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After all…. we’re not democratic Democrats. We’d never lie to you. You can trust us. Honest.

APNewsBreak: US asks to rewrite detainee evidence

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 20, 2008, Filed at 8:43 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration wants to rewrite the official evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees, allowing it to shore up its cases before they come under scrutiny by civilian judges for the first time.

The government has stood behind the evidence for years. Military review boards relied on it to justify holding hundreds of prisoners indefinitely without charge. Justice Department attorneys said it was thoroughly and fairly reviewed.

Now that federal judges are about to review the evidence, however, the government says it needs to make changes.

The decision follows last week’s Supreme Court ruling, which held that detainees have the right to challenge their detention in civilian court, not just before secret military panels. At a closed-door meeting with judges and defense attorneys this week, government lawyers said they needed time to add new evidence and make other changes to evidentiary documents known as ”factual returns.”

Attorneys for the detainees criticized the idea, saying the government is basically asking for a last-minute do-over.

”It’s sort of an admission that the original returns were defective,” said attorney David Remes, who represents many detainees and attended Wednesday’s meeting. ”It’s also an admission that the government thinks it needs to beef up the evidence.”

Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin declined to comment on the plan. The discussions were confirmed by several attorneys and officials who attended or were briefed on the meeting with the judges and defense lawyers.

”It’s a totally fishy maneuver that suggests that the government wants, at the 11th hour, to get its ducks in a row,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney representing several detainees. He was briefed on the plan.



(There’s more, if you can stomach it…)

When contacted for her reaction to the Bush administrations request, Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi looked up from a kneeling position and said “impeachment is off the table…”. And winked.

27 comments

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    • Edger on June 21, 2008 at 19:00
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    • sharon on June 21, 2008 at 21:57

    as my grandmother used to say, jesus, mary, and joseph what next??  i’m not shocked or even appalled, just damn angry.  and they won’t impeach.  wtf.

  1. No soup for you!!! Next!!

  2. “The evidence in these documents won’t beat the ‘laugh test’, so you have to re-write it.  Leave out all the stuff about ‘torture’ and put in all the scary stuff you can find.  No, I don’t care if it has to with this particular guy, talk in generalities about how committed these prisoners are to blowing up everything in America and killing themselves, how fanatical they are.  Make it as scary as you can so a judge will understand how scary all of these guys are.  No, leave out that parts about how we paid third parties for him and don’t know where he was before or what he was doing.  And leave out the parts about what we’ve done with him for the past 6 years. And make sure that you find some confessions to put in there.  Let’s make this as scary as we can. I need that rewrite in a hurry.”

  3. The photo of Bush in the tux, next to a story about he knowingly kept innocent people locked up incommunicado for years, subject to torture, is perfect.

    • kj on June 22, 2008 at 01:50

    would have said, “Good LORD”

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