The Gitmo Release Program
It appears from this AP report (which doesn't seem to have gotten much play in the major US news outlets) that the Pentagon is using the same kind of judgment in releasing detainees at Guantanamo Bay as it did in selecting them for detention.
Two dozen prisoners were cleared for transfer from Guantanamo Bay last year even though U.S. military panels found they still posed a threat to the United States and its allies. Dozens more were cleared even though they didn't show up for their hearings.
One Saudi arrested in Afghanistan was approved for release after offering a peculiar account that he had gone to the Taliban-controlled country to lose weight.
Pentagon documents obtained by The Associated Press show seemingly inconsistent decisions to release men declared by the Bush administration to be among America's most-hardened enemies. Coupled with accusations that some detainees have been held for years on little evidence, the decisions raise questions about whether they were arbitrary.
Human rights groups contend the documents show the military panels, known as Administrative Review Boards, often are overridden by political expediency at Guantanamo, where about 340 men are still held.
"What it says on your passport is more important than what it says in your ARB," said Ben Wizner, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, noting that European citizens at Guantanamo were among the first to get out amid intense lobbying by their countries. "It's all about diplomatic pressure." [Emphasis added]
The problem is that it's difficult to determine just what the rationale used by the Pentagon actually was in these cases because everything having to do with Guantanamo Bay, including the evidence being used to keep folks there, is classified as double super secret. Oddly enough, however, the Administrative Review Board records (ARBs) were freely released under a FOIA request, albeit edited in the usual fashion. Even some Pentagon officials are a little puzzled by the release program.
The military has kept secret much of the case files, so there is no way for the public to judge the quality of the evidence against each detainee. But defense attorneys say that while classified evidence is often used to justify holding a detainee, it rarely comes into play in decisions to let people go from Guantanamo.
Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, an Army reservist who served as a liaison between Guantanamo tribunals and intelligence agencies, criticized the process used to decide which detainees are sent home.
"The decisions are not orderly nor analytic and only rational if you accept the premise that they are made for political and not legal reasons," Abraham said in an e-mail to AP. [Emphasis added]
The Cheshire Cat would be so proud.
Two dozen prisoners were cleared for transfer from Guantanamo Bay last year even though U.S. military panels found they still posed a threat to the United States and its allies. Dozens more were cleared even though they didn't show up for their hearings.
One Saudi arrested in Afghanistan was approved for release after offering a peculiar account that he had gone to the Taliban-controlled country to lose weight.
Pentagon documents obtained by The Associated Press show seemingly inconsistent decisions to release men declared by the Bush administration to be among America's most-hardened enemies. Coupled with accusations that some detainees have been held for years on little evidence, the decisions raise questions about whether they were arbitrary.
Human rights groups contend the documents show the military panels, known as Administrative Review Boards, often are overridden by political expediency at Guantanamo, where about 340 men are still held.
"What it says on your passport is more important than what it says in your ARB," said Ben Wizner, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, noting that European citizens at Guantanamo were among the first to get out amid intense lobbying by their countries. "It's all about diplomatic pressure." [Emphasis added]
The problem is that it's difficult to determine just what the rationale used by the Pentagon actually was in these cases because everything having to do with Guantanamo Bay, including the evidence being used to keep folks there, is classified as double super secret. Oddly enough, however, the Administrative Review Board records (ARBs) were freely released under a FOIA request, albeit edited in the usual fashion. Even some Pentagon officials are a little puzzled by the release program.
The military has kept secret much of the case files, so there is no way for the public to judge the quality of the evidence against each detainee. But defense attorneys say that while classified evidence is often used to justify holding a detainee, it rarely comes into play in decisions to let people go from Guantanamo.
Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, an Army reservist who served as a liaison between Guantanamo tribunals and intelligence agencies, criticized the process used to decide which detainees are sent home.
"The decisions are not orderly nor analytic and only rational if you accept the premise that they are made for political and not legal reasons," Abraham said in an e-mail to AP. [Emphasis added]
The Cheshire Cat would be so proud.
Labels: Guantanamo Bay
posted by Diane at 3:58 AM
1 Comments:
"The decisions are not orderly nor analytic and only rational if you accept the premise that they are made for political and not legal reasons," Abraham said in an e-mail to AP. [Emphasis added]
very holmesian: when all the possible answers have been exhausted, then the impossible one must be true...
Post a Comment
<< Home