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Robet Fisk: Scandal of six held in Guantanamo even after Bush plot claim is dropped

One just can't help wondering about the Bush Administration. It is plainly riddled with idiots, from the top down, plus inept and as good as corrupt in its adherence to law, national and international, and simple decency. Remember this is a president who is forever reminding everyone about freedom, justice and Christian values.

Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent, highlights more disgraceful conduct in relation to Gitmo:

"In the dying days of the Bush administration, yet another presidential claim in the "war on terror" has been proved false by the withdrawal of the main charge against six Algerians held without trial for nearly seven years at Guantanamo prison camp.

George Bush's assertion in his 2002 State of the Union address – the same speech in which he wrongly claimed that Saddam Hussein had tried to import aluminium tubes from Niger – was that "our soldiers, working with the Bosnian government, seized terrorists who were plotting to bomb our embassy [in Sarajevo]." Not only has the US government withdrawn that charge against the six Algerians, all of whom had taken citizenship or residence in Bosnia, but lawyers defending the Arabs – who had already been acquitted of such a plot in a Sarajevo court – have found that the US threatened to pull its troops out of the Nato peacekeeping force in Bosnia if the men were not handed over. According to testimony presented by the Bosnian Prime Minister, Alija Behman, the deputy US ambassador to Bosnia in 2001, Christopher Hoh, told him that if he did not hand the men to the Americans, "then let God protect Bosnia and Herzegovina".

Comments

Anonymous said…
mother of god, i am glad this chapter is almost over.
November 04, 2008 8:57 am
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