Get That GTMO Paper Shredder Fired Up
Jul 31, 202025K Shares625K Views
“„The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said Sunday.
“„The lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors and suggest the U.S. deliberately thwarted evidence that could help terror suspects defend themselves at trial.
“„Kuebler said the apparent destruction of evidence prevents him from challenging the reliability of any alleged confessions. He said he will use the document to seek a dismissal of charges against Khadr.
Just consider the arrogance at play in this operations manual. Destroying evidence, for a criminal trial, leads to a defendant going free. It’s safe to assume that the Rumsfeld Pentagon didn’t want that. So the Pentagon clearly presumed that there would nevercome a time when civilian courts exercised anyjurisdiction over Guantanamo Bay — that we’d be in such a state of permanent hysteria that judges would reject the inevitable challenges that civil-liberties lawyers would bring.
Paula M. Graham
Reviewer
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