- And the hearing, the ultimate hearing that resulted in my decision, my pronouncement, I asked, "Now, let's get this clear. These people pose no danger to the United States. Is that correct?" Yes. "They pose no danger to the coalition members?" Yes. "They are not in your view terrorists?" Yes. "And they are not enemy combatants?" 

- Yes. "But you are holding them?" Yes. "And when are you going to release them?" We don't know. "So does that mean that they're gonna be held indefinitely?" And they said yes, but we have the power to do that because these are, this was the explanation that the government presented, I'm paraphrasing. And the lawyer was very eloquent and articulate but I'm paraphrasing. Yes, we have the power to do this. We have the responsibility to do this because we're kind of trying to clean up things, trying to organize things. And this effort with the Uighurs is part of that, and it's very complex. Well, the complexity of the situation, the root of it was the resistance the Chinese government, was having to have these detainees being released. And I found out that the upshot of that was that that the Chinese government was expressing its displeasure to any country that the United States approached with a view towards moving them to that particular country. So they were there indefinitely. They were stuck without a place to go. They were removed from their culture, removed from their families, removed from their place of upbringing, largely restrained from practicing their religion in a way that was consistent with their beliefs. And there was no, there was no agenda for releasing them. It was clear that the order to have them released was obstructed by these factors, the resistance that China had and the fear that many of these, I don't want to call it fear, the reluctance that many of these countries had to buck China to. So I said, "Okay, well then they should be brought here." 

Interviewer: "Here," meaning? 

- My courtroom, United States of America. And when they were brought here, then I would want the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney's office, the CIA, anyone who felt that they needed a voice to help structure the conditions under which they would be released into the community, would be invited to come.