High court accepts Guantanamo Uyghur case

The case may soon dissolve, however, because nearly all the men have been or are expected to soon be sent voluntarily to other nations.

The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed in recent weeks to take in 12 of the 13 remaining prisoners, U.S. officials have said. Only one man, Arkin Mahmud, is likely to remain held indefinitely at the U.S. naval station at Guantanamo Bay. His lawyer told the Washington Post the man has mental health problems that cannot be treated in the tiny country. Mahmud's brother is among those headed to Palau.

The men are Uyghurs, an ethnic group from western China. They were accused of receiving weapons and military training in Afghanistan. Some of them have been cleared for release since 2003 and several other Uyghurs have been released to other countries. The United States said it would not send them back to their homeland because of concern they would be tortured by Chinese authorities.

The Chinese government has said no returned Uyghurs would be mistreated and has repeatedly warned other countries against taking the men. Beijing officials this summer again urged the United States to hand over all remaining Uyghurs instead of sending them elsewhere.

China alleges the men are part of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization, that operates in the Xinjiang region. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang.

Eight Uyghurs are a party to the pending appeal with the Supreme Court. In a September 23 letter to the court, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the administration's top attorney in high court matters, said the U.S. government "has every reason to believe that at least six of the [Uyghur] petitioners shortly will be resettled in Palau, although it is impossible to be certain until they actually board the plane."



Kagan had said the initial transfer would happen by October 3.

Among the lead Uyghur plaintiffs is Hazaifa Parhat, accused of attending a terror training camp in Afghanistan at the time of the September 11, 2001, attacks. He denies the charge.

A federal judge in October 2008 ordered the Uyghurs released inside the United States because they were no longer considered "enemy combatants." U.S. District Judge Richard Urbina had said further imprisonment "crossed the constitutional threshold into infinitum."

U.S. military hearings known as combatant status review tribunals determine whether a prisoner can be designated an "enemy combatant," and prosecuted by the military. Some legal and military analysts have likened them to civilian grand jury proceedings.

The Bush administration appealed that decision in its final days, and a federal appeals panel ruled in February there was no legal or constitutional authority for the prisoners to be immediately freed on U.S. soil, even though they were unlawfully detained and no countries at the time were willing to accept them. The Uyghurs then asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.

Obama administration officials have said privately they were unwilling to launch a constitutional showdown with the Supreme Court on the detainee issue. The Obama Justice Department has concentrated on the negotiations with Palau.

Lawyers for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the Uyghurs in court, said the men pose no terror threat and could have been released into a Muslim community in the United States until their cases were resolved.

If the Uyghurs all find new homes outside U.S. borders, the former prisoners would no longer have standing to challenge their former enemy combatant status and detention in federal court. The high court then would likely dismiss the appeal at the urging of the government, leaving the larger constitutional issues unresolved.

Bermuda in June accepted four of the Uyghurs, after quiet negotiations with U.S. officials.

"I am no terrorist, I have not been terrorist, I will never be terrorist. I am a peaceful person," said one of those four, Kheleel Mamut, in a June 12 interview with CNN on the Atlantic Ocean island.

Albania accepted five Uyghur prisoners in 2006, but has refused to allow any more in the country. Human rights activists say the European nation is concerned about economic and diplomatic retaliation from China.

Any final decision on the Uyghurs by the high court could have implications for other Guantanamo prisoners. The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that detainees can go to federal court to contest their imprisonment, but that civilian judges lack the authority to order them freed.

In addition to the Uyghurs, more than 200 prisoners, many of them suspected terrorists, remain in the detention facility. Approximately two-thirds have appealed their continued imprisonment and have complained the government is unfairly keeping them from finding out if any evidence exists that could clear them.

Many fear arrest, physical abuse or persecution if they are sent to their homelands, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The Justice Department over the weekend announced three detainees would be sent with their approval to Yemen and Ireland.

Efforts to find places for the detainees have been stepped up since President Obama announced he would close the military prison at Guantanamo in coming months.

Knowing cholesterol numbers could ward off heart disease

Although her overall cholesterol number lingered in the low to mid-200s, she figured her medication would keep it under control.

But she figured wrong, and heart disease slowly started clogging her arteries.

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, says that over the years, it's become clear to most American women that heart disease is nothing to ignore. It's the leading cause of death of women in the United States, says Nabel, a prominent advocate for women's heart health.

But Nabel says many women still don't know all the risk factors for heart disease, especially when it comes to cholesterol.

"For middle-aged women, 40 to 60, high cholesterol is the single most important risk factor for heart disease and heart attacks," she said. The Heart Truth: How to lower your risk for heart disease

Peiffer didn't think much about her cholesterol until nine years ago, when, at age 39, she began to feel ill during a water aerobics class.



"I started coughing," she recalled. "I was coughing a lot!"

It got so bad she decided to drive home. The cough, she says, grew worse. "The coughing continued, but then I was coughing up this pink, frothy stuff, and I knew that wasn't right."

Alarmed, Peiffer left her kids with her husband and drove herself to the hospital. But because of her age, doctors never considered that she might be having heart problems; they figured she had a virus and sent her home. But later tests showed that she had something wrong with her heart. After performing an angiogram, her doctors told her the bad news
"They told me I had a 99 percent blockage in my left main artery," she said. "I needed open-heart surgery."

Millions of Americans get a diagnosis of high cholesterol every year. Cholesterol comes from two sources: your body and your food. Your liver (and to a smaller degree, your cells) makes about 75 percent of blood cholesterol. The remaining 25 percent comes from the foods you eat.

Cholesterol is divided into two main types. HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, is the "good" cholesterol because it helps to clear excess fats from the arteries. LDL, or low-density lipoprotein, is the bad cholesterol because it clogs the arteries, increasing a person's risk for heart attack and stroke.

The American Heart Association says that in premenopausal women, estrogen tends to raise HDL (good) cholesterol. But as estrogen drops during menopause, HDL levels drop too, and LDL levels rise. That's why women need to know their numbers.