Guantanamo Case Files in Disarray

[Shardik]

Source: Washington Post

President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fate of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials -- barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees -- discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them.

Instead, they found that information on individual prisoners is "scattered throughout the executive branch," a senior administration official said. The executive order Obama signed Thursday orders the prison closed within one year, and a Cabinet-level panel named to review each case separately will have to spend its initial weeks and perhaps months scouring the corners of the federal government in search of relevant material.

Several former Bush administration officials agreed that the files are incomplete and that no single government entity was charged with pulling together all the facts and the range of options for each prisoner. They said the CIA and other intelligence agencies were reluctant to share information, and the Bush administration's focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/24/AR2009012401702.html?hpid=topnews

---

This is going to get interesting. Realize this is from the post and there is a strong RW leaning in the rest of the article.

[annabanana]

1. It's not just the files...

The entire jerry-rigged "court" system down there is in disarray.

[stillcool]

2. this has been going on for too long..

too many lawyers, too many countries. I guess it's not just the torture any more. No wonder Pat Buchanan is having a shit fit sticking up for his buds.

[lostnotforgotten]

3. But, But - I Thought That Republicans Were Always Better At Organization Than Democrats

eom

[gratuitous]

4. Of course the files are in disarray

They didn't give a flying fuck about these prisoners, and didn't have any plan to do a goddam thing about them. The plan the whole time was to leave this mare's nest for the next guy.

[vixengrl]

8. Exactly--the plan couldn't have been to try them.

They meant to leave them rot--to the extent they had any plan at all.

[Shardik]

10. Seems that way at times.

[Mist]

5. Couldn't President Obama turn that around--since there's no coherent "case" against many of

the detainees, no charges can be brought.

[benld74]

6. The more I say the Bush Administration can't disgust me anymore,,,

something like this is released, and I reach yet another new level of disgust! Incompetent SOB's the lot of them.

[DCKit]

7. You don't need facts and evidence in a kangaroo court. Just a list of names...

and a game of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey".

[defendandprotect]

9. If they didn't screw up the files, someone what figure out what

)(**&&%$$%%^ they were up to ---

80,000 prisoners ... or was it 140,000 around the world???

And Bush/Cheney/Halliburton are the terrorists of 9/11 --

[Kolesar]

11. The Nazis kept good records and went to the gallows for it

Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld learned from their mistakes.

[ShadesOfGrey]

32. Bingo! nt

[kpete]

12. Guantanamo Case Files in Disarray

Source: Washington Post

Guantanamo Case Files in Disarray
Situation Complicates Prison's Closure

By Karen DeYoung and Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 25, 2009; Page A05

President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials -- barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees -- discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them.

Instead, they found that information on individual prisoners is "scattered throughout the executive branch," a senior administration official said. The executive order Obama signed Thursday orders the prison closed within one year, and a Cabinet-level panel named to review each case separately will have to spend its initial weeks and perhaps months scouring the corners of the federal government in search of relevant material.

Several former Bush administration officials agreed that the files are incomplete and that no single government entity was charged with pulling together all the facts and the range of options for each prisoner. They said that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were reluctant to share information, and that the Bush administration's focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority.

But other former officials took issue with the criticism and suggested that the new team has begun to appreciate the complexity and dangers of the issue and is looking for excuses.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/24/AR2009012401702.html?hpid=topnews

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Didn't Chenney say this was not going to be as easy as we thought?

Gee, he knew..

[EFerrari]

22. Cheney has copies of the torture sessions, bet me.

They're still not ready to let go, are they? And I'm sure Gates will just throw up his hands, look mildly irritated and smile.

[AndyTiedye]

30. Watching The Tapes is Probably the Only Way Dickie Can Get It Up

[tanyev]

33. Now we know what those man-sized safes were for.

[sandnsea]

14. Leon Panetta won't play

So we've got that. I'll wait and see what he has to say about this mess. I expect to hear more of this and no it isn't because it's "complex". It's because Republicans are incompetent idiots.

[earcandle]

18. Obfuscators!

[izquierdista]

26. "Complex" for a Republican

Remembering to unbuckle, unzip, drop pants and drop shorts before taking a dump. Four things to remember and all in the right order! :scared:

[Avalux]

15. No surprise; par for the course for Bushco.

Incompetence and of course, no accountability. Former officials accuse the new team of looking for excuses. :eyes:

[eleny]

16. "no comprehensive case files on many of them" - Jesus Christ!

I hope that shuts the faces over at FoxNews and other right wing bases of operation. They've been trying to blame Obama for having a bad plan? Yeah, right.

Well, with this little attention paid to detail by their right wing masters of illusion, I guess it's going to be an eye opener for the wingnuts. No good files on these people and yet they're supposed to be the worst of the worst "captured on the battlefield". Maybe and maybe not.

For all we really know there may be more "Omar the tent makers" down there than terrorist types.

Well, I guess we need to get used to the idea of Pandora Boxes, eh guys?

[stillcool]

17. There's something really nasty in...

that Pandora's box. I can't imagine what could be worse than torture, and imprisoning innocent people, but there's a reason why they've come out fast and furious with the fear/terror/9-11 bullshit.

[earcandle]

19. maybe these are the people who were at the

airports when 911 occurred? that would freak me out. remember they replaced all the people in baggage and processing with a new crew? maybe these are the people that can say what really happened that day?

I am just poking at the horrendous... I haven't a clue, but I could project the worst on this crowd. They are haters.

[eleny]

20. From the beginning they've told us that they're the worst

But over the years we've learned that many were innocent and not "picked up on the battlefield".

I'm not doubting that some are bad people. But I don't have my shorts in a knot over it being nearly as many as we've been led to believe. Not since we leafleted Afghanistan offering cash for bad guys.

[EFerrari]

21. Bullshit. There are files. How do you think Cheney sprained his back?

[HereSince1628]

28. Moving a billion in untraceable paper money.

The last administration made a habit of handing out billions first to Cheney cronies at Halliburton/KBR then to Iraq gangsters and now to the white collar criminals called American investment bankers.

[Zhade]

23. If there's so little evidence of their guilt, WHY ARE THEY BEING HELD AT ALL???

NT!

[sandnsea]

24. That's not exactly what it says

It says the information is scattered throughout the agencies, I suspect because the Bushies didn't give a crap about evidence. There may be evidence, there's just no way to know because they didn't keep files.

[Zhade]

35. Evidence that can't be produced on demand is no evidence at all, though.

Otherwise, the police could lock you or I up and just claim the evidence was misplaced.

[tavalon]

36. I live in the shadow of one of those barbed wire FEMA camps

In the kind of regime we were under, yes, they could just take you in the night. Did any disappear/

[Solly Mack]

25. ....

"...that the Bush administration's focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority."

so it was just about getting their rocks off torturing people.

[Plaid Adder]

27. This does not surprise me at all.

Years ago there was a case where a guy from Yemen was trying to find his brother who was in Guantanamo. The Bush team went to court and claimed that they did not know whether they were holding the guy or not. Apparently the spelling of all those funny Arabic names made keeping accurate records difficult.

we're gonna find out a lot of shit we wish we didn't know before this year is too much older.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[EFerrari]

31. Exactly. n/t

[Jennicut]

29. Geez, the Rethugs just had nothing together in this administration

I wonder what else is going to come out.

[struggle4progress]

34. Guantanamo Detainees In Limbo

Biden Says Prisoners Won't Be Released in U.S., But Uncertainty Colors Prospects For Closure ... or Justice
SOUTH RIVER, N.J., Jan. 25, 2009 | by Phil Hirschkorn

... the Obama administration’s decision to close the facility leaves many unanswered questions: What will happen to 245 detainees who remain there, most of whom have never been charged with a crime? How will detainees that deserve to be prosecuted be handled? Where will detainees deserving release be sent? And where will those destined for continued detention be held in the future?

"We won't release people inside the United States," Vice President Biden insisted on Face The Nation. "They’re either going to be moved and tried in American courts, tried in military courts, or they’re going to be sent back to their own countries ...

At its peak, there were 759 men detained at Guantanamo, but over the past seven years, the Pentagon has freed more than 500 of them. Despite Bush administration assertions that the detainees constituted the “worst of the worst” terrorists, except for 14 well-known “high value” detainees such as the alleged 9/11 conspirators, studies of the Pentagon's own case files by the Seton Hall University Law School tell a different story.

Looking primarily at the Combatant Status Review Tribunal reports for 558 detainees held as of August 2004, Professor Mark Denbeaux and a team of his law students discovered that 55 percent of those detainees had never committed a hostile act, while only eight percent had been labeled al Qaeda fighters ...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/25/national/main4752211.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4752211