The Discerning Texan

Remember those Chinese Uigurs who were trained by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan? Well according to the BBC, the King of the World decided to wait until it was all but too late to inform our longtime allies the Brits that his Holiness was about to release them to Bermuda, with no charges. Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Pressed on whether the US had told the British government, an unnamed state department official was quoted as saying: “We did talk to them before the Uighurs got on the plane.”

Now a senior US official has told the BBC it was a deliberate decision not to consult London on the resettlement, after other countries came under pressure from China not to accept the Uighurs.

In a highly unusual move, a senior US official said Washington opted to keep details of the deal from London until the last minute to enable Britain to deny all knowledge of the deal and thus avoid China’s anger, says the BBC’s Washington correspondent Kim Ghattas.

They talked to them “before the Uighurs got on the plane”? Well, that was certainly sweet of them. Did they mention on which flight they’d be coming to Bermuda, or did they make the Brits guess that, too?

It’s a highly unusual move, all right. I don’t recall the last time an ally sent trained terrorists into a territory for which the other ally had responsibility for security without their permission. Why? Because it hasn’t ever happened before now.

So, to our British friends: how does it feel to have Obama make security decisions about your territory without bothering to consult you at all? The liberal press in the UK used to deride Tony Blair as George Bush’s poodle; what does that make Gordon Brown in relation to Barack Obama? It’s a good thing that arrogant Bush isn’t running things in Washington any more, huh?