Good work if you can get it
By Thoreau
According to Greenwald, we’ll be paying $200 million to the Island nation of Palau to accept 17 Gitmo detainees who were long ago cleared of any wrongdoing but can’t find host countries.
$200 million? Once upon a time that was real money, but now it’s less than 0.2 milli-bailouts. Still, belt-tightening is important, so I humbly propose to buy 17 homes in California, each for approximately $500,000 and also pay for some English classes and vocational training for the guys. The price tag should come to less than $12 million. I’ll have to add a mark-up, of course, but all in all I could probably settle the guys for less than $20 million, plus a $1 million commission for myself.
But wait, there’s more! Act now, and not only will I settle the detainees, I’ll also throw in a can of spray-on hair and a rotisserie chicken oven for just $20 more. All for the low low price of $20,000,020! Supplies limited, act now!
Comment by Caitlin —
June 10, 2009 @ 6:14 pm
According to the president of Palau in a voice recording originally released from BBC, the president denies that the U.S. and Palau have made any sort of $200 million negotiation. What I don’t understand is where is the U.S. government getting the money, if it is true?
Comment by sab —
June 10, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
I hope the poor Uighurs get a big chunk of that change, although I doubt it. They are being dumped on the opposite side of the world from their family and friends. They are being dumped into a totally different language, culture and religious environment. They are used to a cold mountainous climate, and they are being dumped onto a steamy hot tropical island (ok, so all those years in Cuba might help.)
Isn’t the general consensus of everyone but Sen Webb that these guys never did anything except be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Comment by Anonymo —
June 10, 2009 @ 7:47 pm
If “everyone” includes insane people, then not quite; the bedwetters and Newt Gingrich in particular are acting as though they genuinely believe these guys are dangerous terrorists.
Comment by dhex —
June 10, 2009 @ 9:20 pm
in a positive note, at least they didn’t just end up in the same room they keep the lost ark.
Comment by Jon Hendry —
June 10, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
So much for ‘home of the brave’. A nation of 300 million trembles and quakes before the Uighurs, so it falls upon a nation of 20,000 to bravely accept them.
Comment by Seward —
June 10, 2009 @ 10:50 pm
Well, to help supplement their income, the Uighurs could always apply for a government funded alternative medicine study: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31190909/
Comment by Tom Scudder —
June 11, 2009 @ 9:38 am
The people in Nauru have to be pissed. The Australians only gave them $25,000 per brown person. (Though as it turned out they didn’t use all the capacity they paid for, so it worked out to $200,000 per brown person or so).