Just In Case We Had Any Doubts About The Unfairness Of Detaining Gitmo Prisoners

Guantanamo Accusations Questioned After Review Turns Up Basic Errors

Accusations against Guantanamo Bay detainees made in declassified documents contain basic factual errors and easily-refuted claims, the Boston Globe reported Friday. After reviewing declassified records, Globe journalists uncovered a number of simple mistakes that they said raised "questions about whether the US military has thoroughly investigated its cases against the roughly 400 inmates." Lawyers defending detainees have said that false accusations strengthen the need for new judicial procedures at the prison in the wake of the US Supreme Court decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in which the court ruled last month that military commissions as initially constituted lack proper legal authorization. Prior to the Hamdan decision, ten Guantanamo detainees awaited military trials.

These basic errors of fact point to the built-in bias that I wrote about in a previous post on the unfairness of using military-style courts martial process that congress is considering. If the process starts with entrenched errors and ideology, how will it ever come around to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?