Teaser: Palau Us to Look Into This, Please

It was reported this week that a dozen or so (the number varies with each report) Chinese Muslim "Uighur" detainees from Guantanamo Bay will be sent to the South Pacific nation of Palau, since the U.S. Congress has decided that even detainees cleared of charges may not reside in the United States.

Stephen is heading off to Palau this evening to get local reaction and will blog more thoroughly on the racial implications of the news next week. After all, there is certainly an ethnic component to this, and there are issues of nationality, as well. Palau, once controlled by Japan, has been quite happy with its association with the United States since the end of World War II, through its status as a protectorate territory until the mid-1990s to today, as the independent nation enjoys significant funding from the U.S. by virtue of its compact of free association. Additionally, most of the low-wage laborers in Palau are from the Philippines, so there is a social structure in place there that is related to ethnicity.

To whet your appetite, see these recent stories, which range from the mundane to the insensitive:

• Fox News's Greg Gutfeld refers to Palau as "a place called Palau" and The New York Daily News refers to the prisoners as "garbage.").
• The Los Angeles Times reports that locals in Bermuda (where some other Uighur detainees have been sent) and Palau are uneasy about the relocation.
• The latest news is that the deal is not as certain as early reports suggested.

More analysis is forthcoming once Stephen gets situated, gets over his jet lag, and settles into the work he was already scheduled to do there with high school students for the Junior State of America (JSA) program.

What? Did you think that we had a budget to investigate global news now? Please. Call it a happy coincidence.