In my work with Amnesty International, I have met some of the lawyers who represent detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and I've heard some compelling evidence that we are unfairly holding innocent people there. The detainees are often kept from seeing their lawyers, they have no access to the so-called evidence against them, and their hearings are held in secret.
Those things alone constitute a travesty of justice. But, according to a military lawyer who recently broke ranks to speak out on what's happening there, it turns out to be even worse than I thought.
According to an article that appeared over the weekend in the British newspaper The Independent, the military tribunal system at Guantanamo is so corrupt that "in the rare circumstances in which it was decided that the detainees were no longer enemy combatants, senior commanders ordered another panel to reverse the decision."
So you just can't win. They'll keep trying you until you're declared guilty, no matter how innocent you are.
The whole mess is headed to the Supreme Court for a December 5 showdown.
Meantime, hundreds of prisoners remain in legal limbo, feeling hopeless, helpless, and desperate.
God bless America.
>> Read the article from The Independent.
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