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Bush Wallowed in the Adoration of the Albanian Mob
If I'd known you were coming I'd have baked a cake And invited all the neighbors in.- Song from the 1940s by Al Trace
They were greeted somewhat differently. Fortunately the first to arrive did not witness the treatment accorded the second to arrive and so their disparate treatment did not add to their depression. Not that the first arrivals wouldn't have enjoyed witnessing the arrival of the second. It would have gotten them out of the refugee camp. And since it was he who got them where they are, it would have been nice if the occasion of his arrival had given them a furlough, however short, from their otherwise desperate circumstances.
The different greetings were in Albania. When Prime Minister Sali Berisha greeted Mr. Bush he said Mr. Bush was "the greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had." (That actually says more about the kind of people who visit Albania than it does about Mr. Bush.) Mr. Berisha did not bother to greet the Uighurs who had arrived some months earlier.
The Uighurs are a Muslim ethnic minority from the Xinjiang province in China. A few years before arriving in Albania they had been in Afghanistan for reasons that had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden. Following the events of 9/11 they decided to go to Pakistan where after a time they were invited to dinner by some villagers. At the conclusion of the dinner they were taken to a mosque where instead of praying with their newfound friends they were turned over to American forces in exchange for money and taken to Guantanamo.
While incarcerated there the panels that were set up to determine if they were "enemy combatants" concluded they were not and could leave if they could find somewhere to go. No one, it turned out, wanted them. They could not be sent to China since United States law says in essence that a person cannot be repatriated if the country to which the person is going will subject the person to the kind of treatment the person received at Guantanamo. The reason they would be subject to the Guantanamo-like treatment in China is that the Chinese consider them terrorists. Like Messrs Bush and Cheney, the Chinese have discovered that one way to avoid respecting a person's human rights is to call that person a terrorist or enemy combatant. That designation causes all human rights otherwise accorded that individual to disappear into thin air.
Although admitting the Uighurs to the United States would have seemed like the obvious thing to do since they were only 90 miles away, that was legally impossible because of The Immigration and Nationality Act. The Guantanamo panel had determined that the men were neither terrorists nor enemy combatants but that didn't matter. If someone who taught the would-be resident how to fire a weapon is, or might be, one of those people, that person is forever tainted in the eyes of Homeland Security and therefore ineligible to ever enter the United States. Only one country was willing to accept the 5 Uighurs. That country was Albania and that is the country to which the men were sent.
Placed aboard a plane, they were manacled and chained to the floor to prevent them from doing anything untoward on the flight to Albania. Upon their arrival Mr. Berisha did not greet them. Instead of red carpet treatment they were taken to a refugee center where they now live receiving free room and board and 40 euros a month. Armed guards attend them. They would like to earn more than 40 Euros a month but they have been told they can only obtain work permits and leave their quarters if they learn to speak Albanian.
According to a report in the New York Times, before Mr. Bush's arrival the Uighurs were permitted to go to the offices of Sali Berisha to ask him to ask Mr. Bush to find them a new home. Mr. Berisha was unavailable but the men left their request with someone in his office. There is no indication that Mr. Berisha got around to passing the request on to Mr. Bush.
After he had wallowed in the adoration of the Albanian mob (one of the few people left in the world who would so joyously greet him) Mr. Bush left Albania. Before leaving he said something that would have cheered the Uighurs had they heard him. Speaking to Mr. Berisha Mr. Bush said: "You are writing an amazing chapter for history on freedom. It will be amazing to look back on all you've done. I congratulate you on it." The Uighurs would love to be co-authors of the chapter he described. Were that to happen they might get the freedom that Mr. Bush took away from them.
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21 Comments so far
Show AllThe stolen watch incident reminds of of an old communist era joke making the rounds in Eastern Europe in the 70s.
Brezhnev is bragging to other leaders of the Bloc that when he takes a train from West to East he can tell what country he is in by simply by sticking his hand out the window. He says, "When I'm in East Germany, they kiss my hand, when I'm in Poland, they spit on it, and when I'm in the Ukraine, they steal my watch."
Then, as now, it's a refection of economic policies.
bush would've stayed in Albania longer, but didn't have the time.
GeoBoy is a perfect replacement for Comrade Enver Hoxha who was also President of the World in the eyes of Albanians.... Send Geo to Albania, with his Daddy and Mummy, and he can play King Zog and have his own personal country with much less hassle, throw his weight around ad nauseum, and gloat with his buddy Silvio Berlusconi on the weekends. Just get the ignorant jerk out of Washington ASAP!
PJD June 23rd, 2007 11:52 pm
If you watch the videotape, Bush did not take his watch off, but some clever fan did. Has the United States ever experienced a complete imbecile for president before this moron?
No, Bush took his watch off because of fear of it getting stolen because he has some stereotype of the Albanians -especially the Gypsies, doing this sort of thing.
Did shrub perhaps confuse being in Tirana with Tehran? And here he thought his magnificent intellect and superior strategic thinking had produced what Cheney had predicted in Iraq-being greeted as a hero!
But alas it's back to plan A-in chorus with that other Repug zany McCain-"bomb bomb Iran".
Let's send Bush to ALbania
The Albanians, of course are brown-nosing Bush (and Clinton before him) because of the US's exemplary role in robbing Kosovo from the Serbians, and in the Albanians' assistance in ongoing ethnic cleansing of Serbians from Kosovo - which is the historic cultural heartland of Serbia, but never mind that inconvenient fact.
Of course, Serbia had it's share of thugs in it's military and government (as does/did Macedonia, Bosnia and Croatia - but those countries are capitalist thugs - so they're ok).
If an innocent person is mistakenly and illegally incarcerated for 5 years and then released, is there not a U.S. or International law that requires they be compensated? If not, can these people still seek remedy by suing the U.S. in international courts? If not, where he hell is justice in this world?
Notice how he had to go all the way to Albania to find someone who is willing to pretend that they like him?
You know a curious thing emerges in this. Central cosmic casting got the Bush thing mangled. Here's a guy that is the PERFECT person (a/k/a thug) to lead a small, impoverished 3rd world nation. Indeed people long subjugated to one corrupt regime after another MIGHT appreciate such a one. IF ONLY... Bush had been born elsewhere! Alas, dream on...
Siouxrose,
He claims to be a Texan. If Texas actually succeeds in ceding from the nation, we can claim he's an illegal alien and boot him out that way... HAHAHA!
Like 99.9% of people on commondreams, ANY way this guy goes is FINE with me... and the rest of the bloodsuckers that entered under his umbrella. They will REALLY have to FUMIGATE the White House, IF all the worst case scenarios (like Y2K) falter!
The truth appears to be this:
It looks like these people are being held in detention in Albania in order to clear the prison in Guantanamo. It is politically expedient to keep them out of sight at least for a few more years.
Their chances of survival in Albania look to be next to 0, enforced poverty, and then how will they integrate into this totally foreign society?
The answer is this a new song:
To the tune of Paul Simon's 50 Ways to Leave A Lover:
"Fifty Ways To Kill An Innocent Political Prisoner"
There are many shades and nuances of murder and crime.
Here we are seeing one of them, a very subtle gray.
Isn't that where they stole his watch right off his wrist?
A cheap price to pay for adulation....
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"lunafish June 23rd, 2007 5:01 pm
Siouxrose,
He claims to be a Texan. If Texas actually succeeds in ceding from the nation, we can claim he's an illegal alien and boot him out that way… HAHAHA!"
We Texans have never claimed Bush although he has tried his best to claim us.
Down here he is what we call "all hat and no cattle"
Bush is from Maine. I think the best thing to do would be to expel Maine from the U.S. and then deport him back to his home country. LOL
Lobo Gris
What were these guys doing in Afghanistan? Did I read correctly that they were there for weapons training?
"fondisblue June 23rd, 2007 6:58 pm
What were these guys doing in Afghanistan? Did I read correctly that they were there for weapons training?"
Pretty much wherever Muslims are a minority and form a majority on a particular plot of land there is a seperatist movement. In the case of China, eastern chinese muslims are no exception.
All right, call me a conspiracy theorist, but I don't care what the history of Albania is, I just don't buy that there is anyplace in this world where the Bush creature can go and mix freely and physically with mobs of people and be treated like a hero. I'll bet the scene was faked with the connivance of MSM news. And don't forget Albania was the site of the faked war in Wag the Dog. Don't you think they're aware of that? Could it actually make them fond of the ultimate Dog Wagger?
mwildfire June 23rd, 2007 9:58 pm
Correct.....
When the right angled shot of the so called massing crowd was shown to discover what happened to 'little Caligula's' watch....
IT WAS AN EMPTY STREET WITH BLUE SKY....
The whole deal appeared to be CHOREOGRAPHED....
Lobo Gris
Bush is from Maine. I think the best thing to do would be to expel Maine from the U.S. and then deport him back to his home country. LOL
Actually, he's from Conn. We folks from the three northern New England states don't really consider that part of New England either since it's inhabited by mostly Long Island escapees.
Seems like NOBODY really wants the clown, wherever he came from.