Our Shame As Americans

We let the Bush administration do this in our name. We did not lift a finger to stop them. Now we can live in this nest we've built.

Report: Gitmo Detainees Denied Witnesses
By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer
4:40 PM PST, November 16, 2006

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay were "enemy combatants," according to a new report.

The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, aided by more than two dozen law students, found that hearings that determined whether a prisoner should remain in custody gave the accused little opportunity to contest allegations against him.

"These were not hearings. These were shams," said Mark Denbeaux, an attorney and Seton Hall University law professor who along with his son, Joshua, is the author of the report. They provided an advance copy of the report to The Associated Press late Thursday and planned to release it Friday on the Internet.

Their report, based on an analysis of records of military hearings of 393 detainees, comes as the U.S. government seeks to severely restrict detainee access to civilian courts, arguing that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals should be their main legal recourse.

Read the article here. Read the Denbeaux's full report (pdf format) here.