The Pentagon has begun putting into place a new program under which hundreds of prisoners being held by the military in Afghanistan will be given the right to challenge their detentions, a defense official said Sunday.
Prisoners at Bagram military base are all to be given a U.S. military official to serve as their personal representative and a chance to go before new Detainee Review Boards, to have their cases considered, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss a program that has not been formally announced.
The initiative amounts to the first time prisoners will be able to call witnesses and submit evidence in their defense. There are some 600 detainees at the facility, some who have been held for up to six years.
An order creating the review boards was signed in July by Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn. Some military officers serving in Afghanistan have already been assigned to the boards and some who will serve as personal representatives have already been identified, the official said. He declined to say whether any proceedings have already been held.
The guidelines came to light as the Obama administration is reviewing Bush-era detention policies and determining where to make changes.
The proposed rules were given to Congress in mid-July for a 60 day review, according to The Washington Post and New York Times, which reported on the new program in stories late Saturday night on the Web.
Under the rules, the military-assigned representatives, though not a lawyer, are charged with gathering evidence and calling witnesses on behalf of the prisoners.
'That's right Obersturmfuhrer Skorzeny, you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you, since you have no american money, Madam Sotomayor or Ginsburg will represent you against Ensign Warren who graduated law school last month, and if you win, we will set you free no questions asked, but meanwhile we have been prohibited from offering you a cigar since congress has deemed this torture'
Maybe I am missing something.
Maybe I am a troglodytic, protruding eyebrow ridge throwback.
Maybe I think that if Dean Acheson and the others could have envisionsed what the Geneva conventions have turned into, and who and what our enemies are and do, things would be different.
Maybe we are going to lose amid explosions in critical manufacturing, energy and health service arenas causing us to pull all men home to the anarchic chaos ,and economic trauma while laughter and dancing occur from Caracas to Damascus to Irkutsk to Beijing.
Maybe THAT IS what it is going to take to wake up those who believe us and our way of life safe from all harm, especially during Monday night football and Tom Brady
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