Unlikely Adversary Arises to Criticize Detainee Hearings

[Hissyspit]

Source: New York Times

Unlikely Adversary Arises to Criticize Detainee Hearings
Monica Almeida/The New York Times

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Stephen E. Abraham’s assignment to the Pentagon unit that runs the hearings at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, seemed a perfect fit.

A lawyer in civilian life, he had been decorated for counterespionage and counterterrorism work during 22 years as a reserve Army intelligence officer in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. His posting, just as the Guantánamo hearings were accelerating in 2004, gave him a close-up view of the government’s detention policies. It also turned him into one of the Bush administration’s most unlikely adversaries.

- snip -

Most detainees, he said, have no realistic way to contest charges often based not on solid information, but on generalizations, incomplete intelligence reports and hints of terrorism ties.

“What disturbed me most was the willingness to use very small fragments of information,” he said, recounting how, over his six-month tour, he grew increasingly uneasy at what he saw. In the interviews, he often spoke coolly, with the detachment of a lawyer, but as time wore on grew agitated as he described his experiences. Often, he said, intelligence reports relied only on accusations that a detainee had been found in a suspect area or was associated with a suspect organization. Some, he said, described detainees as jihadist without detail.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/us/23gitmo.html?hp

[Ian David]

1. Yes, that's unlikely. But not as unlikely as...

I don't have anything against Bobcat.

I'd just love to see him testify (in character) before congress about something.

"I mean, I know where my civil rights are... it's just that when I go there there's this new guy doing it."

[MetaTrope]

2. K&R - the detainees should not be forgotten

“Nobody stood up and said the emperor’s wearing no clothes,” Colonel Abraham said in an interview.

And there we have the Bush administration in a box.

[Hissyspit]

3. .