Judge Confirms That an Innocent Man Was Tortured to Make False Confessions

[kpete]

They tortured people
To get false confessions
To fraudulently justify
Invasion of Iraq!

A Truly Shocking Guantanamo Story: Judge Confirms That an Innocent Man Was Tortured to Make False Confessions


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/a-truly-shocking-guantana_b_305227.html
Andy Worthington


In four years of researching and writing about Guantánamo, I have become used to uncovering shocking information, but for sheer cynicism, I am struggling to think of anything that compares to the revelations contained in the unclassified ruling in the habeas corpus petition of Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti prisoner whose release was ordered last week by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly http://www.pillsburylaw.com/siteFiles/News/1259B22146574C540A8871C2C3131CA2.pdf (PDF). In the ruling, to put it bluntly, it was revealed that the U.S. government tortured an innocent man to extract false confessions and then threatened him until he obligingly repeated those lies as though they were the truth.

...............

The judge also noted the significance of the evidence in the record indicating that al-Rabiah "subsequently confided in interrogators (redacted) that he was being pressured to falsely confess to the allegations discussed above," and also the significance of the fact that, although "al-Rabiah's interrogators ultimately extracted confessions from him," they "never believed his confessions based on the comments they included in their interrogation reports."

After noting -- again with a palpable sense of incredulity -- that "These are the confessions that the Government now asks the Court to accept as evidence in this case," Judge Kollar-Kotelly proceeded to demolish them all . . .

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/a-truly-shocking-guantana_b_305227.html

In the now Unclassified but highly redacted case, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, presiding over the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Fouad Mahmoud Al Rabiah, et al. v United States, et al, confirms the FACT that during the Bush/Cheney Administration innocent people were tortured in order to create false confessions that could be used to further the Bush/Cheney Administrations political goals.

Some evidence of this can be seen in the case itself here.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/2/788643/-US-Judge-confirms-torture-used-to-obtain-false-confessions-(-to-justify-war-in-Iraq-)

Al-Rabiah's confessions all follow the same pattern: Interrogators first explain to al-Rabiah the "evidence" they have in their possession (and that, at the time, they likely believed to be true). Al-Rabiah then requests time to pray (or to think more about the evidence) before making a "full" confession. Finally, after a period of time, al-Rabiah provides a fill confession to the evidence through elaborate and incredible explanations that the interrogators themselves do not believe. This pattern began with his confession that he met with Osama bin Laden, continued with his confession that he undertook a leadership role in Tora Bora, and repeated itself multiple other times with respect to "evidence" that the Government has not even attempted to rely on as reliable or credible.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/a-truly-shocking-guantana_b_305227.html

[hedgehog]

1. What's the point of torture if it elicits false information? Aside from

satisfying the twisted desires of the people orderign and performing the torture, I mean.

[Overseas]

2. The point IS to elicit false information. Had to find those WMDs.

Or had to unearth that Iraq to Al Qaeda link. There are lots of links now after all that torture, but there weren't before.

[PurgedVoter]

7. Torture is terrorism

The simple truth of torture is that it is not trustworthy in the active sense. It is however an effective method of reducing the power of the individual. If you fear that your family might be tortured if you speak up, then you are likely to remain quiet. Torture is a form of terrorism that is used by authoritarian regimes. Look to the history of torture and you will see few exceptions to this rule.

Shock and Awe, Torture, extraordinary rendition, all of these are tools to put fear in the ordinary populace, so they will not resist. These methods are not tools to build democracy or free nations. These are the methods used by dictators, fascists, and terrorists to maintain power. These methods do not protect people, prevent crime, heal wounds or encourage honesty.

[Zix]

19. It sends the message that you're a big hard bastard and you're gonna screw the enemy in the ass.

Their lives as they knew them are over and from now on they exist to serve as lighting conductors for whatever twisted sadistic crud their opponents leaders can get their soldiers to do.

Sadism isn't a means to an end, it's an end in itself.

[Zix]

20. ... also

...it was good enough for the Romans. This seems to be enough justification for some right wingers.

[grahamhgreen]

22. The point is to manipulate public opinion. ( public relations)

[derby378]

3. NOW will Holder start bringing criminal charges against Bush and Cheney?

Not to mention the interrogators themselves?

The fate of our nation's moral standing hangs in the balance...

[Bette Noir]

8. +1

[Piewhacket]

9. +2

[jhrobbins]

11. Exactly - what kind of country are we becoming? Or have we been there for a while?

[Vattel]

15. we've been there for a long time

[Enthusiast]

14. Holder will get right on that. nt

[grahamhgreen]

23. +3

[Echo In Light]

4. MIHOP

[troubledamerican]

10. Oh no you DI'HINT

[azul]

5. Amazing that congress refuses to face this.

It is not going away, it's going to bite them all, in the end.

Americans don't want a legacy of torture and lies, they wany sunlight and justice, and then a new direction that does not make the same mistakes.

[Overseas]

6. K&R. Glad a judge has certified what we heard was going on.

Compounding the travesty of torture which interrogation experts have told us time and again does not work, aside from the fact that it is a war crime, is that so many innocents were swept up into the dark torture camps of the USA. Our country.

President Obama is doing his best to rebuild our reputation and diplomatic relations. But there is a long way to go to overcome the torture of innocents. And the Bush Cheney gang's tossing aside habeas corpus and very tall stack of war crimes.

I hope we can move away from brutal warfare to a more effective foreign policy-- using that hefty military budget to fund the building of schools and hospitals and infrastructure by the Iraqis and Afghans themselves.

[leftstreet]

12. K&R

[Zix]

13. K&R nt

[G_j]

16. K&R

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Like I said in real time...

The Bush Gang might not have been card carrying Nazis, but they acted exactly like the GESTAPO and the SS did. Right down to using their German Shepard dogs on prisoners and water torture.

[madokie]

18. I want to see the people involved in this hanging by a noose

Not much else will suffice for what they've done to each of us and to the people of Iraq/Afghanistan

[Zix]

21. It's a pity that this thread's so slow.

[pleah]

24. K&R

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

25. And so

they pile up. When will there be prosecutions?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372.html?hpid=topnews

Crawford, 61, said the combination of the interrogation techniques, their duration and the impact on Qahtani's health led to her conclusion. "The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture, she said.

...with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition."
"We tortured Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.