Editor&Publisher: AP Gets Shocking New Report on Gitmo

[DeepModem Mom]

AP Gets Shocking New Report on Gitmo
Published: November 17, 2006

SAN JUAN -- The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay were "enemy combatants," according to a new report.

The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, aided by more than two dozen law students, found that hearings that determined whether a prisoner should remain in custody gave the accused little opportunity to contest allegations against him.

"These were not hearings. These were shams," said Mark Denbeaux, an attorney and Seton Hall University law professor who along with his son, Joshua, is the author of the report. They provided an advance copy of the report to The Associated Press late Thursday and planned to release it Friday on the Internet.

Their report, based on an analysis of records of military hearings of 393 detainees, comes as the U.S. government seeks to severely restrict detainee access to civilian courts, arguing that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals should be their main legal recourse....

***

The military held Combatant Status Review Tribunals for 558 detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in southeast Cuba between July 2004 and January 2005 and found all but 38 were enemy combatants. Handcuffed detainees appeared before a panel of three officers with no defense attorney, only a military "personal representative."...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003409443

[bigtree]

1. "These were not hearings. These were shams"

:kick:

[redqueen]

2. How can people on the right ignore this, or treat it as a non-issue?

I honestly don't understand how they can so easily dismiss it.

This is an outrage. It is beyond shameful.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. no one connected with this administration has the slightest bit of shame.

I believe it is a requirement of being part and parcel of this criminal organization, much like the old Mafia had you kill someone to make "your bones".

[redqueen]

8. But I mean the voters... the people who vote Republican...

how can they just dismiss this, and continue supporting the party that made it all possible?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

28. good question. I don't understand it at all.

yet some of the most religious GOPers scoff at the latest hunger studies.

Don't they realize that their own rights are at risk? I guess not. Nazis felt the same way in the late 30s.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Because the victims aren't Americans

And a characteristic of many people on the right is that only your fellow countrymen have 'rights'. I've seen this argument put forward on the Internet as if it's self-evident.

[glitch]

20. They don't even extend that far -- you have to be a member of their family or club

or church before human rights are assumed. And even then, you better not look or act "funny" in any way.

[Clark2008]

33. But some of them are Americans

They may have foreign-sounding names - but they were born and raised right 'chere.

They don't care because it's not THEM or their families. They don't care whether it involves Americans or not.

[warrens]

13. It's like a football game to them...winning is all that counts

So what if your tackle deliberately broke the opposing quarterback's neck? It helped your team win. That's all that matters to these fascist cretins.

[Porcupine]

31. Go to your local Superior Court and bring a stopwatch...........

and you will see that most of the "defendants" get NO defense or even attempt at a defense. For most(the non-white faction) the first time they see their lawyer is about 2 minutes before they are expected to plea.

If they refuse whatever plea bargain is offered they are guaranteed a) a disinterested public "defender" and b) 3-5 times the sentence upon the inevitable conviction that they would have received on the plea bargain.

The right is not surprised by this because this is the way they jail US citizens every day. Why are you surprised by this?

[treestar]

35. They convince themselves that it is a "battlefield."

I have debated this and they will insist you cannot sort them out on a battlefield. I say repeatedly that Gitmo is not a battlefied and that the persons held there are not firing back constantly. The righties never answer that point. Later if it comes up again, they repeat their point about how you can't have trials on a battlefield. I again point out that Gitmo is not a battlefield with both sides shooting at each other, and they don't answer.

The latest comparison I have seen: they resort to the last time an enemy was on US soil for any appreciable time period: the British in Washington during the War of 1812. They point out that the Americans of that time could not have stopped and had a trial for each British officer in Washington at that time, with the usual sarcastic asides about how absurd that would be. Again comparing that to Gitmo and the situation there results in silence.

[Blackhatjack]

3. This is NOT a Right/Left Issue -- It is a Right/Wrong Issue for All Americans...

There ought to be no disagreement among Americans on this issue.

It should be the same regardless of the political affiliation.

And if you go back and look at the beliefs of all Republicans BEFORE they were 'taken over' by the conservative fundamentalist right wing, they would have been more outraged at the Government's intrusion on rights and freedoms than many Democrats.

I honestly cannot see how this could be an issue for debate. It is wrong, wrong, wrong.....

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. what you said. nt

[redqueen]

9. That's what I'm saying...

How can this be something that American citizens just ignore? Or rationalize?

It's chilling.

[caligirl]

6. Deja vu all over again! Prescott Bush makes a killing doing business

with the Nazi's. His grandson makes a killing by killing thousands.

[mom cat]

7. First they came for ...

Then they came for you and me.

[enough]

10. Our heroes: twenty-one first-year law students!

snip>

The report is based on transcripts of tribunals that the government first released earlier this year in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The Associated Press as well additional records provided by lawyers for 102 Guantanamo detainees.

Twenty-one first-year law students at Seton Hall University in Newark, N.J., analyzed the documents to create a database analyzed by eight second- and third-year students.

Among their findings:

--The government did not produce any witnesses in any hearing.

--The military denied all detainee requests to inspect the classified evidence against them.

--The military refused all requests for defense witnesses who were not detained at Guantanamo.


snip>

[texpatriot2004]

11. Great job on their part nm

[izzybeans]

14. This is some dangerous Orwellian Language game

and it is the essence of the legal tricks played by rightwing authoritarians.

snip from the link

It is not a criminal trial and is not intended to determine guilt or innocence," Gordon said. "Rather, it is an administrative process ... to confirm the status of enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo as part of the Global War on Terrorism."

[Theduckno2]

17. An indefinite imprisonment without trial is now an administrative process?

They try to pass off one of the most dispicable of activities as something ordinary and benign.

I would wonder how the Bush Administration sleeps at night, but I suspect that they sleep during the day.

I am very much heartened by the work of those law students. :applause:

[izzybeans]

19. Well these law students are experts in the "administrative process"

of justice. And they know it well enough to sniff out the creeping fascism.

[lonestarnot]

25. administrative process? I wouldn't give them that much credit.

At least some admin processes are equitable.

[okasha]

26. Get a dental check on them.

I would wonder how the Bush Administration sleeps at night, but I suspect that they sleep during the day.

In coffins.

[Theduckno2]

27. Yes, I was being a bit cryptic or should I say "crypt"ic?

Thanks go out to #16, Malaise for posting the link.

One more kick for this important story.

[Morgana LaFey]

15. Someone is SHOCKED by this?

I'm schocked by THAT.

[bloom]

34. I think we should all continue to be shocked and disgusted

until it stops and the people in Gitmo are freed and compensated.

[malaise]

16. Here's the report

Let me print a copy
http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf

[DeepModem Mom]

18. Thank you, malaise! nt

[Disturbed]

21. If not for a few Attorneys that are concerned about

Human Rights the detainees would have no representation at all. All of these detainees would be locked up for many years without a "fair" trial as to their guilt or innocence. This situation is a sad chapter in American History.

[druidity33]

22. who are the 38?

and how'd they get to be so lucky?

Betcha they let someone big get away...

or that now they work some of them as agents...

[followthemoney]

23. A government that cannot restrain they few percent who are psychopaths...

can't be called great. A government ruled by psychopaths is not worthy of that name.

[Felinity]

24. Amen to that.

What would be so wrong as to require a psychiatric workup on Presidential nominees, cabinet positions, and all top security positions?

It certainly would have saved us from eight years of wanton suffering and bloodshed from the egomaniacs in charge of this Administration. I could name ten of them that could not get a pass from a competent shrink.

[MAX 1]

29. What's new???

H I T L E R
DID THIS TOO

[Jack Rabbit]

30. Kick

.

[nealmhughes]

32. Let us just call the "process" what it is: the Star Chamber and lettres de cachet.

Bugger the Enlightenment! To hell with Anglo-American common law and Magna Carta! We don't need no stinking badges, lawyers or juries!

As someone noted above, this is not a "conservative" or "liberal" issue: it is an issue of the rule of law and does might make right.

The people in Guantanamo are either common criminals or POWs or else innocents caught up in the evil web of warfare.

There are 3 choices. Who gets to pick which? George Bush and Alberto Gonzales? England had a civil war over that stuff in the 1640s and a coup d'etat in 1688 to ensure the executive's power was subject to statute law.

We all know of the bloodbaths that resulted in France and Russia as a result of autocracy.

The ends do not transcend the means. They are in fact inseparable.