U.S. military says evidence gained by torture acceptable

[AnIndependentTexan]

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=321015

Saturday, December 4, 2004 at 07:56 JST
WASHINGTON — Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government concedes.

Statements produced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S. courts for about 70 years. But the U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of 550 foreigners as enemy combatants at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are allowed to use such evidence, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle acknowledged at a U.S. District Court hearing Thursday.

Some of the prisoners have filed lawsuits challenging their detention without charges for up to three years so far. At the hearing, Boyle urged District Judge Richard J Leon to throw their cases out.

Attorneys for the prisoners argued that some were held solely on evidence gained by torture, which they said violated fundamental fairness and U.S. due process standards. But Boyle argued in a similar hearing Wednesday that the detainees "have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court."

Leon asked whether a detention based solely on evidence gathered by torture would be illegal, because "torture is illegal. We all know that."

Boyle replied that if the military's combatant status review tribunals "determine that evidence of questionable provenance were reliable, nothing in the due process clause (of the Constitution) prohibits them from relying on it."

[cornermouse]

1. Not to mention the fact that if they're using torture,

most people will confess to anything they think the torturers want to hear in order to get them to stop.

This whole issue is obscene.

[Make7]

2. Please remove the words Evidence, Gained, and By from title. n/t

[slor]

3. "On a different note, U.S. President says...

lack of evidence to justify a war is acceptable".

[eleonora]

4. amazing

And none of it makes the news here.