McClatchy Guantanamo Guards Abused Known Innocents

Posted on 06/15/2008 by Juan

John McCain’s attack on the Supreme Court for upholding the right of Habeas Corpus even for Guantanamo detainees was self-serving and hypocritical. But it was also ethically wrong, because the Guantanamo system is ethically wrong.

Tom Lasseter of McClatchy reports that the news service has done extensive interviewing with 66 prisoners released from Guantanamo and found that most were either innocent or were lower level Taliban foot soldiers with no ties to international terrorism. McClatchy argues that the prisoners were routinely abused even after it became clear that they had no intelligence value. Some were radicalized by being tortured by the US, so that when they were released as innocent, they turned to attacking US interests. (This finding is the reply to the wingnuts who complain that prisoners released from Guantanamo sometimes thereafter join insurgent groups to hit US targets abroad.)

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  • Juan Cole

    Juan Cole

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