Didn't this used to be a crime in this country?
Interrogators at Guantánamo Bay were told to destroy their notes to stop them potentially being used to highlight the mistreatment of detainees, according to a US military lawyer.The American system of justice used to be the envy of the civilized world. By creating a dual system - one for those who are accused of being terrorists, and one for those who are not - we have rendered the entire endeavor suspect. Nobody can trust in the impartiality of the justice system anymore. We have abandoned the rule of law for the rule of men. Nobody is safe.
William Kuebler, a lieutenant commander who is defending Omar Khadr, a Canadian national facing trial for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, said the classified instructions were included in an operations manual that prosecutors allowed him to see last week.
The apparently wilful and officially sanctioned destruction of notes meant he would be unable to challenge supposed confessions given by Khadr, Kuebler said yesterday.
He told reporters the instruction was contained in a US military manual of standard operating procedures, or SOPs, for interrogators that was shown to him during a pre-trial review of possible evidence.
