U.S. loses prison camp records of bin Laden's driver

[douglas9]

Source: Reuters

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The U.S. military has lost a year's worth of records describing the Guantanamo interrogation and confinement of Osama bin Laden's driver, a prosecutor said at the Yemeni captive's war court hearing on Thursday.

Lawyers for the driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, asked for the records to support their argument that prolonged isolation and harassment at the Guantanamo prison have mentally impaired him and compromised his ability to aid in his defense on war crimes charges.

"All known records have been produced with the exception of the 2002 Gitmo records," one of the prosecutors, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Stone, told the court. "They can't find it."

He said the military was still looking for the records kept at the remote U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba, which he referred to by its nickname.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0459630220080207?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[Junkdrawer]

1. Dog eats prison camp records of bin Laden's driver...

"Spot is normally such a good puppy, but we left him alone for the first time and imagine our surprise." :eyes:

[acmavm]

3. Dammit, you took my response. Of course the dog ate 'em.

What do people expect, that the US might have something to hide?

[KansDem]

28. Well, then just waterboard the dog!

Make him bark out what was in those prison camp records! Dammit! I want to see some waterboarding! NOW!!!

:sarcasm:

[mediaman007]

38. Your elementary teacher was right. Turning in your work is important!

[dbt]

2. How conveeeeeenient!

And who do we suppose could have been responsible for such a handy little occurence? Could it be... SATAN?!?!?

[Arkansas Granny]

5. That was my first response also.

[Solly Mack]

4. Of course they have

snort

[drm604]

6. Can we please start holding some people in contempt?

Can we please have a justice system in this country? :banghead:

[Gonnuts]

31. No

Not when you have a Mob Lawyer as AG.

For those that didn't catch Mukasey's testifying this week he's not pursuing ANYTHING, Mukasey said that he would not investigate torture, or warrant-less spying, he would not enforce contempt citations and he would treat Justice Department opinions as providing immunity for crimes.

We DON'T have a justice system. We have a protection division for a criminal organization formally known as our government.

[sofa king]

7. Make that four waterboarding cases.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Boy there sure is some bad record keeping in the Bush regime.

Very sloppy. Billions of dollars disappeared in Baghdad. Millions of emails just vanished. Oops we erased the videos we were told not to erase. 'Interrogation' records? Gosh where could they be?

[madmom]

9. would we be allowed to get away with an excuse like that!

[L0oniX]

19. I use that excuse for all my bills ...it must have been lost ...in the mail...

or my dog must have ate it.

[paparush]

10. Emails, Video Tapes, Inmate Records - Watch for a large fire coming soon..

Ala the Vice President's Eisenhower Executive Office back in December.

Nixon would shake his head in shame at the shabby nature of this regime's criminal behavior.

[mtnester]

29. Jeezuz Christ they will have to burn down the White House, Camp David

and Cheney's bunker to cover everything they will need to burn

[momster]

11. Do They Even Expect Us

to believe that? Or do they put out these bullshit stories *knowing* we're going to scoff and they just don't care? Why do they even bother? For all the difference it makes, they could just say "we got 'em and we're not going to show 'em to you...whatcha goin' to do about it, Congress?" This is government for thugs by thugs and the 'cops' are either in on it, blackmailed, or too scared to care.

[bluesmail]

17. ultimate mafia

[drm604]

20. No, they don't expect us to believe it.

But from their position that's better than the consequences of actually turning over those records. They've already lost all credibility and now are simply trying to avoid the legal consequences of their past actions, public perception be damned.

[mwb970]

34. Do you suppose they are actually *proud* to have gotten away with crimes?

It's hard to realize what kind of people we are dealing with here. They certainly act like members of an organized crime racket who have everyone bribed and can get away with anything they want to do.

[drm604]

46. I don't know that their proud.

I think they're just desperate to avoid any legal consequences from their actions. That frightens me somewhat because desperate people who have nothing to lose can be dangerous.

[hedgehog]

12. No wonder so many people wear tin hats with pride!

Are you paranoid if they really are out to get you?

[rateyes]

13. Whoever wrote that article for Reuters should be ashamed of

him/herself. The first sentence should read, "The U.S. military CLAIMS TO HAVE lost a year's worth of records..."

The first sentence states the situation as if it's fact. We all know differently.

This doesn't pass either the giggle or the smell test.

[Karmageddon]

14. Riiiiiiiight. They were keeping the records in the same place as those 10 million emails

Bin Laden's driver - arguably the most important prisoner they're holding at Gitmo, and they lost his records. Yeah, that's credible.

Even more credible is that they lost "only" those records from 2002, and not the rest of them. I mean, it makes so much more sense to organize prison records by year than by prisoner.

[jimshoes]

15. I want the whole past 7 years stricken from

American history as it is invalid. I want everything done by this administration declared null and void and every bit of money spent, repaid out of their personal assets. I want the bush presidency erased from the history of the United States. A bigger criminal enterprise has never soiled the known universe.

[marmar]

16. "Loses?".....Right, and I accidentally "found" 10 extra pounds this winter....

:eyes:

[L0oniX]

18. How convenient that our gov is always missing shit or lost or accidentally deleted or was burned...

in some office fire from an over worked shredder. I guess that drug testing in the work place has not helped as it was promoted it would do ...or ...these government and military asscarrots are a mischievous bunch ...aren't they. Cover up ...deny ...lie ...oh what wonderful and honorable people we have working and fighting for us. Yea right!

[Old and In the Way]

21. I'm sure those records proved he was a driver.

He was OBL's placeholder in the charade. When the time came that this joke of an administration had to show their hand..they folded. Just like Padilla and his "lost" tapes. The whole "war on terror" is a joke. When we have floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes that kill 100's of Americans and cause billions of damage at home, please explain why we are spending 30 billion/moo nth in Iraq fighting Iraqi's who don't want us there? This has been a 7 year, for-profit Republican scam that's been perpetrated on the American people.

[Divernan]

22. If we still had governing legal principles/precedent in this country

the de facto result of negligent loss OR intentional destruction of evidence in party A's (the government) posession, is that the court MUST hold that the evidence is irrebutably presumed to favor party B (OBL's driver), and the court must then rule that in fact the "prolonged isolation and harassment at the Guantanamo prison mentally impaired the defendant and compromised his ability to aid in his own defense."

[JBoy]

23. So start court-marshalling whoever "lost" these records

That's right, if Corporal Jones was responsible for keeping the records at Gitmo that now can't be found, charge him. Maybe faced with some prison time, he'll remember that Sgt Smith took the records from him. Who will then tell them that Captain Jackson asked him for them, who will say he did it on the orders of Colonel Brown, who will finally testify that he got a midnight phone call from Dick Cheney.

[MarinCoUSA]

24. Are they still smiling when they lie to our faces?

... and the Murkasey show yesterday has me thinking real bad thoughts.

[marias23]

36. They lost him too.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

25. oh fuck me. we torture him, then we "lose" the records?

please stop this SHIT already.

[sellitman]

26. Astounding arrogance.

And that includes you Nancy!


:grr:

[Gman]

27. That is such horseshit

The history of these people losing shit is absolutely atrocious. They conveniently loose email, destroy video, loose documents, whatever they need to do.

It's fucking criminal.

Sorry for the language, it really pisses me off.

[marias23]

30. Bush Administration Looses Records of Last 7 Years

Lets just get it over with.

[The Stranger]

32. I TOLD YOU THEY WOULD START LOSING RECORDS.

We will have to know everyone involved with the torture camp in order to bring them to justice.

[HughMoran]

33. OMFG

We're torturing people until they are insane & then denying it and pretending to lose the records. War crimes?

:cry:

[mwb970]

35. Ho-hum. Another impeachable offense.

Nothing to see here, folks. Time to move on.

[Seabiscuit]

37. Do those records spell T-O-R-T-U-R-E? Of course they do.

Otherwise they wouldn't be "disappeared", now would they?

[QUALAR]

39. MISPLACED

There they are! They're right next to the Constitution.

[Divernan]

42. Good comment - & welcome to DU

nt

[Sam Ervin jret]

40. Did anyone look in that "man sized safe" that the V.P. "allegedly" has??

The records could be there. Along with the v.p.'s "alleged" soul, humanity, conscience, and what is left of our constitutional rights.

[Jack Rabbit]

41. Look for them with the White House e-mails

Cheney probably tosses them into the same dumpster.

[katty]

43. Dog ate my homework....yeah right

[robinlynne]

44. check those shredding trucks at cheney's house.

[coalition_unwilling]

45. 2002 is when the torture (waterboarding) was heaviest, so why

would anyone be surprised? Why doesn't the judge hold the government lawyers and military officials in contempt of court and throw them into the clink until said records are produced? You know if you or I tried such a lame pathetic excuse we'd be held fully accountable.

[lala_rawraw]

47. wow...

i am stunned, really!!!