Ex-Bush admin official: Most Guantanamo detainees were innocent and the Bush administration knew it

[Kuya]

News came out yesterday in the London Times by Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson that most detainees were innocent but the Bush administration did not want to release them because it might have affected the war effort. Link and here are some quotes:

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.

The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.

Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.

Colonel Wilkerson, a long-time critic of the Bush Administration’s approach to counter-terrorism and the war in Iraq, claimed that the majority of detainees — children as young as 12 and men as old as 93, he said — never saw a US soldier when they were captured. He said that many were turned over by Afghans and Pakistanis for up to $5,000. Little or no evidence was produced as to why they had been taken.

He also claimed that one reason Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld did not want the innocent detainees released was because “the detention efforts would be revealed as the incredibly confused operation that they were”. This was “not acceptable to the Administration and would have been severely detrimental to the leadership at DoD [Mr Rumsfeld at the Defence Department]”.

The majority of the people in Guantanamo being innocent should not surprise people. What else do you expect to happen when you don't let people defend themselves against accusations in a legitimate court?

[dudeguy]

They still hated our freedom, so we had to take theirs away.

[Blarg]

http://www.bloodysushi.com/macro/nsf...uck%20yeah.jpg

[Zilong]

Well, if they weren't a terrorist when they got in, they sure as hell will be one when they get out.

[Alleya]

It's kind of sad that we have to wait 5-10 years for the evidence substantiating that which anyone with a brain knew intuitively at the time.

My question for all these ex-bush staffers who keep coming out with this stuff is why didn't you have the fucking balls to speak up back then and put a stop to this shit. How bloody impressive that you come forward now, years after the fact when absolutely nothing can be done about it and the damage is irreversible. There's only one reason I can think of and it's not very savory: they were complacent at the time and now want to make money or get attention.

[braaaanch]

They still hated our freedom, so we had to take theirs away.

...

Well, if they weren't a terrorist when they got in, they sure as hell will be one when they get out.

...


...not worth the effort.

[Egon]

Just because some wacko said he saw a UFO doesn't mean its true.

[Kuya]

The damage being irrevesible is an understatement. How the US managed to do everything in its power to create more support for militant takfir groups after 9/11 and make Americans even more suceptible to attacks, is astounding. The fact that even now the US insists on using conventional warfare in a non-conventional situation, which would logically mean civilians would get caught up and die, is also shocking.

[Correction]

Just because some wacko said he saw a UFO doesn't mean its true.

Egon has the power to demote an Army Colonel, Chief of Staff to a General, with access to the White House to 'Some Wacko.'

Because he said so.

[Elvis]

Just because some wacko said he saw a UFO doesn't mean its true.

How is he a wacko?

[Elvis]

...



...


...not worth the effort.

Huh? How often was that justification parroted by the mainstream press? It's part of our political culture to say that sort of thing.

Remember 'freedom fries'?

[dudeguy]

Probably because he's a liberal or he hates his country or something like that... they probably go together according to Egon though

[Qalbert]

Just because some wacko said he saw a UFO doesn't mean its true.

I had no idea innocent detainees had discovered the power of flight.

[dudeguy]

They don't call 'em illegal aliens for nothing!

Spoiler: show

Arabs, Mexicans.... they're all the same aren't they?

[Dimmauk]

They don't call 'em illegal aliens for nothing!

Arabs, Mexicans.... they're all the same aren't they?

In Texas they are. Trust me, I'm Hispanic and I've been called a every type of middle eastern slur you can think of.

[archibaldcrane]

The most interesting thing to me is the idea that people were getting handed over by Afghans for $5000 a pop without evidence.

That's seriously fucked up.

[archibaldcrane]

What is the Guantanamo status right night now anyway? Have most of the prisoners been released, either to freedom or to their home countries, and now we're trying to figure out what to do with "the worst of the worst"? That whole issue seems to have kinda disappeared lately.

And fuck Colin Powell.

[dudeguy]

It was probably the insurgents handing over the people to the American's... looks like the U.S. funded the taliban/al qaeda by taking them to guantanamo

[Blarg]

The most interesting thing to me is the idea that people were getting handed over by Afghans for $5000 a pop without evidence.

That's seriously fucked up.

kind of like how people would give up their neighbours as witches so they could get their farmland and, obviously, had no evidence

[Qalbert]

kind of like how people would give up their neighbours as witches so they could get their farmland and, obviously, had no evidence

for your information, she turned me into a newt