Since it needs to be turned upside-down and inside-out to get at the truth, I only follows that you need read it backwards. Let's give it a try.
"Afghan jail conditions hamper prosecutions; Terrorist suspects allege torture" by Ben Fox, Associated Press | August 9, 2009
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The number of cases involved isn’t known publicly since most of the background is still classified.
But legal experts believe a number of cases can’t be prosecuted because conditions were so harsh in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and secret CIA “black sites’’ elsewhere.
But the rules are changing for the 60 or so prisoners whom authorities had planned to prosecute: The Obama administration has prohibited the use of confessions obtained under “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.’’ A Justice Department official has told Congress, which is drafting new rules for Military Commissions, that only “voluntary’’ statements are likely to withstand court challenges.
Under President George W. Bush, the special war crimes tribunals known as Military Commissions allowed “coerced’’ statements from defendants at a judge’s discretion.
His affidavit illustrates one of the greatest challenges facing President Obama as he tries to determine what to do with the 229 prisoners left at Guantanamo, the military prison at the US base in Cuba. Obama has vowed to close the prison by early next year.
Darbi’s is a test case of sorts for what will happen under the Obama administration to prisoners who allege their testimony was forced out of them under torture.
“I was frightened and there were times I wished I would die,’’ the 33-year-old prisoner from Saudi Arabia said in the statement taken in July at Guantanamo, which was provided to the AP by his lawyer. “I felt that anything could happen to me and that everything was out of control.’’
But the government may never be able to bring those allegations to court because of the torture the prisoner said he suffered in US custody in Afghanistan. Darbi said American troops subjected him to beatings, excruciating shackling, painfully loud music, isolation, and threats of rape, according to a new affidavit obtained by the Associated Press. If Darbi’s statements to interrogators were obtained under such circumstances, they will probably be thrown out.
US military prosecutors allege that Ahmed al-Darbi has met with Osama bin Laden, trained at an Al Qaeda terrorist camp, and plotted to blow up a ship in the Strait of Hormuz or off Yemen.
So that's what he confessed to after the torture, huh?
Ahmed al-Darbi said US troops subjected him to beatings and isolation. (Associated Press)
Gee, who is that in the photograph?
Family members that love him and missed him?
--more--"
