US agents at Guantanamo Bay tortured a Saudi man suspected of involvement in the 11 September attacks, the official overseeing trials at the camp has said.But the article ends with the exact conundrum that the incoming administration faces: a collection of prisoners who cannot be prosecuted if we follow our law, but are clearly dangerous men.
Susan Crawford told the Washington Post newspaper that Mohammad al-Qahtani had been left in a "life-threatening condition" after being interrogated.
[snip]
Ms Crawford, who was appointed convening authority for military commissions in February 2007, said Mr Qahtani had been interrogated for 18 to 20 hours a day almost continuously for eight weeks.
[snip]
Ms Crawford said she was shocked, upset and embarrassed by the treatment he had received.
She said: "If we tolerate this and allow it, then how can we object when our servicemen and women, or others in foreign service, are captured and subjected to the same techniques?
"How can we complain? Where is our moral authority to complain? Well, we may have lost it."
What the hell do you do with this hand-me-down catastrophe? Following our laws would tear huge holes in whatever cases we had against these men. If the prosecutions were to fail - would anyone have the stomach to release them?
I could see us returning them to a facility in Afghanistan "to face charges there," but as a practical matter - the US would have to provide the security or they'd break out.
I can't imagine there are countries lining up to take these guys on, either. Our gun to the head diplomacy days are over, so I'd imagine our allies will be less willing to do us a solid on this issue.
Obama's made the right noises about closing Gitmo, but I cannot fathom what path gets us out of there.
It's like Iraq in general. I just don't see anything but a very ragged ending.
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