Thursday, March 15, 2007

The new meaning of witness for the prosecution

The Pentagon has released a transcript for the Combatant Status Review Tribunal of Abu Faraj al-Libi (who is btw an important figure regarding the reliability of information obtained by torture). He didn't appear at his hearing, perhaps because there were no specific crimes left to confess to, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed having already confessed to them all. But here's a couple of lines from his provided statement that show the Orwellian/Catch-22 situation he's in --

If I am classified as an Enemy Combatant, it is possible that the United States will deem that my witnesses are enemy combatants and judicial or administrative action may be taken against them

and later, his "Personal Representative" (who is not his lawyer, since he doesn't have one at the proceeding) said --

He [al-Libi] did speak about calling his wife [as a witness] but he doesn't want to put her any undue stress as well as the possibility of her being detained by the US government for supporting her husband.

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