An interesting piece by my colleague Mark Kukis in Washington about the fate of the 17 Uighurs detained in Guantanamo. Their situation really does deserve the much abused description of Kafkaesque. Having been delivered into U.S. hands by bounty hunters in Afghanistan, they were cleared of terrorist connections in 2003 (yep, 5 long years ago) but are still at Guantanamo because the U.S., which is bound by law not to return them to a country where they might face persecution which is certainly the case where China is concerned, can’t find anybody else who wants to risk Beijing’s wrath by accepting them. Oddly, the only country that would accept a previous group of five Uighurs released under similar circumstances was China’s former client, Albania where they are now stuck pretty much forever. Even Albania won’t take this next batch though. That lamest of lame ducks as another colleague (Joe Klein; his excoriation of the hapless W. is here) referred to President Bush should of course simply to the decent thing and given them U.S. citizenship (assuming they want it; a green card would do the trick probably as I assume there is no love lost for America in their hearts by now, if there was any in the first place). Even conservative and church groups in the U.S. have called on him to do so. But with characteristic mule-headedness, he’s not budging so it’ll be up to Obama to deal with, pretty much like everything else.
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Obama’s Afghanistan Problem: Neither Karzai Nor the Taliban Like the ‘Reconciliation’ Script
President Barack Obama huddled with President Hamid Karzai in Chicago on Sunday, urging Afghanistan’s leader to accelerate negotiations with the Taliban over a political solution to the longest war in America’s history. But the prospect for Karzai negotiating successfully with the insurgents is clouded by a question raised by Josef Stalin, on the eve of World War II, in response to the suggestion that he offer concessions to the Pope: “How many divisions does he have?” The Taliban now ask the same question about Karzai. And should the Afghan leader also ask himself the question, he might reach a similarly dispiriting conclusion. Karzai’s independent power base is minimal, as is his ability to influence the outcome of his country’s civil war absent direct U.S. involvement. And that gives neither Karzai nor the Taliban much incentive to cut a deal with the other.
Must-Reads from Around the World, May 21, 2012
Spillover - Lebanon’s Daily Star reports on escalating violence inside the country after soldiers shot dead a prominent anti-Bashar al-Assad Muslim preacher Sunday. “The gravity of the incident… prompted leaders on both sides of the political divide to call for calm and restraint to prevent the country from sliding into sectarian strife as a result of a spillover of the 15-month-old uprising in neighboring Syria,” it says.
A Royal Party: Britain Celebrates 60 Years of Queen Elizabeth II
From parades to concerts, and even tea with commoners, 86 year-old Queen Elizabeth II is traversing the United Kingdom to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.
