America's dirty secrets

[teach1st]

America's dirty secrets
St. Petersburg Times, 11/17

The fact that the Bush administration has used abusive and coercive interrogation techniques against certain detainees is America's worst kept secret. Despite later denials, Vice President Dick Cheney was forthright on the subject as recently as last month when he said it was a "no-brainer" that interrogators could use a "dunk in water" to gain information from a suspect - a clear reference to the notorious simulated drowning technique of waterboarding. The CIA's harsh interrogation practices have been regularly reported in the national news using insiders and former detainees as sources.

So it is rather disingenuous for the administration to now claim that the 14 high-value detainees recently transferred to Guantanamo after being held in secret "black"-site prisons should not have access to their civilian attorneys because it might jeopardize national security if classified details of their interrogation are disclosed.

In a case involving one of the 14 high-value detainees, the Bush administration has asked a federal judge to keep Majid Khan's attorney from meeting with him on the grounds that Khan might be in possession of "alternative interrogation techniques" as well as other information that is top secret and cannot be shared. The Bush administration wants to keep Khan incommunicado for potentially months more as it considers new rules for tightening attorney-client communications.

In effect, the Bush administration is saying that what happened to these men at the hands of U.S. interrogators is to be secreted away. It is an attempt to hide the administration's misdeeds behind a shield of secrecy and further delay access to counsel for these men.

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[muriel_volestrangler]

1. So what was the point of moving them to Guantanamo?

If they won't let any civilian see them, they may as well be in the black holes of Baghram, etc. Are they going to refuse the Red Cross access to them too, because they'd be sure to ask about the torture techniques used on them?