Citing dirty evidence to defend dubious detentions
By Andy Worthington
On the eve of the 2008 presidential election, the
New York Times (11/3/08) published a front-page article headlined “Next President Will Face Test on Detainees,” which attempted to highlight the problems that Barack Obama will face in pursuing his pledge to close the Guantánamo prison camp.
“The next president will have to contend with sobering intelligence claims against many of the remaining detainees,” reporters William Glaberson and Margot Williams warned, picking out examples from the cases of some of the 255 prisoners who are still held at the prison. Unfortunately, the quality of the supposed evidence against the Guantánamo prisoners deserves far greater scrutiny than their article delivered.
BY HERB JACKSON
The Bush administration’s detention and treatment of suspected terrorists must be investigated by an independent commission, a former New Jersey attorney general who was the top lawyer on the 9/11 Commission told a Senate committee today.
John Farmer, now in private practice in Chatham, told the Senate Judiciary Committee he reached the decision after learning the alleged 20th hijacker on Sept. 11 was able to avoid charges because a Pentagon official overseeing military trials concluded he had been tortured at the military’s Guantanamo Bay prison.
“We have now reached a point where the tactics we have adopted in the struggle against terrorism have compromised our ability to respond to the 9/11 conspiracy itself,” Farmer said at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Continue reading UPDATE: N.J. lawyer to Congress: Create torture panel
By Simon Montlake
A US official says released detainees are taking up arms against the US.
A federal judge has ordered the release of an Al Qaeda suspect held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, because of insufficient evidence that the Chadian national was an “enemy combatant.”
The judge told that court that much of the evidence against the suspect came from statements from other Guantánamo detainees that were deemed questionable, reports Reuters.
On Tuesday, a Pentagon spokesman said an increasing number of former Guantánamo detainees were taking up arms against the US and its allies, the Associated Press reported. As of December, 61 former prisoners were believed to have rejoined the fight, out of around 520 released or transferred to overseas custody. In 2007, 122 were released, the highest annual total so far.
Continue reading A US official says released detainees are taking up arms against the US.
US agents at Guantanamo Bay tortured a Saudi man suspected of involvement in the 11 September attacks, the official overseeing trials at the camp has said.
Susan Crawford told the Washington Post newspaper that Mohammad al-Qahtani had been left in a “life-threatening condition” after being interrogated.
The Pentagon said their methods were legal in 2002, when the interviews took place – though some were now banned.
Mr Qahtani remains at Guantanamo, but all charges against him were dropped.
He had been facing trial on counts of conspiracy, terrorism, and murder in violation of the laws of war.
Continue reading Guantanamo agents ‘used torture’
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