Speaking of Abu Ghraib ... in Gitmo, one source is responsible for the case against at least thirty other alleged "enemy combatants." That source is one Mohamed al-Kahtani, a man who was a very legitimate suspect, and fully merited detainment. But notice how the other names were confirmed:
"On August 8, 2002, Detainee 063 [al-Kahtani] was moved into an 'isolation facility,' where he stayed for the next 160 days, his cell continually flooded with light, his only human contact with interrogators and guards. He was questioned for 18 to 20 hours a day for 48 out of 54 straight days; he was threatened with a menacing dog; he was forced to wear a bra while thong panties were placed upon his head; he was leashed and ordered to perform dog tricks; he was stripped naked in front of women; he was taunted that his sister and mother were whores and that he was gay...
[At that point, the FBI concluded that he] "evidenc[ed] behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma (talking to nonexistent people, reporting hearing voices, cowering in a corner of his cell covered with a sheet for hours on end.)"
Either the man was mentally unstable before he was "interrogated" or the interrogation made him insane. In fact, who on earth could go through what he did and stay sane? At least thirty other people lie in prison indefinitely because of this unhinged man's testimony. In many Gitmo cases, "a U.S. officer told the National Journal he looked at the men's files and it showed no evidence they had been in Afghanistan at the time." Check out this transcript for one of the tribunal hearings, published by Eric Umansky. It's not unusual. According to the Journal, Cmdr. James Crisfield, a Navy judge advocate general and the legal adviser to the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, said the following about the testimony deemed kosher by the military: "The evidence considered persuasive by the tribunal is made up almost entirely of hearsay evidence recorded by unidentified individuals with no firsthand knowledge of the events they describe." Just an update on why the Gitmo issue is not going away. And why it shouldn't.