In Boumediene, Justice Scalia had to resort to a minority report from a Senate committee, along with some stray news clippings, for the conclusion that 30 released detainees have "returned" to the battlefield.A Justice of the Supreme Court is asserting that of the 200 prisoners released from Guantanamo, 30 have resumed fighting - presumably against their former captors.
Thankfully, Aziz Huq's article includes a link to a paper from Seton Hall's Prof. Denbeaux (PDF) examining the sourcing of that number. It's instructive.
Justice Scalia cites a Senate report's Minority View (Senate Report No. 110-90, pt. 7, p. 13 (June 26, 2007), Minority Views of Sens. Kyl, Sessions, Graham, Cornyn, and Coburn:)
The Minority View cites a May 14, 2007 story from CNN.
The CNN Story cites the Department of Defense, which Denbeaux narrows to the statement of one Principal Deputy General Counsel Daniel J. Dell’Orto, who said before Congress:
The general number is around—just short of thirty, I think…It’s a combination of thirty we believe have either been captured or killed on the battlefield, so some of them have actually died on the battlefield.What's especially instructive is that the DoD has since refuted this number, narrowing it to include persons who:
and "anti-US propaganda" would therefore encompass (emphasis mine):
...participat[ed] in anti-US propaganda or other activities through intelligence gathering and media reports.
...five...Uighur [former Gitmo detainees] who remained detained in a refugee camp in Albania but who had an editorial submitted on their behalf which was critical of the US Guantánamo policy.I'll leave you to ponder the imminent threat posed by five prisoners in Albania who have some connection to an editorial that criticizes the country responsible for their six years of incarceration without trial.
No comments:
Post a Comment