I agree. It was a travesty what we did to these innocent men.

BTW, it's totally sexist and chauvinist that no innocent women were detained at Gitmo for 7 years.

I admit I thought the image of the Uighur in the ocean was totally adorable, but that's because (a) the Uighurs are, if I'm understanding the geography, from an area nowhere near an ocean, and (b) I saw it as a wonderful celebration of freedom. I can't believe people are saying that we, I don't know, should have released them into Siberia or something.

(I wonder if part of the attention comes from the fact that "Uighur" is such a fun word to say. Weeger. Weeeeeger. Anyway.)

Meant absolutely sarcastically:
I can't believe we chose such a BEAUTIFUL island like Cuba on which to falsely imprison people for 7 years of their life that they will never be able to regain. They had it too good!

Sarcasm off:
I think giving people a home, safe from persecution, where they can enjoy simple pleasures like ice cream is the least we could do for these men. I don't know why people feel so threatened by these images. Is it the realization that these people are just like them and enjoy ice cream and dips in the ocean? Perhaps people are uncomfortable with the idea that people who we have demonized and portrayed as inhuman for so many years actually ARE human.

I wonder if what might be going on here is a little (faux?) populist rage in respect to the economy, at least from some sectors. Personally, I find it to be mind-bogglingly stupid that we are sending Gitmo detainees to other countries rather than bringing them to America (or back to their home countries when appropriate) and Jon Stewart touched on that aspect. What stuck out to me is that when America is seeing increasing unemployment at very worrying rates and a staggering deficit, that we are sending Uighurs to live, what appears to be, the good life in Bermuda. I do completely agree that after being held in Gitmo for so long after being declared innocent they do deserve compensation.

Ice cream? They get to eat ICE CREAM? And swim? In the OCEAN?

The media is being ridiculously petty, once again.

I'm glad that Bermuda took them in and that they have a safe place to live. I don't think it would have been a good idea to bring them to the United States, for their own safety - it's clear, from the media's coverage of this issue, that they would have faced enormous amounts of prejudice here. It's encouraging to see them living their lives free and having fun, like they should be able to.

I think after keeping them in Guantanamo for so long, the least we can do is let them live peacefully and happily in paradise.

Honestly, it's not as if the ice cream shop was the Ritz. It's just a dinky little ice cream shop with bags of chips in the background and paper butterflies decorating the wall. Those ice cream are most probably vanilla. Is that really the image of luxury?

Every time I see these images, I can feel my heart clench up with happiness. It just looks so right to me, that these people whom we unfairly mistreated for so long are finally getting some happiness. To me, these are pictures of justice, in a way, or at least pictures of the sort of "happy ending" that tales of false imprisonment rarely end with.

I'm actually surprised, for once, by the media response, and a little confused.

A couple of weeks ago we had this big discussion in Belgium about accepting detainees from Guantanamo. The media coverage was unbelievable. The main argument that opponents kept repeating was that our prison system is already at its capacity. While this is true, it is completely irrelevant because these people would not end up in prison.
It was unbelievable that politicians and the media would just keep repeating this argument without anyone countering it. I even read an editorial from the lead journalist of one of the 'quality newspapers' that used the same 'our prisons are full' argument.
It seriously lowered my (already somewhat shaky) faith in 'serious journalism'.

The whole debate seemed surreal to me. Especially since they were taking about accepting 2 or 3 people (which was also never really mentioned).
So it seems that not only people in the USA still consider these guys as terrorists, but that also many people in Western Europe do so.

To Mitchell, Gitmo is a "murky situation". As if these guys just washed up there unannounced, rather than being abducted.

Then this:

"It’s sort of incongruous! To see these four men in their polo shirts, from Guantanamo, eating ice cream in Bermuda"

Did she really say "these four men... from Guantanamo"! When the US military abducts four innocent men and imprisons them for years, they then become guilty by virtue of being in prison.

Get me out of this madhouse.

I think a lot of it stems from the economy- ie. "if the government can afford to give suspected terrorists beach houses, why can't they help me afford an apartment that isn't infested with roaches?" or "if they can afford to give these guys houses in Bermuda, then why can't they help my small business?"

I watched the Stewart clip and at first I thought he was satirizing how ridiculous "The Media" was being. Then I saw the "Terrorist Elmo" sock-I mean hand- puppet. Yes, it's disappointing, how did you guess?

I'm glad for these men. They deserve their freedom and more. I don't enjoy the images, though, because I cannot view them without feeling shame. I'm ashamed of what my country has done to them.

I believe that many of the people who are upset by these photos are feeling the same way but are unable to recognize that feeling. They are aware they feel bad but in self-defense they intellectually spin the internal "story" a different way. It is easier to blame the victim, maybe, than it is to recognize whatever responsibility we have, or what we have been complicit to.

In a nutshell: Guilt?

"Uighurs are a minority group in China, often facing persecution for being Muslim."

Just a note that Uighurs in China have also been fighting for an independent state on and off for hundreds of years (from my understanding, since before the majority of their population was Muslim), and they are seen as a threat by the Chinese for that reason. So while I don't know the involvement of these Uigurs in those independence struggles, and, as far as I know, any involvement they did have with the Taliban likely would have been training for their movement, not against the U.S., Uighurs have been labeled by China as terrorists for a while (prior to Sept 11, 2001, they were able to get asylum in the U.S. for political reasons). But it was certainly helpful to the U.S. that they were able to curry favor with China by labeling them as a threat (compare this with the situation in Tibet). But it is certainly interesting how the detention in Guantanamo has manged to shift public opinion of Uighurs from "political refugees from China's oppressive system" to "potential terrorists."

I have serious doubts that we're so overcome by populist rage that we envy people with the opportunity to eat ice cream in dinky shops and swim. I'm about to default on my student loans and I still have plenty of access to ice cream and swimming pools.

It's all just racism and the lurking suspicion that they're still criminals, even though they were never criminals in the first place. Shit, if America imprisoned me with no trial falsely for years, even after I was found innocent, and then forced me to live in a prison known to routinely torture and rape inmates, and then defamed my name all over the world with anti-terrorist propaganda, I'd be demanding a fucking 7-figure annual payment and a pent house in the Caribbean, plus the most costly therapists money can buy.

After destroying their lives, their reputation, and falsely imprisoning them in horrible conditions for years, we give them access to a home and a place where they can live in peace... THE HORROR. Yep, they should have totally "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps" after our country destroyed their earning potential more than half a decade and made any employer on the planet doubt their reputation.

I'm so totally out of touch with the world today. Considering how popular this outrage seems to be, finding their compensation subpar apparently makes me some sort of Martian.

I have to loudly applaud the risk taken by the Bermudan premier, Ewart Brown, one of the only leaders who has enough backbone to face the ire generated by US and British embarrassment, and accept these innocent victims when no-one else would. It's too bad that Americans, as reflected by their media, cannot admit the outrageous mistakes made by their illegal internment programs.

I feel rage when I see ANYONE eating ice cream. I have to take a handful of expensive pills in order to digest the lactose, but there people are, willfully disregarding my HORRIFIC PLIGHT and eating ice cream willy nilly whenever they want, as much as they want. Insensitive b*stards.

But seriously, the only thing that could make these pictures sweeter was video of them giggling like school girls.

And also, some people would consider Bermuda torture. I know people who are sunlight sensitive that develop heat rashes from just a car ride with their arm in the sun. I know people who fear to swim, and those that fear thunder, etc. You really never know how such a forced housing makes someone feel.

First of al...If your not bermudian, you dont have the right to say anything.
Taxpayers money is being used to accommodate these people and its not right that they get to live better than a handful of bermudians that work SO hard to get nowhere. Same thing happens all over the world. The rich people stay rich and the poor stay poor.

And Ewart Brown is a scam artist....Time for him to go take the money that he has already stolen from the locals and leave. No one but the ignorant bermudians that cant accept caucasians, support him.

Bermuda needs a new leader, and soon!