George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.
The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.
Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.
Dude, of course they knew. Anyone with a brain knew. Right from Day One there were reports from Army officers that they were really disturbed at what was going on; reporting that because we put a bounty on Taliban heads the Afghan militia were rounding up anyone with a pulse for the bounty (not to mention anyone with a grudge suddenly finding a convenient and profitable way to get payback), and we were so overwhelmed by the numbers that innocents were being framed.
If I understand correctly, though, this is the first signed statement of someone in a position to have personal knowledge of such.
Sometimes I wonder if government officials work to perfect that mental block in their mind. I mean it doesn’t take a lot of pondering to come to the conclusion that they’re probably innocent. So, maybe government officials might purposely not think about some subjects, less they come to unsettling conclusions.
Exactly, and no matter where you stand politically, the implications and potential consequences are staggering.
Is anyone really surprised by this? If they actually had a case against these prisoners, they would have pursued it for political gain. The fact that they didn’t was clear evidence they knew it was almost entirely trumped up all along.
Frankly, it was obvious from the very beginning, and only flew because the US public gave the Bush Administration undue benefit of the doubt. This is how the rest of the world has looked at Guantanamo for years, and I’d bet more than half the people who post here called this from the start.
It’s good and all that what amounts to a whistleblower has come forward, but will anything happen as a result of this to those responsible? No, of course not.
No one is surprised by the fact it happened, but yeah, I am surprised that this is saying it. He must really be uncomfortable about how it all went down.
I don’t know, is it so far fetched that at least someone in the Bush administration had a conscience?
Clearly people like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al, didn’t lose any sleep over ruining the lives of innocent victims, as after all their ends surely justify their means, but most people aren’t so callously without compassion.
I’m sure it’s a great comfort to all the prisoners knowing that some of the people who helped put them there feel bad.
ORANGE GLAZED CHICKEN!
Cock-meat sandwich…now that’s some funny shit.
Eh? Yeah, that was exactly my point.
Stick to your Gifs, kid.
For those keeping score at home:
LIBERALS
Always ultimately right, but right for “the wrong reasons”.
CONSERVATIVES
Always ultimately wrong, but wrong for “the right reasons”.
Is this the right thead to necro?
It’s a long read. Also generates a lot of emotions. The institutional need to continue fucking up peoples’ lives rather than ever admit the possibility of error is so depressing.