George W. Bush, Cheney, Rummy 'knew Guantánamo prisoners were innocent'

[Modbert]

George W. Bush 'knew Guantánamo prisoners were innocent' - Times Online

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”.

General Powell, who left the Bush Administration in 2005, angry about the misinformation that he unwittingly gave the world when he made the case for the invasion of Iraq at the UN, is understood to have backed Colonel Wilkerson’s declaration.

He also claimed that one reason Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld did not want the innocent detainees released was because “the detention efforts would be revealed as the incredibly confused operation that they were”. This was “not acceptable to the Administration and would have been severely detrimental to the leadership at DoD [Mr Rumsfeld at the Defence Department]”.

Referring to Mr Cheney, Colonel Wilkerson, who served 31 years in the US Army, asserted: “He had absolutely no concern that the vast majority of Guantánamo detainees were innocent ... If hundreds of innocent individuals had to suffer in order to detain a handful of hardcore terrorists, so be it.”

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOfkpu6749w]YouTube - John Mellencamp - Pink Houses[/ame]

This is only a continuation of the facts to come spilling out as the walls of secrecy come crashing down.

 

[uscitizen]

What value is innocence to Bushco when there is an image to uphold?

 

[rdean]

What value is innocence to Bushco when there is an image to uphold?

And look at that image. The "worst" president in United States history.

 

[SFC Ollie]

"Colonel Wilkerson, a long-time critic of the Bush Administration’s approach to counter-terrorism and the war in Iraq, claimed that the majority of detainees — children as young as 12 and men as old as 93"

Really, a critic of Bush and 12 year old kids and 93 year old men? Just a little questionable.


"Colonel Wilkerson, who served 31 years in the US Army"

Couldn't get that Star in 31 years.....


Mr Hamad claims that he was tortured by US agents while in custody

Yes it is in the Handbook to claim torture.


"Defenders of Guantánamo said that detainees began to be released as early as September 2002, nine months after the first prisoners were sent to the jail at the US naval base in Cuba. By the time Mr Bush left office more than 530 detainees had been freed"

And many were recaptured on the battlefield.


Sorry but I don't buy more than 10% of this bull.
(mainly because I know we are not Lilly white)

 

[SFC Ollie]

What value is innocence to Bushco when there is an image to uphold?

And look at that image. The "worst" president in United States history.

Only in your little world.

 

[Polk]

It's not really surprising that going around the countryside of a poor nation and offering to pay people thousands of dollars to "tell us where the terrorists are" is going to create a ton of false positives.