No Witnesses at Gitmo

June 18th. 2006
Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

I almost wept when I read your story (Detainees not given access to witnesses, Boston Globe, June 8, P: A1) about the failure of the United States' Authorities to find witnesses who might have been able to exonerate some of the prisoners held at Guantanamo. How could those responsible not have tried with every fibre of their being to find those witnesses? Instead they took a lackadaisical approach that seems typical of the Bush administration.
As with Katrina, it is hard to know whether the neglect of the duty owed to the prisoners was deliberate and  malign or mere ineptitude. In either case, the American government, its agencies, and its contractors have to change their ways dramatically.
And thanks to your reporters for another magnificent, if depressing, scoop.