TPM: GTMO Hearings Severely Flawed, Army Intelligence Officer Says

[ourbluenation]

It's been a banner week for Guantanamo Bay. First the Bush administration nixes reports that it plans to close the facility. Then the Defense Department announces a new detainee is on his way there. If that wasn't enough, according to a declaration filed in D.C. Circuit Court by a U.S. Army Reserve intelligence officer, the hearings that determine whether a detainee is properly classified as an "enemy combatant" are riddled with flaws.

snip

In his declaration, obtained by TPMmuckraker, Abraham charges that the officers tasked with gathering information on a detainee -- known as a Recorder or a Case Writer -- typically have "little training or experience" in intelligence. The fact files they compile are most often "outdated, often 'generic,' (and) rarely specifically relating to the individual subjects of the CSRT," and frequently reliant on a Pentagon database that lacked information from across the intelligence community. "This limitation," Abraham writes, "was frequently not understood by individuals with access to or who relied upon the system as a source of information."

snip

When Abraham's team ultimately recommended that the detainee was improperly classified, the then-head of OARDEC, Rear Admiral James McGarrah, ordered the CSRT reopened, "to allow the Recorder to present further argument as to why the detainee should be classified as an enemy combatant." And what do you think happened to Abraham after that?

"I was not assigned to another CSRT panel."

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003512.php

[ourbluenation]

1. and the nerve of this statement from his supervisor...

McGarrah, now retired, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005 that the process emphasizes "fairness to the detainee, as well as our clear desire not to detain persons any longer than necessary."