Innocent Gitmo detainee released

Lakhdar Boumediene was an innocent human rights worker when he was swept up by Bosnian police in 2002 on suspicion of terrorism. Just as they were about to release him due to complete lack of evidence or cause, he was then seized by the US and transferred to Guantanamo where he was mistreated (cough…tortured…cough) and held for over 7 years without being charged or even asked about his supposed crime. It took the Supreme Court to find against the Bush Administration to get him released.

An innocent man, held without charge or evidence for seven years…not by some evil third-world junta, but by the United States of America, the supposed good guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-1zjjOTA3E

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7778310&page=1

Will Bush and Cheney, who campaigned on “accountability”, be held accountable for this crime against humanity? I am not optimistic.

I am not sure that he was found “innocent” but rather that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a trial. The fact that he was held for seven years without trial is the real issue. Let’s just be clear about that.

I thought there was this important tenet in the legal code and the ethical underpinning of the USA that one was innocent until proven guilty. But then, maybe I’m just a backwoods hick, and can’t tell my arse from my elbow, so you’ll have to excuse me if I got that wrong.

news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ … 48,00.html
They also started the first civilian trial of a detainee.
Let freedom ring.

No. Quite correct. The Constitution guarantees those rights to US citizens. There are also treaties that the US has signed committing it to offering various protections to armed combattants and the like. The legal issue is whether those fighting out of uniform, acting as spies, saboteurs and agents provacateurs are so protected. The view is that they are not. That said, there was an attempt to get away with “enhanced interrogation” methods using the same rationale. The latter, in particular, was attacked both within and outside the US government and I think that this latter issue has pretty much been decided AGAINST the Bush administration.

Given the great reluctance of any allied nations to take any of these prisoners despite the obvious rights issues involved… I think that we understand that this is a very gray area involving some very complicated issues. Most nations have never been hesitant to offer asylum to true political prisoners and dissidents. Why they are in this case seems to indicate that most do not view these individuals as legitimate “human rights cases.” No?

And in the 7 and a half years he was held, he never performed any acts of terrorism. Bush 1, Terrorist 0.

So, it’s like, 'one rule for us, and another one for everyone else, especially “dose dem ragheads”. ’

Remember that this man had close contact with the head of al Qaeda in Bosnia. Now, he claims that he did not know the man in question was the leader of al Qaeda… Okay… but the case against him was never proved and there is considered to be insufficient evidence… but let’s not pretend that this man was randomly grabbed and imprisoned for seven years. The issue really is how the trial and prosecution should have proceeded. Otherwise, to suggest that he was some innocent victim of a vendatta justice system gone wild is to trade in accusations equally without substance.

Yeah, but it’s more fun that way. Don’t deny that you love playing that game too.

Sure I love it. What are you talking about? Is this some kind of game?

Since he’s innocent, I’m sure the OP would have no trouble if the former Gitmo inmate were released into the general population of the OP’s hometown, right? :discodance:

Remember the story in the NY Times about 1 in 7 Gitmo detainees returning to the battlefield? Hogwash.

The NYT got washed, again, by the Pentagon, running the story on the day Cheney and Obama gave competing speeches on the gulag in Gitmo.

No problem, as long as he’s compensated for the injustice.

[quote=“Chris”]Lakhdar Boumediene was an innocent human rights worker when he was swept up by Bosnian police in 2002 on suspicion of terrorism. Just as they were about to release him due to complete lack of evidence or cause, he was then seized by the US and transferred to Guantanamo where he was mistreated (cough…tortured…cough) and held for over 7 years without being charged or even asked about his supposed crime. It took the Supreme Court to find against the Bush Administration to get him released.

An innocent man, held without charge or evidence for seven years…not by some evil third-world junta, but by the United States of America, the supposed good guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-1zjjOTA3E

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7778310&page=1

Will Bush and Cheney, who campaigned on “accountability”, be held accountable for this crime against humanity? I am not optimistic.[/quote]

innocent! Tish! Go back to your foil hat wearing, you traitorous nonconformist, you! :wink: Why would a government as large and as responsible as the one in the U.S. ever somehow have an agenda which places blame at the feet of the innocent?! Now, what’s to be gained by doing such a thing? It just doesn’t make sense at all. I mean after all the evidence that Iraq was so clearly responsible for 911 why would anyone in their right mind question the fact that any dark skinned or heavily tanned person is a terrorist? Trials are for innocent people, evidence is for naysayers!
BTW, I have good intel to suggest that the recent economic downturn was caused by a group of elite econoterrorists hidden all over large oil fields in Iran and Venezuela. It’s true! And God confirmed it when he spoke to me last night.

Google ‘Uighurs’ under news - they were also kept at Guantanamo until the Pentagon decided they were not terrorists, sorry, enemy combatants.

Just proves what always has been said, just because someone is locked up at Gitmo doesn’t mean they are terrorist (or whatever you want to call them) and deserve what they got, or worst. But hey, just collateral damage, so who cares.