Veterans

unhappycamper

(60,364 posts) Thu Dec 13, 2012, 06:51 AM Dec 2012

Military judge allows total blackout of 9/11 plotters’ torture testimony

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/12/military-judge-allows-total-blackout-of-911-plotters-torture-testimony/

Military judge allows total blackout of 9/11 plotters’ torture testimony
By Stephen C. Webster
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 14:43 EST

A military judge presiding over the trials of the accused 9/11 plotters decided last week that any and all testimony relating to their treatment by U.S. personnel shall be censored, according to a ruling released Wednesday.

In a statement sent to reporters, the American Civil Liberties Union made it clear that they are deeply troubled by the judge’s ruling.

“The government wanted to ensure that the American public would never hear the defendants’ accounts of illegal CIA torture, rendition and detention, and the military judge has gone along with that shameful plan,” ACLU attorney Hina Shamsi said in an advisory.

~snip~

“For now, the most important terrorism trial of our time will be organized around judicially approved censorship of the defendants’ own thoughts, experiences and memories of CIA torture,” Shamsi added. “The decision undermines the government’s claim that the military commission system is transparent and deals a grave blow to its legitimacy.”

10 replies

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Highlight:

Military judge allows total blackout of 9/11 plotters’ torture testimony (Original Post) unhappycamper Dec 2012 OP

Don't look back. Only Forward (c). blkmusclmachine Dec 2012 #1

thumbs down DarkBlue4Ever Dec 2012 #4

Whoever he is, he's now topping the list of BFEE/NeoCon picks for the USSC. nt DCKit Dec 2012 #2

K&R Solly Mack Dec 2012 #3

Rec'ing to get it some attention - nt dreamnightwind Dec 2012 #5

President Obama will be blamed for this decision. RickFromMN Dec 2012 #6

We'll never be allowed to learn who these guys were really working with and the all important "why" leveymg Dec 2012 #7

Are you assuming their testimony would be 100% truthful? Flatulo Dec 2012 #8

You're not likely to get much useful information if you don't ask the right questions. leveymg Dec 2012 #10

We now torture prisoners? 1Greensix Dec 2012 #9

blkmusclmachine

(16,149 posts)

1. Don't look back. Only Forward (c).

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 07:06 AM

Dec 2012

DarkBlue4Ever

(5 posts)

4. thumbs down

Reply to blkmusclmachine (Reply #1)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 08:01 AM

Dec 2012

I second that nomination.

DCKit

(18,541 posts)

2. Whoever he is, he's now topping the list of BFEE/NeoCon picks for the USSC. nt

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 07:25 AM

Dec 2012

Solly Mack

(90,776 posts)

3. K&R

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 07:54 AM

Dec 2012

dreamnightwind

(4,775 posts)

5. Rec'ing to get it some attention - nt

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 08:16 AM

Dec 2012

RickFromMN

(478 posts)

6. President Obama will be blamed for this decision.

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 08:23 AM

Dec 2012

Did Obama have anything to do with this decision?

Can President Obama reverse this decision?

leveymg

(36,418 posts)

7. We'll never be allowed to learn who these guys were really working with and the all important "why"

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 08:50 AM

Dec 2012

9/11 happened the way it did. The slate will be wiped clean.

Flatulo

(5,005 posts)

8. Are you assuming their testimony would be 100% truthful?

Reply to leveymg (Reply #7)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 09:19 AM

Dec 2012

I think it would be in their best interest to make America, and more specifically their captors, look as bad as possible in the eyes of the world.

Every time American ill-treatment of prisoners makes the news, Muslims riot and Americans get killed.

We know these guys were mistreated. Publicizing it for the umpteenth time serves no real purpose, in my opinion. The judges will hear their testimony.

leveymg

(36,418 posts)

10. You're not likely to get much useful information if you don't ask the right questions.

Reply to Flatulo (Reply #8)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 10:20 AM

Dec 2012

But, sometimes facts slip through, anyway, that are nuggets of pure gold. This "trial" process is so tightly screened and controlled, blocking access to any subject matter that would compromise operational intelligence information, journalists and historians are not likely to get anything of value out of this.

1Greensix

(111 posts)

9. We now torture prisoners?

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Thu Dec 13, 2012, 09:40 AM

Dec 2012

If we now torture helpless prisoners and do not allow them to tell the public about it, how does that make us better than Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, or Mao's China? I am truly disappointed how this country seems to have thrown away its moral compass.

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