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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: ACLU James Freedland, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666; |
Federal Court Allows Bush Administration to Withhold Records Detailing Torture and Abuse of Guantánamo Prisoners
WASHINGTON - October 29 - A
federal judge today allowed the Bush administration to withhold
unredacted transcripts in which 14 prisoners now held at Guantánamo Bay
describe abuse and torture they endured in CIA custody. The decision
comes in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed in March to
enforce a Freedom of Information Act request for records from Combatant
Status Review Tribunals that determine if prisoners held by the Defense
Department at Guantánamo qualify as "enemy combatants."
The following can be attributed to Ben Wizner, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project:
"This decision allows the Bush
administration to continue its illegal cover-up of its systemic torture
polices. The government has suppressed these detainees' allegations of
brutal torture not to protect any legitimate national security
interests, but to protect itself from criticism and liability. It is
unlawful for the government to withhold information on these grounds."
Attorneys in this case are Wizner
and Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU National Security Project, Judy
Rabinovitz and Amrit Singh of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project and
Arthur B. Spitzer of the ACLU of the National Capital Area.
The ACLU's legal complaint can be found at: www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/
4 Comments so far
Show AllIt was surprising that the USSC went against the administration in cases regarding the unlawfully held people in Guantanamo. Since this was a decision by a district court it remains to be seen whether the administration will prevail all the way. That being said, I expect that a tremendous amount of classifying of documents, not just “court” proceedings in Kangarooville on Cuba, to hide a whole lot of stuff they've done, and not just the stuff we've heard about.
It is obvious, there is no oversight whether from Legislative, or Judicial branches of government.
wild;)
A few judges seem more supportive of the Bush administration than of the Constitution and the rule of law. Might this be one of them? Is he/she a Bush appointee?
Bring America Back !!!!
****When ACLU publishes these decisions, they definitely need to publish
the name of the Judge or Judges responsible. We need to know exactly who
these dirty Jackals are and to subject them to the public criticism they
so richly deserve !!!!
****It is totally illegal to give a security classification to info or data
which is merely embarrassing or legally libels or exposes crimes of Federal employees.
**I recommend a reading of John Dean's book: "Worse Than Watergate" for the
true analysis of King Bush's use of Secrecy, and hiding behind illegal
classification of documentation, evidence of crimes of the Administrtation.
**Bush and Cheney continuously made illegal use of the so called Executive
Privilege, National Security classification laws, and destruction of
E-mail records to hide their criminal, felonious acts. Abominable !!