Ex-prosecutor: Guantanamo 'a total failure'

[sabra]

Source: Go Erie


Former military prosecutor Darrel J. Vandeveld arrived at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terror suspects as a self-described "true believer," ready to seek the ultimate punishment for those who had attacked the U.S. and what it stands for.

What he found there instead was a "facade of justice" that constituted its own kind of attack on the United States and its founding principles of justice, Vandeveld, of Millcreek Township, said.

"Guantanamo has been a total failure," he told a standing-room-only audience in the Heritage Room at Mercyhurst College on Tuesday night.

...

Vandeveld said many prisoners were detained wrongly, do not pose a danger, and should be released.

About 15 others, Vandeveld said are "hard-core" terrorists who could be prosecuted in federal court, which is equipped to balance the concerns of both national security and justice.

Prosecutions will be complicated by the fact that some detainees were tortured to gain intelligence from them. Evidence gleaned through those interrogations would not be admissible in court, Pitonyak said.

Read more: http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090204/NEWS02/302039904

[mike_c]

1. dubya had something to do with it, therefore it was a failure....

It's the Midas shit touch syndrome. Everything Bush touches turns to failure.

[Demeter]

5. Another Fine BushCo Product, Made by the Bushbots!

They are like the Keebler Elves, only completely opposite.

[bemildred]

2. Be sure to let Dick Cheney know. nt

[Skratchez]

3. Dick warns of future attacks?

http://tinyurl.com/dickthreat (from Yahoo news)

If Cheney has/had any info on terrorist attacks it's probably insider information. :cP

He touts the waterboarding and inhumanity as his/their legacy but as the OP pointed out torture makes any evidence real or imagined useless in court. Indefinite detainment and throwing habeas corpus out the window aren't just against the constitution they're illogical, inhumane and useless.

Stupid old man'll probably die (natural causes of course) before they've finished rounding up all the evidence that still remains in memos and whatnot. Although their arrogance seems to know no bounds as they keep acting like they have some kind of magical immunity to their crimes. I don't think Obama's writing up any pardons and any Bush/Cheney produced are at the discretion of the current pres.

Screw those plutocrats. Sorry for the rant.

[Gregorian]

4. That's like calling a murder or a bank robbery a failure.

This term "failure" has never gone over well with me.

This was the plan all along. See the PNAC. 9/11 was a success. Iraq was a success. The economy was a success. Gitmo was a success.

It all served to make us poorer, more subservient, and to keep them in control despite everything.

[rrneck]

6. Yep. And now

we get to clean up the mess. That is until they find a way to make a lousy buck off that too.

[EFerrari]

7. I think that's exactly right. n/t