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George, Does it strike you as odd Defense Secretary Rumsfeld calls the 450 prisoners held in Guantanamo the worst of the worst but in four years has brought formal charges against only 10 of them? If the other Gitmo suspects are guilty, whats taking him so long to make his case? Most got yanked from Afghanistan, hauled across an ocean, and jailed in a complex of open-air wire cages where their families cant visit. Theyve been held without lawyers, trials, and no idea of how long theyll do time. Many were tortured, some force fed, 23 attempted to commit suicide, and several succeeded. All have been denied due process. The Army sought Article 5 hearings to screen the men on the battlefields of Afghanistan, as mandated by the Geneva Convention, but The New Yorkers Jane Mayer reports(July 3) the White House cancelled the hearings. Was the reason that many men were swept up in dragnet arrests or turned in as terrorists by bounty hunters? (If you cant find Bin Laden, grab some taxi drivers.) In late 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney spoke frankly when, referring to the military commissions set up to try the men, he said: We think it guarantees that well have the kind of treatment of these individuals that we believe they deserve. Got that? Cheney knows in advance of trial what they deserve. Sure, just as he knew for a certainty Iraq had WMD. He long ago passed judgment on the captives: Prison term first, trial later. Its right out of Alices Adventures in Wonderland. According to Mayer, Rumsfelds military tribunals were set up to try those who conspired to commit terrorism without offering the right to seek an appeal from anyone but Bush or Rumsfeld. Conspiracy charges, as the famed defense lawyer Clarence Darrow noted, are inherently flimsy. Prosecutors bring them when they have no case. And conspiracy, not deeds, may be all Rumsfeld has got. Marine Major Dan Mori, assigned to defend one of the 10 charged captives, said conspiracy is the only thing there is in many cases at Guantanamo---- guilt by association. I hope that nobody confuses military justice with these military commissions, Mori added with a touch of scorn. This is a political process, set up by the civilian leadership. Its inept, incompetent, and improper. Fortunately, the Supreme Court last month trashed Bushs military court scheme. Now, White House spokesman Snow muses how to bring the captives properly to justice? No rush. Give Cheney and Rumsfeld a few more years to mull it over. Holding a man incognito half way across the world for four years isnt punishment enough. Rear Admiral Donald Guter, the Navys chief Judge Advocate General(JAG) until June, 2002, told Mayer he wondered if they were getting so little military intelligence from Gitmo prisoners because it wasnt there. In the Summer of 2002, an Arab-speaking CIA analyst dispatched to interview dozens of Gitmo prisoners concluded more than half of them didnt belong there and wrote a devastating classified report that worked its way up to General John Gordon, deputy national security advisor with terrorism oversight, the magazine reported. Gordon read it and met with White House officials. He warned potentially innocent men were locked up in violation of basic notions of American fairness. But according to Mayer, Cheneys chief of staff David Addington rebuffed Gordon, stating, Theyve all been through a screening process. Recently, the London Times reported, most Gitmo detainees no longer face regular interrogation and some have not been questioned for six months. In fact, Rear Admiral Harry Harris of Gitmo said 75% of the men arent useful intelligence sources. It is, of course, contrary to international treaties signed by the U.S., to transport captives to a foreign country to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. And Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section 2340A, makes it a crime punishable by up to life imprisonment for an American to torture. May we dare imagine Cheneys choice language if he got arrested on torture charges and sent to a prison in Afghanistan for four years without ever being charged? Fantasies aside, the Gitmo captives have all been denied due process. They should be freed, compensated, and repatriated immediately. Where theres no due process, theres no democracy. Sherwood Ross (electronic mail, July 23, 2006)
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