Justice Dept. Abandons Torture-Based Evidence In Gitmo Case

The Washington Independent:

The Justice Department informed a federal district court Wednesday that it was no longer seeking to rely on coerced and tortured evidence in the habeas corpus case of Mohammed Jawad, who was arrested as a child in Afghanistan, interrogated under torture, and then locked up at Guantanamo Bay for the last six and a half years.

Read the whole story: The Washington Independent

Comments

[beartrack]

This administration will never have true credibility if it does not go after these criminals from the Bush/Cheney administration. Enough is enough. BO should give up on the "work across the aisle" crap and do what the people who elected you, remember us, want you to do and make this country right.

[brandnewstuff]

Well everyone should be very aware the line of questions posed by the G.O.P. party on habeas corpus and illegal detentions. Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be making new judgements based on all this of GOPers for Texas will have to explain not their targets.

Hence the State Secrets act of 2009 to deal with all this... through a court system

[lungfish]

Now there is a precedent and any prisoner who was coerced should have the same protections. And its the right thing to do since we have learned that torture extracts false confessions often enough to question the practice.
How many innocent people were fingered by people under torture and were subsequently captured, tortured and/or killed? Many I am certain because a lot of Gitmo detainees were determined to be innocent and were sent home. There are innocent people there now that can't be repatriated because they face reprisals regardless of their innocence.­.. its sickening.

[Okieborn]

Damn !!
More free passes for the bad guys !!
Where is the change !!!!!

[WorkingClass]

I know exactly what you mean Okie. Bush and Cheney should be in prison.

[Clearing-Brush]

Another shining example of the courage, bravery and patriotism of the Bush/Cheney war crimes regime. And yet, the AG will not investigate, prosecute, put them in time out or even send them to bed without ice cream. Bush said it correctly, "the Constitution is just a goddammed piece of paper".

[lungfish]

Yes, that was a revealing comment and at the heart of the Bush/Cheney "doctrine".

Eager for war, eager to choose the brutal path.... cowards who walked away from our values the minute that we needed to prove that we had standards.­... Not a warrior in the whole bunch. Bush was a wannabee wartime President who pushed for war at every opportunity, even under false pretenses.­.. not one of them had a military record that could even be verified..­.most dodged service, repeatedly. Cowards, cowards, cowards...
Despicable.
And he has 200million for a library... Pathetic.

[jsgaetano]

So essentially, that means that the Bush administration has exactly zero evidence against anyone it took prisoner.

[sophistwatch]

There is proof that some detainees were sent to GITMO even though other courts freed them in the countries they were apprehended in because there was insufficient evidence of any terrorist links.

Therefore, some of these detainees were never charged or found guilty of any crimes and yet they were falsely imprisoned and tortured anyway at GITMO.

Aside from the problems with using tesimony obtained through torture, it may well be there was no underlying crime. In either case it is a wise move to prosecute the cases with real evidence and to leave alone those that are clearly tainted.

[Veeve]

It shames me anew to hear what we do with child soldiers. Outside of a few Arab states, I don't think we have a single allied nation that would have tortured a 14 or 15 year old taken on the field of battle.

[PWM]

The GOP reduced this nation to the level of barbarians.

[jsgaetano]

It's all part of their plan to help world wide fascism.

[lungfish]

More heroic actions by Cheney and co to be cleaned up and disregarded. We decry the use of child soldiers and acknowledge that they are victims when it happens in Sierra Leon or Liberia or Congo... but in Afghanistan "its different"­....
Looking forward to our gov not abusing the word "Justice".

[cinesimon]

It cannot have been anything but abject racism that the Bush Administration used when deciding this poor kid's future.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

"Are you now, or have you ever been, a witch?"

"The jury will disregard all the glub-glub-glub sounds."

[thaneb]

A no brainer: would have been disallowed by the court anyway.

[1dogs2]

Probably, but it's a baby step in the right direction.

[johndtuttle]

Grats Bush and Cheney. Torturing children to cover your negligent butts is so very admirable. What Patriots.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

What happened?
Did the fire ants take the 5th?

[Grunty1]

Any confessions or admissions gained under t0rture is not permissible under US law. This was a given. It is more of a question why Dubya's Justice Dept. didn't knowt he first thing about the law.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

They knew.

Which is why they bent over backwards to create a legal no-man's-land with multiple venues including in multiple countries run by the most sadistic SOB's on the planet. Got "extraordinary rendition?"

Hersh has an excellent piece on the subject. The punch line was "Abu Ghraib."

[naschkatze]

Renditions were started under Clinton. However, I wouldn't doubt that Bush/Cheney kicked them up another notch.