On ABC’s “This Week” today, Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb was asked whether the Chinese Uighurs, currently held in Guantanamo, should be released into Virginia. Webb’s one-word answer: “No.”
The senator, whose state would likely receive the Uighurs if they were set free, argued that no one who has received terrorist training should be allowed into the United States. The Uighurs, he said, “accepted training from al Qaeda and as a result they have taken part in terrorism…I don’t believe they should come to the United States.”
UPDATE: From ABC, the transcript of the conversation between Webb and host George Stephanopoulos on the Uighur question:
STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to bring Senator Webb in on this, because I know there are about 17, I believe, Chinese Uighurs, they are called, who have been ordered released by a federal court, they’ve determined not to be a threat to the United States. And the administration has been working on plans to bring them to Virginia. Can you accept them in your state?
WEBB: Well, let me back up for a minute. The answer is no.
STEPHANOPOULOS: No?
WEBB: No. And I’ll — and then let me explain why. But to back it up, the numbers that we’ve seen in my office are about 800 people have gone through Guantanamo. The majority of those who have been released, we’re down to 220 to 240, so the majority of those that have been released have been released to third countries, not actually released out into the open — you know, to where they can…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Just let out the door, right.
WEBB: Yes, right. So we don’t know really where they have gone. This other group deserves due process. They deserve, in the right kind of environment, and I support what the president is doing on the military commissions, to have their cases examined, to see whether or not they should continue to be detained. The situation with the Chinese Uighurs that you’re talking about, on the one hand, it can be argued that they were simply conducting dissident activities against the government of China. On the other, they accepted training from al Qaeda and as a result they have taken part in terrorism. I don’t believe they should come to the United States.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Not to the United States and not Virginia.
WEBB: No, I don’t believe so.
