Chinese interrogators to question them.

INTERPRETER: They were really harsh. They were threatening them.

HERRIDGE: Camp Iguana, the camp with the least restrictions, was the men's most recent home. Asked which was worse: Life at Gitmo versus China?

INTERPRETER: Of course it's China. There's no guarantee for human rights there.

That was a good question by Herridge, and a good followup might be: "Ask which was worse: Life at Gitmo versus Tora Bora."

Tora Bora, Osama bin Ladin's suspected former hang-out in Afghanistan, was the not-so-comfy abode of the Uighur terrorists before Gitmo. It just happens that that their terrorist training camp was run by a Uighur high level al Qaeda terrorist by the name of Abdul Haq, at least according to 10 of the 17 Gitmo Uighurs.

As reported by The Weekly Standard:

[A]ll four of the [Burmuda] Uighurs admitted during their combatant status review tribunals (CSRTs) at Gitmo that they received training in the Taliban’s Afghanistan. And all four of them received this training at an ETIM/TIP [Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement/Turkistan Islamic Party] terrorist training facility in Tora Bora, a key area once controlled by the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Three of the four Uighurs transferred to Bermuda also admitted that they had firsthand ties to senior terrorists such as Hassan Mahsum and Abdul Haq – the leaders of the ETIM/TIP. Haq was recently designated an al Qaeda terrorist by the Obama administration’s Treasury Department, which noted that he is also a member of al Qaeda’s elite Shura council. Mahsum [also a Uighur] was killed in a Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold in northern Pakistan in 2003.

One of the four men in the photo above, Abdulla Abdulqadir (in the white shirt), has reportedly been identified by ABC News as Jalal Jalaladin, who told U.S. authorities that Mahsum personally gave him weapons training.

Why would China be interested in these Uighurs, and why would the U.S. allow Chinese authorities to question them while they were imprisoned at Gitmos? The Weekly Standard offers some insight:

The ETIM/TIP is a U.S. and UN designated terrorist organization affiliated with al Qaeda and has attacked civilians in China, as well as reportedly plotted against other targets elsewhere, including the U.S. embassy in Kyrgyzstan. According to the State Department, ETIM/TIP members have also fought alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. And last year the organization threatened to attack the Olympic Games in China.

Yep, gotta empty Gitmo quick.

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Related Posts:

Uighur Update: How Sweet It Is
Bermuda and South Pacific Vacations for Chinese Uighur Muslim Terrorists