# The Uyghur resettlement trade > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The Uyghur resettlement trade," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-uyghur-resettlement-trade/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The exchange John Kiriakou says the WikiLeaks cables revealed behind the prosecution of UBS whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld, Switzerland agreeing to accept two Uyghur prisoners out of Guantanamo on the condition that the United States arrest the man whose disclosure had exposed Swiss banking secrecy.* - **Revealed by:** The [Chelsea Manning](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chelsea-manning) diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks - **The American ask:** Two Uyghur prisoners out of [Guantanamo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay) to Switzerland, with two more to Albania and two to Tahiti - **The Swiss condition:** *"Arrest Brad Birkenfeld and we'll take them"* - **The answer:** *"Done"* - **Consequence:** [Brad Birkenfeld](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/brad-birkenfeld) served three and a half years **The Uyghur resettlement trade** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of why the United States prosecuted [Brad Birkenfeld](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/brad-birkenfeld), and he offers it as the clearest single demonstration of what publication by [WikiLeaks](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange) is for. He introduces it as a deliberate scaling-down from policy to the individual: *"even down lower on a human level, let me tell you one short story. And I hope that this helps to humanize what it is that WikiLeaks does for us."*[1] ## The disclosure, and the sentence Birkenfeld, a friend of Kiriakou's, blew the whistle at the Swiss bank UBS on *"money laundering and income tax evasion by very, very wealthy Americans, 19,000 of the wealthiest people in America,"* returning to the United States on holiday carrying thumb drives that proved it. The disclosure allowed the government to recover *"10 billion dollars in back income taxes, unpaid income taxes."* He was prosecuted anyway and sent to prison for three and a half years. Kiriakou puts the question the outcome raises twice over: *"Why? Why prosecute the whistleblower? Why send him to prison for three and a half years?"*[2][3] ## What the cables showed On Kiriakou's account Birkenfeld had no explanation at all until WikiLeaks published the [Chelsea Manning](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chelsea-manning) tranche. Inside it was a diplomatic cable from Hillary Clinton's State Department to the president of Switzerland about the disposal of Uyghur prisoners held at [Guantanamo](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay): *"we have these Uyghur prisoners in Guantanamo. We want to release them. We need to find countries to take them. We're going to send two to Albania. We're going to send two to Tahiti. And we want Switzerland to take two Uyghurs."*[4] The reply was a refusal, *"we're not going to do that. We don't want any Chinese Uyghurs in Switzerland"*, and the exchange that followed is the part Kiriakou tells in direct speech.[5] > *"And Hillary wrote back and said, yeah, we really want you to take these Uyghurs. And the Swiss wrote back and said, arrest Brad Birkenfeld and we'll take them. And Hillary responded, done. And Brad Birkenfeld was arrested and prosecuted."* Birkenfeld later won what Kiriakou calls a massive lawsuit against the Treasury and Justice Departments, *"but he wasn't able to collect on it until he was finally released from prison."* The conclusion Kiriakou draws is about the source rather than the story: *"we wouldn't have any idea that it was Hillary Clinton that started that whole legal process against Brad Birkenfeld to silence yet another whistleblower had it not been for Julian Assange."*[6][7] ## See also - [Brad Birkenfeld](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/brad-birkenfeld) - [Julian Assange](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange) - [Chelsea Manning](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/chelsea-manning) - [Guantanamo Bay](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay) - [Hillary Clinton](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/hillary-clinton) ## Sources 1. Julian Assange and the U.S. War on Whistleblowers with John Kiriakou (2022-05-04), at 4:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud469eadc76&t=299s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-04-covertaction-bulletin-julian-assange-and-the-u-s-war-on-whistleblow/ 2. Julian Assange and the U.S. War on Whistleblowers with John Kiriakou (2022-05-04), at 5:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud469eadc76&t=331s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-04-covertaction-bulletin-julian-assange-and-the-u-s-war-on-whistleblow/ 3. Julian Assange and the U.S. War on Whistleblowers with John Kiriakou (2022-05-04), at 6:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud469eadc76&t=365s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-04-covertaction-bulletin-julian-assange-and-the-u-s-war-on-whistleblow/ 4. Julian Assange and the U.S. War on Whistleblowers with John Kiriakou (2022-05-04), at 6:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud469eadc76&t=396s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-04-covertaction-bulletin-julian-assange-and-the-u-s-war-on-whistleblow/ 5. Julian Assange and the U.S. War on Whistleblowers with John Kiriakou (2022-05-04), at 7:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud469eadc76&t=426s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-04-covertaction-bulletin-julian-assange-and-the-u-s-war-on-whistleblow/ 6. Julian Assange and the U.S. War on Whistleblowers with John Kiriakou (2022-05-04), at 7:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud469eadc76&t=458s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-04-covertaction-bulletin-julian-assange-and-the-u-s-war-on-whistleblow/ 7. Julian Assange and the U.S. War on Whistleblowers with John Kiriakou (2022-05-04), at 8:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud469eadc76&t=488s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-04-covertaction-bulletin-julian-assange-and-the-u-s-war-on-whistleblow/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-uyghur-resettlement-trade/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt