Army Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld, who resigned as a U.S. military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay because of ethical qualms over the way the government is conducting the prosecution of Mohammed Jawad, has joined the American Civil Liberties Union's habeas corpus petition for Jawad. The ACLU seeks the release of the approximately 23-year-old detainee, who has been held without trial at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay for over six years.
In his letter, attached as Exhibit B to the ACLU petition (PDF), Vandeveld writes:
[T]here is no credible evidence or legal basis to justify Mr. Jawad's detention in U.S. custody or his prosecution by military commission.
Vandeveld continues, saying there is "reliable evidence that [Jawad] was badly mistreated by U.S. authorities both in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo."
While Jawad has been implicated in a hand-grenade attack on American soldiers, Vandeveld repeats his charges, made at the time of his resignation, that Jawad was likely lured to Afghanistan by a domestic insurgent group with the promise of a well-paid job, drugged and forced to participate in the attack.
The former prosecutor describes chaos in the prosecutors' office upon his arrival, with evidence scattered and unorganized years after Jawad's arrest. Much of the evidence necessary to conduct a prosecution had been tossed in a locker and been forgotten -- and some simply disappeared. As a result, the U.S. was in no position to prove its case even after Jawad had spent years behind bars.
Even while U.S. authorities were misplacing evidence, they were subjecting Jawad to sleep deprivation under the "frequent flyer" program of repeated moves from cell to cell, subjecting him to beatings and throwing him down stairs while he was hooded and shackled.
The habeas corpus petition was filed in federal court in the District of Columbia.
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Contact J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com
Comments
If any in GITMO are to be released, give them a 12' john boat and wish them well.
The reason many who have already been cleared to leave have not is because no country will take them. What are we to do with them? Let them loose on the streets of America?
Now this.
"The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed and 43 suspected of "returning to the fight."
He said the figures, updated at the end of December, showed a higher rate of recidivism than seen in a previous report showing 37 former detainees as active militants."
Need more reason to just allow them all to have their virgins?
In the darkest days of WWII, we didn't torture german or Japanese prisoners - certainly not as a matter of policy. No wonder that while 75% of Americans, dems and repubs are glad Bush is going going gone, 90% of the people in the world - especially those we consider our friends, eg Europe, etc, are glad for the same reason.
And if you want info, all you have to do is get them sedatively in the twilight zone - not quite unconscious, just as Docs will do to you before giving a full anethesia, especially if they sense alot of tension in you before an operation.
And the door to the mind is often wide open with the right words. And while it may be illegal under the geneva convention, it isn't torture in the physical sense of the word.
Of course, the past administration didn't understand that issue. And they have destroyed America's moral leadership of the world, all the while proclaiming their "moral values".
As they said in the old days, "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive." And the truth does come out.
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