The Dark Pall of Gitmo Just Got Darker

My previous post may have been too generous to our government's treatment of detainees at Gitmo and elsewhere. 

In testimony this week before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson testified that over 100 detainees have died while in U.S. custody, more than 25 of those have been identified as murder.

The McClatchy news service released a report detailing detainee treatment at Kandahar, Bagram, Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere. 

Several key points from the piece: a multitude of aggressive interrogation techniques were used that in conjunction (if not individually) constitute torture; many intelligence officials admitted that very little quality intelligence was being acquired overall due to the fact that many of those captured had tenuous connections to Al Qaida or were mere foot soldiers; of the over 700 people passing through Gitmo only 6 people have been charged, that's a 99% failure rate; and finally, a small cadre of lawyers referring to themselves as the "war council" provided the legal reasoning (however specious) to underwrite the administration policy and eschew future legal culpability.

RADM Mark Buzby was quoted as saying, "It's all about developing the [intelligence] mosaic...there's value at both ends of the spectrum..." A sagacious observation.

The mosaic that is developing shows a small circle of federal officials who view our country's laws and the principles on which they are based as impediments to executing a Global War on Terrorism. These men are anathema to our constitution and our democracy.