Pentagon now set to conduct witch trials

Posted by Joshua Holland at 5:47 AM on January 19, 2007.

I don't claim any intimate knowledge of the Salem Witch Trials, but my understanding is that suspected witches were subjected to various forms of torture until they confessed, and then those confessions were taken as evidence of their guilt and they were executed, often by fire.

Here's the 21st century version, courtesy of the Bush White House and the Military Commissions Act of 2005 -- a measure certain to be viewed by history with the kind of opprobrium given the Alien and Sedition Acts and the internment of innocent Japanese-Americans during World War II …

The Defense Department has drafted a manual for trying detainees at the Guantanamo, Cuba, jail that would allow terror suspects to be imprisoned, convicted and executed on the basis of hearsay evidence or coerced testimony. [...]

The manual, sent to Congress on Thursday and scheduled to be released later by the Pentagon, is intended to track a law passed last fall in which lawmakers restored President George W. Bush's plans to have special military commissions try terror suspects. Those commissions had been struck down earlier in the year by the Supreme Court.

The Pentagon manual could spark a fresh confrontation between the Bush administration and Congress, now led by Democrats, over the treatment of terror suspects.

The Detainee Treatment Act, separate legislation championed in 2005 by Republican Sen. John McCain, prohibited the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners held by either the military or the CIA. It was approved overwhelmingly by Congress despite a veto threat by Bush, who eventually signed it into law.

The Pentagon manual is aimed at ensuring that enemy combatants, the Bush administration's term for many of the terror suspects held at Guantanamo, "are prosecuted before regularly constituted courts affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized by civilized people," according to the document.

Of course, "civilized people" don't administer the death penalty, but that's another matter …

As required by law, the manual prohibits statements obtained by torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" as prohibited by the Constitution.

But …

However, the law does allow statements obtained through coercive interrogation techniques if obtained before Dec. 30, 2005, and deemed reliable by a judge.

Here's a quick question: how many prisoners at Gitmo, do you reckon, were subject to "coercive interrogations" between their capture in Afghanistan -- mostly in 2002 -- and December 30, 2005? Yes, "all of them" is as good an answer as any.

And let me add that there's no evidence that torturing prisoners into talking has any intelligence value at all …

There is almost no scientific evidence to back up the U.S. intelligence community's use of controversial interrogation techniques in the fight against terrorism, and experts believe some painful and coercive approaches could hinder the ability to get good information, according to a new report from an intelligence advisory group.

Robert Fein, chairman of the study, "This shortfall in advanced, research-based interrogation methods at a time of intense pressure from operational commanders to produce actionable intelligence from high-value targets may have contributed significantly to the unfortunate cases of abuse that have recently come to light."

You can download the whole report here.

While I'm at it, and before some right-wing blogger whines about how liberals don't understand that those at Guantanamo Bay are blood-thirsty "terrorists," let's recap what we know about those being held:

• "A substantial number of the detainees appear to be either low-level militants or simply innocents in the wrong place at the wrong time" (2002 CIA report)



• "Sometimes we just didn't get the right folks" (Brigadier General Jay Hood, commander of Gitmo)



• A study relying exclusively on Department of Defense data found that even if all of the Tribunal records were accepted as true, only 8% of the detainees could be characterized as Al Qaeda fighters. The majority have not committed hostile acts against the U.S. or its coalition allies (Seton Hall University Law school study based on Defense Dept. data, February 2006)



• There are detainees, determined by the U.S. to clearly not be enemy combatants, who remain behind bars years after being exonerated of any wrong doing (Seton Hall Law School analysis of Department of Defense Data)



• "There is continuing intelligence value…for somewhere around a few dozen, a few score at the most" (Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Christino).



• "Of the 550 that we have, I would say most of them, the majority of them will either be released or transferred to their own countries" (Brigadier General Martin Lucent, October 2004). More than two years after this quote, about 400 still remain disappeared at Guantanamo.



• "Officials of the Department of Defense acknowledge that the military's initial screening of the prisoners for possible shipment to Guantanamo was flawed" (CIA report)



• 86% of the detainees were not arrested by the U.S. but instead by Pakistan or the Northern Alliance (Defense Department Data). Pakistan was under great pressure to produce arrests. Bounties were offered of $5000 for those who captured terrorists. Inevitably foreigners and foreign-looking people were singled out. [ht: Project Hamad]

The youngest person to spend time at Guantanamo bay was nine. You're only entitled to meet with a lawyer if the military tries you. If not, they can potentially hold you until the "conclusion of hostilities" -- whenever that will be.

Joshua Holland is a staff writer at Alternet and a regular contributor to The Gadflyer.