http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/3285-bush-adm-knowingly-imprisoned-innocentsBush Adm. “Knowingly” Imprisoned Innocents Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, has charged in a sworn affidavit that top officials of the Bush administration — including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush himself — knowingly left innocent detainees to languish in prison to avoid political fallout. “Their view was that innocent people languishing in Guantánamo for years was justified by the broader war on terror and the capture of the small number of terrorists who were responsible for the September 11 attacks, or other acts of terrorism,” Colonel Wilkerson stated.
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Wilkerson's investigation and Denbeaux's research flatly contradicts public claims by President Bush regarding Guantanamo detainees: “These are people picked up off the battlefield in Afghanistan. They weren't wearing uniforms, they weren't state sponsored, but they were there to kill.” Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld made almost identical, but more specific (and therefore, more factually inaccurate), statements.
But the facts have stated otherwise. Wilkerson's revelations that all of the top leadership of the Bush administration knew they were detaining innocents and were stubbornly refusing to release them because it would make them look bad politically can only be termed troubling. Thus far, Colin Powell has refused to comment on Wilkerson's accusations.
Almost as disturbing as the accusation that the President, Vice President, and Secretary of Defense would knowingly imprison (and torture) people they knew to be innocent is the blackout among U.S.-based media of Wilkerson's allegations. Thus far, Americans who want to hear the allegations from the mainstream media have to go across the Atlantic Ocean to read the Times of London's account of the lawsuit.